Hi. I have a kinda hard and complicated question for you people. So I'm gonna get straight to the point. I've been working on a novel for years. Its characters, outline, world, plot events etc. are all already set. It's like just waiting to be written and that's where the problem begins. I tried many different plotting ways but I couldn't catch the success with any of them. Only a few people keep reading after finishing the first two or three chapters. But those who forced themselves to read, states that story is really fun and exciting (writing a science fiction btw) So these make me think that the main problem about my novel is the way that I tell the story. Currently, I have two different ways in my mind and I can't decide which one should be to go. My novel has three main characters. Only two of them know each other at the beginning point and they work for the same company. (You can count them as one since they are also room-teammates) The third character will get to know them as the story goes. But the problem is, until the point where the third character also joins the same company(gonna call it "the union point"), the couple-teammates and the third character will go through different events with a few times of crossing of paths. Now let's come to two plot developing ways I've found. 1-A Linear Story Line I can choose to focus on the third character as if it's the main character and tell the story in a straight line (example from popular culture: just like in Hunger Games) until the union point. I believe this way the story will be more easy to understand and can be followed without losing the track. But if I choose to follow this path, I won't be able to mention the important events which will the teammates live through before the union point and those are the parts of the basis of the future events. I mean, I can mention but they will be just backstories told by characters (or I can't see a different solution at least) and I am afraid that this will make the story feel "unnatural" since there will be too many off-screen events. 2- Part by Part Or I can go as 1 part for the third character, 1 part for the teammates, 1 part for her, 1 part for them and so on till the point they are all in the same team and start sharing the same story. (similar to game of thrones) This will solve the basis problem that I mentioned but this time I feel tracking the story will be a lot harder and it may be overload and bore and confuse the reader. But of course, there might be more options than I've could find. If you have any other idea, or anything to say please share. I know it was a very long and confusing thread but I desperately need help. Even the tiniest advice will be highly appreciated and will help a lot more to clear my mind. You might think that "I can comment without knowing the story." but just imagine you were in a similar situation. What would you do? Or I can share also a couple of parts of the story if it will help but gotta mention that I'm not a native speaker. e.e Anyway, please help. I give cookies and virtual hugs. Thanks. Bye
There's not enough here to really answer your question. You should also take into an account themes and purpose of the story. Most stories benefit the most from the linear story line as it does make for easier reading. Part by part is fine too, but its definitely a harder way to tell the story as each point has to be unique enough that it holds interest. Also, I would suggest being mindful of the fact that it is entirely possible that some scenes really aren't as important as you think they are. And I say this from experience. I wrote a book with multiple characters. And this wasn't a "I'm just going to briefly swing over here to this guy for a few paragraphs as fantasy novels often do." It was two protagonists. I convinced myself two protagonists was absolutely necessary. It was dealing with a complicated political situation, after all. The truth is, is it didn't. The parts that were important, I was able to integrate them in other ways through the protagonist perspective. It was a bit of a challenge and required numerous rewrites, but it worked.
If it is hard to get people to read your work and you feel like the plot is solid, you might be running into the most common problem of all: difficult to read prose. Most people have almost no stomach for reading anything other than perfect, friction free prose, and that is incredibly difficult to write. Worse, it isn't just about punctuation or grammar. A certain percentage of readers will put the book down if you have a comma in too many consecutive sentences. If you are new to the writing game, it would be well worth your time to study prose and find some readers for some short, 4-5 page scenes and stories to get feedback on the writing, which is a very difficult skill to learn.
That's a good point too. Having an engaging and attractive writing style definitely helps. I've quite reading stories, not because I think the story was bad, but the prose was choppy or it glossed over things, or didn't explain the right things.
Thanks a lot for the answer. You made a very nice point. In my first attempt, I was writing as part-by-part and It actually did feel like some parts were forced. But I didn't realize that two issues might be correlated until reading your comment. It really hit me that some of the scenes about the teammates are not so important as you said too. After all, I planned to write in series and foreground one protagonist in each of them. So it seems that focusing on one character and draw a straight line of a plot will be the best solution for my novel. Thanks again, sir. You have no idea how helpful it was. I am enlightened. You deserve all the cookies. You are absolutely right. I also can't bear reading a story with poor language and badly structured sentences for long. I know that I am not so bad at writing but I still have a long way to go. Besides, I am attempting to write in English which is not my native language. I used to write in my native language but people in my country are not so interested in science-fiction. We don't have that culture, sadly. So I decided to try my luck with English readers since clearly there are more science-fiction readers who read in English. As I said, I am well aware of my skills, I am not worse than an average writer when I write in my native language but I can't say the same thing for writing in English. I read in English more in my main language but some of them like require a dictionary attached as if they were written an alien language. I have a lot to learn and I hope I will improve myself at this forum. One last thing, I am introvert so I hardly find someone who even I just can ask if they want to read. I wish I will find some readers here since I am in need of good criticism, and some nice stories that I can read in ease. Thanks for your comment.
