Post by silent.lullaby on Sept 5, 2010 16:27:17 GMT -5
Disclaimer: I’m not an expert. I’m just a writer, one that has a few more years on most of the users here. (Didn’t think I’d be old at twenty.) Anyway, lets begin!
Titles:
Lets start with the first thing you see when you’re reading a story on Quizilla. The title *sigh.*
I can’t count how many ‘arranged marrage to my brothers best friend who’s actually a vampire and he’s also an emo Justin Beiber’ I see on there. Okay, so all the cliches wouldn’t actually be in the same title (or at least I hope not.) I’m not saying there is anything wrong with a story about an arranged marriage, or falling in love with your brother’s best friend, or finding out someone is actually a vampire, or an emo kid, or Justin Beiber, just cramming it all into a title is... well a mouth full to say the least.
Understandably since we have to cram as much information about our story into the title so people will have a clue of what it is about. Still, when was the last time you went to a book store and seen a title, where, when you read it, you have to take a breath in the middle? You haven’t, and with any luck, you won’t. Titles are usually between one word and three, for example: The Summoning- Kelly Armstrong, A Dirty Job- Christopher Moore, Angel’s Blood- Nalini Singh, World War Z- Max Brooks.
Creating titles is a difficult thing. It must be both something that represents the story, and something catchy and memorable. I got to say, there aren’t a lot of names on Quizilla that I can remember, they are always so long. I’m not saying I’m not guilty of this myself, hello Try Finding Happily Ever After With Eight Brothers, I mean, talk about a mouth full!
Still best advice I can give on this matter is probably the K.I.S.S principle. For those of you who don’t know it, it’s Keep It Simple Stupid. Which is a little insulting but true. If you can’t make the title short, then go for something memorable, like It’s Kind of A Funny Story by Ned Vizzini.
Characters:
What story doesn’t have characters? What makes up a character? Well, think about your best friend, everything that makes he or she who she is. Now think about your great grandfather. They aren’t the same, and if you wrote a story about them, they wouldn’t be remotely alike. Characters should be as unique!
What makes them tick? What’s their full name? Do they have any unique features? Do they have any nervous traits? Is your character in good health or poor? Do they come from a family with money, or one just scraping by? Are they smart? Naive? Are they religious? Optimistic or pessimistic? Do they like sports, or maybe they secretly love math. What major events have happened in the characters life? Do they leave their crusts on their PB&J? These are things that may not seem important, but the more you know about your character the less you’ll contradict yourself.
Try to give each character at least on trait that is unique to them in the story, for instance: Gemma (of We Run This Town) is quick to give into her temper, while Blaire always keeps her calm. Maverick (of Dusk) is a psychotic S.O.B while Vivian is motherly and can’t stand to see people hurt. Viktor (of Night Children) is egotistical, while Evanangelique has shed all vanity to be a warrior.
This will help to make the character more memorable and real. Also when you’re giving your character personality traits, make sure for every good one you give, give a bad one too. For instance: Claire (of Boot Camp For Terribly Twisted Teens) will give anything to protect her friends and family, but she’s weak, and lacks in empathy for those she’s killed. Sophie (of the Happily Ever After series) is family oriented, but she’s got major trust issues.
Also ensure to give a character likes, dislikes, fears and goals.
Naming Characters:
This is always something that writers have difficulty with. Once you have the personality of the character all mapped out in your head, what do you name it? Angela is a pretty name, but your character is a rough and tumble bad ass bounty hunter, Angela might just be a little too sweet. Maybe that is the point? Or maybe you name her something more hardened like, Ryden.
Trying to find the perfect name is something that can take a long time. Useful places to find names can be on baby naming sites, end of movie credits, newspapers, and road signs. I often write them down on my master list of names when I find one I like just so I can use it later when I find a character suiting. Remember if your character and his/her family is say Italian, you should use Italian names for them.
Brainstorming:
This is something that is done differently for every writer. Every writer has a style of doing things, some are super organized, have an outline of the plot, all subplots and what will happen in every chapter and never deviate from the plan. Then there are those writers who start with a concept and keep little jots until it becomes a story. Some keep a white board and map out the family tree of their characters, while some just wing it and let their characters do the work.
