I know from a lot of experiences that I can tell fun and interesting stories, especially when they relate to some intense past life or work experience, but this is often in face to face verbal settings. I find putting an interesting story into writing and keeping the reader interested or not confused to be a bit more challenging. This in contrast to me finding it a lot better to put into writing a serious or technical matter than trying to explain it verbally. Are there methods for developing one's abilities to put an interesting story into a written format? By methods I'm mean something like practices, books to read or really anything to do to improve this. I've noticed at least a few distinct approaches to how to write an interesting story here that differ from how one would simply speak it. I hope this question isn't too vague.
I think you mean you're looking for techniques to find your writing voice. Am I right? In my view a writing voice and the one you use to tell stories face to face aren't always the same thing. Sometimes we invent a character to tell the story. We may pick a man when we are a woman or visa-versa or even a child to narrate. Finding that voice won't be easy. We need to know the narrator inside and out. We are telling the tale from their prospective as well as their prejudices towards the places and people in it. I'm not sure if that is any help please let me know.
Begin by telling a story with your own human voice to another real live human being, while recording yourself. Transcribe what you said. Work from there.
Read. Read and practise and then read again. Read. Haha! If you're fond of stories, I'm sure you already do! I know, it's a tricky situation, right? You can tell a brilliant story, people are hanging off of your every word, but then when it comes to sticking it all to paper, it's a tough matter. Trust me, I get it. I'm not an expert or anything, nor would I go to saying that there's ever such as a writer who is. More experienced, definitely, but writing is a continuous process. You grow and you change and you change and you grow. But anyway, I'm going off track. If you can tell a fantastic story, if you have a wonderful story, then sometimes, it doesn't matter if you're writing's not fabulous. I'm not encouraging anyone to slack off or anyything, it' simply that I've read books before where their writing hasn't been astonishing. The voice hasn't been that unique. But the story was so exciting, so intriguing that it tore me away from any of that. In fact, I didn't even notice the writing wasn't that special until I had to look at it deeper. So...you want to put pen to paper and not get the readers confused. First draft, first! First drafts are just meant to be bad. I don't think there's one first draft out there where the author's slammed the pile of papers onto the desk, leaned back with a self-satisfied smile and said: "Yup. Where's my publisher?"Nooo way. If you're a more tell-the-story-than-write-the-story person, then that's perfect! First drafts (in my humble opinion) are all about the story! The fiddly, finnicky bit of tryin to make it understandable comes from the editting process! Speaking and writing is kinda different but not, at the same time. All you're doing is pouring your words- or the words of your characters- onto paper. Tell me if this made no sense or was no help at all; I'll try and explain myself better.
This, basically. When you are telling someone a story through paper, it's not really you you're talking about, even if it were in first person. Unless it's a memoir, the story is about the main character and the struggle he/she goes through. What is their beliefs? Their morals? How do they view life? You'll find that some of them don't really believe what you believe. Ask yourself who they are, what they value. Ask yourself what is driving them to complete their quest, their motivations. Read a lot. Read and learn what drives the characters within. Also, as @Empty Bird said, the first draft is supposed to be bad, so don't flog yourself over every single word. The first draft is just getting the story out on paper. The edits and re-writes are what shapes the story into something to be sold.
Thank you all for the replies. I was playing with trying different perspectives and tenses to find something that came naturally to me and was easy to read. Beyond that, I've also tried playing with how I say things. When trying first person I have been thinking a lot about the type of story and who the speaker is.
does anyone else experience this. I was writing a story back in the winter, had to put writing aside due to nice weather, work, and yardwork. I opened up my old story today and started re-reading it to get a fresh perspective on what it was, and also then see what might need some rework. I got to where I thought I left off last time, which is a scene I have still played in my head from time to time to see where it might go from there. Well when I got to that point I thought I left off on, suddenly I had three more pages to read. And although some of it wasn't the way I had been seeing it in my head, I was surprised when I realized that I don't remember writing those last three pages at all. I hope I'm not going crazy here, but the three pages I don't remember writing actually helped the story and were much better than what I had planned on writing today. It's just odd that I don't remember writing them. I could have been drunk, but I always type horribly when I'm drunk. This was quite readable.
Maybe one day your brain was all, "Ah ha! I've got material for the next three pages! On to the laptop we go!" and you went onto your story and wrote. Then you promptly left it after getting it all down and forgot about it. That's just my idea, though.
This is pretty common for me. I have many stories I started but never finished - some of which are many years old - and when I go back to them, I sometimes find I'd gone much further with them than I remembered.
Oh, definitely. A couple of years ago I started novelizing one of my old unproduced horror movie scripts. I started reading through the script, was getting toward the end, figured out which character was going to survive... and then someone shot her with a bunch of arrows, and cut her head off. And I went... 'WTF?' I wrote the script in the mid 2000s, but had completely forgotten that part. It all made sense when I read on, but it was like reading a story someone else had written. Really need to finish the novel version soon, I think the first chapter is probably the best thing I've ever written.
Happen to me, just today, this time, was not my drinking. I also suffer from C.R.S syndrome.(can't remember shit) Didn't Hemingway (or maybe Faulkner) say " Write Drunk, Edit Sober? As long as is usable, congratulations!
i had this first draft of a short story i went back to about 3 years later. i had all these ideas for stuff i was going to put in it AND it was already there, which is weird coz lots of stuff i had to add was what i learned after a major life change which happened after the first draft.
Yep, done that a few times. Suddenly had a great idea to fix a story, then discovered that I'd already done it and forgotten about it...
I hate when the writing fairies write better than I do! Thank you but please let me write my own stuff!!! Usually they just sneak misspelled words and awkward sentences into my manuscript after my final edit but before I publish it. The playful little scamps!
