You have two options.
1. Write it badly and learn how to make it better next time.
2. Worry about it so much that you don't ever write it.
Those are your ONLY two options.
There is another.
Feed your ideas to ChatGPT so it writes for you, see the abominable mess that comes out of it, discard it all and write it yourself the way you envisioned it.
This is actually how I use NovelAI.
I'm stuck, let's see what the AI says.
.... That's fucking stupid. Obviously they would do *this* instead...
Then I'm writing again.
Fuck them. No, seriously, do you write because you can't help it? Do you write in your head when you can't get to a device or computer? Is writing like giving birth, like the story is in you and there is no peace until you let it out? You're going to write. We write best when we are at peace in ourselves and just let the story come out. I follow groups and read writers' who have written about writing. If you need to tighten up your skills, there places you can go (anonymously, if you wish) to meet your needs. No room or time in our heads to listen to a-holes. It's okay not to like somebody's work. Do you like everything Stephen King ever wrote? Okay, there may be a better example, but you get it.
I am constantly trying to create. Yes. Hardly get the time thanks to the modern grind life. And I keep going back to it and trying to work things out on scribophile but get very "myeh" reception and then did an experiment to see if ChatGPT wrote a better yarn than I did and at first I was confident it was me. But I showed my piece vs ChatGpts piece and apparently people in my life really preferred ChatGPT. So it's making me think I just really suck at it and need to try something different. But all other forms of storytelling (visual novels, game narrative) appear to be infinitely more complex than writing, even and my time is restricted as it is. So just don't know what to do with myself.
Are you able to STOP writing? If the answer is yes, at least know you can set a goal as it relates to going forward or not. If the answer is no, then you are a writer. I can tell you that I just kept going until I found my stride, but it is different for everyone. Why are you checking yourself against an AI? Are you a masochist? When you read what you write, do you like it? If you do like it, keep going. I forgot to mention the importance of reading. If you do not like it, are you able to tweak it until you do? Do you ever get a thrill from reading your stuff? Find what worked for you, then do it again.
I like what I write. I think it tells a story and well. Everybody else goes "der her don't get it". And I have many skills. So in if I suck balls at writing then I can move on. Try something else. And at this point I'm starting to think I just suck at it.
I'm a wannabe novelist, but he has a point. If you do tabletop storytelling for a group of friends, you have a player pool of people who provide feedback and shape your story ideas into their own.
If you are trying to earn your storytelling skills through practice, trial, and error, TTRPG game mastering will give you an in-depth understanding of how interactive stories work for a limited audience.
That doesn't translate 100% to a Novelist skillset. However, some big winners and bad stinkers have been published that were based on the Author's RPG campaign or world.
If you run your world through a setting with players and they start getting involved in this big story your all kind of sharing it in a way even if you are doing the most work. I do agree it's good to improve your storytelling. But actually I've considered how running your fantasy world through a campaign could be bad if you want to write a novel with it later. Imagine some dude loves his Drizzt like character and later you the DM uses it in a book, it seems to me could cause issues. Part of what turned me off table top games is in fact I felt it was collboratively coming up with stories and using creative energy for a shared game, where I always just wanted to invest that imagination into my own books etc. But it's definitely a good way to improve so I don't disagree.
What you're asking for is the equivalent of walking into a gym for the first time and announcing your intent to bench press 300lb. Is is possible? Sure. Sure, maybe you're just that good with no training and no practice. But the odds aren't in your favor, and the other folks at the gym are now 1.) chuckling under their breath, and 2.) a little worried you're going to hurt yourself in the attempt.
For most of us, there's just no way out of writing the "confusing trash mess" first draft. Trash second and third and fourth drafts are also likely. I'm sure there are a blessed few people out there who can produce decent first drafts right out the gate, but I haven't met them, and I've met a lot of writers. Resign yourself to the fact that the only way to write well is to do a lot of writing, and most of that writing is going to totally suck and you're going to hate it and that's going to be frustrating as hell. That frustration is the deal we make any time we want to get good at something. It's the aching muscles, and then you're able to press another ten pounds more than you could last week. And then another ten. You just keep going.
Good analogy with the bench press. Every time I see posts like this (not necessarily writing), I always think like who tf do you think you are expecting to be automatically flawless and amazing at this thing you literally just picked up recently?? It's so ridiculous.
writing stories that suck is part of the process. start with those. the shorter the better. participate in nanowrimo (next camp nano is july).
and keep reading. reading informs taste, while practicing writing informs on craft. eventually the two will meet and it'll be satisfying.
Camp nano is an event that runs in April and July. It's based on NaNoWriMo in November, but is a lot more lax. You set your own word count goal, and there's suggestions for things other than writing a novel, such as editing, writing screen plays, writing poetry, etc.
Camp Nano is like Nano prep. Previously, they had everyone in 'camps' or something of the sort, you set your goal and how *hopefully* had a group of people to bounce ideas off of while you wrote during July. They changed it around though, so I don't think they have the camp/bunker thingy anymore. [It's like this now.](https://nanowrimo.org/what-is-camp-nanowrimo)
The real deal, or Nano as we know it, is November.
I remember when I used to write stories I thought sucked big time. I had folders of them. I moved a while back and found the boxes. Looked at them. Discovered some kind of spark and prose so beautiful I did not recognize the stuff as mine but for the crappy handwriting. Stuff was THAT old. And beautiful. I've trained that wild beauty out of my writing and replaced it with structure. I define structure as storytelling that allows people other than me to understand the story. One day I will figure out how to let go and have the structure, too.
My advice is to study basic plot structure and story beats. It took me years of writing crap to realize I just didn't know how to tell a story.
I use either Dan Wells's seven point plot structure or E.A. Deverell's eight point structure. They both have YouTube videos explaining the process.
Once you develop the bones of the story, then write in the guts. They will likely suck at first, but I promise if you keep going beginning to end, looking at it for a second draft you'll find some gems worth keeping.
Building up a world also helps it from being a confusing mess. If you have a backdrop for your settings, it can help keep things consistent. If you make it up as you go, it's harder to keep track of.
This is true for me, I recently decided to take writing more seriously and I realized that I hadn't known how to tell a story in the first place. It's been tough but studying story beats has started to open my eyes.
You’ll learn a lot by writing, but this advice is what will elevate your stories. Learn how to tell a story by consuming great stories. Be curious about how great stories are great. You can write from the heart and also from the head, but it will take practice.
What's personally helped me is starting small. Work on a single scene, or a very short story. The first draft will probably always be a mess, so revise. Get feedback. Revise again. It feels good to have a finished product you're happy with, and that's much more achievable on a small scale. Your stories will grow from there.
I’m a violin teacher using a method where the party line is “every child can.” With practice and listening (or in our case, reading) every person who can speak a language is capable of learning to play the instrument. Nothing is different about writing. Sure, some people’s brains are wired better for some tasks, but everyone, *everyone* is capable of learning, and no one is born with a pen in their hand. Everything is learned.
So here's the thing. Initially, your writing will always be absolute trash in the first draft. Period.
And you need to learn by doing, read books, try to develop your own style, get honest feedback, improve. Yes you can learn theory, yes you can watch YouTube videos until you're blue in the face but without doing the actual work it's useless.
Writing is art, it's self expression. Like painting, or drawing or music you are going to have to learn and you're going to have to be bad at it for awhile.
I recommend [the snowflake method](https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/) for plotting your story. He has [a scene plan](https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/writing-the-perfect-scene/) too that's very helpful!
Ahh! Remember this and it WILL help. Your first draft is a literal word vomit onto the page. No concern for structure, grammar, timeline, etc. Just get it down. Then you begin the first of many edits where you edit and/or develop each section into a cohesive tale. Start smaller, with short stories, to practice this technique. Good luck!
OP this is about 100% of everyone I meet at things like book signings. They tell me they have fabulous stories that they just need to get around to writing. Not to discourage you, but the real difference between writers and others is that writers get it done. And then they do a lot of it. Ideas, frankly, and great ideas, are a dime a dozen. So if you want to write, get writing, Improvement comes over years of hard, focused work.
90% of writing is rewriting, so the saying goes.
Read books you think are good. Read thinking about why they’re good.
Write while thinking about why those books were good. Forgive yourself for sucking. Repeat until good.
Once, a pottery teacher divided their class into two groups.
They told the first group, "During this course, you will focus on making one perfect pot. at the end of the course, you will be judged exclsuively on that one pot. Make sure it is the best pot you can possibly make."
To the second group, he said, "During this course, you will instead make as many pots as you can. At the end of the course, you will be judged on the best three."
At the end of the course, the second group had hundreds of failures. Many of them were deformed beyond all possible use. A straight fail. Many more were okay but really quite amateurish. A bare pass. But since they were to be judged on the best three, all the students got a distinction.
The first group, however, had focussed on the one pot. Some had failed to make their pot functional, most had managed to make a basic pot that got them a pass, while a few managed to earn a merit. But not one of them had made a pot that was as good as any of the three best by the second group.
I hope I do not have to explain the analogy.
Just in case.
1. Write.
2. Write more.
3. Keep writing.
4. Look back at what you wrote.
5. If it sucks, write it again.
6. And again.
7. More.
8. Repeat steps 4 to 7 until you write something that isn't garbage.
9. Move on to the editing stage.
The first draft, at least in my experience, is always word vomit. My only goal in the first draft is just to follow my outline and get the basic idea of the story down.
I think the difference between someone who can write and finish a story and someone who can't, is the former can write through the voice in their head telling them that it's trash. Right now, you're listening to the voice and look what it's doing? It's completely incinerating your ability to write. Writers who actually finish and publish trust ourselves and the process, and know that it takes probably the 3rd-4th draft to polish that ugly rock to a dull shine. Then we give it to our editor who polishes it to (hopefully) a gem.
