I'm an aspiring young author. I started to write my first chapter of my first novel and reading it I get discouraged I feel as if it has no flow and I feel like I have little proffesional talent. Any tips would be appreacated! Thank you!
You've been hit with the writing bug: A small insect that burrows into your right ear and says you have no ability to write at all. I have one in mine as well. But not to fear. Here are a few tips I suggest: 1. Read as often as you can. Read fiction and nonfiction. 2. Brush up on your grammar skills. It is a bother, but a necessity. 3. Write everyday. Practice. This will help you gain more breathing room in confidence. Hope this was helpful Taylee
If you want a review and some suggestions for further developing plot/characters, you can PM me and email me the story, and I'll check it out.
Don't expect to just start writing a novel on your first try; flow and skill come in time. You might want to write a small piece and post it here for reviewing (after you've reviewed two others, of course), and everyone here can help you build. Then continue the process...and always keep writing!
Make sure to set up an outline before you do a novel, or you'll write yourself into a brickwall. You don't have to plan out every single scene in the novel before you write, but do plan out the scenes for each chapter before writing that chapter, and have a general roadmap of where the whole story's going. You can have friends edit chapter by chapter, just like how you are now with the short stories.
Fozo, to get flow in your writing you need that bit of experience. Read lots, and read widely. Digesting different styles is one of the most important things, and don't spend too long reading in one field, otherwise your writing will risk becoming one-dimensional after a while. Then you need to write, and write, and write. Write until your fingers hurt from typing, then take a break, and go at it again the next day. At first, it will feel like rubbish (it certainly did when I started when I was 13), and in all probability it will be, but after a while you'll improve. From reading widely, you'll have a good general idea in your mind about how to make it flow, and subconsciously you'll use what you know when you write. Another piece of advice is learn how to edit. Better people than I will be able to tell you how to do this (I'm not a great editor, truth be told), but it's one of the most invaluable skills a writer has in his or her locker. Until the last couple of years, my writing was hamstrung horribly by my own inability to cut out those superfluous sentences or words which just bogged down the pacing, and even now I'm no great shakes at it. But it's OK: as a writer you're always learning, and I'm still a very young writer at 21. In 10 years, I'll be a far stronger writer than I am now, and I'm unrecognisable now from the lad who first put pen to paper 8 years ago. Keep sticking at it. It's not an easy road, and you'll need patience, but if you persist, you'll find saying what you want to easier and that the words start to flow. Good luck
