Advice for a First Time Author

Well, this is going to be the same old advice:

It sounds like you're doing a whole lot of planning and analysis, and working your way toward the actual writing step by step by step, and then you get to the actual writing, and you don't like the result, and you shy away and go back to analysis.

My theory is that writing fiction requires practice, and that it's a different kind of practice from writing nonfiction. I'd argue that you need to get your fiction-writing machine oiled and polished up and warmed up, and that there's no way to do that other than the _writing_.

Lousy writing. Horrible writing. Writing that leads nowhere. Plots with no conclusion, characters with no character, forty-page transcripts of six characters' really boring dinner conversation. Writing and writing and writing.

I see it as being like driving. When you learned to drive, you had to _consciously_ remember to turn the wheel for the turn, and release it before the turn was over, and switch feet to the right pedals, and so on. And over time, "anticipate the distance, start braking, turn the wheel, make sure you don't go in the other lane, adjust the wheel, adjust the wheel, adjust the wheel, release the wheel, stop braking, adjust it again before you go in the other lane ack!" turned into "turn the corner".

When I did my first NaNoWriMo novel (fifty thousand words of fiction in a month), I found that I had to watch my characters talking and interacting in my head, and then frantically try to type it in while I could remember what they did and exactly what they said. Then I could type in the words while watching the movie in my head, as long as I had my eyes closed. Then I could stare straight ahead and type. Then the movie started being played, _sometimes_, in the typed words themselves. I was no longer painfully aware of the translation process to movie-in-head, to words, to fingers, to computer screen.

Now, the words still lost something--the movie in my head is still much more vibrant than the words. I think I'm just _barely_ at the beginning of getting my fiction-writing machine oiled up. But just writing those fifty thousand words, forcing myself to spit them out in a month no matter how bad they were, took me a few stages toward what I hope will be a competent fiction writing ability. And then I wrote another fifty thousand, and now I'm trying to force myself to write every day, and when I get myself to write every day, I'm going to force myself to write more words every day. And all of that is mostly about spitting out words, getting the machine warmed up. I'm not worrying all that much about quality until I get the discipline and the habit down, until I can turn the corner without thinking about the individual steps.

So I said all that to go back to the usual advice: Just write. Write lousy, horrible, painful, dreadful, wouldn't be caught dead letting anyone else read it, fiction. Take the NaNoWriMo example, write fifty thousand words of dreadful fiction, and when you're done, see if anything has changed. If it's changed a little, write another fifty thousand.

ChickenFreak

 

In your case I would say, don't look at the detail until later. Look at the characters themselves and figure out what their story is. Figure out what their conflict is.

The best thing to do is instead of study the details first, is to study the theme first. What is the theme that you are portraying and how do your characters mold that theme through a main plot.

Get away from the inner workings to start with and look at the overall big picture of your story. Focus on that. Once you have that down, then build the details to bring it to life.

 

Thanks everybody! There is some great advice and comments here. What I get from it is this: step away and let the ideas gestate, and just write. I write every day but I get caught up in planning far too much. It's a good point about being ruthless. I just have to choose. Sorry Timmy, you don't make the grade. It's off to boarding school with you! I tried some of this today and made some progress. Thank you.

 

Have you ever tried just writing the story ? Don't be afraid to waffle, put rubbish in - it can come out later - when you are stuck just write something filler to take you to the next big scene. I can lend you my story fairy if you like lol (During first drafts she zaps my characters around when I am stuck).

I do have to completely rewrite my work after I have completed my first draft mind you.

Also many great writers have also been teachers - Enid Blyton was perhaps most famous example.

