Post by camoens on Jun 5, 2008 21:55:46 GMT -5
You might not think it, But writing is indeed a race. There is a war in your mind for space. Things that aren't thought about often become forgotten, And Inspiration begins fading the moment it flares.
So what does this mean for story writing?
Training your mind:
Like any other muscle your mind can be trained. If you find it difficult to write a story (as many do) you might need to train your mind for it. How can you do this?
First, if you want to write anything obviously the first step is to think about it, make your mind do a few stretches, think what you have, What IS happening RIGHT NOW in your story, Think WHAT WILL happen later in the future, and does what your writing now relate?
next, You can get to know your characters. You can do this by mentally meeting them, decide what they're like, What kind of history they have? What sort of person would they get involved with? it will stretch your mind to think of such things and imprint of bit of "you" on your characters.
another is trying to Write Something, ANYthing really, everyday, so you can write when you want to, inspired or not.
Preparing for the Long run
There are things you can do to make the process of writing easier, and make more sense, One of these tools is an Outline.
Outlines sound practically useless, difficult, Not worth the time, but I tell you honestly they can do wonders. An outline is NOT a table of contents, it doesn't have to be a set mark for your story.
Outlines help you to do a few things:
Firstly it gives you a place to think of your story, to write down ideas or scenes that stick out in your mind. It lets you have them on hand when you come to that part of the story, as clear and as solid as when your wrote them. You can use it as chapter overviews, with certain ideas to take place at certain times.
Second it lets you come to terms with how much content you'll need to fill in. You might find your ideas only fill about 6 chapters. So it lets you plot and fill out the rest, or stetch your ideas father, fleshing them out more.
An outline can help you develop subplot to a story, have a line through chapters which others might not see, little things that add up to be important at the end, and a pleasant suprise to your reader.
Lastly it helps you when your uninspired to remember your ideas.
Setting the Pace:
An important step when you begin writing a story, is deciding on how fast the story should move. If you rush to get all your ideas in right at the begining, then it would be a Short story, but if you took your time, and filled in different aspects it would come out longer. its the difference between a 15 page story, and a 500 page Novel
The goal is to find YOUR ideal writing pace, the perfect level for you of ballence between Detail, Content, Dialog and Relations. Do you want to know most what the heroes are DOING? or SAYING? Do you want to see the Hero win the villian or Get married along the way? do you want to hear about the practical joke the side kick pulled? Do you want to SEE the sunset in the book described in vivid detail?
Setting the pace, and direction of your story are important, but each author is different and their ballence is often different, so strive to find your own.
Hopefully this helps a little in your endevors.
~Camoens
So what does this mean for story writing?
Training your mind:
Like any other muscle your mind can be trained. If you find it difficult to write a story (as many do) you might need to train your mind for it. How can you do this?
First, if you want to write anything obviously the first step is to think about it, make your mind do a few stretches, think what you have, What IS happening RIGHT NOW in your story, Think WHAT WILL happen later in the future, and does what your writing now relate?
next, You can get to know your characters. You can do this by mentally meeting them, decide what they're like, What kind of history they have? What sort of person would they get involved with? it will stretch your mind to think of such things and imprint of bit of "you" on your characters.
another is trying to Write Something, ANYthing really, everyday, so you can write when you want to, inspired or not.
Preparing for the Long run
There are things you can do to make the process of writing easier, and make more sense, One of these tools is an Outline.
Outlines sound practically useless, difficult, Not worth the time, but I tell you honestly they can do wonders. An outline is NOT a table of contents, it doesn't have to be a set mark for your story.
Outlines help you to do a few things:
Firstly it gives you a place to think of your story, to write down ideas or scenes that stick out in your mind. It lets you have them on hand when you come to that part of the story, as clear and as solid as when your wrote them. You can use it as chapter overviews, with certain ideas to take place at certain times.
Second it lets you come to terms with how much content you'll need to fill in. You might find your ideas only fill about 6 chapters. So it lets you plot and fill out the rest, or stetch your ideas father, fleshing them out more.
An outline can help you develop subplot to a story, have a line through chapters which others might not see, little things that add up to be important at the end, and a pleasant suprise to your reader.
Lastly it helps you when your uninspired to remember your ideas.
Setting the Pace:
An important step when you begin writing a story, is deciding on how fast the story should move. If you rush to get all your ideas in right at the begining, then it would be a Short story, but if you took your time, and filled in different aspects it would come out longer. its the difference between a 15 page story, and a 500 page Novel
The goal is to find YOUR ideal writing pace, the perfect level for you of ballence between Detail, Content, Dialog and Relations. Do you want to know most what the heroes are DOING? or SAYING? Do you want to see the Hero win the villian or Get married along the way? do you want to hear about the practical joke the side kick pulled? Do you want to SEE the sunset in the book described in vivid detail?
Setting the pace, and direction of your story are important, but each author is different and their ballence is often different, so strive to find your own.
Hopefully this helps a little in your endevors.
~Camoens