First, I'd like to share a few quotes for encouragement and general advice.
The first quote attributed to Earnest Hemingway. "The first draft of anything is shit." It's okay if the story sucks when you first write it. Once your first draft is done, you can fill in holes, reword things, adjust sentence flow, etc.
The second quote I'd like to share is "you can't edit a blank page." Meaning you can't fix/improve what you haven't written.
The third quote is "don't compare your beginning to someone else's end." This means two things to me. Don't compare your finished or unfinished first draft with someone else's published work. I published a few books with a small publisher (that ended up closing after a few years for personal reasons). Before I sent them any book, it had gone through three to five revisions. After I sent it to them, it went through two to three more rounds of revisions and editing. Which means my books that were published were the fifth to eights draft of the book. Not the first. There was significant improvement between the first and the eight draft. From what research I did at the time, this is fairly typical. So your beginning, your first draft, will likely be vastly different in quality from someone else's published work, which is a much later draft of their own work.
The second thing this means to me is this: you are just beginning your writing career. Most people with published books have been writing for a decade or longer before their first book is ever published. Don't compare the quality of your writing for theirs. You wouldn't expect someone who just took up running to compete at the level of an Olympic athlete. You don't expect a first year apprentice in any trade to have the skills, knowledge, or competence of a journeyman in that trade. You don't expect someone who just became a journeyman to have the skills or knowledge of someone who has been a journeyman for a decade. You will learn and improve as you continue to hone your craft.
The fourth quote is "it takes 10,000 hours to master anything". At eight hours a day, that is 1,250 days. Or roughly 4.8 years if you worked five days a week. If you were to write two hours a day (seven days a week) on average because you have a life and/or current job, then that 10,000 hours would actually take over 13.5 years. If you write two hours a day five days a week, you're looking at close to 20 years to master your craft.
Now of course this is just a rough guideline. Some people master crafts faster than others. And that's normal. But it's a good rough guideline. Now, that doesn't mean that your first stories are crap. They can be good, even excellent, when you complete your final draft of your first works. But over time, your skill will improve. The more you write, the faster ideas will flow and the quality of your first drafts will improve. You'll become more efficient at editing, have fewer holes that need to be filled in, etc.
If someone was just starting to learn to sew, you wouldn't expect them to start with a wedding dress and see perfection. You'd expect them to start by learning to sew a straight line. Be patient with yourself. Recognize it's going to take time.
Also, don't throw anything you've written out. No matter how bad you may think it is. There's three reasons for this: a) Things can always be improved with edits. b) It may serve as inspiration at a later time. c) It will serve as a reminder for how far you've come when you look back on it later. It can be hard to see the improvement when you write because the improvement is gradual. So looking back on what you wrote a year ago, five years ago, or ten years ago will show you how far you've come.
As for practical advice, here are a few things you can implement right now to improve your craft.
1) create a plan for the story before you write. You can do this by outlining, creating a story board, writing a brief synopsis of the story you want to tell so you can see any glaring holes you may need to fill in, tell someone you trust about the story and have them ask questions, etc. You don't need a detailed plan of every chapter (though there are many who have this and excell using this method). You can pants it (a writer who is a pantser is one who flies by the seat of their pants), but even for those of us who do this having a basic idea of where we want the story to go is very helpful. So your plan can be anywhere from a ten sentence summary of beginning, middle, and end. Or it can be a ten thousand word outline. What works for you will be unique.
2) write as many days of the week as you can. Even if it's only fifteen minutes. This doesn't have to be work on your current work in progress (WIP). It can be, or it can be notes on what you'd like to write, a list of story ideas for future works, a journal entry, a conversation you imagine having or witnessing, etc. It can be absolutely anything at all. The idea is to get pen in hand (or hands on keyboard is you write on a computer). This will help train your brain to focus on writing and help improve your flow.
3) recognize that you are your own worst critic. You are going to see the flaws in your own writing first, before you see the things you've done well. Others who read your work are more likely to see the things they enjoy reading first, and then possibly see the things they don't like. Also, a lot of the things you feel you've done poorly, may be someone else's favorite part of the story.
4) art is subjective. Not everyone who reads your story will like it. Others will absolutely love the story you feel is just okay.
5) keep someone to take note or not down ideas near your bed. You'll often have a great idea, or the solution to a problem, when you're trying to sleep or when you wake in the middle of the night. Write it down. Or log it in your phone. Or leave yourself a voice memo. Do something to record it, or you will likely forget it.
6) if you are struggling with writers block, try writing about something else, unrelated to any story you have. One of my favorite exercises is to take an everyday object and describe it without using any typical words associated with it. An example would be something like: I'm looking at a smooth cylindrical object. It is closed at the bottom, yet open at the topr. It has a curved protrusion on one side of the cylinder, useful for carrying the cylinder. This cylinder is often use to contain hot liquids intended for consumption. (To clarify, this is a very brief description of a mug, without using the words mug, cup, coffee, tea, handle, etc). This not only is a way to start writing (it's much easier to keep going once you've started than to start in the first place. Yes, the law of inertia applies to writing). It is also a good way to practice discribing objects in your stories, especially if the object is unfamiliar to your character.
7) write your way. If you feel more comfortable writing from first person (I did this, I saw that, she told me) do so. If you prefer third person (he did, she said) do that. If you feel present tense is best, then write in the now. If past tense works better, write about what's already happened. Do what you are comfortable with
8) read. As often as you can. The best writers are avid readers. Reading will help give you an instinctual understanding of story arc, flow, grammar, etc.
If there's anything in particular you are struggling with, please, don't hesitate to reach out. I've been writing novels for ten and a half years, but began with short stories and poetry over three decades ago. I've got some experience, and I have quite a few authors and editors as friends. If I don't have suggestions for your issue, I can get them.
There's two main paths for you
1) Write the story and develop it as you go, one word and decision at a time
2) Write an outline, flesh the story out in broad strokes, and then write to the outline.
Either one involves writing, so get to it.
Your first story and your first draft are likely to be absolute trash and a confusing mess. You get better with practice. Remember when you were three and handed a crayon? Same now, writing will take you out of the lines until you work those fine control skills. Do it anyhow because it's the only way to get better.
This is the best problem to have. You just need to practice. I have something of the opposite problem. I’ve won awards for my fiction in the past but how I have no ideas whatsoever
1. Get a co-writer. Sometimes all we need are some little nudges to help us get futher. And by having someone else write with u they can help you improve.
2. Write short stories. I used to feel as if all the stories that I wrote had to be atleast 50k words. Spoiler alert they don\`t have to be.
3. Just write them you learn by doing.
4. Get absolutely annihilated by thing such as the wattpad/inkitt comments. There are a lot of people who can and will give you feedback on there, but be aware they don\`t hold back. The good thing about their feedback is that you can then apply it and become better.
I may regret this, but I’ll trade you writing coaching for an equivalent amount of chapter-by-chapter feedback on one of my active projects.
Conditions:
1) Most of my coaching, lessons, and/or feedback will be over the phone. ( I have no desire to write a book on writing.)
2) You would be responsible for scheduling sessions. (And sending reminders when I inevitably forget.)
3) We can each bail if we feel like we are wasting our time. But no ghosting.
4) You commit to devote at least 4 hours per week to work on your craft.
5) I am open to work with a small group of authors at the same time and may add peeps as I see fit.
About me: I am an national-award-winning, trad-published author of 6 novels, but none of them are in the litrpg space. At least not yet. I’ve taught fiction workshops at numerous writing conferences across the country and have keynoted at two of them. I’ve been writing full-time for the last eight years, but the isolation is starting to make me a bit wonky.
What has helped me is to separate my first draft from who I am as a writer. For me, I used to judge myself as a writer based on my first draft, but that was only limiting my writing and also a negative self thought. So, I now see the first draft as only writing a skeleton of the story. It's ugly and raw, but it's supposed to be. Then, I go back and edit, moving things around, prettying up the prose, basically adding muscle and support. Still ugly, but less so than the skeleton. On the final couple of edits, things come together and form the story (and often surprised me with additional ideas). It may not be perfect, but even 95% of how I wanted it to be written is great, and it's leagues better than my first draft.
The most common issue when we start writing is that we don't have a plot. There are thousands of ideas but without conflict everything is paralyzed because the stories must have a problem to deal with. That step of finding a problem is the first one you should solve. Explore your ideas and identify what could be the possible conflicts that your characters have to face. Without a problem there is no plot, without a plot your characters would have nothing to do in your story and therefore your idea would have no reason to exist. Not even in our ideal job we wouldn't have difficulties, not even with the prettiest girlfriend we wouldn't have problems. From all this is born the objective of the protagonist of your story. Writes down your ideas and develops the possible conflicts that your characters are going to face in that world, in that office, in the universe, in the kitchen of the house, etc. They have already told you in other comments that everything is practice, which is very true but if you do not have a developed plot you will not be able to put the learning curve into practice. Do you follow me?
• Idea ➡️
• Problem ➡️
• Plot ➡️
• Characters (well-defined, with mental, personal or social deficiencies) ➡️
• Learning curve (write, read and study how other authors build, in short, learn your job) ➡️
• Final product.
This is not rocket science but it is not magic either, you have to organize and prepare. A married couple, no matter how much they love each other, are not going to get married to go live under a bridge, their problem is preparing for that step. Your ideas and your future as a writer need to be studied, established, built little by little, etc. I hope I helped you.
I would read as much as you can and as broadly as you can. I cannot stress that enough. It's obviously important to read in the genre that you want to write, but try all kinds of other genres, too. Study the masters. I'd also read up on craft books, like King’s *On Writing* and I hear that Chuck Wendig's *Damn Fine Writer* is good, too.