Everyone has their own style, and things get smoother once you figure out yours.
Plots:
First I have to say, MAKE IT ORIGINAL, even fan stuff. Try to make your concept, your characters different from everything else. Make it fun, and unique!!
Alright plots, I’ll cover sub-plots in a minute so bare with me. Just the main plot for right now, you need to have a beginning, middle, and end.
Lets start at the beginning. Introduce your main characters, don’t go into page long descriptions of your character just a brief introduction, you can go into more details later. Introduce your setting (we’ll get onto more about setting later.) And begin to put the plot in motion.
In the middle, you’ll have lots of things happening. Your character is working his/her way toward it’s goal, maybe finding a snag or two along the way (sub-plots). Climax can happen toward the end of the middle, or during the end (depending on how long your ending is.)
And in the end, you wrap up all the loose ends, the climatic end (if you have chosen not to put the climax in at the middle) and sometimes have an epilogue, usually this very last chapter in the book either completely wraps things up (often the case in mystery books) or tells what happened to the characters afterwards.
So lets use a mystery/romance for an example.
In the beginning: Girl meets Boy, Girl is rich and someone has broken into her house and steals a bunch of things including a necklace from her late mother. Boy is private investigator with a troubled past. Girl hires Boy (probably some instant cheesy attraction.)
In the middle: Boy investigates, searches the house for clues while Girl watches over. Boy digs for clues, talks to people in the neighbourhood to see if anyone seen anything suspicious. Someone says they seen a strange van driving by frequently in the weeks prior to the burglary. Boy begins looking at traffic cameras trying to find the described van. Girl insists on being with him during the investigation, and they become more attracted to each other, and maybe go on a date/ smexy time.
Climax(in the middle for this case): While driving home after date the van rams their car and takes the Girl. Man wanted a code for the Girl’s safe but couldn’t find it, and desperately needs the money. Insists she give up the code at gunpoint. Boy regains consciousness quickly and manages to get the rammed car to drive and is able to follow the van, rescues Girl.
And in the end: Wrap up any sub-plots, find out more about why the robber did what he did. Boy proposes to Girl, Girl says yes, kiss, cheesy line and end.
Sub-Plots:
Sub-plots are anything that deviates from the original plot line. Lets take the previous example and add to it.
In the middle: Boy investigates, searches the house for clues while Girl watches over. Boy digs for clues, talks to people in the neighbourhood to see if anyone seen anything suspicious. Someone says they seen a strange van driving by frequently in the weeks prior to the burglary. (SUB-PLOT) Boy on a hunch digs into Girl’s mother’s death and finds there was foul play at work by the pictures of the deceased. Girl is furious that he went behind her back and did this. Girl is angry, and screams at Boy and fires him. He figures that whoever killed her mother was the man who stole from her, and convinces her that he wants to help, Girl makes Boy promise that he will keep her in the loop from now on. (End Sub-Plot) Boy begins looking at traffic cameras trying to find the described van. Girl insists on being with him during the investigation, and they become more attracted to each other, and maybe go on a date/ smexy time.
Sub-plots can also include secondary characters, and what is going on in their lives, though it always somehow is in relation, and important to that of the main plot and the main characters.
Paragraphs/ Grammar:
Now I’m not going to say I’m an expert here, but I’ll give what I know.
Start a paragraph when:
The topic changes EX:
The house was so beautiful, old, hardwood floors, huge windows with beautiful bright burgundy curtains. The rooms were spacious and the scent of fresh paint was still ebbing away. She took the stairs and discovered the high ceilings, and the master bathroom. The shower was huge, with glass and marble. Running back down stairs she found the kitchen and looking out one of the windows she spotted her mother in the garden.
She ran out into the garden, and took in the alluring scents. The bushes, trees and flowers, everything was in bloom! She could hear the bubbling of a small rock waterfall that went into a pond with Koi fish. A smile bloomed upon her face as she dipped her hand into the water to touch one.
First paragraph spoke of the house, second paragraph spoke of the garden.
When the speaker changes EX:
“I don’t know that much about grammar,” Boy said.