 

Yes yes, I have tried that, of course. I've written a couple of hundred pages of story prose on the same core idea. The problem is that at each attempt, I come to a halt at about 30 - 50 pages in. This is because of a lack of preplanning of the story. I can never see the ending, only the set up and beginning. I talk to other writers and they often say that start writing with an end in sight. I've been doing a lot of reflection on this and I realise that so many of my ideas for plot revolve around a "sought after THING" or a "mysterious occurance". I have no real trouble dreaming up tangled and tarnished lives for my characters to play out (I'm so GLAD I never got into The Sims!), but it's that object or mystery that I screech to a halt on. Every thing I come up with, I've seen before, and therefore lacks interest for me.

I've been reading that "tropes" site, TVtropes? It's made me feel a bit better in that even the highly regarded stories around are filled with well worn tropes.

Oh and I remember you talking about your story fairy in another thread. Perhaps I'll need something more like that little floaty thing in Tron that said yes or no.

 

That is your key. What is they end goal of the story? In a way, know the end of the story and construct a path to get there.

 

when you hit the wall at 30-50 pages what would happen if you waffled a bit - kept writing ? just threw in a fun scene like your characters ice skating or swimming or playing ball? Maybe they go to the cinema or sit and have a conversation you have always wanted them to have?

With my current WIP (well my main one have been playing with a children one for Christmas), I started out with two threads or ideas, the lover of my MC was going to die. Only he didn't die his spirit, mind and body were split - because of who he was this caused massive rips in time and space between Earth and where my story is set. The second thread was that my MC ran a school for teenagers. Overtime those teenagers turned into historical characters - their spirit and mind split in two when the lover was split.

Both element right up until 50K in were making for two fun stories - my MC had a new lover, then he started cheating on him (didn't know he was a tart), the children have made for some fun comedy. It was only at over 50K seriously waffling etc I got the element that tied those two together. When you start not knowing where you are going you need to be prepared to be blind for a bit until you see where you want to go.

It maybe planning is the way for you but right now it doesn't sound like it is working either.

 

That's a good idea and that's what I hope will happen - the various strands that fit eventually coming together. My problem is that having all these strands narrows my vision to the point that I am bound by them. Just putting them away doesn't work for me. I still know they are there. My mind is a stubborn one, y'see.

Anyway, what I did was (and perhaps this will draw many a tut my way) delete all those strands. I didn't just delete them. I defragmented twice to make sure I could never retreive them. Crazy? Perhaps, but I still have those ideas in my head and the ones that stay will be the ones worth keeping. Having examples of them written down was too cloying and suffocating. After deleting them, I felt free again.

 

I agree entirely - I am pernickity about how the story works and fits together. What works in terms of imagery etc. I will delete upto 40,000 words and rewrite just to get the pieces to work better. What I am learning though is every so often there is a scene I have just completely nailed in the first draft and it can never be written better. What I now do is leave that draft alone and start again.

But I agree as an author my very best tool is the delete key. It allows me to feel free. But then I write fast when I am in full throttle that 40K can be replaced in a week. My husband writes as well and he hates it when I just delete nearly a whole work to fit in an element for example I decided my falcon should be white and not brown. I needed to change what the town and beach looked like so I lost 20K words to make that happen.

 

Perhaps one way to find a middle ground is to print out the drafts and then delete the files. I wonder if the pressure on our creativity isn't so much from the existence of that draft but from the ingrained dependence on cutting and pasting. At least if the previous draft is on paper somewhere, it isn't lost, but you still have the freedom to completely rewrite.

 

I have many story ideas. Sometimes they are short stories and I can write them out and I'm done. Sometimes they are longer and I realize that before I start...so I write down the idea and save it.

I cannot write down anything until I'm finished with the trilogy I'm writing now. I focus and finish the one I already started. If you jump from project to project and never finish then you set your mind with a way out. Oh this became too boring or I'm stuck...I'm done. I'm going to do something else. It's an easy way out. You have to discipline yourself.

I go to a writing group once a week. I get ideas from that to keep me going. I also send my work to friends and they read it and give me great suggestions. Continue to inspire myself and look for those that can inspire me.

 

I just save mine under a new filename in a different location.