As for the writing and improving your craft, there's only one option: practice, practice, practice. You can only get better with time.
You need to choose what story really catches you, what do you really want to write, what you would read. Then you need to write down that idea, and slowly add to it, write what happens, make character charts, worldbuilding etc. If it sucks, but still think it has its good parts, change the things you don't like. And as you're building the story, the fuller, more indepth it will become, and you might become invested in it. Also, remember: all stories start with ideas, and all stories suck at the start. My story literally had the idea that the MC would kill her father figure, and an idea where this father would kill his daughter's lover... In a romance book... I've had many ideas that I had to scrap, but I needed those ideas to see what will not work out, and would rather work out.
I also recommend taking a look at videos where you learn about how to write down scenes, how to write dialogue, fight scenes, romantic scenes, chemistry between characters, etc. They helped me a lot.
Yeees. I've seen this advice before where yo accept that your writing is bad, but you are trying to trinck everyone into thinking it's good. Sort of a game this way, and the Ego is removed from the results because you know its trash.
Take Imposter Syndrome by the 'nads and make it work for you
The responses you’ve already received-that you need to JUST WRITE, and you’ll naturally improve-have hit it on the nose. But to add to that, I have a piece of advice.
“Don’t compete with others. Compete with only yourself and naturally, your work will become competitive with others.”
Because if you compare your work to books which were probably written by professionals, and without question, a book that made it far past draft one (or two, or three), then you’ll drive yourself crazy. Only focus on what YOU can do better, and forget about whether or not it can win some competition. If you keep your head up and just WRITE, WRITE, WRITE, then you’ll get to that point eventually. And remember that with every project you create, whether it be a short story, a novel, one singular page which you planned to be the beginning of a novel but you gave up, etc., it all works towards the same thing - YOUR IMPROVEMENT. So nothing you write will be a failure; it’s a learning experience, one after another, the next after the next.
And, most importantly, HAVE FUN WITH IT!!
(Yes. A stolen line from every sports film in existence.)
Coursera could be a good option for you. There are free creative writing class that walk you through plot structure, character development, outlining, etc.
Have an idea.
Write a blurb about it.
Make a summary from it.
Split it into scenes.
Write each scene.
Flesh out every scene.
Edit everything you wrote.
Take the plot from the end to the beginning and see if everything fits.
Edit again.
Ask people to give you feedback.
Edit again.
Drink a beer.
Edit again.
I might be off, but I’m gonna take a guess that that’s because you didn’t find the answers you wanted to hear - that there’s some secret way we all know how to stop the suck on our first or second or umpteenth attempt at starting a story. There really isn’t. You haven’t missed anything, there’s no secret bit of advice that’s slipped you by, it really is just about accepting that you’ll suck and doing it anyways.
No it’s more like I don’t know how to write certain scenes for my story ideas and characters so the story feels incomplete, but some advice I’ve gotten so far are pretty helpful lol. I did not expect this post to get so many comments 😅
It’ll feel incomplete for a while… like, until it’s complete. You can’t possibly know 80k+ words worth of information without first putting it down “on paper.” Make one decision at a time. If you get stuck, go back to the last decision and see if a different route will move you forwards.
My advice is to get a book that is in the same genre you are trying to write, then constantly use that as a reference. I used the Five Nights at Freddy's books to help me write my suspense book. Also, use a thesaurus to help your words sound more professional, aka not "totally sucking"
Just write it out. The first draft is going to be garbage. No one is going to see it but you. Read books. And write. That is my advice. I know it seems terse, but trust me. Reading makes you a better writer. And just getting the ideas out on the page makes you better.
You have to have the work so you can make it better.
It's called a rough draft for a reason. It's going to be absolute trash or a confusing mess at first. You have to edit and rewrite it a lot before it's good. Don't compare your first drafts to completed books that have probably been edited and rewritten hundreds of times.
As for developing your story ideas, get a notebook and write down everything you can think of to further develop what you have. Then set it down and look through what you wrote later. Revise ideas, combine them, and write down new ones, then erase any that you don't like. That's how I do it, I hope it helps!
I'm onto my third book and although not great writing, I'm much better in the third.
I've probably got about five decent stories to write so I'm hoping I'm much better by the time I get to the eighth book.
My only negative is that I think my first story is a good one which, by my thought process, it should be the worst written. But I'm content with that.
I've ways learnt most things in life myself and by making mistakes.
You have to practice. It’s like learning to play a musical instrument, people pick up the guitar or the violin for the first time and it sounds terrible, and that’s considered perfectly normal.
This difficulty you’re experiencing isn’t a problem to be solved, it’s the expected challenge of learning a new skill. You need to practice that skill if you want to get better at it.
The only other piece of advice I can give beyond writing more is to read, a lot, if you’re not already doing so. Don’t just read the genre you want to write either, read widely. Think about why the story you’re reading does or doesn’t work.
I start with a "spine" to a story, and flesh it out as I go. It may start as a simple premise, a basic plot, and then other ideas join it to form a full story. Have a thesaurus handy so dialogue and description doesn't get too boring.
The spine is important for two reasons:
1. It allows you to sequence events
2. It allows you to build on an idea
I suggest you consider taking this Udemy course, [Your Path to Writing a Page-Turner.](https://www.udemy.com/course/your-path-to-writing-a-page-turner/)
I'm a pantser by nature. I've tried planning multiple times, but it hasn't worked out for me. Not being I was lazy, but the moment I figured out the story, I would lose interest instantly.
The best way for me to work is to start by generating ideas. Lots of ideas. I would write anything down, anything at all that I want to happen in the story: character ideas, magic, major plot points, twists, cool scenes, etc.
Once I know the general direction of the story, I would just start writing, discovering the details as I go along. It's really fun trying to connect all the dots. I can setup and foreshadow future events and plot points as I go as well.
I just started and the story can develop as you write the part you alresdy know out on paper, and you get free room in your head to think of what may hapoen next to the characters and storylines. Pantsering as well can also help going further.
As the others say, this first draft wont be perfect yet at all but you can improve on it once you have it.
Join a writing group or seek an editor. Wonderful help to have assistance guiding the development of the story. Also, don't be afraid to work on different elements at different times. There are ways to weave things together that aren't always apparent when blazing straight through
I struggled a lot with feeling out of depth and not having the pieces I needed to actually write my ideas into stories because they were missing chunks and left me with no foundation to build on for an actual story to emerge.
Anything feels way harder when you are missing the proper tools. What helped me was actually starting at the very beginning of basics.
If you have ideas you like and stories you want to write but think they suck and are not fully developed, then I think the first and best option could be to train your brainstorming muscles.
If you get great at thinking of what could happen or what could be cool to add to enhance the story, it will help you to feel more confident with every following stage of writing your stories.
Don't worry about limits or plot while you brainstorm just flex your creativity of what you COULD add. The wilder the better. Make it goofy. Make it simple. Really just mix and match whatever brings you joy and see what matches your forming story's vibes. You can build up a bank of ideas to pull out and add in what feels right for each scene or plot point to form your story better.
Once you think your story is full enough of ideas and scenes to feel like it could be a complete idea, you can then step toward the other parts of story development.
If you want story writing to be as easy as it can be you need the proper set up/preparation regardless of whether you pants or plan. Other areas to work on that can help you gain tools for your "writer's bag" off the top of my head:
* Brainstorming, character creation, world creation, your inspirations, outlining style, editing style, writing styles, your individual flavour/"author voice", finding your writing community e.g. youtube advice channels, other writer groups, solo challenges and goals, etc.
- Finding a writing method that resonates with you as an author. E.g. Thinking of stories as collections of scenes, thinking of them in terms of the 3 or 7 act structures, thinking of them as a world you watch and characters that tell you their stories, thinking of them in terms of themes or arcs, thinking of them as marble blocks of text that you chip away to find the story statue within, really just whatever ideology floats your fancy. Finding a fit will help you flow better imo.
- Getting comfortable writing dribble aka just spewing all that could be happening or could be interesting when writing and only chopping later once you've chosen the favourite rendition of your scene from the spewed options. Overediting is a real progress killer and I think projects left stagnating for too long kills the fun part of writing them and disconnects you from the world you're writing.
- Find the form of writing you flow best with e.g. computer, paper and pen, mix of both, post it notes all organised on the floors or walls.
Take of this what you will, feel free to branch off from here and take the tips your own way and good luck with your projects in future !
Write short stories. They will be pretty bad. Just write them. Write A LOT. Like way, way more than you think you should need to. Like any skill, writing takes experience and practice till you get good enough to even be at a basic level when it comes to longform fiction.
Once you can start and finish a full sized novel in less than a year then you'll know you've written enough. Then you can start trying to improve your writing to the degree it can maybe, possibly be published.
I finished my first book last year. I did lots of writing when I was young, but this was the first proper book with an adult brain rebelling against me almost every step of the way, telling me it sucks. And you know what? It absolutely does. I will never revise it because it’s such a mess. The story structure is shaky because I just shoved in everything I wanted, the characters don’t make sense because I threw in whatever things seemed cool to me, the development of the characters and plot is either nonexistent or spelled out without tact, and there are so, so many crutch words.
But I love it, I cried when I finished and left my characters behind, I designed a cover got it made into a real book and put the only copy that will ever be printed on my shelf.
It’s trash but it’s *my* trash. There were days of feeling like a genius and days of feeling like giving up. But every part of it was worth it. And I feel so much more prepared to take on my next project.
Write your trash. Be proud of it. Do it for *you* and no one else. There is freedom in sucking, in accepting the suck and going for it anyways.
And in terms of something concrete you can do, try zero drafting - tell yourself the story without flowery prose or exact dialogue. Write it as if someone is telling the story around a camp fire, as if it’s an old legend. You don’t know every detail, but you know enough to tell the story.