“It’s horribly boring to learn,” Girl replied.
As long as boy is talking, it’s in one paragraph, he could continue and say: “I don’t know that much about grammar,” Boy said. “My English teacher is constantly teaching it, but I don’t get it.” When the Girl starts to talk then the paragraph must change. This is especially helpful when a writer stops using their names afterwards. EX:
“Could she make this anymore boring?” Claire asked as she sat at the desk tapping her pencil.
“I doubt it,” Hiro responded with a sigh. “Why is she using us randomly like this?”
“Perhaps it’s because our sequel is coming out?”
“Wait? What? We have a sequel coming out?”
“Yeah, sometime... if silent.lullaby hurries it up, she’s a slow poke.”
“Am I in it?”
A shrug, “I suppose, eventually, it’s going to be based on a new girl.”
“Is she hot?”
She glared at him, “I’m not telling you.”
Despite me only telling you who was speaking during three of the nine lines you knew who was talking because I changed the paragraph.
Other grammar stuff: Periods at the end of a sentence. Make sure your sentences aren’t run ons, and that means, don’t use too many commas, because they just end up being a problem, and your sentences are all fragments, and they look silly, just like this one. Commas are used in speech paragraphs EX: Aerabella smiled, “Wolfgang, why are you naked?” The comma used after smiled and before the “. Also they are used to connect complete and incomplete sentences. ‘Wolfgang’ alone isn’t a sentence, ‘but why are you naked is.’
Setting:
Having a WWII novel but having the setting sound a whole lot like modern New York simply isn’t going to work, if your story is set in the past by plot, then your setting must be based back then too. If your setting is a far off planet in a galaxy far, far away then you need to make it realistic, if something exists on this planet that doesn’t on ours you need to describe it, make it real to the reader.
Editing *sigh*:
Oh yes, it’s that one thing we all hate to do. Editing our work can be hard, boring even, but a necessity. Having something well edited can prevent you from having embarrassing mistakes, like one of my most commented upon mistakes where Sophie is upset after a death in the family (I won’t say who for anyone who hasn’t read the Happily Ever After series and wants to) and is talking about how this member won’t be at her wedding. Only, I put funeral. It’s still like that to this day, I never repaired it, mostly because QUIZILLA IS A PAIN TO EDIT ON! Which is why you should write everything up before hand, edit, and then post.
I usually leave my work (when I bother with editing) for a day or two, and then I’ll look at it again with fresh eyes. When you’ve just written something, you know what it’s suppose to say, and you’ll skip over what you actually typed. Leaving it, you’ll actually have to read what was written and see any poor word choices. Look for bad grammar, and sentences that go on forever.
I also recommend reading your work out loud! When you’re actually say it, it’s easy to find things that just sound ridiculous, and if you have to take a breath when reading the sentence, it’s too long!
More Information:
There are plenty of books on writing a novel, and there are plenty of places on the internet with tutorials. I myself own a copy of The Everything Guide To Writing a Novel, and why I haven’t finished the entire thing yet, it has taught me a thing or two and I’d definitely recommend it to any aspiring novelists.
Messaged in questions, comments and tips:
User: SweetAsPoison wrote: Perhaps giving a round about word count for each chapter would be good. I never know what’s too much and what’s to little. Also, does it help to plan-everything- out... or just go with the flow and see what you feel you want to put your characters up to?
silent.lullaby responds: It depends on what kind of writer you are. I usually just have a concept when I start. If think of things along the way and make note, but I typically just go with the flow. Some people believe that, that lack of planning will ensure failure, but I just think it sometimes gets a little messy. I know I should go back and edit, take out some things from my stories when I’m done , add better parts, but I do it for fun, so I just write a chapter, post it, and leave it.
For word count on chapters it’s hard to say, there is no definite line. Since it’s on Quizilla and I have to double space for it to be single spaced there (don’t know why, but quizilla fails.) My chapters are (usually) four pages. Some are shorter if I’m leaving a cliffhanger, or longer if I feel it needs to be. Shortest I’ve written is three pages, maybe two and a half, and longest probably around six. For books, I reckon this would be a little different, probably longer. Hope this helps.
