Please keep one really important thing in mind before you read this: You should write for your own fun and enjoyment. You don't have to do things you don't want to do!" Here I want to try giving some help and to bring people together to help each other with their problems. I hope everyone will share their experiences. If you want to follow those things or not is up to you! This is NOT a requirement! But I hope that it might help you with your writing. This Thread is purely about the Style, Grammar and Storytelling. Nothing about technical stuff that goes into detail with the MSG itself. This is only about the writing itself. If anyone has problems with his story, please don't be afraid or ashamed of anything. There is no need to! If you have any question regarding some words, some grammar or stuff like that. This should also serve for linking URL where we can find useful informaton about writing and/or grammar and the like :-) Feel free to ask, this thing is also pretty helpful for the RL (i dunno what Real-Life is, but some people know what i mean) xD Useful Links: http://myanimelist.net/info.php?go=bbcode BBCODE!! ^^ http://i.imgur.com/cMKr7k5.png BBCode Color names&Code List http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Book http://www.trutor.net/Welcome.html http://www.fiction-writers-mentor.com/ http://writeworld.tumblr.com/FightScene (a source leading to other sources regarding fights) Here's something for those helping and getting help from "editors". Remember that this source is heavily directed to RL. But I think lot's of it can be applied to "our work": http://www.wikihow.com/Work-with-Editors Taken from the second source: It’s all advice In closing, let me say this: All of this is advice. If this doesn’t ring true, don’t do it. I’m one guy and this is what works for me. In the end, we’re all alone with the voices in our head. Listen to them, listen to others, balance the two… it’s your call. Now get writing (quickly). |
chimechuDec 22, 2014 4:08 PM
| Often made mistakes Here are very good explanations regarding those types of problems: There / Their / They're - http://www.wikihow.com/Use-There%2C-Their-and-They%27re You're / Your - http://www.wikihow.com/Use-You%27re-and-Your Than / Then - http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Than-and-Then Too / To - http://www.wikihow.com/Use-%22Too%22-and-%22To%22-Correctly Lose / Loose - http://www.wikihow.com/Know-the-Difference-Between-Lose-and-Loose A / An - http://www.wikihow.com/Use-%22A%22-and-%22An%22-Correctly Optional "Advanced grammar" in your story (The 'correct' use of adverbs): http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adverbs.htm http://mattmoorewrites.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/the-avoid-adverbs-rule-is-very-wrong/ http://amandalu.hubpages.com/hub/The-Secret-on-How-to-Write-and-Publish-a-Book here's something extra for those maybe having problems in RL (e.g. with spelling): http://www.wikihow.com/Spell http://www.wikihow.com/Improve-Your-Grammar |
| Technical Storywriting Here I want to point out the more technical side of writing, as in Setting, Characters, Story progression and/or planning and writing frames. Some Sources: http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/englishC1.htm If you look for different pages on the internet, they all tell you the basics on how to write, on how to write a story and so on. And with this, there is a "problem" arising which clashes with the Stories that we're writing here. Please keep that in mind. In general our stories have no real defined ending (I guess! Generalization!) Roadmap of your story Characters Fighting Scenes / Action ... to be continued ... |
| Protip: Sturgeon's Law Sturgeon's Law is named for one of the great SF writers and editors of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, Theodore Sturgeon. In a nutshell: "Ninety-percent of everything is crap." For our purposes this means two things: 1) 90% of what's out there is crap, so don't beat yourself up by comparing your work to what's out there. 90% of what your comparing yourself to is crap. If you're producing crap, you're doing at least as well as most of what's out there. 2) 90% of what you produce will be crap (and the crap percentage will be heavily weighted toward your early work). The trick is to keep writing until you get past the 90% and into the 10%. Giving up is your worst enemy here. Your second worst enemy is not being able to take criticism. If you keep writing, you will get better -- especially if you listen to good advice when it's offered. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
| You third worst enemy is thinking you don't write crap and therefore keep writing crap XD |
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| and the fourth worst enemy is not being able to keep writing ^^ |
| Protip: Brevity is the Soul of Wit The tendency of most writers is to use more words than are strictly necessary. When editing, be ruthless about trimming unnecessary words. 1) If you can remove a word or phrase without substantially changing the meaning or grammatical correctness of the sentence, you probably don't need it. 2) Redundancy and repetition should be avoided. If you express something once, you don't need to express it again in the same paragraph -- let alone the same sentence. Ex: "He was surprised. 'Well, that was surprising,' he said." No, I've never seen that particular sentence -- but I've seen some that were close. 3) If you have to choose between trimming dialogue and trimming narration, go with narration. Chances are you have too much of it. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