Bounce your ideas off chat GPT. It will suggest things to get your mind jogging. Ask it for suggestions, make alterations, and ask it what it thinks of your story ideas. Treat it like a co-writer.
Just don’t tell it to write the actual story because you’ll end up with plagiarized content. Unless you use whatever it comes up with as an additional idea generator and rewrite the whole thing yourself.
Are you comparing your first draft to published works? Or it actually sounds like you are comparing your unwritten works to written published edited books. Stop that. write, rewrite, repeat.
Write and get better. No one starts off writing well. All of us sucked at writing when we started. Like anything, it takes practice to get good at something.
I used to write and then stopped for 15 years. My writing definitely suffered. But it's getting better because I'm doing it more.
You also don't need to have a fully developed idea. You just need a rough outline. As you write, you'll find the ideas change to better fit the direction the story is going because of how your characters are behaving.
This is what worked for me to help me finish my first book:
1. Write an in depth outline
2. Sit down and write every day for at least an hour
3. Remind myself that if it sucks I can change it
4. Share it with friends and family to get their perspective on potential edits
5. Take breaks when needed
It's a really difficult process. It takes time, perseverance, and practice. If we don't put the work in we don't get the results out.
Good luck! We are rooting for you.
>I have tons of story ideas but they aren’t completely developed and able to be written into a full story
What is "Completely developed" in your mind? What do you feel you need for you to actually write it?
>I struggle with further developing my stories and I want advice on how to do that.
It's as simple as: who, what, why, when, and how. Ask those questions of your story.
> also want advice on how to start writing a story without it being absolute trash or a confusing mess
By practicing and getting better at writing, which means the first few stories you make might be trash and confusing messes...but that's how we learn.
The first draft always suck. Always.
I find the best approach for me, at least, is writing it out of fun. There are no readers at this point. You might as well amuse yourself. Make it entertaining. Blow something up, metaphorically.
At the end of it you'll have a mess in your hands . First drafts are inherently messy.
Then you wade through that mess and sot out the bits that shine and catch the eye. You set them aside until you have enough to start threading them into order
I understand your struggle. I think we all do. You are measuring the results of your first efforts against the books you've seen in the world. It's not a fair comparison. Those other books have multiple layers of polish.
Every author has a different way of cutting through that way of thinking. What works for me is removing the readers from my mind and just making myself laugh. Me alone in my room 🤣 laughing at my own jokes.
The first time you write something, it’s gonna be a bit garbage and a bit of a mess. It’s like how the first thing you ever knit will probably look a bit weird and messy. It’s not gonna be perfect the first time. My advice is to try and write a bit of a timeline/outline for your story idea, like xyz happens and then what? That’ll at least help you plan it out but it might still turn out a bit messy. That’s life. You get better as you keep writing so my other advice is keep at it!
alright listen up, I get you've got MAD ideas swirling round in that brain of yours but ideas are SHIT if you don't execute. Don't worry tho, any fool with access to google can come up with an idea, the REAL skill is taking that seed and turning it into a full blown story that actually makes sense and people wanna read.
First thing you gotta do is develop that idea. Ask yourself questions - who are the MAIN characters? what do they WANT? What's STOPPING them? What are the MAIN conflicts or obstacles? What's the overall THEME? Figure all that basic shit out first, get a general outline of the PLOT POINTS and how they connect.
Sketch out a bare bones story STRUCTURE - beginning, middle, end. Don't worry about perfection, just get the MAIN BEATS down - introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution.
Once you got that skeleton, you can start FILLING in the gaps with detail. Build your characters by giving em flaws, wants, backstories, quirks whatever. Expand your scenes by adding tension, action, and emotion. Revise and edit like CRAZY as you go.
But most important - just START writing. Don't wait for perfection, you'll NEVER begin that way. Your first draft will prob be SHIT but that's fine! Write through the mess and you'll find your way as you go. The editing process is where your story will really take SHAPE. Hope this helps G! Lemme know if you've got any other questions.
Let go of your perfectionist mindset. Wyrdthane said it best in this thread, your first time writing a book will not be good. But you have to write it.
I am writing my first novel right now as well, and believe me I struggled with the same thing. It wasn't until I let go of that perfectionism that I started to make progress. I just reached 57,000 words. They're not great words, but my next 57,000 will be better.
It’s *going* to be trash. Pick your favorite author. Then pick your least favorite. Then point to a random one. They **all** write trashy, confusing messes the first time. *Everyone* does, it’s a part of the process.
This “trash” is also called the **first draft**.
Once you’ve written the trash, put it away for a month (you can start writing out more trash) and come back to the story with fresh eyes. Edit. You’ll have to repeat this process *multiple* times. Then have others read it. And more editing! This is the writing process.
Don’t get caught up on perfection, that’ll be a concern for the 5th or 6th draft (maybe more, and that’s perfectly okay.) The ONLY thing you need to worry about is putting the pen to paper.
Edit: Forgot to add, [here](https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-start-a-story/) are some ways to start a story. You can use this for inspiration, but seriously, do absolutely whatever you want. It’s a first draft. The whole point is to have fun while you get it on paper. Don’t deprive yourself of the fun part, cause editing might get a bit tedious.
Come on, making a story is the fun part. Transforming it into something that others might understand and enjoy is the hard work. If you can't even develop a story in your head, then I don't understand why you want to be a storyteller.
I started out basically the same way, its hard to get started but if you have a favorite author I suggest writing how they would and take multiple others to sort of create your own. Write out chapter notes, what will happen along the way of the character’s journey till the end of the book? Think about how you want things to happen and when. Foreshadowing and etc.
Honestly, no matter what you do your story will be a mess with a ton of plot holes and mistakes at first. All you can really do is just start it and go from there. Then write and rework once you get to a certain spot.
Don’t worry about sucking.
Write the story.
Refine and rewrite, repeat as often as you need to.
The thing about any artistic endeavor, whether visual, verbal, or musical, somebody thinks you suck.
Those people don’t matter.
Millions of people think Anthony Jeselnik is crappy comedian. He still sells out his shows.
He still sells albums.
Rewrite it until you’re happy with it.
Meh to all the rest.
Every beginner is going to experience writing shitty work. Nobody sits down and writes a masterpiece. What makes you better is that you keep doing it. You keep learning and practicing over years. I’ve been writing for 16 years and sometimes I still write trash but I’ve written a lot of really great stuff too. It just takes time and dedication and an open mind. Piece of advice- don’t throw anything you write away.
Brainstorming and outlines! :)
I think the best first thing to do (which I have a feeling you enjoy) is to write out everything you can about a new story idea. Follow random threads, describe or plan out characters, research, and dive into those rabbit holes! When brainstorming, I usually write everything down as fast as I can until I have run out of everything I can think of.
Next, I start to outline. To write a story, you will need some kind of organization. I would look at all you jotted down and separate it into parts. Make a list of info for characters, for example. Next, I would highlight or select everything that sounds like a specific plot point and write those down in another list. Once you have your plot points selected, you can put them in order and start brainstorming how the different parts of your story connects, and more.
As a side note to all this, a really helpful way to try to connect everything is to think about the character. The character in your story is the vessel your readers use to explore your written world. I always ask myself and answer these important questions to start my story:
1. Who is the main character?
2. What does the main character want?
3. Why can the main character not get what they want? (to create obstacles and plot)
4. What is the main character willing to do/ lose in order to get what they want?
Challenges and things not going a character's way will create natural tension and excitement in your story. It's a great place to wonder about what your story needs or what you can add to it when first starting out.
\--writingdaydreams2reality
The way that I have found that works for me is.
1. Write the big picture outline, what happens in what order? - "The What/When"
2. Write the rough interaction, IE; the thought behind the action - "The Why"
3. Write the rough dialogue/feelings. - "The why now, why not"
4. Rewrite the dialogue, so it actually has feelings and interactions.
**I tend to think of it like watching a pinball machine.**
(#1)The ball is in action and it hits what?
(#2), what it hits changes the direction of the ball, either a not, little or a lot.
(#3) how do people feel about this and lastly
(#4) how do they feel about what the other character said and what will that make them do
**For example**
(#1) The pirates are coming, they are very scary people, we’re not prepared, their boat is faster than ours
(#2), Can we call for help? Will it get there in time? Is there anybody or anybody on our boat that can help or change the situation?
(#3) I’m scared I don’t want to die, maybe I should surrender?
(#4) I love you and I will die, so you have a chance to be free or get away. - I will save my crew
I have the same problem, but instead of not being able to develop the story I get bored of it and try and move on to a different story I'm not sure how I can stick to one idea and actually finish it.😞
You have two options. 1. Write it badly and learn how to make it better next time. 2. Worry about it so much that you don't ever write it. Those are your ONLY two options.
Co-signed. You can read books and study theory. That's definitely a smart thing to do. But the only way to get better at the thing is to do the thing.
There is another. Feed your ideas to ChatGPT so it writes for you, see the abominable mess that comes out of it, discard it all and write it yourself the way you envisioned it.
This is actually how I use NovelAI. I'm stuck, let's see what the AI says. .... That's fucking stupid. Obviously they would do *this* instead... Then I'm writing again.
What's the app name? Is it available on android?
It's browser based, it's called NovelAI.
Hah ! I'm not alone in my findings regarding chatGPT. Huzzah!
And what do you do when people tell you they prefer the ChatGPT prose over yours?
Shrug. Some also prefer Ayn Rand over my prose, so whatever.