(For a novel to be published it’s 100,000 words I believe.)
User: emililine wrote: on the tips thing I would say that it’s very important to divide your text into paragraphs because if it’s just a large amount of text without any spaces, it becomes more difficult to read , and less appealing to readers.
–Messaged again: haha, kinda late but you should write that its smart to have an interesting and catching intro/ first chapter and maybe give out pointers to what makes it good or something?
silent.lullaby responds: so true, huge blocks of text are hard to read, and usually end up skimmed over. Break it up if possible, that way, it will be easier on the reader’s eyes! You’re so right! Definitely brilliant to have something catchy in the first chapter, a character that is really charismatic, or a really dramatic scene to draw in readers. Now what makes it good is harder, each genre, and therefore the reader of that genre would be looking for something different. A fantasy reader’s dream beginning of a book wouldn’t be the same as that of a police procedural. Best advice on that one is know your genre, (we all typically write what we read, so you should have a good idea of what a good beginning to you would be ) know who you’re writing for.
User: lcgirl017 wrote: write on Microsoft Word first so you can save if Quizilla is messed up... plus it has spell check.
silent.lullaby responds: Thanks for that tip! I myself use WordPerfectX3 for that very reason, also I’d suggest having a USB drive to back up all of your stuff just incase your computer goes down!
User: xXStoryXx75- Mary and Gary Sues! Plan, and double check for mistakes. Wait a day or two then add/ remove stuff you don’t need. Good Plot isn’t always a good story. Subplots make the reader want to continue reading A good way is to plan ahead a couple chapters.
silent.lullaby responds: *floods of grateful tears* THANK YOU! Perfect characters *sigh* AVOID THEM! I can’t say it enough, they’re boring, fake and unrealistic. No one wants to read about a character like that, go back to the character section and re-read. You’re brilliant! <3
Alrighty that concludes the tutorial, hope you learnt a bit, or at least weren’t bored to tears!! <3 Thank you to everyone who messaged with their questions and tips, they were very helpful!
A SPECIAL THANKS TO xXStoryXx75 who helped talk over all of this writing business down with me, gave me a lot to think about, and lots of tips YOU’RE AWESOME WITH A SIDE OF EPICNESS! <3
Titles:
Lets start with the first thing you see when you’re reading a story on Quizilla. The title *sigh.*
I can’t count how many ‘arranged marrage to my brothers best friend who’s actually a vampire and he’s also an emo Justin Beiber’ I see on there. Okay, so all the cliches wouldn’t actually be in the same title (or at least I hope not.) I’m not saying there is anything wrong with a story about an arranged marriage, or falling in love with your brother’s best friend, or finding out someone is actually a vampire, or an emo kid, or Justin Beiber, just cramming it all into a title is... well a mouth full to say the least.
Understandably since we have to cram as much information about our story into the title so people will have a clue of what it is about. Still, when was the last time you went to a book store and seen a title, where, when you read it, you have to take a breath in the middle? You haven’t, and with any luck, you won’t. Titles are usually between one word and three, for example: The Summoning- Kelly Armstrong, A Dirty Job- Christopher Moore, Angel’s Blood- Nalini Singh, World War Z- Max Brooks.
Creating titles is a difficult thing. It must be both something that represents the story, and something catchy and memorable. I got to say, there aren’t a lot of names on Quizilla that I can remember, they are always so long. I’m not saying I’m not guilty of this myself, hello Try Finding Happily Ever After With Eight Brothers, I mean, talk about a mouth full!
Still best advice I can give on this matter is probably the K.I.S.S principle. For those of you who don’t know it, it’s Keep It Simple Stupid. Which is a little insulting but true. If you can’t make the title short, then go for something memorable, like It’s Kind of A Funny Story by Ned Vizzini.
Characters:
What story doesn’t have characters? What makes up a character? Well, think about your best friend, everything that makes he or she who she is. Now think about your great grandfather. They aren’t the same, and if you wrote a story about them, they wouldn’t be remotely alike. Characters should be as unique!
