DO: Give yourself word count goals, try using an outline, write interesting characters and have fun with it!
DON'T: Get discouraged, use your internal editor, give up.
Writing a novel can be a long, hard journey, but it's worth the ride and you can have a lot of fun!
Nothing motivates a writer like needing to sell a story to put food on the table. If you don't work for a living, figure out some other way to put stakes in the game (e.g. if I don't write 100,000 words by the end of this month, I'll go to school dressed as a X).
Just as you need to put stakes in the game, so do your characters. They each need something more than their next breath. They have to defeat somthing (both internal such as fear and external such as the Mummy) to get it. Or, they already have it and are at risk of losing it. They may not know what this need is. Trust me, the better you do this step, the better you'll be able to avoid going to school dressed as an X. Eventually, you'll just let your characters talk through you.
Plot is the tracks left by characters. If you have a good dramatic question, it'll help you write, though. Don't try to focus on the big story all at once. Just focus on a scene at a time.
DO-- Treat your writing as a craft. Like any other craft you will develope your skill and complete projects if you:
1. Study what you find appealing in the work of others you admire.
2. Learn the 'rules' of your craft; not so you can be bound by them, but so you can decide how, when, and why to break them.
3. Practice your craft regularly and with a purpose which reflects your level of commitment.
DON'T--Be deterred by:
1. Belief in external forms of motivation. Your writing is under your control;there is no such thing as a 'Muse', and those who wait for 'inspiration' are on a snipe hunt.
2. The myth of 'writer's block'. Plant butt in chair and write something--even if it stinks.
3. Anything written, or suggested here or anywhere else.
“Fools” said I, “You do not knowSilence like a cancer growsHear my words that I might teach youTake my arms that I might reach you”But my words like silent raindrops fellAnd echoed in the wells of silence : Simon & Garfunkel
Those who enjoy stirring the chamber-pot should be required to lick the spoon.
Our job as writers is to make readers dream, to infiltrate their minds with our words and create a new reality; a reality not theirs, and not ours, but a new, unique combination of both.
Visit Amazon and the Kindle Store to check out Reflections in a Black Mirror, and Chase
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interesting post, well here is my 2 cents:
*Do's
Write
Rewrite
have fun
share your work
take your time
have healthy doses of char development
*Don'ts
give up
listen to the negatives(trolls, spammers, haters, etc)
be afraid to make changes
take CC too harshly
make your story cliche
use dues ex machina
overly love certain characters, instead try giving all chars the same amount of love.
rush
steal as in carbon copy
well that's all i can think of off the top of my head. good luck.
~Tan
Don't:Originally Posted by Tan
Assume everyone with something negative to say is a "troll" or a "hater." Sometimes your writing just sucks, and people are being honest.
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." - Benjamin Franklin
"I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story." - Tom Clancy
Don't find solace in the one that praised your words. The one that criticised you offered a route to better prose, whereas the praiser poured concrete in your boots.
DO exercise your creativity. If you're stuck, write something insane and silly like a llama in a pink tutu riding a unicycle. Better yet, write a short story about that llama who wants to wear a pink tutu, and is competing in a unicycle race. Point is, it'll knock out that voice in your head that says 'nope, stupid idea'. Be creative. Remember, there's a popular children's book series about a human family who adopted a walking, talking mice as one of their own. Don't focus on the absurdity of the whole thing, listen to your creativity.
Do extensive research because nothing screams "amateur" louder than a story based on a video game.
Is this what happens when you tell someone to base things on personal experience and they have spent their whole life playing video games?
If that is the case do get out there and experience some real life, and take a notebook with you, and fill it up with everything you see.
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A whole swathe of entertainment, all sorts of lengths, all sorts of stories, all with that 'Olly' twist.
Your method is what I plan to do.
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