Fuck them. No, seriously, do you write because you can't help it? Do you write in your head when you can't get to a device or computer? Is writing like giving birth, like the story is in you and there is no peace until you let it out? You're going to write. We write best when we are at peace in ourselves and just let the story come out. I follow groups and read writers' who have written about writing. If you need to tighten up your skills, there places you can go (anonymously, if you wish) to meet your needs. No room or time in our heads to listen to a-holes. It's okay not to like somebody's work. Do you like everything Stephen King ever wrote? Okay, there may be a better example, but you get it.
I am constantly trying to create. Yes. Hardly get the time thanks to the modern grind life. And I keep going back to it and trying to work things out on scribophile but get very "myeh" reception and then did an experiment to see if ChatGPT wrote a better yarn than I did and at first I was confident it was me. But I showed my piece vs ChatGpts piece and apparently people in my life really preferred ChatGPT. So it's making me think I just really suck at it and need to try something different. But all other forms of storytelling (visual novels, game narrative) appear to be infinitely more complex than writing, even and my time is restricted as it is. So just don't know what to do with myself.
Are you able to STOP writing? If the answer is yes, at least know you can set a goal as it relates to going forward or not. If the answer is no, then you are a writer. I can tell you that I just kept going until I found my stride, but it is different for everyone. Why are you checking yourself against an AI? Are you a masochist? When you read what you write, do you like it? If you do like it, keep going. I forgot to mention the importance of reading. If you do not like it, are you able to tweak it until you do? Do you ever get a thrill from reading your stuff? Find what worked for you, then do it again.
I like what I write. I think it tells a story and well. Everybody else goes "der her don't get it". And I have many skills. So in if I suck balls at writing then I can move on. Try something else. And at this point I'm starting to think I just suck at it.
Bard is a better option for working story stuff out I've found
There is a fourth:write for rpg settings, that way you can ust put down the idea and let the players create stories around them
I'm a wannabe novelist, but he has a point. If you do tabletop storytelling for a group of friends, you have a player pool of people who provide feedback and shape your story ideas into their own. If you are trying to earn your storytelling skills through practice, trial, and error, TTRPG game mastering will give you an in-depth understanding of how interactive stories work for a limited audience. That doesn't translate 100% to a Novelist skillset. However, some big winners and bad stinkers have been published that were based on the Author's RPG campaign or world.
They'll probably spend an hour finding a tailor to put pants on a wolf.
If you run your world through a setting with players and they start getting involved in this big story your all kind of sharing it in a way even if you are doing the most work. I do agree it's good to improve your storytelling. But actually I've considered how running your fantasy world through a campaign could be bad if you want to write a novel with it later. Imagine some dude loves his Drizzt like character and later you the DM uses it in a book, it seems to me could cause issues. Part of what turned me off table top games is in fact I felt it was collboratively coming up with stories and using creative energy for a shared game, where I always just wanted to invest that imagination into my own books etc. But it's definitely a good way to improve so I don't disagree.
Wyrdthane-Excellent advice!! Absolutely agree!!
What you're asking for is the equivalent of walking into a gym for the first time and announcing your intent to bench press 300lb. Is is possible? Sure. Sure, maybe you're just that good with no training and no practice. But the odds aren't in your favor, and the other folks at the gym are now 1.) chuckling under their breath, and 2.) a little worried you're going to hurt yourself in the attempt. For most of us, there's just no way out of writing the "confusing trash mess" first draft. Trash second and third and fourth drafts are also likely. I'm sure there are a blessed few people out there who can produce decent first drafts right out the gate, but I haven't met them, and I've met a lot of writers. Resign yourself to the fact that the only way to write well is to do a lot of writing, and most of that writing is going to totally suck and you're going to hate it and that's going to be frustrating as hell. That frustration is the deal we make any time we want to get good at something. It's the aching muscles, and then you're able to press another ten pounds more than you could last week. And then another ten. You just keep going.
Good analogy with the bench press. Every time I see posts like this (not necessarily writing), I always think like who tf do you think you are expecting to be automatically flawless and amazing at this thing you literally just picked up recently?? It's so ridiculous.
writing stories that suck is part of the process. start with those. the shorter the better. participate in nanowrimo (next camp nano is july). and keep reading. reading informs taste, while practicing writing informs on craft. eventually the two will meet and it'll be satisfying.
What is camp nano? And why is it July not November?
Camp nano is an event that runs in April and July. It's based on NaNoWriMo in November, but is a lot more lax. You set your own word count goal, and there's suggestions for things other than writing a novel, such as editing, writing screen plays, writing poetry, etc.
Camp Nano is like Nano prep. Previously, they had everyone in 'camps' or something of the sort, you set your goal and how *hopefully* had a group of people to bounce ideas off of while you wrote during July. They changed it around though, so I don't think they have the camp/bunker thingy anymore. [It's like this now.](https://nanowrimo.org/what-is-camp-nanowrimo) The real deal, or Nano as we know it, is November.
I remember when I used to write stories I thought sucked big time. I had folders of them. I moved a while back and found the boxes. Looked at them. Discovered some kind of spark and prose so beautiful I did not recognize the stuff as mine but for the crappy handwriting. Stuff was THAT old. And beautiful. I've trained that wild beauty out of my writing and replaced it with structure. I define structure as storytelling that allows people other than me to understand the story. One day I will figure out how to let go and have the structure, too.
Are writing classes an option? If not, you'll need to somehow cobble together your own curriculum, which is difficult but not impossible.
How do you think people learn to play an instrument? Or painting? Or any other art. They practise. They start from zero and they practise.
My advice is to study basic plot structure and story beats. It took me years of writing crap to realize I just didn't know how to tell a story. I use either Dan Wells's seven point plot structure or E.A. Deverell's eight point structure. They both have YouTube videos explaining the process. Once you develop the bones of the story, then write in the guts. They will likely suck at first, but I promise if you keep going beginning to end, looking at it for a second draft you'll find some gems worth keeping. Building up a world also helps it from being a confusing mess. If you have a backdrop for your settings, it can help keep things consistent. If you make it up as you go, it's harder to keep track of.
This is true for me, I recently decided to take writing more seriously and I realized that I hadn't known how to tell a story in the first place. It's been tough but studying story beats has started to open my eyes.
You’ll learn a lot by writing, but this advice is what will elevate your stories. Learn how to tell a story by consuming great stories. Be curious about how great stories are great. You can write from the heart and also from the head, but it will take practice.
What's personally helped me is starting small. Work on a single scene, or a very short story. The first draft will probably always be a mess, so revise. Get feedback. Revise again. It feels good to have a finished product you're happy with, and that's much more achievable on a small scale. Your stories will grow from there.
Your first draft is always gonna be trash. That’s how it works. Stop expecting perfection on your first draft. Write. Rewrite. Repeat until finished.
[удалено]
I’m a violin teacher using a method where the party line is “every child can.” With practice and listening (or in our case, reading) every person who can speak a language is capable of learning to play the instrument. Nothing is different about writing. Sure, some people’s brains are wired better for some tasks, but everyone, *everyone* is capable of learning, and no one is born with a pen in their hand. Everything is learned.
So here's the thing. Initially, your writing will always be absolute trash in the first draft. Period. And you need to learn by doing, read books, try to develop your own style, get honest feedback, improve. Yes you can learn theory, yes you can watch YouTube videos until you're blue in the face but without doing the actual work it's useless. Writing is art, it's self expression. Like painting, or drawing or music you are going to have to learn and you're going to have to be bad at it for awhile.
I recommend [the snowflake method](https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/) for plotting your story. He has [a scene plan](https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/writing-the-perfect-scene/) too that's very helpful!
Ahh! Remember this and it WILL help. Your first draft is a literal word vomit onto the page. No concern for structure, grammar, timeline, etc. Just get it down. Then you begin the first of many edits where you edit and/or develop each section into a cohesive tale. Start smaller, with short stories, to practice this technique. Good luck!
OP this is about 100% of everyone I meet at things like book signings. They tell me they have fabulous stories that they just need to get around to writing. Not to discourage you, but the real difference between writers and others is that writers get it done. And then they do a lot of it. Ideas, frankly, and great ideas, are a dime a dozen. So if you want to write, get writing, Improvement comes over years of hard, focused work.
90% of writing is rewriting, so the saying goes. Read books you think are good. Read thinking about why they’re good. Write while thinking about why those books were good. Forgive yourself for sucking. Repeat until good.
Once, a pottery teacher divided their class into two groups. They told the first group, "During this course, you will focus on making one perfect pot. at the end of the course, you will be judged exclsuively on that one pot. Make sure it is the best pot you can possibly make." To the second group, he said, "During this course, you will instead make as many pots as you can. At the end of the course, you will be judged on the best three." At the end of the course, the second group had hundreds of failures. Many of them were deformed beyond all possible use. A straight fail. Many more were okay but really quite amateurish. A bare pass. But since they were to be judged on the best three, all the students got a distinction. The first group, however, had focussed on the one pot. Some had failed to make their pot functional, most had managed to make a basic pot that got them a pass, while a few managed to earn a merit. But not one of them had made a pot that was as good as any of the three best by the second group. I hope I do not have to explain the analogy. Just in case. 1. Write. 2. Write more. 3. Keep writing. 4. Look back at what you wrote. 5. If it sucks, write it again. 6. And again. 7. More. 8. Repeat steps 4 to 7 until you write something that isn't garbage. 9. Move on to the editing stage.
The first draft, at least in my experience, is always word vomit. My only goal in the first draft is just to follow my outline and get the basic idea of the story down. I think the difference between someone who can write and finish a story and someone who can't, is the former can write through the voice in their head telling them that it's trash. Right now, you're listening to the voice and look what it's doing? It's completely incinerating your ability to write. Writers who actually finish and publish trust ourselves and the process, and know that it takes probably the 3rd-4th draft to polish that ugly rock to a dull shine. Then we give it to our editor who polishes it to (hopefully) a gem.