What makes them tick? What’s their full name? Do they have any unique features? Do they have any nervous traits? Is your character in good health or poor? Do they come from a family with money, or one just scraping by? Are they smart? Naive? Are they religious? Optimistic or pessimistic? Do they like sports, or maybe they secretly love math. What major events have happened in the characters life? Do they leave their crusts on their PB&J? These are things that may not seem important, but the more you know about your character the less you’ll contradict yourself.
Try to give each character at least on trait that is unique to them in the story, for instance: Gemma (of We Run This Town) is quick to give into her temper, while Blaire always keeps her calm. Maverick (of Dusk) is a psychotic S.O.B while Vivian is motherly and can’t stand to see people hurt. Viktor (of Night Children) is egotistical, while Evanangelique has shed all vanity to be a warrior.
This will help to make the character more memorable and real. Also when you’re giving your character personality traits, make sure for every good one you give, give a bad one too. For instance: Claire (of Boot Camp For Terribly Twisted Teens) will give anything to protect her friends and family, but she’s weak, and lacks in empathy for those she’s killed. Sophie (of the Happily Ever After series) is family oriented, but she’s got major trust issues.
Also ensure to give a character likes, dislikes, fears and goals.
Naming Characters:
This is always something that writers have difficulty with. Once you have the personality of the character all mapped out in your head, what do you name it? Angela is a pretty name, but your character is a rough and tumble bad ass bounty hunter, Angela might just be a little too sweet. Maybe that is the point? Or maybe you name her something more hardened like, Ryden.
Trying to find the perfect name is something that can take a long time. Useful places to find names can be on baby naming sites, end of movie credits, newspapers, and road signs. I often write them down on my master list of names when I find one I like just so I can use it later when I find a character suiting. Remember if your character and his/her family is say Italian, you should use Italian names for them.
Brainstorming:
This is something that is done differently for every writer. Every writer has a style of doing things, some are super organized, have an outline of the plot, all subplots and what will happen in every chapter and never deviate from the plan. Then there are those writers who start with a concept and keep little jots until it becomes a story. Some keep a white board and map out the family tree of their characters, while some just wing it and let their characters do the work.
Everyone has their own style, and things get smoother once you figure out yours.
Plots:
First I have to say, MAKE IT ORIGINAL, even fan stuff. Try to make your concept, your characters different from everything else. Make it fun, and unique!!
Alright plots, I’ll cover sub-plots in a minute so bare with me. Just the main plot for right now, you need to have a beginning, middle, and end.
Lets start at the beginning. Introduce your main characters, don’t go into page long descriptions of your character just a brief introduction, you can go into more details later. Introduce your setting (we’ll get onto more about setting later.) And begin to put the plot in motion.
In the middle, you’ll have lots of things happening. Your character is working his/her way toward it’s goal, maybe finding a snag or two along the way (sub-plots). Climax can happen toward the end of the middle, or during the end (depending on how long your ending is.)
And in the end, you wrap up all the loose ends, the climatic end (if you have chosen not to put the climax in at the middle) and sometimes have an epilogue, usually this very last chapter in the book either completely wraps things up (often the case in mystery books) or tells what happened to the characters afterwards.
So lets use a mystery/romance for an example.
In the beginning: Girl meets Boy, Girl is rich and someone has broken into her house and steals a bunch of things including a necklace from her late mother. Boy is private investigator with a troubled past. Girl hires Boy (probably some instant cheesy attraction.)
In the middle: Boy investigates, searches the house for clues while Girl watches over. Boy digs for clues, talks to people in the neighbourhood to see if anyone seen anything suspicious. Someone says they seen a strange van driving by frequently in the weeks prior to the burglary. Boy begins looking at traffic cameras trying to find the described van. Girl insists on being with him during the investigation, and they become more attracted to each other, and maybe go on a date/ smexy time.
Climax(in the middle for this case): While driving home after date the van rams their car and takes the Girl. Man wanted a code for the Girl’s safe but couldn’t find it, and desperately needs the money. Insists she give up the code at gunpoint. Boy regains consciousness quickly and manages to get the rammed car to drive and is able to follow the van, rescues Girl.
And in the end: Wrap up any sub-plots, find out more about why the robber did what he did. Boy proposes to Girl, Girl says yes, kiss, cheesy line and end.
