| Hey, all. The reason I'm making this forum post today is in reference to a novel idea I've had for quite some time. I've worked on it very minimally from time to time when the inspiration strikes me. With that being said, the initial images of the story that I have so far are incredibly vivid in my mind. It really looks and plays in my head like a ghibli movie. The advice I'm looking for, however, is how to really go about making progress with the story. A lot of times I only have brief images or scenes for the story but then I'm left with a massive blank space. Quite often I can't figure out how to create antagonists, or obstacles for the main character to over come. Are there any particular tricks, or structure that I can follow to help push through this? |
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| @Tenma If some advices from a newbie writer (as hobby, not pro or anything) do, I'm here to help. I think I can understand that feeling. You have all sort of cool ideas, but, they aren't that super concrete, and when you actually sit down in front of an empty paper - or more likely a new doc. - it all turns incredibly difficult to start writing. And even if you manage to get past the start (I think it's one of the most difficult steps), even then, you likely will hit walls several times. But if you don't give up, then you will be able to write stories, stories only you can write! So... the first thing, I think, is, simple, yet super difficult. Start writing! A good thing though, if you have some sort of basic outline for the story in your head beforehand (alternatively, you can write various stuff to help, like list about what major events will happen in what order, etc.) - because if you start without it, you can easily end up hitting a wall pretty soon again. - but even that way, maybe better start writing, than going around circles to gather your thoughts of the whole. Also, when it comes to certain genres, like fantasy - I know about some difficulties with it, because I try writing mostly fantasy - there is worldbuilding too to deal with. and that's tricky too. you can end up thinking too much about it, and end up going "worldbuilding first" and create a huge, vivid fantasy world and... in the end realise the story centers around a single town or something and you can't show all the wonders of that complex world, because your characters don't go too far from their home XD or end up going "story first", to know the path the characters take through the story, to know what areas you have to work on regarding worlbuilding, - I would say this is better, but then I ended up with a world that still lacks colors... but you can always edit and rewrite parts, so fault is not the end - in fact, it's natural first versions are bad. It takes edits and rewrites and then, maybe, maybe, you will have a good story. Of course, if you go for realism, with real locations, you don't have to think too deep about worldbuilding, but some of those advices might stand for that too. And characters... it's difficult to create great characters, but, you have to try XD If you feel like, I wouldn't mind helping with brainstorming about things. It can be fun! but even if I can help - or not? who knows - you have to start writing. Because no one can write that story, just you! |
| Best advice I can give is just to write those scenes. Good ideas are great, and while they can carry a short story, they don't fair so strongly with a full novel. The only advice any aspiring writer needs to keep writing, keep developing their clinical writing skills. Read and write the hours it takes for you to be ready, it's all there is to it. |
This, basically! What I found very helpful is to set a wordgoal for yourself so you have something to work forward every day! Or set a certain time for yourself in which you have to write. Long story short: make a routine Second: write even though it's shit. Remember: it's only your first draft so it doesn't have to be perfect. Editing comes in the second draft, so just write and don't look back on your words because there is always something to fix. Third: if you don't know what to write, make an outline. I found this resource super helpful: https://evernote.com/blog/12-creative-writing-templates/ An outline is basically your way of knowing the start, beginning and end of the story. There are several outline methods so it's not to say which one will work the best for you, you'll have to find that out for yourself. At last but least (and this is a personal recommendation): join an online writer community! They are super motivational and inspiring because everyone is always writing and working on a story. It's also a wonderful resource and you can ask them a lot of questions. There's a huge community on Twitter and Discord. If you're on Discord, I'd suggest Writer's Block, which is always active despite what the name suggests :D Hope this helps! Everyone has those days they don't know what to write, the thing is that you need to push through it.  Edit: the pic was too large, oops :P This is all my personal experience though, I'm not a pro or anything :D |
  “If you live for yourself you’ve only got yourself to blame. So I can’t really blame anyone else and I don’t have any regrets.” list |
Tenma said: @aliquae Thank you, Ali! That was quite informative, actually. I've heard the bit about just continually write no matter what it is, it's just so tough to put that into practice cause I feel so OCD xD I feel ya. Saying is easy, doing it is more difficult. Which is why I set the goals, I'm just too much of a perfectionist to let the goals slip away :P There are some sites that help you force to write, lemme grab them. Forest: stay focused, be present https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/forest-stay-focused-be-present/ If you browse the websites you waste time on, plants die and if you don't, they grow. It helps you stay motivated! There's also Fighter's Block! http://cerey.github.io/fighters-block/# Put in the words and prepare to fight the monster. If you don't finish in time, the monster knocks you out. There's also the 4thewords which does the same, but it's paid. And seriously, the writer community on Discord helps because you put the words in your nickname and I feel guilty if I don't see it change and everyone in the server can see it. |
“If you live for yourself you’ve only got yourself to blame. So I can’t really blame anyone else and I don’t have any regrets.” list |