Here's a topic that might be an interesting conversation. I don't have this problem personally, (I hoard everything *_* ) I just wanted to see what the discussion would be like. No one needs to answer all the questions, though all advice, insights and info would be appreciated. Also note that all note-worthy posts will be highlighted below. ---- - When is an appropriate time to let a story or project go? - When is it better to simply set a story or project aside for later? - What if a story has been posted/published online, and already has views/comments? Is there a responsibility to stay dedicated to a story if it's been exposed? (Even if the author has grown tired of the story? Or has lost interest in writing?) - Does it matter if it's fiction or non-fiction? Does it depend on the genre? - What about if it's just a personal story that someone was writing for themselves? - Does the story orphaning become more ruthless if the writer has stacks and stacks of stories, notes and ideas piled everywhere, or has a desktop choked with idea documents and blog ramblings? - What would be a checklist for a story that should go into a dumpster or computer trash bin? ----------- Noteworthy Posts: - - - (Updated every couple of days.) ----------- Thanks for reading, and sorry if this was posted before. : ) Personally, I think that stories that are over 6 months old and haven't gotten farther then a few pages might need to be set aside for later. However, if a project has been set aside for longer then a year, it might be time to let go, especially if there are plenty of other, more engaging projects being worked on.
As an accountant, my working life includes the consideration that debts become statute-barred (in the UK) after 6 years...so anything 7 years old can be shredded. As a writer, I have tended to hoard stuff for years, and really should be a bit more hard-nosed about my "babies". However, in these days of massive storage capability, why would you bother to delete an old file? OK, you KNOW you're never going to go back to it (how would you even find it again?) but it's not as if there's a 6 foot high pile of paper cluttering up the spare bedroom, is it?
I think when the author takes no enjoyment out of it, doesn't see the story getting anywhere, and couldn't care less about the characters within the story. The author sees no point in continuing the story. When the author feels there is some potential left, but he/she just can't get there right now. Take some of my older projects, they had some life in them when I put them aside, I just didn't know what the heck I was going to do with them. Now that I'm a bit older and a bit more experienced, I feel I now know how to make it work. That said, it's much easier to put aside such projects (those you will go back to later, or those you will never return to ever again). Just dump them in a folder somewhere on your computer and that's it. You don't have to worry about them. It would depend. If it were just fan-fiction, then I think it's up to the author to decide. If he/she is making money off of it? Eh, it gets trickier. But yes, there is that risk once the author gets a small following of people who want to see the story finished. Do you just drop it or slog through it to the end? Some would say you have to slog through it because, guess what? That's what writers do. Especially if they have an audience. They have a responsibility to finish the damned thing even if they hate it. In that case, the author can do whatever he/she wants. Don't like the project? Put it away forever, or for a short time. There's no external force compelling them to finish what they've stopped caring about. Given in this day and age, all you have to do is put them in a folder on your computer, you don't really have to use a dumpster/computer trash bin. But here is my checklist: Abandon the Project Forever - If the author couldn't care less about the story or the characters. - If the author sees no potential with the plot, doesn't see anything worth salvageable. - If the author would rather file taxes than write this particular story, as he/she no longer can get any sort of enjoyment from it. Put the Project Away - If the author still cares a bit about the story and sees some potential with the plot. The author still cares about the characters, but they just need a little time from the project.
With all the space on a computer why ditch anything? If you don't want to work on it just set it aside. Why put a time limit on it? Whether or not you go back to it depends on your interest in the idea and whether or not it has any more relevance. Some of my projects have an embarrassing dated quality. Ideas and cliches seeped in early 90s trends. Not worth my effort to return to them. That being said though, I still take ideas from this ditched pile. In one of the ditched stories, a very lame Scholastic Point Thriller clone, I took the characters intense childhood friendship and made it the glue for the history in one of my novels. I utilize settings, names, bits and pieces of things. My stories are rarely just thought of and then written. There's a lot of stewing and cross referencing different parts of my history both personal and written that goes into my story. I'm rather like a collager whose dead ideas are thrown into a box to become bits of backdrop for a greater work. I've got boxes and boxes of notepads and ramblings. I don't throw out anything. But I'm also not obsessive about going through them. The fact of the matter is most of these ideas I can't delete from my mind so the ideas that still plague me are the ones that usually make a second appearance. No. But I would respect your audience by letting them know you won't be continuing with it. I usually keep a mental line up and new ideas sometimes go to the back of the line, and sometimes move to the head of the line, creating a bump effect. Writing is so time consuming, I never cross out ideas. Hopefully if I can manage Nanowrite I will be writing some stories whose ideas go back 2 months to 6 years ago.
The one thing that I've always struggled with when writing is starting the story. I had my rough draft in my lap, but I cannot call it a rough draft if there is nothing written. I sat with blank papers and a pen tapping nervously awaiting the ink to meet the paper. I pondered, shall I introduce the character first? No, should I introduce the conflict? Damn, should I introduce the setting? But what if it doesn't catch the attention of the reader? *pen still tapping nervously* I should really introduce the character...but how? Should I introduce her in her daily routine? Or should I introduce her along with the conflict? These are the thoughts dancing in my head and I close my binder and toss it aside. What the hell?! I can't even begin my story, how the hell is it going to be written if I have no beginning? I sit in silence, no distractions, only myself and my thoughts. This has always been the hardest part of writing for me... always. I've been writing for approximately 12 years and I still consider myself a novice because 1) I have trouble starting the story and 2) apparently I have issues in verb tense (but that's for another thread sometime). I guess the question is... how do you begin your story and do you have just as much trouble as I am currently having?