Sub-Plots:
Sub-plots are anything that deviates from the original plot line. Lets take the previous example and add to it.
In the middle: Boy investigates, searches the house for clues while Girl watches over. Boy digs for clues, talks to people in the neighbourhood to see if anyone seen anything suspicious. Someone says they seen a strange van driving by frequently in the weeks prior to the burglary. (SUB-PLOT) Boy on a hunch digs into Girl’s mother’s death and finds there was foul play at work by the pictures of the deceased. Girl is furious that he went behind her back and did this. Girl is angry, and screams at Boy and fires him. He figures that whoever killed her mother was the man who stole from her, and convinces her that he wants to help, Girl makes Boy promise that he will keep her in the loop from now on. (End Sub-Plot) Boy begins looking at traffic cameras trying to find the described van. Girl insists on being with him during the investigation, and they become more attracted to each other, and maybe go on a date/ smexy time.
Sub-plots can also include secondary characters, and what is going on in their lives, though it always somehow is in relation, and important to that of the main plot and the main characters.
Paragraphs/ Grammar:
Now I’m not going to say I’m an expert here, but I’ll give what I know.
Start a paragraph when:
The topic changes EX:
The house was so beautiful, old, hardwood floors, huge windows with beautiful bright burgundy curtains. The rooms were spacious and the scent of fresh paint was still ebbing away. She took the stairs and discovered the high ceilings, and the master bathroom. The shower was huge, with glass and marble. Running back down stairs she found the kitchen and looking out one of the windows she spotted her mother in the garden.
She ran out into the garden, and took in the alluring scents. The bushes, trees and flowers, everything was in bloom! She could hear the bubbling of a small rock waterfall that went into a pond with Koi fish. A smile bloomed upon her face as she dipped her hand into the water to touch one.
First paragraph spoke of the house, second paragraph spoke of the garden.
When the speaker changes EX:
“I don’t know that much about grammar,” Boy said.
“It’s horribly boring to learn,” Girl replied.
As long as boy is talking, it’s in one paragraph, he could continue and say: “I don’t know that much about grammar,” Boy said. “My English teacher is constantly teaching it, but I don’t get it.” When the Girl starts to talk then the paragraph must change. This is especially helpful when a writer stops using their names afterwards. EX:
“Could she make this anymore boring?” Claire asked as she sat at the desk tapping her pencil.
“I doubt it,” Hiro responded with a sigh. “Why is she using us randomly like this?”
“Perhaps it’s because our sequel is coming out?”
“Wait? What? We have a sequel coming out?”
“Yeah, sometime... if silent.lullaby hurries it up, she’s a slow poke.”
“Am I in it?”
A shrug, “I suppose, eventually, it’s going to be based on a new girl.”
“Is she hot?”
She glared at him, “I’m not telling you.”
Despite me only telling you who was speaking during three of the nine lines you knew who was talking because I changed the paragraph.
Other grammar stuff: Periods at the end of a sentence. Make sure your sentences aren’t run ons, and that means, don’t use too many commas, because they just end up being a problem, and your sentences are all fragments, and they look silly, just like this one. Commas are used in speech paragraphs EX: Aerabella smiled, “Wolfgang, why are you naked?” The comma used after smiled and before the “. Also they are used to connect complete and incomplete sentences. ‘Wolfgang’ alone isn’t a sentence, ‘but why are you naked is.’
Setting:
Having a WWII novel but having the setting sound a whole lot like modern New York simply isn’t going to work, if your story is set in the past by plot, then your setting must be based back then too. If your setting is a far off planet in a galaxy far, far away then you need to make it realistic, if something exists on this planet that doesn’t on ours you need to describe it, make it real to the reader.
Editing *sigh*:
Oh yes, it’s that one thing we all hate to do. Editing our work can be hard, boring even, but a necessity. Having something well edited can prevent you from having embarrassing mistakes, like one of my most commented upon mistakes where Sophie is upset after a death in the family (I won’t say who for anyone who hasn’t read the Happily Ever After series and wants to) and is talking about how this member won’t be at her wedding. Only, I put funeral. It’s still like that to this day, I never repaired it, mostly because QUIZILLA IS A PAIN TO EDIT ON! Which is why you should write everything up before hand, edit, and then post.