 

I don't even know if I'm good enough to call myself a beginner write, because the only reason I came here onto writing forums was because I'm having trouble with the English subject in high school, and most of it is writing essays and stuff, I really suck at writing, and I came here to look for some help or guides on how to start writing better.
Is there any kinds of guides around here for a beginner writer(or lower) to follow?

Thanks in advance!

 

The best thing is to always write like you mean it. Specifically, when posting in forums for fun, blogging, or whatever, always proof read and review before you submit.

From your paragraph, it seems like you can organize your idea to make a point, and are not at a loss for words. But you made grammatical mistakes and (assuming English is your native language) a typo. Would you have found them yourself had you reviewed it first, or is that what you need help learning?

 

Is my false grammar error the first sentence when I should have typed "writer" instead of "write", that was only a spelling error, if there's something else please tell me where I made a mistake.
I know what I'm doing when for example if I'm writing threads on forums, because I know what to write for these topics, but the topics I get from school is something I can't even make anything out of, right now I'm supposed to write a 10 sentenced paragraph about one area in my house, using concrete writing, like for a bear I can say scary black bear, but for things in my house, I just can't find myself writing 10 sentences about it, even if I could I'd like to use better words, that sounds more intelligent, since my teacher doesn't allow simple word uses like " good ", we'd have to use another word that means the same thing, and since this counts for my mark, I'm looking around to see if there's any writing tutorials.
One last question, is there such a thing that when you look up a word, you can find a word that means the same thing? Sorry for my bad knowledge about writing, I hope you guys can help me with it.

 

Well you'd be hard pressed to write ten sentences like that one! You need to get a handle on your sentence structure and punctuation. And yet, your last sentence is ok.

And as for writing ten sentences about a room in you house - you've got to harness your imagination. Use all your senses. Choose the most interesting.

There's the decor, family room, quiet room, pictures on the wall, carpet or tiles on the floor, big windows overlooking garden, small windows overlooking street. Thin walls so you can hear the neighbours arguing. You don't like the colour, you hate the fact that its to crowded, too sparse. If's warm, it's cold.

Ten sentences isn't much to write.

Thesaurus is what you need for synonyms.

 

start by READING... you should be a constant reader of the best works by the best writers of all time, plus the best contemporary ones in the genres you want to write...

that's really the only way anyone can learn how to write... if you have decent grammar skills, you'll learn all there is to know, by just studying how the best writers do it...

 

Read about the subject. Google it online and you will find many stuff. In your case search and read about bears. You will have a good idea about them and you will become more creative. These are information about bears:

I was hiding in the closet but surprisingly the bear was soon upon me. I couldn't do nothing but an idea popped up, I stopped breathing and pretended to be dead. .................................

 

Apart from sentence structure, I don't think your writing is bad. You string a lot of sentences together with commas. If you learnt when to use full stops, I think a large part of your problem would be gone.

Words which mean (roughly) the same are called synonyms, and they can be found in a thesaurus. They can also be found in an ordinary dictionary, like <http://dictionary.reference.com> or <http://en.wiktionary.org>.
In Microsoft Word, you place the cursor on a word and hit Shift+F7 to get synonyms. In OpenOffice.org, you use Ctrl+F7 instead. (if I remember correctly)

 

I don't know what you mean by "or lower".

Your later post is showing your ascendancy: You are running everything together! Sometimes you do it correctly with the proper conjunctions and/or punctuation. Other times you just smashed two sentences together. Correct or not, you are running on. STOP after each subject/verb part.

 

1The smallest area in the house is known as the "inner sanctum". 2Including the front door to the house, you must pass through four doors to reach it, making it the most "inner" place indeed. 3Each door reaches a more private area. 4As you close the doors behind you, you close off more and more of the world until you reach the most private place for your most private business. 5Within the small space is the porcelain throne, and only just enough room to contain it.