Well, they can also be memories and thoughts and musings by those characters, if those characters are sometimes the POV character. "Baked apples!" Jane put the dish down on the table. Fred studied the brown, cracking, damp, leaking fruit. Apples had been the only food in the castle stores during the siege. There had been plenty of them--the chatelaine stored enough for two hundred souls, before she and most of the rest of those souls died in the battle. Fred and barely two score men had spent the winter eating apples raw, baked, mashed, and occasionally fried, while the bodies decayed--brown, cracking, damp, and leaking--around them. He looked up and offered Jane his very best smile. "Sorry, love, I couldn't eat another bite."
Oh, right. I used to do it too often so I kinda restrained myself and seems like I was too successful on it since I completely forgot about I can use memories. Thanks for the advice. I didn't exactly get what you mean but it must be the third draft after I rewrited a couple of times. But in fact. I never managed the complete the novel due to lack of moral so perhaps they had some changes if i could finished.
I was referencing both the OP and a subsequent comment. Regardless, overall structure and sentence structure are relatively unimportant in novel writing. Most people don't realise that there's a world of difference between writing and essay and a novel. Essays are not required to intrigue or entertain. Overall structure is irrelevant if your reader isn't getting past the first few chapters. Sentence structure: it's not about being 'correct'. It's about setting a narrative voice. e.g. "Ain't no way Billy-Bob should a joined the military. He weren't built for fighting. But a man's got to feed his family." - Grammatically awful but engaging regardless.
In my experience: I don't think most people do know the difference. They've been trained one way and its hard to break those habits. When discussing editing most talk of reducing word counts - a redundant legacy practice (newspapers and magazines have a limited number of column inches). The concept of active third person narrators is alien to many people. But each to his own.
I disagree with your apparent belief that you are the only member of this forum to have any knowledge of writing, but that's off topic for this thread. Feel free to create a new thread if you want to argue those points.
The OP asked for an opinion - I offered one. Apparently my opinion disagrees with yours therefore I must express them on another thread. It was not me who digressed from the original topic nor did I claim I was the only member of this forum to have any knowledge of writing. Ultimately, we cannot teach others how to write, only to write in a style that we like.
Well this might be part of your problem right here. Never managing to completely finish your story. First drafts are messy, really you shouldn't be worrying about making it perfect. My best advice is write the story the whole way through, edit, and then start having people read and for advice on where you should change. As for which route to take when writing now- whatever gets it down.
Wow chill guys. I also think that structure is important for a novel, especially if you are trying to create a big universe as I do. Besides, I have kinda mathematical intelligence as I am an engineering student. So I find myself more productive when I work systemically. Though, yeah, I am asking for opinions so even if it is wrong or disagrees with ours, it's alright. Thank you both for sharing your opinions. Well, I always find myself rewriting the same chapter again and again before starting to next one or returning to edit a part after finishing a few more which makes it even harder to finish the work. Maybe it's a habit that I formed when I was writing in Wattpad. There you publish your work, part-by-part like a TV series. Therefore you start evaluating all chapters in itself and focusing less on whole. That was a good catch. Thanks for the advice.
Based on what you said it sounds like your problem is that you're just not hooking the reader within the first few chapters. Without reading the story I would just assume that you're probably not introducing enough tension fast enough or maybe not giving the reader a clear enough reason why they should continue reading. Some books are slow burns but typically you should grab the readers attention with some excitement while laying out the main conflict of the story. If laying out the main conflict takes a bit more time than a few chapters then it becomes really important to generate some form of lesser tension or intrigue so as to not bore the reader.
Yes, mine is one of those slow burns. I am trying to add as much tension as I can and I realized that writing in a straight storyline helps a lot. I hope I will manage to finish Act I in less than a year (e.e) so I can get some more precise advice. Also, it's not easy to write in a language which you are not fluent in. I might be trying to bite off more than I can chew but I am seriously done with trying to sell science-fiction to my own country.