I usually leave my work (when I bother with editing) for a day or two, and then I’ll look at it again with fresh eyes. When you’ve just written something, you know what it’s suppose to say, and you’ll skip over what you actually typed. Leaving it, you’ll actually have to read what was written and see any poor word choices. Look for bad grammar, and sentences that go on forever.
I also recommend reading your work out loud! When you’re actually say it, it’s easy to find things that just sound ridiculous, and if you have to take a breath when reading the sentence, it’s too long!
More Information:
There are plenty of books on writing a novel, and there are plenty of places on the internet with tutorials. I myself own a copy of The Everything Guide To Writing a Novel, and why I haven’t finished the entire thing yet, it has taught me a thing or two and I’d definitely recommend it to any aspiring novelists.
Messaged in questions, comments and tips:
User: SweetAsPoison wrote: Perhaps giving a round about word count for each chapter would be good. I never know what’s too much and what’s to little. Also, does it help to plan-everything- out... or just go with the flow and see what you feel you want to put your characters up to?
silent.lullaby responds: It depends on what kind of writer you are. I usually just have a concept when I start. If think of things along the way and make note, but I typically just go with the flow. Some people believe that, that lack of planning will ensure failure, but I just think it sometimes gets a little messy. I know I should go back and edit, take out some things from my stories when I’m done , add better parts, but I do it for fun, so I just write a chapter, post it, and leave it.
For word count on chapters it’s hard to say, there is no definite line. Since it’s on Quizilla and I have to double space for it to be single spaced there (don’t know why, but quizilla fails.) My chapters are (usually) four pages. Some are shorter if I’m leaving a cliffhanger, or longer if I feel it needs to be. Shortest I’ve written is three pages, maybe two and a half, and longest probably around six. For books, I reckon this would be a little different, probably longer. Hope this helps.
(For a novel to be published it’s 100,000 words I believe.)
User: emililine wrote: on the tips thing I would say that it’s very important to divide your text into paragraphs because if it’s just a large amount of text without any spaces, it becomes more difficult to read , and less appealing to readers.
–Messaged again: haha, kinda late but you should write that its smart to have an interesting and catching intro/ first chapter and maybe give out pointers to what makes it good or something?
silent.lullaby responds: so true, huge blocks of text are hard to read, and usually end up skimmed over. Break it up if possible, that way, it will be easier on the reader’s eyes! You’re so right! Definitely brilliant to have something catchy in the first chapter, a character that is really charismatic, or a really dramatic scene to draw in readers. Now what makes it good is harder, each genre, and therefore the reader of that genre would be looking for something different. A fantasy reader’s dream beginning of a book wouldn’t be the same as that of a police procedural. Best advice on that one is know your genre, (we all typically write what we read, so you should have a good idea of what a good beginning to you would be ) know who you’re writing for.
User: lcgirl017 wrote: write on Microsoft Word first so you can save if Quizilla is messed up... plus it has spell check.
silent.lullaby responds: Thanks for that tip! I myself use WordPerfectX3 for that very reason, also I’d suggest having a USB drive to back up all of your stuff just incase your computer goes down!
User: xXStoryXx75- Mary and Gary Sues! Plan, and double check for mistakes. Wait a day or two then add/ remove stuff you don’t need. Good Plot isn’t always a good story. Subplots make the reader want to continue reading A good way is to plan ahead a couple chapters.
silent.lullaby responds: *floods of grateful tears* THANK YOU! Perfect characters *sigh* AVOID THEM! I can’t say it enough, they’re boring, fake and unrealistic. No one wants to read about a character like that, go back to the character section and re-read. You’re brilliant! <3
Alrighty that concludes the tutorial, hope you learnt a bit, or at least weren’t bored to tears!! <3 Thank you to everyone who messaged with their questions and tips, they were very helpful!
A SPECIAL THANKS TO xXStoryXx75 who helped talk over all of this writing business down with me, gave me a lot to think about, and lots of tips YOU’RE AWESOME WITH A SIDE OF EPICNESS! <3