Writing a Western story - tips or advice?

[storywriter24]

hi i was intrested in wrting a western story any body got any tips or advice ?

 

[dpaterso]

It's a story, same as every other story, except for its setting. What did you have in mind? Have you got the spark?

I think/hope these links are in one of the sticky info threads... if not, maybe they should be. They're just some of the many resources out there, maybe you found them yourself already.

https://rachelleramirez.com/how-to-write-a-western/

How to Write a Western
Do you want to write a story that evokes the feeling of a period of time lost forever, of a way of life dwindling faster than your protagonist can or will adjust? Does the idea of a creating a story set in the old American frontier rouse your imagination? Then come with me on a journey of learning about the Western. Let’s get to the lonely heart of the stories that combine Crime, the individual’s relationship to Society, and the Action of an old-time hero’s reluctant moral dilemma.

https://www.standoutbooks.com/3-golden-rules-writing-western/

The 3 Golden Rules Of Writing A Western
Westerns are a strange genre of fiction. They’re generally set in one place, deal with one kind of character and utilize a specific but limited aesthetic language. At first glance, it seems like such a specific setup that this fully fledged genre should actually be just a niche interest. Cowboys on their horses always seem to belong to the generation before, yet the Western never really leaves, with constant new films, novels and video games published in the genre year after year.

https://medium.com/@brianrowe_70270/how-to-write-a-kick-ass-western-b8a5524ce61c

How to Write a Kick-Ass Western
Using the 2007 western remake 3:10 to Yuma to examine the western genre in storytelling.

https://worddreams.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/10-tips-for-western-writers/

6 Tips for Western Fiction Writers
If you love books by Louis L’Amour, A.B. Guthrie (The Big Sky and The Way West) or Elmore Leonard (3:10 to Yuma), you may be a western fiction writer. In a nutshell, Western fiction deals with life and times of the American Wild West, mostly mid- to late- 1800’s. It used to be wildly popular, but is now less so, though those who follow it are eager for new, authentic publications.

-Derek

 

[RBEmerson]

Read! Read! Read! Read the good stuff, the bad stuff, read everything you can! Movies! Watch! Watch! Watch! (well, contemporary TV if you must) Old Lone Ranger episodes are easy to find on YouTube as well as seemingly any Spaghetti Western ever shot. Some of the "rips" are about as low res as possible, but some are 720 or even 1080 res (Good!). I recommend "The Traded" for about as gritty for a recent production as any. Not Sam Peckinpah grade violence (thank goodness!), but... anyway. Some have "name" actors, many don't but so what. Lee Van Cleef films are often better than expected (the "bad" in the The Good, The Bad, The Ugly).

IMHO, Tom Selleck appeared in and produced some superior work, even Quigley Down Under, worth chasing down.

Why is something a good whatever? Why is it so bad you'd throw it at a passing car? What do you respond to? What leaves you "no way in h***"? Do not, not, not decide solely on who's in the film or who wrote the book. Decide on the story, of course, but it's the details that count.

Bad news - there are only The Seven Plots in the world. Bill Shakespeare, Aristophanes, Steven King, Max Brand, that's it. That's the show. But somehow the manga still come out, Romeo and Juliet, Hondo, and It see the light of day. It's how you dress the plots, mix and match them, that counts.

Read! Watch! Write!

 

[gwunders]

I'd say to try and do something as new as you can. Write it in a unique style, put a weird, psychedelic spin on it, mash part of another genre in there; whatever you can think of, there's been so many bog-standard Westerns that whenever I pick a new story up in the genre I'm looking for what makes it different this time around!

Good luck! Hope your words come easy.