I have the idea that when you write you must have your imagination working in different ways than when you're reading. I like to think of my story like a movie, so I can picture myself how things are moving, but without too much details, so the peoples who are reading my stories can imagine in their own way how things are happening, like the details.
So I guess everyone have his own way to read, so you must leave some undescribed point when you're writing, like games (like Mass Effect for example) have different gameplays depending on who's playing.
YES! It's really necessary to leave some level of ambiguity when you're writing or you'll end up with info info info and not enough of the reader's own participation. That's why cliffhangers and suspense are so popular! The reader can be caught up and not shot down with a theory in under a page.
Yeah! Exactly that's why I read what I wrote but only a week after. I don't really surprise myself but kinda. And it's hard because you have to think about the details of your story and filter what is important, what must be hidden and what must be revealed later.
Im trying to come up with a Backround for one of my characters i just realized I should have started this first but this is like a prequal to the main book I started. Its based on Halo but its 50 years after the war spartan project V has just started but I am haveing problems with the main guy he needs to bel ike he came from a main military family and knows his stuff. and the first part of the story is where he is takeing 300 canidates to ring a bell like the first novels of Halo. But its a little harder than i thought it first to be. zHElp!
i'm just not that good at designing a plot line... though i suppose i have'nt really sat down and tried to tie things together into a story.... I write fantasy
Start with a concept like a battle, a war, a dance, a school, a tavern, a birth, a dinner table, a surgeon's table, a death bed, a boudoir, the sea, a forest, a desert, a wasteland, an island, or any other endless parade of scenarios and possibilities from the mundane to the extraordinary and build your world from there. Or start with a character and build the world around them. What works best for you?
I tend to have my characters somewhat formulated... but I have a hard time finding a unique concept... and that's probably my problem right there. I write as if It's going to be published, therefore i tend to be very hard on myself, and very careful not to copy any ideas... i really just have to get over that. Thanks for the help.
The whole book revolves around the Halo universe I just wanted to write a origins story as a prequel to the main story. Which is the main story that is the book. The story takes place in 2656 but the prequel takes place in 2640. Here is a link from my wattpad account I got no idea how to get my characters onto this planet to fight off a force on the other side. www.wattpad.com/3295191-shattered-peace Basicaly its like a military investigation because the story starts out with someone who is being interrogated because the force they were fighting years ago. I just need help putting them there. www.wattpad.com/3412151-shattered-peace-awakening This is the one I need Help with please suggest key factors to help me out besides the huge word wall. I was planning to become a big author of a series of these books and I really need help expressing my work.
My Creative Writing instructor had something very specific to say about copying ideas: "Steal like you mean it." That is, try to read stories that you find interesting and find some element based on them to write about and write it in such a way that no one could distinguish you borrowed from that text unless you told them--or perhaps if they were in the same writing group.
For example, in one course we read thrillers for a couple weeks and I borrowed from a story about a victim who ended up being the death of his would-be killers (specifically, the idea of an unexpected killer) to write a chilling short story about things half seen and half imagined during a lonely car ride and in the second person. I won a sleeve of Oreos for it.
It's second nature for me to take stories I like, inverse the material, lengthen it until it looses connection to the original concept, and then see if it fits in my own story. Upon which I usually scrap it. /
You see it done all the time. Ex: Alien invasions being told as precursor societies reestablishing their rightful place.
I think my all time favorite is George Matheson's inversion of Dracula in I am legend. Really wonderful book.
A piece of advice that has proved really useful for me, is to not be afraid of writing something that's poor quality. It's better to get something down than nothing... It's all practice, I guess!
Ok Ive finally got far enough with my book where I can really flesh out characters and fights now that the main characters have crash landed on this planet with no contact with their command or any whatsoever. I'm trying to get a story where the two oposing forces are fighting each other to a standstill but this is one of those battles where the characters have no renforcements and casualties are large on both sides. 5 survivors of a crash... I just need some help with letting that flow Im not so good with that type of stuff.
I've been working on a children's book recently. I have not read all 1400 posts in this thread, so is there anyone here who has experience in that area? I'll probably dig around some more in this thread, but any tips on getting published would be helpful, too. =)
Hi Shlug, I write children's fiction. I've not been published or anything, but I have been steadily plugging away at it for a loooong time. If there's anything you want to chat about, fire away. (I mostly write in that bracket hovering below Young Adult fiction, here in the UK it's marked "9-12" in the bookshops, but I've dabbled in a set of short stories for younger readers.)
As for getting published, the best way to get traditionally published is still to get an agent, and that's especially true for children's fiction. The children's e-book market is much smaller than the adult one at the moment, so you'll need to get your book in the best order it can be - which means getting another writer, a critique partner, to go over it and give you an honest appraisal - and then sending it out repeatedly until you get an agent to take you on. There's a website called Duotrope which is good for this, because it lists publishers, magazines and agents, and what material they are taking on. Well worth a look.
Thanks, Tott. And hey, mad props for deciphering my name and breaking it down to what everyone calls me! At least on XBL. =) So the book I've been working on I would say is in the 8-10 age bracket. My 6 (almost 7) year old and 9 year old both read it and liked it, but they are both advanced readers, because of the school they have attended, and recently, home school. Ideally, I would like this book to be one of a series if I can keep the ideas flowing.
Do you have a fellow aspiring writer you confide in, or do you use a published writer? In general, I try to surround myself with people who I want to be like and have come from where I am. (don't ask poor people how to be rich, or fat people how to be thin, but ask a formerly fat-now-thin person how they got there) I'm not sure I can find a published children's writer to mentor me, but I haven't really looked.
I'll check out that site you mentioned to see what I can see. ;)
Thanks for all the advice! I may hit you up for more in the future!
Hey guys, I just became next year's president of Creative Writing at my high school last week. I want to be more productive with the club next year. What are some good writing exercises that I can give some of our members to do over the summer so we can get ready to compete next year?
Tell them they'll need a camera, a car and a significant other. Tell them to plot while drunk, and edit while caffeinated. Tell them to get thrown out of chapters at least once. To look up local famous authors and try to meet them. Tell them to keep a note pad with half a page already written on them at all times. Tell them to buy a fifty dollar pen. Tell them to get off face book and twitter. Tell them to pick up an instrument. Have them compete against one other writer but don't have two writers compete against each other. Tell them to pick their favorite author and make them their mentor. Tell them to read philosophy. Have them read fairy tales, and children's series. Send them to the opera, ballet, museum, zoo's, concerts. Tell them to go camping. Send them fishing. Have them go to the office and consider signing up for skydiving. Tell them to volunteer at the old folks home. Tell them to read the classics. Tell them to go vegan for two weeks. Send them to boot camp. Have them buy fireworks.
And when they come back, if they're not, tired dirty drunks, who've lost limbs, loves, and sense. If they haven't scars to show or eyes that see. If they've managed not to have gotten beaten up, knocked up, laughed at, thrown out, given in, overcome, and learned what je ne sais quoi really means...
Tell them it's only going to get harder to do those things during school.
I can't bring myself to force anything. I admire those who can but I know when I'm not connecting with my words.
My advice: Just about every phone has a voice recorder buried somewhere in the menus. if you are a lyricist in any capacity, keeping this easily accessible will be invaluable.
Oh yes, but when things come to me they tend to come fast and I lose them as quickly. When I know I'm going to be writing prose I can get paper, but if I need to capture the delivery I always keep a shortcut to the recorder
It's not so much about forcing things as forcing yourself to work. Even writing garbage is part of a process that can lead you to something of value. If as a writer you're always waiting for that magical feeling you get when you're really feeling what you're writing, you won't produce very much or very frequently.
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