And I just don't know how to start, I've got great ideas but just don't know how to put them into good use, and have great scenes, but my volcabulary is terrible, I am really bad!
Just start writing and see what you can come up with. Don't worry about making it perfect, just write. You can review, revise, and rethink later. Blue
Ah. My thoughts about my work exactly, lol. Just relax. Try to remember that you are in a process, and don't rush it. It's what I have been doing, and at least it's keeping me stress-free. Are you in a deadline? If not, try to write regularly just to practice your writing skill, show it to other people to ask for feedback. Really, just write. The first few drafts are probably gonna suck. But don't worry! As you write more, you will hopefully get better. Important: in order to improve your vocabulary and writing style you MUST read a lot. And not just read for entertainment, but read with great attention to detail. Read the authors you admire, notice how they write the character's dialogue, action, thoughts, how they do setting descriptions. Then experiment a bit. It's NOT about copying another person's work word for word -- you sai you already have good ideas, so you don't need it anyway. It's about trying to emulate their style, until you develop a style of your own. Writing is a craft that takes time to develop and don't I know it! Good luck with your book.
Write it...Read it...Then read and write. Get involved with the review boards here and dive in head first. Read books that are of a similar genre, know your competition. It is a learning process. The more you practice the better you become...And as Lady Amalthea said. Read. Read. Read. It is the best tool there is to furthering vocabulary skills. Dictionaries can only give you the definition of a word. It is writers that give them life and meaning. - Darkkin
In addition to the above advice, I'd just expand upon what Cobalt posted and tell your Inner Critic to take a hike during your first draft. Your first draft is for getting it onto the page. It will never be perfect at the moment of creation. Accept that, and accept that editing and rewrites are part of the creative process.
Just write. Pen to paper is the best way to get those ideas out. Then when your done. do re-writes until the story makes sense. Re-writes will help to get the story you want to write fall into place.
Instead of focusing on writing the entire novel you should practice writing smaller pieces. You could still use your same characters, setting, storyline, etc, but just write short scenes or bits of dialogue for fun. When you get to know your story and your style better you might find your story is easier to write. Who knows, you might even be able to use some of the stuff you write.
Outline the story, even if you lose interest the practice will be more beneficial then writing nonsense for thirty pages and abandoning it. If you write the outline you can always come back and coax out some potential because writing is a craft based on thought and skill. I never expect writers to begin writing and keep the story on track without an outline. Keep a notebook of ideas. Seriously, write down every 'aha!' moment and even the 'maybe...' ideas. Different pieces of the work require different thought processes. I never write action when I am relaxed and I never write dialogue when I am outside of that 'mood'. I'm a fan of 'state-of-mind' writing. Even if it leads to hundreds of pieces scattered all over the place. At least I can assemble them later.
All the advice given is excellent. Outlining and creating character sheets works for me! I find it gives structure and organization to my fleeting ideas. If I don't outline, I start writing with so much gusto and then find I have no idea where to take the story. It turns into a jumbled mess! I've recently started using beat sheets. And I tried the demo version of this software called Write It Now. It's supposed to help you flesh out your plots. I'm on the fence about it. I don't particularly like it but I don't dislike either. Although I do love the graphs it generates to show the relationships between characters and events. You might want to try it out. It may or may not help you. For now, I'm sticking with beat sheets. They really help me.
Hi Sappy, welcome to the forums. I can only repeat what the others have said, just write anything that comes into your head and see how you get on. We all have to edit and rewrite. Good luck!
