Im writing a book where this girl faces her parents death and lives by her self but the killer comes after her because she knows everything. I can write the most suspensefulparts but the rest of the novel im drawing a blank. I try and think up things that may sound like it fits well. But truthfully im pulling it out of my ying yang and it sounds childish. If i had sugestions i may be able to conjure up something good. But my parents arent writers. So you see my problem.... open 2 N E sugestions!
The only real way to do it is to just write them. Decide your plot first, in vague detail at least, and then just write a really basic but comprehensive plot summary of the scene you want to write if you cant think of anything better. The do one rewrite, improving what you can, then leave it, come back, fix it some more, go away again, and keep doing that until you've built up a really good passage. But the important thing is to write something, otherwise you'll never have anything to work with.
I've kinda struggled with this recently, too. Here's what I learned: My whole day consists of books. I write from 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Then I have lunch (while reading a book) and then my afternoon is flooded with reading. I read at night, too. When I found myself struggling with these downtimes in the story - the quiet moments between dramatic scenes, I looked to the books I read when I'm not writing. I paid attention, as I read (because I re-read the same books frequently. Characters become so real to me... I'm probably mental) to how other authors worked out their downtimes. Whether they went minute by minute, hour by hour, activity by activity, or if they went day by day. Does this make any sense? For instance, when I read Twilight, I noticed that Stephenie Meyer went pretty much minute by minute in her story. She rarely skipped over days, but sometimes would to push everything forward. Everything mundane was included - Bella eating. Bella taking a shower. Bella in her room. Bella studying. Bella sleeping. It made for a really, really long book. But hey - some people like that. And, for the character, it kinda worked. I mean, what else does a teenager do but eat, do homework, and go to school? Other authors, like Patricia Cornwell or James Lee Burke, are a bit more loose. They go day by day, only throwing in certain activities. Scarpetta cooks - cut to next morning when she drive to work, and thinks about a connection with her latest case. Dave Robicheaux eats a bowl of cereal - cut to that night when he goes to bed and has a dream, revealing something important to him. It was a bit more to the point, which I prefer. You don't get their daily shower, their daily dinner, their daily whatever. These authors just add in mundane where it helps the story quieten down for a minute, giving you a break before the big stuff comes again. For my personal story, I tried to balance a middle point between the extremes. I looked around at what I do everyday, you know, showering, eating, phone calls, etc. And then I tried to fast forward it a bit. Not going into major detail, "the soup was frigid, tasting like glop" but more like, "She ate her cold soup, and went upstairs." to get to my next big part. I hope this helps. I'm kinda rambling here - sorry about that.
Picture yourself in the girl's shoes. Draw inspiration from your own daily habits to see which ones can be applied to her. Maybe read some of your favourite authors and see how they handle character development + actions.
Well when i read while i write i go off on other stories and plots that arent mine. like when i read ted dekker i go off of his stories so its really hard to find something to say. i really like suspense so i write like murderous and i have a lot of dramatic ,suspenseful, action packed, passages. its ridiculous how i cant write the inbetweens!!! its so aggrivating!!!
I don't really see how you can have random "in-betweens" in a story like that....surely if there's akiller on the loose, the action flows pretty quickly, whether you're describing a murder, or the killer's actions, or the police chase, or the detective's investigations, or the reactions of related people, or the media coverage of the case....there are plenty of angles you could work from in those kinds of stories to move yourplot along...but that said, you probably shouldn't just be moving your story from one suspenseful scene to another....that's a very formulaic and disjointed way to work and I don't really see a cohesive story coming from it...
I recommend daydreaming. Daydream about your character. What happened early on, like soon after her parents died? Where was she living, how'd she feel about life, what was happening, who was she talking w/everyday? What was going on? Travel w/her from her parents funeral, for instance, all the way to the action part you've got. Dream up that part of the story. Then start to write it out, dream a little more, rinse & repeat. And every time you start thinking about the storyline from some other book, immediately ignore it and focus instead on "your" daydream, your story. It's naturally going to have bits/pieces from the Ted Dekker book or other book you liked, but try to just rely on your own story that your mind builds up about this girl and the villain.
Yeah I wouldn't worry about absorbing bits of other writers....while you're young its inevitable (at least it seems that way to me) and all these things you're reading will ultimately shape and form your own style. Don't over-react and reject what a writer does just because you don't want to be similar (especially if what you're writing is similar...) In fact, if you're desperately stuck for the in-between bits, look at how other writers deal with that problem and copy them. Obviously you can't pass this off as your own, but at least by doing it you will understand how what they've written works andhow you can emulate and eventually write your own version. But yeah, the whole point of reading is that you learn from other writers, and while you are still a developing writer, mimicking their style is a great way to see how other writers solve problems.
When it comes to writing the more boring, 'mundane' parts, I always draw inspiration from my real life events. Was dinner really crappy tonight? I write about it; nothing too detailed, but enough to paint the picture of the sloppy joe I didn't find all that tasty. Maybe what was on the TV was so unbearable, I flicked through two hundred channels. Write about it. You'd be surprised how much you can pull from your everyday life.
When I'm having trouble writing a character I try to think of someone I know who is like that character in some way. Then I call them up and say "hey, what would you do in this situation?" Their answers usually lead to something interesting.
My friends would find that extremely annoying after a while if I kept doing that. But I'm more of a minute by minute writer myself, I can't do the the jumping between scenes bit very well it seems - so I kinda have to make do. Yes, it might sound absoloutely terrible to you but that's the beauty of first drafts - they can always be tidied up later when they require a lil tidying.
this is what I'd do, and I do it and it works. I learned it from a guy who lives in my town - he wrote Artemis Fowl. 1. Write down in your notes what you know is going to happen. Choose between four or five main events that are key to the story. 2. Then go to another book that you've read and that you enjoyed and see what happens in each of those chapters and write it down i.e. Chapter 1 character introductions, Chapter 9 key event Chapters 23-26 peak of the story, Chapter 16 backround information etc... 3. Then Write out all the characters you want in the story, their place in the story and what they're like. 4. Fit them into the story and key events. 5. Then make up loads of small events. Relate it to what you'd do in the spaces between excitement. 6. Then fill it into the book template you've made out and you've got the skelton of your story. When you know what's going to happen in the slower parts of the book, you'll be surprised how much you could write. Have you read the Lord of the Rings? Can you remember the Chapter in the Two Towers 'Fangorn' - longest chapter ever full of back story.
