I have a general idea of what my book is about but struggle to turn it into a book

Nicholas Moser · May 15, 2021

GingerCoffee said: ↑

All of the following is IMO:

This is a huge undertaking. But there's a fascinating story in there.

First: You don't need to be posting in the workshop until you get further along. Workshop feedback is helpful for single questions or critique of short excerpts.

What it isn't good for is advice on how to write a complicated story. You need to get further along.

Start with sections, chapters, or scenes. They need not be in order. They don't need to be assembled just yet. It's always easier to take writing a step at a time.

If planning the whole plot out is not your thing, no worries, it will fit together as you develop it.

Be prepared to change the writing and especially be prepared to throw some of what you've written out.

Consider limiting the number of characters in your cabal. If you start writing about too many characters it can bog things down, the reader will lose interest.

Long sagas like Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings introduce story elements and characters as the story unfolds. You can leave a character or two out and introduce them later.

Write the backstory out for yourself and plan to eventually cut it all out of the story's beginning. Once you get going you'll find leaving a lot to be discovered bit by bit works well.

You can also start writing one way, and later change it to another. It's nice to pick a POV and tense because those take a lot of editing if you change them. No one way for your story to unfold is necessarily better than another. I write better in first person because I imagine the story in my head as I go. But other POVs have different advantages and drawbacks.

I think if you start (sounds like you have) you'll figure out which POV and tense makes the most sense to you.

I completely rewrote my first chapter a dozen or more times. Some people hate that but it works for me. My latest major revision was a couple months ago when I literally deleted all the backstory in the first chapter. The reader can find out as the story unfolds that it takes place on another planet colonized by people from Earth. I thought I needed that in there to ground the readers.

I was misled by some critiques (not here, I go to a critique group) by comments I have learned from but now discard. People read your opening and they ask :"what does the character look like"; "I can't see the scene"; "where is it taking place"? I kept trying to shove all that into the 'first 3 paragraphs' or the 'first 200 words'. Turns out, that's not always a useful critique of an opening.

But I digress.

From my experience, write it in smaller bites. Put it together eventually, and you may find the story you wanted to write.
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Thanks for the advice

Xoic · May 15, 2021

Nicholas Moser said: ↑

I struggle with reading but I think cinema may help too.
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Movies do help with story structure and character and a few other things, but from reading you also get grammar and word mechanics and sentence flow etc. But yeah, paying attention to how movies work is definitely helpful.

Nicholas Moser · May 16, 2021

Xoic said: ↑

Movies do help with story structure and character and a few other things, but from reading you also get grammar and word mechanics and sentence flow etc. But yeah, paying attention to how movies work is definitely helpful.
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I was thinking of borrowing stuff from other films/books that are regarded as the most brutal and disturbing. For example, in American Psycho(the book), the killer shoves a tube up his victim's genitals and puts a rat in the tube. I think my killer could put a tube in his victim's rectum and he releases fleshing eating rats in the tube
I hope it is not too hacky. I thought about being as twisted and disturbing as possible

Nicholas Moser · May 16, 2021

Nicholas Moser said: ↑

Albeit not sure how to find these films and I doubt my strict parents who I still live despite being 23, but I seek to find certain films like a Serbian Film, Last House on the Left,

I struggle with reading but I think cinema may help too. I want my novel to be the book-equivalent of A Serbian Film or the Last House on the Left in terms of disturbing but I don't want to go overboard and have readings erroneously think it is a reflection of my own desires
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I have a general idea of what my book is about but struggle to turn it into a book

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I have a general idea of what my book is about but struggle to turn it into a book

Nicholas Moser Banned

Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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