Novel How do you know if writing is for you?

I think Manav has said this well and I agree totally. Don't forget that the outlook you have on life as a young person can be special, fresh and interesting to your reader. I was a lot more daring when I was younger, and when I read my old stuff I sometimes feel more moved than with the more recent things I've done, even though the technique isn't so good.

 

My short stories start with a basic premise and little else. My books start as a series of interconnected scenes with a very loose, chronological organization. Scenes are dropped, changed, or added as the novel needs.

 

Do what works for you - I just write admittedly the first drafts are appalling and I need to completely rewrite them but I find that works better than making a plan for me.

 

I agree, i just want to get right into it rather than writing a plan. sometimes i feel slightly downheartened when i cant think of a good idea when writing a plan. i hope it just comes to me as im writing and usually it does

 

Hi,

I also don't have a plan when I write. Usually I just get the germ of an idea, a scene maybe or a situation and I write that. It may be only a few pages but its enough. After that I may leave it for a while, write something else, play some games etc and then later after some time not thinking about it, inspiration hits me.

In the only novel I've actually completed it began with two scenes from different movies, one of a jewel thief hanging upside down from a wire as he pulls his way back to safety with the loot - I love many of those old heist movies, and the truly strange thought, what would happen if in the middle of that he saw an angel? That became the start of it, and I wrote it, but got no further until months later I saw a movie, Date with an Angel, and a scene in it of the angel bathing in her private pool, surrounded by the creatures of the forest, stuck in my mind. That became another novel start, and then somewhere along the way as I typed at both of them intermittantly, they suddenly became part of the same story.

As I say, no plan, and no structure, but just the act of writing and thinking about what I've written lets me come back to things and turn scenes and chapters in due course into full novels. Of course it also means I have probably fifty or sixty novels in various states of production at the moment, and would be a disaster if I was ever to try and work to a schedule.

My advice would be as the others have said here, just write. But I don't recommend planning at the start, just spend some time simply writing, things that capture your attention, things that inspire you, whatever you like. Then, when you feel you're ready to move on further, take the novel stubbs you like best, and start planning a story beyond them. Flesh it out, add scenes and chapters as you like, create a story. Then, when you can see the novel forming, that's when you need to plan.

Also, keep everything. You never know when that chapter you wrote years before, and which you thought was dead ended, may suddenly reach out and grab you again. Some of my various novels are over a decade old, all but forgotten until suddenly I found them again and inspiration struck. Thief was almost a decade old before I suddenly knew how to finish it.

Cheers.

 

Write what you know, Victoria. Write what you know. I know some say this isn't the best idea, but it is in my opinion. There are many stories within your own life's story. Tell those. I'm just a year older than you, and I've found that I have much to tell.

Just write. Don't let the technicalities get to you. I was the same way, but it was more of a hindrance to get all those rules down than to actually write. Just begin. I know it's hard at first, but once you start, you'll be glad you did.

How do I know if writing is for me? I know because I kept coming back to it, day after day, failure after failure. I didn't believe I'd get anywhere. But just letting go of those fears and actually starting has proven to me that, yes, this writing life is for me.

 

I'd say if you feel a strong desire to write and tell stories you could definitely be a writer. Of course there is a lot to learn about the ways to do it, but just write, whatever you feel like and dont be too self critic about it. it serves a purpose and that is for you to gt some writing experience.
Some people say write the kind of story that you yourself would want to read.

That must have been awesome!! i hope i get to experience that one day too! ) i guess i would react the same way, Lol.

exactly, that is a great accomplishment, as somebody said, there are people that talk about writing and wanting to write and then there are people that actually DO it...

 

First you have to prepare an overall idea about your story and try to start well. No worries, you could write well. If any doubt please send emails to me.All the best...

travisbaker@sify.com