| I'm not an expert, but I write stories for a long time, and by the way, most of them aren't finished. Though I did write a story of 50 A4 pages by the age of 14. It may be annoying for me to say it... but once I decide a character, there's a personality popping. I know it doesn't happen to most people, and sometimes it's difficult to put it into words. Some people actually write personality traits. If it may help you, be my guest, but I think you shouldn't create characters by simply writing traits down. I have no idea what's your story about but let's think of a simple hypocritic example: Your protagonist is a teacher at school that one day leaves school because he needs to manage the family business. Questions should be asked: Is it a man or a woman? How old is he\she? Does he\she want to leave school? Why he\she went to teaching in the first place? I guess the answer should be known to you, at least part of them. Unfortunately, I myself don't use this method, cause, for some reason, characters are developed in my mind as a whole, though sometimes things may be added as the story goes on. But don't get it wrong, I still need to give some thought. Any other tips for characters: You may base it on some person or a character you know. I admit I do use this one. But sometimes the face in my head of the character do the trick, not necessarily have the same traits. Cause sometimes, you tend to remember in a different way then it's really easy (mostly for characters). Okay, let's pretend you have your characters ready. Not all of them, but at list those in the beginning of the story. Others may join later. Now think to yourself: What is finishing line? What happens in the end? How the story should proceed for it to happen (not in many details, more or less). Let's take our teacher (for that matter, let's make him a male) Will he go back to teaching? What should be done in order for him to do so? Maybe someone else will take his place? Or maybe the character will be happy at her new job? Will he meet someone who makes it nicer for him? Will he make some changes in his business? In both cases, you can find there's something that should happen before reaching our goal: Example 1: Something that will let him leave the current job. Example 2: A person he should meet or things he wants to change and the progress to do so. So... How do you get to that middle target? Sometimes, thinking like this, make things easy for you. I guess this was why many of the first stories weren't finished, as I could see the beginning, the end and nothing in between. That was long as hell, I know. If you want any help or ask a question, send me a private message. Good luck |
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| Well It happens to me sometimes, but for me this is what I do "not a pro I am just like you" I divide my story to parts the more chapters you make the more it's easy to just start writting. When I see my self stuck in a chapter I start a new one and I go back to the other chapter when I get new ideas. |
| It will be like solving a very difficult puzzles because you have to match your characters to fit those scenes that you have in mind. I can say that you should align other characters to fit right into a story where your main character would try to achieve his/her goal and encounter them in a sensible manner. Each story is unique because it's not plagiarism right and just focusing on world building would give you enough idea to figure out what kind of civilization that you're looking to create. A story like death march is predictable (plot arrangement, initial setting) but still enjoyable for some people, me included. It means that no matter calculated your story is the important thing is to combine it all together. I'm just giving my opinion as a MAL member, those mediocre light novels people have been complaining would still have fans. |
Tenma said: Hey, all. The reason I'm making this forum post today is in reference to a novel idea I've had for quite some time. I've worked on it very minimally from time to time when the inspiration strikes me. With that being said, the initial images of the story that I have so far are incredibly vivid in my mind. It really looks and plays in my head like a ghibli movie. The advice I'm looking for, however, is how to really go about making progress with the story. A lot of times I only have brief images or scenes for the story but then I'm left with a massive blank space. Quite often I can't figure out how to create antagonists, or obstacles for the main character to over come. Are there any particular tricks, or structure that I can follow to help push through this? Honestly the only advice I can give with this is to write down what you have come up with so far, and then just use them as building blocks. Develop your world and naturally protagonists will appear, and then antagonists will appear with due time too. What makes them antagonists and why are they standing up against your heroes? Obstacles are something you will come up with when creating your antagonists whether it be in the form of their henchment or their plans. It doesn't just randomly come to you, you have to build it up by basically gathering your inspiration from anything and everything. Those things you come up in the shower? Write those down. Write everything down and sort and scrap things later. I also recommend something like: https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/ |
  ❝ falling sick on a journey my dream wanders around fields of dry grass. ❞ (♫) |
Sora_92 said: So... the first thing, I think, is, simple, yet super difficult. Start writing! As a writer myself, this is exactly what I would tell you to do. I believe every writer (at least a majority of us) have this problem. Whether it's writer's block, lack of motivation, lack of time, you name it. We all go through this sort of situation in some way, shape, or form. For me, I do exactly what Sora_92 said: start writing. Whether my 'scene'/'image' makes any sense at all or not, I write the scene that's in my mind. If I don't have any names for characters yet, I just put something as a place holder (MC 1, __, guy/girl, he/she/it/they, etc.). One of the novels I've been working on for a while now is one I've used this trick for. I can't even tell you how many scenes I've written for it that aren't coherent or fit anywhere. But, after writing SO MANY, you eventually start to put some of them together. That's also how I created my main antagonist. I kept writing scenes that would pop in my head and I thought, "Why the heck does this person keep popping up everywhere? Who is he?" And I must add, I already had an antagonist/villain all set up for the story. This new antagonist just popped up out of nowhere and now he's the main one and the story wouldn't make sense to me without him. Anyway, I apologize for my random blabbing that might not make any sense. Another advice I can give you is to have separate notebooks for everything. For example, I have 2 for every story that I write: 1 for the story itself and another one for scenes I think of, information to keep in mind for later on, character profiles if needed, etc. For my current novel, I actually have 3 and counting and then a binder and a folder for loose sheets. If you write random scenes on loose sheets or in specific notebooks or even on your computer, it'll make it easier for you to accept it rather than writing it in the same place where you're writing your story/novel, you know? Ah, sorry about this long message! But I wish you the best of luck! |
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| How to create an antagonist... well, the main character of the story I am writing is the anti-hero*, I suppose, and he is based off of me. If you can imagine how the entire story plays out, I would suggest writing an outline of each chapter, primarily emphasizing what happens in each, leading to the conclusion. I think the aforementioned "obstacles" depend on the story itself. For instance, my story revolves around criminality and mental illness. As for a structure, I cannot quite help, as my writing is spontaneous. |
YaoiMasterAug 31, 2018 4:42 PM
  WORK IN PROGRESS ~The frog leapt forth to my lilypad memory.~ I was indoctrinated by an inamorata rabbit, Adenomata affronted. It was the verecund, dismissed creatures That I jubilated in most. This rabbit I would nurture, At the aiguille of esse, The anneal of noblesse. ❤️ Birdie ❤️ |
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