How to write? PERIOD!

Welcome Kiaiello! I'm sure you'll get varying responses to your question, but I also bet a lot of people will say: Just write.

I think a lot of people "see" their stories, like movies. I do, too. I know it's very hard but I try not to worry about the little things on the first draft. You have the vocabulary to describe exactly what you see, so just go for it. Maybe you could try this with an actual movie as practice before you jump into your story.

As for tense ... that really does depend on your story. I usually just start writing, and the story decides for itself what tense will work best. By that I mean, I'll just end up typing "she said," or "I said," without even thinking about it.

Finally, head over the the Writing Novels section on Absolute Write and find the Learn Writing with Uncle Jim thread. Read it. It's very, very long, so check out the Undiluted version, which is stickied at the top of Writing Novels.

Hi, Kiaiello. I started out in the same place as you a few years ago. I've always seen my stories with perfect clarity in my head, but converting that 'movie' into words wasn't nearly as easy as it sounded. My first attempts were so horrible my own mother couldn't bring herself to say they were good, lol.

The forums of AW have a great wealth of information on the basics, like point of view, pacing, tense, etc. and I agree with katiemac that reading the Uncle Jim thread is a good place to start.

The best way to learn writing is to do it, though. I had to write over 100,000 words before I started writing anything that was worthwhile (in my opinion, anyway). I'm close to the million word mark now, and am still seeing improvements in the areas I used to be weak in.

Most of all, I would say to make sure you write for yourself, and have fun with it. Don't worry about the 'rules'. I've never read a best-selling author who followed the so-called rules of writing. Do what feels right for your voice and for your story.

I don't see it as a 'film' first. I have the idea of the story and I write down what I want to say. It's only after a few re-writes it starts to look good. So don't be upset if the first writing of your story seems to lack life or movement. Those are easy to put in after. Once you start you'll be surprised how well you do write, anyway.

Good luck.

Kiaiello said:

This may sound weird, but when i want to write I can see it going on in my head and hear what the chara. are going to say. I just don't know how to put that dialouge and action into words, the right way. Third person, first person, I don't know which is best for me to write with. Can anyone help me out with a tutorial on how to write properly?
*feels retarded for not knowing but wants to learn*

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HI Kiaiello,

first- welcome!

Second- you should not feel bad at all! The important thing is that you are here and want to learn.

I suggest you devour this site. Read every post you can on the basic writing thread, writing novel threads, grammar for grasshoppers, etc...

Read as many novels as humanly possible. But, read them slowly. Read them as a student rather than a mere reader. Dissect them. Study how the author used voice, style, sentence structure, paragraphs...

Ask yourself, "why did author use first person rather than third?" What benefit did it give them? Were there any disadvantages? Why did author use present tense rather than the traditional past tense? How would I have done it differently?

And WRITE!!!!! Compare it to a ballet dancer who has to practice at the barre for hours every single day before they can get on stage. Writing is a lifelong learning process. You'll hear me and others here saying that over and over again. Write, write, write, write, write. The more you do- the more you learn about yourself and you as a writer.

Good luck to ya!

First of all, "retarded" is not a word that should be bandied around as an insult, please don't.

Second, what do you like reading? Do you prefer 3rd person or 1st person stories? The best "tutorial" may be to emulate the fiction you love to read.

You need to do some play-acting while you write. Put yourself into the head of whatever character is talking or taking action. What would you say or do if you were them? How would you react to the current situation? What knock-on effect will your dialogue or action have on the other characters in the scene? Write it down.

-Derek

Welcome, Kiaiello.