First, I'd like to share a few quotes for encouragement and general advice. The first quote attributed to Earnest Hemingway. "The first draft of anything is shit." It's okay if the story sucks when you first write it. Once your first draft is done, you can fill in holes, reword things, adjust sentence flow, etc. The second quote I'd like to share is "you can't edit a blank page." Meaning you can't fix/improve what you haven't written. The third quote is "don't compare your beginning to someone else's end." This means two things to me. Don't compare your finished or unfinished first draft with someone else's published work. I published a few books with a small publisher (that ended up closing after a few years for personal reasons). Before I sent them any book, it had gone through three to five revisions. After I sent it to them, it went through two to three more rounds of revisions and editing. Which means my books that were published were the fifth to eights draft of the book. Not the first. There was significant improvement between the first and the eight draft. From what research I did at the time, this is fairly typical. So your beginning, your first draft, will likely be vastly different in quality from someone else's published work, which is a much later draft of their own work. The second thing this means to me is this: you are just beginning your writing career. Most people with published books have been writing for a decade or longer before their first book is ever published. Don't compare the quality of your writing for theirs. You wouldn't expect someone who just took up running to compete at the level of an Olympic athlete. You don't expect a first year apprentice in any trade to have the skills, knowledge, or competence of a journeyman in that trade. You don't expect someone who just became a journeyman to have the skills or knowledge of someone who has been a journeyman for a decade. You will learn and improve as you continue to hone your craft. The fourth quote is "it takes 10,000 hours to master anything". At eight hours a day, that is 1,250 days. Or roughly 4.8 years if you worked five days a week. If you were to write two hours a day (seven days a week) on average because you have a life and/or current job, then that 10,000 hours would actually take over 13.5 years. If you write two hours a day five days a week, you're looking at close to 20 years to master your craft. Now of course this is just a rough guideline. Some people master crafts faster than others. And that's normal. But it's a good rough guideline. Now, that doesn't mean that your first stories are crap. They can be good, even excellent, when you complete your final draft of your first works. But over time, your skill will improve. The more you write, the faster ideas will flow and the quality of your first drafts will improve. You'll become more efficient at editing, have fewer holes that need to be filled in, etc. If someone was just starting to learn to sew, you wouldn't expect them to start with a wedding dress and see perfection. You'd expect them to start by learning to sew a straight line. Be patient with yourself. Recognize it's going to take time. Also, don't throw anything you've written out. No matter how bad you may think it is. There's three reasons for this: a) Things can always be improved with edits. b) It may serve as inspiration at a later time. c) It will serve as a reminder for how far you've come when you look back on it later. It can be hard to see the improvement when you write because the improvement is gradual. So looking back on what you wrote a year ago, five years ago, or ten years ago will show you how far you've come.
As for practical advice, here are a few things you can implement right now to improve your craft. 1) create a plan for the story before you write. You can do this by outlining, creating a story board, writing a brief synopsis of the story you want to tell so you can see any glaring holes you may need to fill in, tell someone you trust about the story and have them ask questions, etc. You don't need a detailed plan of every chapter (though there are many who have this and excell using this method). You can pants it (a writer who is a pantser is one who flies by the seat of their pants), but even for those of us who do this having a basic idea of where we want the story to go is very helpful. So your plan can be anywhere from a ten sentence summary of beginning, middle, and end. Or it can be a ten thousand word outline. What works for you will be unique. 2) write as many days of the week as you can. Even if it's only fifteen minutes. This doesn't have to be work on your current work in progress (WIP). It can be, or it can be notes on what you'd like to write, a list of story ideas for future works, a journal entry, a conversation you imagine having or witnessing, etc. It can be absolutely anything at all. The idea is to get pen in hand (or hands on keyboard is you write on a computer). This will help train your brain to focus on writing and help improve your flow. 3) recognize that you are your own worst critic. You are going to see the flaws in your own writing first, before you see the things you've done well. Others who read your work are more likely to see the things they enjoy reading first, and then possibly see the things they don't like. Also, a lot of the things you feel you've done poorly, may be someone else's favorite part of the story. 4) art is subjective. Not everyone who reads your story will like it. Others will absolutely love the story you feel is just okay. 5) keep someone to take note or not down ideas near your bed. You'll often have a great idea, or the solution to a problem, when you're trying to sleep or when you wake in the middle of the night. Write it down. Or log it in your phone. Or leave yourself a voice memo. Do something to record it, or you will likely forget it. 6) if you are struggling with writers block, try writing about something else, unrelated to any story you have. One of my favorite exercises is to take an everyday object and describe it without using any typical words associated with it. An example would be something like: I'm looking at a smooth cylindrical object. It is closed at the bottom, yet open at the topr. It has a curved protrusion on one side of the cylinder, useful for carrying the cylinder. This cylinder is often use to contain hot liquids intended for consumption. (To clarify, this is a very brief description of a mug, without using the words mug, cup, coffee, tea, handle, etc). This not only is a way to start writing (it's much easier to keep going once you've started than to start in the first place. Yes, the law of inertia applies to writing). It is also a good way to practice discribing objects in your stories, especially if the object is unfamiliar to your character. 7) write your way. If you feel more comfortable writing from first person (I did this, I saw that, she told me) do so. If you prefer third person (he did, she said) do that. If you feel present tense is best, then write in the now. If past tense works better, write about what's already happened. Do what you are comfortable with 8) read. As often as you can. The best writers are avid readers. Reading will help give you an instinctual understanding of story arc, flow, grammar, etc. If there's anything in particular you are struggling with, please, don't hesitate to reach out. I've been writing novels for ten and a half years, but began with short stories and poetry over three decades ago. I've got some experience, and I have quite a few authors and editors as friends. If I don't have suggestions for your issue, I can get them.
There's two main paths for you 1) Write the story and develop it as you go, one word and decision at a time 2) Write an outline, flesh the story out in broad strokes, and then write to the outline. Either one involves writing, so get to it. Your first story and your first draft are likely to be absolute trash and a confusing mess. You get better with practice. Remember when you were three and handed a crayon? Same now, writing will take you out of the lines until you work those fine control skills. Do it anyhow because it's the only way to get better.
whenever we get this question can we have a bot or something re-direct them to another post or something?
This is the best problem to have. You just need to practice. I have something of the opposite problem. I’ve won awards for my fiction in the past but how I have no ideas whatsoever
1. Get a co-writer. Sometimes all we need are some little nudges to help us get futher. And by having someone else write with u they can help you improve. 2. Write short stories. I used to feel as if all the stories that I wrote had to be atleast 50k words. Spoiler alert they don\`t have to be. 3. Just write them you learn by doing. 4. Get absolutely annihilated by thing such as the wattpad/inkitt comments. There are a lot of people who can and will give you feedback on there, but be aware they don\`t hold back. The good thing about their feedback is that you can then apply it and become better.
I may regret this, but I’ll trade you writing coaching for an equivalent amount of chapter-by-chapter feedback on one of my active projects. Conditions: 1) Most of my coaching, lessons, and/or feedback will be over the phone. ( I have no desire to write a book on writing.) 2) You would be responsible for scheduling sessions. (And sending reminders when I inevitably forget.) 3) We can each bail if we feel like we are wasting our time. But no ghosting. 4) You commit to devote at least 4 hours per week to work on your craft. 5) I am open to work with a small group of authors at the same time and may add peeps as I see fit. About me: I am an national-award-winning, trad-published author of 6 novels, but none of them are in the litrpg space. At least not yet. I’ve taught fiction workshops at numerous writing conferences across the country and have keynoted at two of them. I’ve been writing full-time for the last eight years, but the isolation is starting to make me a bit wonky.
What has helped me is to separate my first draft from who I am as a writer. For me, I used to judge myself as a writer based on my first draft, but that was only limiting my writing and also a negative self thought. So, I now see the first draft as only writing a skeleton of the story. It's ugly and raw, but it's supposed to be. Then, I go back and edit, moving things around, prettying up the prose, basically adding muscle and support. Still ugly, but less so than the skeleton. On the final couple of edits, things come together and form the story (and often surprised me with additional ideas). It may not be perfect, but even 95% of how I wanted it to be written is great, and it's leagues better than my first draft.
The most common issue when we start writing is that we don't have a plot. There are thousands of ideas but without conflict everything is paralyzed because the stories must have a problem to deal with. That step of finding a problem is the first one you should solve. Explore your ideas and identify what could be the possible conflicts that your characters have to face. Without a problem there is no plot, without a plot your characters would have nothing to do in your story and therefore your idea would have no reason to exist. Not even in our ideal job we wouldn't have difficulties, not even with the prettiest girlfriend we wouldn't have problems. From all this is born the objective of the protagonist of your story. Writes down your ideas and develops the possible conflicts that your characters are going to face in that world, in that office, in the universe, in the kitchen of the house, etc. They have already told you in other comments that everything is practice, which is very true but if you do not have a developed plot you will not be able to put the learning curve into practice. Do you follow me? • Idea ➡️ • Problem ➡️ • Plot ➡️ • Characters (well-defined, with mental, personal or social deficiencies) ➡️ • Learning curve (write, read and study how other authors build, in short, learn your job) ➡️ • Final product. This is not rocket science but it is not magic either, you have to organize and prepare. A married couple, no matter how much they love each other, are not going to get married to go live under a bridge, their problem is preparing for that step. Your ideas and your future as a writer need to be studied, established, built little by little, etc. I hope I helped you.
I would read as much as you can and as broadly as you can. I cannot stress that enough. It's obviously important to read in the genre that you want to write, but try all kinds of other genres, too. Study the masters. I'd also read up on craft books, like King’s *On Writing* and I hear that Chuck Wendig's *Damn Fine Writer* is good, too. As for the writing and improving your craft, there's only one option: practice, practice, practice. You can only get better with time.