6The inner sanctum is cold, as they tend to be. 7I think it is a combination of being on the outside wall, and the plumbing. 8But I have a secret weapon against the cold: 9the throne seat itself is heated! 10With very little electricity, it gets to the bottom of matters, so to speak.

 

I struck me that i got a bunch of maybe 5-6 advices I give over and over again in this forum. And i suspect the rest of you feel the same. Perhaps we could turn this into some kind of resource for new visitors. So...

List the of advices you given over and over again in this forum.

 

Good idea, Elin.

Although I wonder how useful a resource it will be, given that it will almost certainly become filled with contradictory advice.

As far as novel writing is concerned, my three main pieces of advice on here have always been...

Set aside a suitable time and place for writing, and develop a routine.

Have a well-developed, though not rigid, plot for your novel before you begin, but don't be afraid to deviate from it if you believe that it can be improved by doing so.

Write about what you know from personal knowledge and experience, and where this isn't possible, research your subject diligently.

I could suggest many more, but those three are absolutely fundamental.

 

• It doesn't matter that much what your story idea / character idea / world building idea is: it's how you write it, not what you write.
• You need to have the confidence to write what you want. Don't worry about making your characters the wrong race, the wrong sexual orientation, or writing about controversial subjects like religion or sexual abuse. If you handle it with reasonable care and don't stick it in the story just to be controversial or for cheap thrills, most people won't take offense. Some people will take offense no matter what you do. Learn to ignore them.
• Don't worry about how to publish your book and earn buckets of money until you have actually written it. And it's not likely you will make very much money even if you're very good.
• The writing industry is not collapsing. It's adapting to new circumstances. There will be people reading books, and ways to make money on writing, in the future too. A writer may need to earn most of their money from secondary goods and services, like selling signed copies and holding lectures, but that's no different from how most music artists earn their money.
• To be a good writer, you need to learn the basic techniques (spelling, grammar and punctuation, storytelling, descriptions, characterisation, pacing, point of view, etc) and practice, practice, practice. Opinions seem to be divided on how important it is to read; some think that reading the great masters will go a long way towards learning their techniques, while others think theory and practise is the most efficient way to learn.
• A little goes a long way with regards to swear words, grammatical errors, dialects, pauses and broken sentences in dialogue, etc. Use it sparingly, and the reader will get the idea. Use it too much, and it will get tiresome to read.
• Don't get so caught up in world-building that you lose sight of the story. When you've spent weeks and weeks carefully planning your world, it's tempting to show off all that work to the reader, but the reader is generally more interested in the story. Let your efforts at world-building shine through by making your story more nuanced and realistic, but don't push them on the reader.

 

Hi all.

I've just signed up to this site in the hope I will be able to utilise (ok - take advantage of) the experience people here may have.

I am a new writer of non-fiction and my first book is due to be published around the end of the year. It is via a small-time publisher so won't be making me millions but it is a toe in the door at least.

I'm looking to get into ghostwriting and to that end I am meeting an ex-professional footballer next week to discuss ghosting his autobiography. Again he is relatively small-time and so this won't be selling as would a Gazza or Gary Lineker profile work. Nevertheless it will hopefully allow me to progress from a toe to a full foot in the door.

My question is (yes there is a point to all this) what do I need to do, assuming he wants me to go ahead, as far as contracts between us are concerned?

I am presently out of work and short of cash so can't afford legal bills to draw up a contract for a book which may not get published and which won't be a huge seller even if it did. Would an agent or publisher handle such contracts or must it be drawn up specifically between me and the subject?

It will be his name on the cover as the author, so I am assuming he will receive all royalties unless the publishing contract specifies a split of some kind. I am looking at a split royalty basis as there is no guarantee of a published book and I don't want to scare him away with upfront fees as this is a foot-in-the-door project for me as explained.

Sorry to waffle on. Hopefully someone will be able to offer some advice (or a free contract template if I'm really lucky!).

Many thanks in advance for any assistance anyone can give me.