| I've noticed one reoccurring problem with writers (myself included): consistency in tense. If you are writing in past tense or present tense, keep it consistent unless you are switching perspectives or referring to something specifically in a different time frame. |
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| Protip: Proofread and revise that shit, your first go isn't as good as you think. When you initially write what you've written you'll think it's fine and you avoid errors, but read through what you've written and you'll come across some atrocious grammar and a lot of things you realize shouldn't be in there, or things that should be in there. Write it, then go back and correct/tweak it, even rewrite large section you feel are an issue. Sometimes you'll realize you've written an entire page in a way you had no intention to, portraying a character horribly wrong in some parts, ext... |
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| Protip: Adverbs Are Not Your Friends Adverbs are words that modify adjectives. Usually that means words ending in "-ly" in English. While not inherently evil, adverbs tend to weaken your writing. In particular they are toxic to description. Look at the work of writers whose descriptions you find particularly effective; you'll find that adverbs, when they appear at all, are used sparingly and only for emphasis. Two adverbs with which you should be extra careful are "slightly" and "very." "Slightly" is one of the worst description weakeners that there is -- use it only when you are trying to convey subtlety. As for "very," editors hate that word. Mark Twain went so far as to suggest this editing tip (I paraphrase): Anytime that you want to use "very," use "dammit" instead. Your editor will take it out, and the writing will be better for it. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
| Exposition Is Your Literary "Frienenemy" While utilizing exposition to simplify certain narrative complexities can be helpful for the audience, and reasonable within the confines of one's story, overuse of such exposition inevitably becomes drab and boring. Rather than experiencing the story through the characters and their actions, the omnipotence of the narrator ends up coming to the forefront, damaging both immersion and general intrigue. However, don't be entirely deterred from exposition, as it's useful when trying to introduce a story on the whole, or a new plot-line. In fact, it's one of the five primary characteristics of a narrative. For instance, authors like Tolkien and R.R. Martin have managed to interweave both showing and telling to create compelling narratives by managing their expositional pieces. And as such, you as writers should feel inspired to do the same. Here a few easy ways to use exposition to better your story, rather than dissolving it: 1. As with many narrative tropes, use exposition sparingly, where it is necessary to clarify or introduce an otherwise incomprehensible idea or plot line. 2: Don't underestimate the intelligence of your readership. Not only do you infantilize your readers by overusing exposition, but you end up hurting your authorial prowess in the eyes of said audience, dulling your voice as a narrator in their eyes. 3: Avoid exposition within dialogue, especially if it involves individuals sitting around in a singular location spouting out such exposition--and even more-so if that location just happens to be a café, bar, or tavern. Needless to say, it's a key example of shotgun writing to overload the audience with information in such a lackluster manner, when dialogue can be used as a venue to imply ideas, or illicit analysis from the audience. 4: Use a framework. For the most part, if you have a general understanding of what ideas or themes you want to convey within a scene, or section of your story, all you need to do is create a naturally-flowing "method" so to speak, for revealing and expressing them. Note: This is not suggesting that you break the flow or dissolve the fluidity of your narrative for the sake of conveying a theme. This method merely suggests that you avoid breaking an audiences' suspension of disbelief by conveying your themes within the immersion of your narrative. Other methods for avoiding unnecessary expository writing can vary, but these four serve as a primary framework for dealing with the most rudimentary flaws inherent in telling rather than showing. |
| It's natural for a person to deny he's a failure as a human being. That's why he searches for somebody who is more miserable than himself. That's why so much animosity exists on the internet. Those who aren't able to find a more miserable person, turn to the internet and call other people losers, even though they've never met. Just to make themselves feel superior. isn't that pathetic? There's a sense of security that comes from speaking badly of someone else. But that isn't true salvation. — Tatsuhiro Satou YandereTheEmo said: The only thing more pathetic than quoting someone you know nothing about, is quoting yourself. |
| Good advice there, especially #2. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
| We haven't had one of these in a good long while, so I'll post something that is relevant to what I've been reading lately. Protip: Comma Splice Bad! This is probably the most common error in sentence structure in the English language. A comma splice is an attempt at a compound sentence formed by using a comma to splice together (see what I did there?) a sentence and a fragment. Examples compound sentence: Nero laughed as he took up his fiddle, and Rome burned. comma splice: Nero laughed, fiddling as Rome burned. For a correct compound sentence you must have a complete sentence on each side of the comma. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
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