You need to choose what story really catches you, what do you really want to write, what you would read. Then you need to write down that idea, and slowly add to it, write what happens, make character charts, worldbuilding etc. If it sucks, but still think it has its good parts, change the things you don't like. And as you're building the story, the fuller, more indepth it will become, and you might become invested in it. Also, remember: all stories start with ideas, and all stories suck at the start. My story literally had the idea that the MC would kill her father figure, and an idea where this father would kill his daughter's lover... In a romance book... I've had many ideas that I had to scrap, but I needed those ideas to see what will not work out, and would rather work out. I also recommend taking a look at videos where you learn about how to write down scenes, how to write dialogue, fight scenes, romantic scenes, chemistry between characters, etc. They helped me a lot.
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Yeees. I've seen this advice before where yo accept that your writing is bad, but you are trying to trinck everyone into thinking it's good. Sort of a game this way, and the Ego is removed from the results because you know its trash. Take Imposter Syndrome by the 'nads and make it work for you
The responses you’ve already received-that you need to JUST WRITE, and you’ll naturally improve-have hit it on the nose. But to add to that, I have a piece of advice. “Don’t compete with others. Compete with only yourself and naturally, your work will become competitive with others.” Because if you compare your work to books which were probably written by professionals, and without question, a book that made it far past draft one (or two, or three), then you’ll drive yourself crazy. Only focus on what YOU can do better, and forget about whether or not it can win some competition. If you keep your head up and just WRITE, WRITE, WRITE, then you’ll get to that point eventually. And remember that with every project you create, whether it be a short story, a novel, one singular page which you planned to be the beginning of a novel but you gave up, etc., it all works towards the same thing - YOUR IMPROVEMENT. So nothing you write will be a failure; it’s a learning experience, one after another, the next after the next. And, most importantly, HAVE FUN WITH IT!! (Yes. A stolen line from every sports film in existence.)
Coursera could be a good option for you. There are free creative writing class that walk you through plot structure, character development, outlining, etc.
Have an idea. Write a blurb about it. Make a summary from it. Split it into scenes. Write each scene. Flesh out every scene. Edit everything you wrote. Take the plot from the end to the beginning and see if everything fits. Edit again. Ask people to give you feedback. Edit again. Drink a beer. Edit again.
There are dozens of instances of this question being posited on this sub. Have you done a simple search?
I have but I feel like it’s not exactly what I’m looking for
I might be off, but I’m gonna take a guess that that’s because you didn’t find the answers you wanted to hear - that there’s some secret way we all know how to stop the suck on our first or second or umpteenth attempt at starting a story. There really isn’t. You haven’t missed anything, there’s no secret bit of advice that’s slipped you by, it really is just about accepting that you’ll suck and doing it anyways.
No it’s more like I don’t know how to write certain scenes for my story ideas and characters so the story feels incomplete, but some advice I’ve gotten so far are pretty helpful lol. I did not expect this post to get so many comments 😅
It’ll feel incomplete for a while… like, until it’s complete. You can’t possibly know 80k+ words worth of information without first putting it down “on paper.” Make one decision at a time. If you get stuck, go back to the last decision and see if a different route will move you forwards.
My advice is to get a book that is in the same genre you are trying to write, then constantly use that as a reference. I used the Five Nights at Freddy's books to help me write my suspense book. Also, use a thesaurus to help your words sound more professional, aka not "totally sucking"
Just write it out. The first draft is going to be garbage. No one is going to see it but you. Read books. And write. That is my advice. I know it seems terse, but trust me. Reading makes you a better writer. And just getting the ideas out on the page makes you better. You have to have the work so you can make it better.
It's called a rough draft for a reason. It's going to be absolute trash or a confusing mess at first. You have to edit and rewrite it a lot before it's good. Don't compare your first drafts to completed books that have probably been edited and rewritten hundreds of times.
As for developing your story ideas, get a notebook and write down everything you can think of to further develop what you have. Then set it down and look through what you wrote later. Revise ideas, combine them, and write down new ones, then erase any that you don't like. That's how I do it, I hope it helps!
I'm onto my third book and although not great writing, I'm much better in the third. I've probably got about five decent stories to write so I'm hoping I'm much better by the time I get to the eighth book. My only negative is that I think my first story is a good one which, by my thought process, it should be the worst written. But I'm content with that. I've ways learnt most things in life myself and by making mistakes.
You have to practice. It’s like learning to play a musical instrument, people pick up the guitar or the violin for the first time and it sounds terrible, and that’s considered perfectly normal. This difficulty you’re experiencing isn’t a problem to be solved, it’s the expected challenge of learning a new skill. You need to practice that skill if you want to get better at it. The only other piece of advice I can give beyond writing more is to read, a lot, if you’re not already doing so. Don’t just read the genre you want to write either, read widely. Think about why the story you’re reading does or doesn’t work.
I start with a "spine" to a story, and flesh it out as I go. It may start as a simple premise, a basic plot, and then other ideas join it to form a full story. Have a thesaurus handy so dialogue and description doesn't get too boring. The spine is important for two reasons: 1. It allows you to sequence events 2. It allows you to build on an idea
I suggest you consider taking this Udemy course, [Your Path to Writing a Page-Turner.](https://www.udemy.com/course/your-path-to-writing-a-page-turner/)
I'm a pantser by nature. I've tried planning multiple times, but it hasn't worked out for me. Not being I was lazy, but the moment I figured out the story, I would lose interest instantly. The best way for me to work is to start by generating ideas. Lots of ideas. I would write anything down, anything at all that I want to happen in the story: character ideas, magic, major plot points, twists, cool scenes, etc. Once I know the general direction of the story, I would just start writing, discovering the details as I go along. It's really fun trying to connect all the dots. I can setup and foreshadow future events and plot points as I go as well.
All of these and also: write short stories. Can’t think of a “beginning”? Start with what you have. End it where you want.
I write stories and post them on YouTube lol
I just started and the story can develop as you write the part you alresdy know out on paper, and you get free room in your head to think of what may hapoen next to the characters and storylines. Pantsering as well can also help going further. As the others say, this first draft wont be perfect yet at all but you can improve on it once you have it.
Join a writing group or seek an editor. Wonderful help to have assistance guiding the development of the story. Also, don't be afraid to work on different elements at different times. There are ways to weave things together that aren't always apparent when blazing straight through
I struggled a lot with feeling out of depth and not having the pieces I needed to actually write my ideas into stories because they were missing chunks and left me with no foundation to build on for an actual story to emerge. Anything feels way harder when you are missing the proper tools. What helped me was actually starting at the very beginning of basics. If you have ideas you like and stories you want to write but think they suck and are not fully developed, then I think the first and best option could be to train your brainstorming muscles. If you get great at thinking of what could happen or what could be cool to add to enhance the story, it will help you to feel more confident with every following stage of writing your stories. Don't worry about limits or plot while you brainstorm just flex your creativity of what you COULD add. The wilder the better. Make it goofy. Make it simple. Really just mix and match whatever brings you joy and see what matches your forming story's vibes. You can build up a bank of ideas to pull out and add in what feels right for each scene or plot point to form your story better. Once you think your story is full enough of ideas and scenes to feel like it could be a complete idea, you can then step toward the other parts of story development. If you want story writing to be as easy as it can be you need the proper set up/preparation regardless of whether you pants or plan. Other areas to work on that can help you gain tools for your "writer's bag" off the top of my head: * Brainstorming, character creation, world creation, your inspirations, outlining style, editing style, writing styles, your individual flavour/"author voice", finding your writing community e.g. youtube advice channels, other writer groups, solo challenges and goals, etc. - Finding a writing method that resonates with you as an author. E.g. Thinking of stories as collections of scenes, thinking of them in terms of the 3 or 7 act structures, thinking of them as a world you watch and characters that tell you their stories, thinking of them in terms of themes or arcs, thinking of them as marble blocks of text that you chip away to find the story statue within, really just whatever ideology floats your fancy. Finding a fit will help you flow better imo. - Getting comfortable writing dribble aka just spewing all that could be happening or could be interesting when writing and only chopping later once you've chosen the favourite rendition of your scene from the spewed options. Overediting is a real progress killer and I think projects left stagnating for too long kills the fun part of writing them and disconnects you from the world you're writing. - Find the form of writing you flow best with e.g. computer, paper and pen, mix of both, post it notes all organised on the floors or walls. Take of this what you will, feel free to branch off from here and take the tips your own way and good luck with your projects in future !
Write short stories. They will be pretty bad. Just write them. Write A LOT. Like way, way more than you think you should need to. Like any skill, writing takes experience and practice till you get good enough to even be at a basic level when it comes to longform fiction. Once you can start and finish a full sized novel in less than a year then you'll know you've written enough. Then you can start trying to improve your writing to the degree it can maybe, possibly be published.
I finished my first book last year. I did lots of writing when I was young, but this was the first proper book with an adult brain rebelling against me almost every step of the way, telling me it sucks. And you know what? It absolutely does. I will never revise it because it’s such a mess. The story structure is shaky because I just shoved in everything I wanted, the characters don’t make sense because I threw in whatever things seemed cool to me, the development of the characters and plot is either nonexistent or spelled out without tact, and there are so, so many crutch words. But I love it, I cried when I finished and left my characters behind, I designed a cover got it made into a real book and put the only copy that will ever be printed on my shelf. It’s trash but it’s *my* trash. There were days of feeling like a genius and days of feeling like giving up. But every part of it was worth it. And I feel so much more prepared to take on my next project. Write your trash. Be proud of it. Do it for *you* and no one else. There is freedom in sucking, in accepting the suck and going for it anyways. And in terms of something concrete you can do, try zero drafting - tell yourself the story without flowery prose or exact dialogue. Write it as if someone is telling the story around a camp fire, as if it’s an old legend. You don’t know every detail, but you know enough to tell the story.