There are lots of ways of doing this, and different writers find different methods work. Here's one I find useful, that may help you:


In the artificial and rather hastily-written example below, Private Detective Jane and her young side-kick Jim are trying to break into the mansion grounds of a suspected criminal. It's patrolled by guard-dogs. Jim has a schoolboy sort of crush on Jane but is too shy to pursue it. Jane doesn't know about Jim's crush. You could tell this in 1P or 3P. I chose a limited 3P focusing on Jim because his character tension is interesting. I've made Jim the viewpoint character, even though Jane is the main character - I did this to help make Jane look a bit heroic, even comic-bookish.
After a while, this may seem a bit formulaic. You can find ways to vary this approach: try opening with dialogue and then setting the scene. Or start the scene at the end, and then explain how characters got there. Or try telling the whole scene in dialogue and not using any descriptions. Or try just showing the physical elements of the scene (setting, actions and dialogue), and don't describe the characters' thoughts or feelings.

You may also find that you want to introduce information into the scene that isn't part of the action or dilemma. E.g. what are they doing there? How do they know one another? This approach doesn't resolve such problems, but offers a start. With a bit of fiddling you can write a whole first draft like this if you wish.

Good luck!

dpaterso said:

First of all, "retarded" is not a word that should be bandied around as an insult, please don't.

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Retarded: "relatively slow in mental or emotional or physical development". Sounds like an apt term for how poor Kiaello feels - though lots of writers experience this of course.

I don't believe that writers should stigmatise one another for using language that fills its literal meaning - whatever the meaning might connote in other contexts; else you're consigning your peers to the euphemism treadmill. Language is a writer's tool - we don't need that tool further blunted by politics or political so-called 'correctness'.

You've received all the answers you need to get started:

• Read and ask questions in this forum
• Read and do all the exercises in 'Learn Writing With Uncle Jim' (some of the exercises won't work for you, but try them, don't ignore them)
• Read as many books in the genre in which you want to write
• Practice writing

One of Uncle Jim's exercises that helped me get started was to select a book written by a favorite author, then type the first one or two chapters. You will get a feel for how that author mixes his dialog and exposition and you will train your fingers to type the quotation marks. and other formatting differences in fiction writing.
After you've copied your author's work, go in and try to re-write it, try to make it better, or just different.

Good luck and welcome to AW

Kiaiello said:

How to Write? PERIOD!

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Well, OK, but it seems kind of silly. What I do is I look to the right of the M on the keyboard, count two keys over, and then strike that one. .... See? Period.

But seriously, the best way to learn to write is TO write. Practice. Practice. Practice.

And read a lot of books, whatever your genre is and outside your genre so you get a feel for how other writers do things.

And most importantly, don't worry about the quality of what you're writing, you can take care of all that in the rewrite when you have time to analyze how you phrased things. The most important thing is to get words onto paper.

Definitely start writing. You'll impove as you go.

My only suggestion is that you try putting your dialogue down just as you hear it in your head. Instead of worrying about the dialogue tags (such as "he said"), just start a new line each time a new character speaks. Put all the spoken words and whatever punctuation goes with them in quotation marks. You end up with something like this:

"Is writing something that you really want to do?"

"Yes."

"Then do it. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't, and don't worry that you're not great at it just yet."

"Well, I guess I could try..."

"That's all any of us can do."

If you want or need the dialogue tags, you can always put them in later. If you have multiple people speaking and it's getting complicated, you can try telling us who is speaking by having them perform an action on the same line as their dialogue:

Jane laughed. "I guess you're right."

Best of luck!

It's a terrible curse of writers. The only way to tell how to write a book is to write it and find out. If it's wrong, well, that's what rewrites are for.
You just have to write it. You'll know if you need to use a different voice, different POV, etc. Trust yourself to be able to notice what works and what doesn't. If you don't think you can, get a beta reader to help you.
You write by putting a pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and go until you get to the end. Then you fix it.
If you keep practicing that, (and learning also, through extensive reading), eventually how a story should be told is a bit easier to figure out earlier on in the process. But...until it is second-nature through all of that practice, no one can tell you how to write it. You have to figure that out all by yourself.

Write. Write total shit. Write something a bit better. Write something good. Write.

If there's any other way, nobody's told me.

Seun's got it.

Put something on the screen. Write it down. Say it out loud. Then do more of it.

Chip away at the marble until the form starts to appear. If you want to take some sculpting classes before, during and afterward, fine. But don't wait to start creating.