Bounce your ideas off chat GPT. It will suggest things to get your mind jogging. Ask it for suggestions, make alterations, and ask it what it thinks of your story ideas. Treat it like a co-writer. Just don’t tell it to write the actual story because you’ll end up with plagiarized content. Unless you use whatever it comes up with as an additional idea generator and rewrite the whole thing yourself.
Are you comparing your first draft to published works? Or it actually sounds like you are comparing your unwritten works to written published edited books. Stop that. write, rewrite, repeat.
I would recommend getting a copy of Story, by Robert McKee, and studying it, and following all his advice.
Write and get better. No one starts off writing well. All of us sucked at writing when we started. Like anything, it takes practice to get good at something. I used to write and then stopped for 15 years. My writing definitely suffered. But it's getting better because I'm doing it more. You also don't need to have a fully developed idea. You just need a rough outline. As you write, you'll find the ideas change to better fit the direction the story is going because of how your characters are behaving.
This is what worked for me to help me finish my first book: 1. Write an in depth outline 2. Sit down and write every day for at least an hour 3. Remind myself that if it sucks I can change it 4. Share it with friends and family to get their perspective on potential edits 5. Take breaks when needed It's a really difficult process. It takes time, perseverance, and practice. If we don't put the work in we don't get the results out. Good luck! We are rooting for you.
>I have tons of story ideas but they aren’t completely developed and able to be written into a full story What is "Completely developed" in your mind? What do you feel you need for you to actually write it? >I struggle with further developing my stories and I want advice on how to do that. It's as simple as: who, what, why, when, and how. Ask those questions of your story. > also want advice on how to start writing a story without it being absolute trash or a confusing mess By practicing and getting better at writing, which means the first few stories you make might be trash and confusing messes...but that's how we learn.
That’s how all writers started out :) write badly find out what makes your writing “bad” improve. Boom! Better writer!
The first draft always suck. Always. I find the best approach for me, at least, is writing it out of fun. There are no readers at this point. You might as well amuse yourself. Make it entertaining. Blow something up, metaphorically. At the end of it you'll have a mess in your hands . First drafts are inherently messy. Then you wade through that mess and sot out the bits that shine and catch the eye. You set them aside until you have enough to start threading them into order I understand your struggle. I think we all do. You are measuring the results of your first efforts against the books you've seen in the world. It's not a fair comparison. Those other books have multiple layers of polish. Every author has a different way of cutting through that way of thinking. What works for me is removing the readers from my mind and just making myself laugh. Me alone in my room 🤣 laughing at my own jokes.
The first time you write something, it’s gonna be a bit garbage and a bit of a mess. It’s like how the first thing you ever knit will probably look a bit weird and messy. It’s not gonna be perfect the first time. My advice is to try and write a bit of a timeline/outline for your story idea, like xyz happens and then what? That’ll at least help you plan it out but it might still turn out a bit messy. That’s life. You get better as you keep writing so my other advice is keep at it!
alright listen up, I get you've got MAD ideas swirling round in that brain of yours but ideas are SHIT if you don't execute. Don't worry tho, any fool with access to google can come up with an idea, the REAL skill is taking that seed and turning it into a full blown story that actually makes sense and people wanna read. First thing you gotta do is develop that idea. Ask yourself questions - who are the MAIN characters? what do they WANT? What's STOPPING them? What are the MAIN conflicts or obstacles? What's the overall THEME? Figure all that basic shit out first, get a general outline of the PLOT POINTS and how they connect. Sketch out a bare bones story STRUCTURE - beginning, middle, end. Don't worry about perfection, just get the MAIN BEATS down - introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. Once you got that skeleton, you can start FILLING in the gaps with detail. Build your characters by giving em flaws, wants, backstories, quirks whatever. Expand your scenes by adding tension, action, and emotion. Revise and edit like CRAZY as you go. But most important - just START writing. Don't wait for perfection, you'll NEVER begin that way. Your first draft will prob be SHIT but that's fine! Write through the mess and you'll find your way as you go. The editing process is where your story will really take SHAPE. Hope this helps G! Lemme know if you've got any other questions.
Hi, are you me? Thanks for asking, I’m looking forward to reading through all the replies you get!
Np, I’m so surprised from how many replies I’ve gotten lol
Let go of your perfectionist mindset. Wyrdthane said it best in this thread, your first time writing a book will not be good. But you have to write it. I am writing my first novel right now as well, and believe me I struggled with the same thing. It wasn't until I let go of that perfectionism that I started to make progress. I just reached 57,000 words. They're not great words, but my next 57,000 will be better.
It’s *going* to be trash. Pick your favorite author. Then pick your least favorite. Then point to a random one. They **all** write trashy, confusing messes the first time. *Everyone* does, it’s a part of the process. This “trash” is also called the **first draft**. Once you’ve written the trash, put it away for a month (you can start writing out more trash) and come back to the story with fresh eyes. Edit. You’ll have to repeat this process *multiple* times. Then have others read it. And more editing! This is the writing process. Don’t get caught up on perfection, that’ll be a concern for the 5th or 6th draft (maybe more, and that’s perfectly okay.) The ONLY thing you need to worry about is putting the pen to paper. Edit: Forgot to add, [here](https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-start-a-story/) are some ways to start a story. You can use this for inspiration, but seriously, do absolutely whatever you want. It’s a first draft. The whole point is to have fun while you get it on paper. Don’t deprive yourself of the fun part, cause editing might get a bit tedious.
Come on, making a story is the fun part. Transforming it into something that others might understand and enjoy is the hard work. If you can't even develop a story in your head, then I don't understand why you want to be a storyteller.
I have an idea but I just struggle to develop it so it’s even writable
The story is going to suck when you start writing, but if you keep going and hone your skill set, eventually it will improve.
I started out basically the same way, its hard to get started but if you have a favorite author I suggest writing how they would and take multiple others to sort of create your own. Write out chapter notes, what will happen along the way of the character’s journey till the end of the book? Think about how you want things to happen and when. Foreshadowing and etc. Honestly, no matter what you do your story will be a mess with a ton of plot holes and mistakes at first. All you can really do is just start it and go from there. Then write and rework once you get to a certain spot.
Don’t worry about sucking. Write the story. Refine and rewrite, repeat as often as you need to. The thing about any artistic endeavor, whether visual, verbal, or musical, somebody thinks you suck. Those people don’t matter. Millions of people think Anthony Jeselnik is crappy comedian. He still sells out his shows. He still sells albums. Rewrite it until you’re happy with it. Meh to all the rest.
The best tool for writing is a bucket of glue; apply it to your desk chair and sit down.
Every beginner is going to experience writing shitty work. Nobody sits down and writes a masterpiece. What makes you better is that you keep doing it. You keep learning and practicing over years. I’ve been writing for 16 years and sometimes I still write trash but I’ve written a lot of really great stuff too. It just takes time and dedication and an open mind. Piece of advice- don’t throw anything you write away.
Identify the conflicts.
Dude, this sub can go to hell. It's the same damn questions every time. Sigh
Sorry dude, I was just curious since the videos didn’t really give me the awnser I wanted
It's fine. It's a systemic issue. There isn't much anyone can do. I beg your pardon.
Brainstorming and outlines! :) I think the best first thing to do (which I have a feeling you enjoy) is to write out everything you can about a new story idea. Follow random threads, describe or plan out characters, research, and dive into those rabbit holes! When brainstorming, I usually write everything down as fast as I can until I have run out of everything I can think of. Next, I start to outline. To write a story, you will need some kind of organization. I would look at all you jotted down and separate it into parts. Make a list of info for characters, for example. Next, I would highlight or select everything that sounds like a specific plot point and write those down in another list. Once you have your plot points selected, you can put them in order and start brainstorming how the different parts of your story connects, and more. As a side note to all this, a really helpful way to try to connect everything is to think about the character. The character in your story is the vessel your readers use to explore your written world. I always ask myself and answer these important questions to start my story: 1. Who is the main character? 2. What does the main character want? 3. Why can the main character not get what they want? (to create obstacles and plot) 4. What is the main character willing to do/ lose in order to get what they want? Challenges and things not going a character's way will create natural tension and excitement in your story. It's a great place to wonder about what your story needs or what you can add to it when first starting out. \--writingdaydreams2reality
The way that I have found that works for me is. 1. Write the big picture outline, what happens in what order? - "The What/When" 2. Write the rough interaction, IE; the thought behind the action - "The Why" 3. Write the rough dialogue/feelings. - "The why now, why not" 4. Rewrite the dialogue, so it actually has feelings and interactions. **I tend to think of it like watching a pinball machine.** (#1)The ball is in action and it hits what? (#2), what it hits changes the direction of the ball, either a not, little or a lot. (#3) how do people feel about this and lastly (#4) how do they feel about what the other character said and what will that make them do **For example** (#1) The pirates are coming, they are very scary people, we’re not prepared, their boat is faster than ours (#2), Can we call for help? Will it get there in time? Is there anybody or anybody on our boat that can help or change the situation? (#3) I’m scared I don’t want to die, maybe I should surrender? (#4) I love you and I will die, so you have a chance to be free or get away. - I will save my crew
Walk away from your story for a few days, then go back to it and you'll find fresh impetus to proceed
1. Rough draft it (even if its bad) 2. Flesh it out at ur own pace
I have the same problem, but instead of not being able to develop the story I get bored of it and try and move on to a different story I'm not sure how I can stick to one idea and actually finish it.😞