Getting Started Writing

[markman]

Over the last few months I have become motivated to finally start writing a book that I initially had an idea for way back in 1995. I've never written anything, except for work or school related projects. The book would be fiction, but loosely based on my life experiences.

All I have now is a few pages of "stuff" on Word that I wrote when I got the idea but nothing else. So, before I start trying to write this thing, I want to make sure I approach it correctly. I am looking for some suggestions on books or guides that can give me some basics as far as how to get started (plot & character development, etc).

[Moejoe]

Buy these two books: Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury and Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain - one for inspiration, the other for craft. These are really the only two books that are worth your money and time as far as I'm concerned.

While you're reading them, you write, but let me save you some time and share some shortcuts that came to me over time.

Plot

There is only one story and you don't need to plot the story. Here it is:


The pursuit of a want or need through adversity that ends in either triumph or defeat.

There, that's every story ever told from Moby Dick to The DaVinci Code, the same basic skeleton to hang your story baubles from. Whenever you get stuck ask 'what your character needs or wants' then make sure they don't get it, and you have the essential conflict of any story.

Characters

Now all you need to do is add characters and their wants and needs. As to characters, you need only one sentence to pin a character in the mind. This sentence consists of an adjective, a job and a name.

Stubborn NY cop John McLane
Stoic Lawyer Atticus Finch
Cynical Private Eye Philip Marlowe.

Character is action so just keep your characters in line with their simplistic descriptions and they'll write themselves, no need to know what their best friend's name was in 3rd grade or what happened to their pet cat that awful summer before they graduated (those experiences grow organically as you write the character)

Where to begin?

You begin just before, during, or just after the springboard scene of your story. The springboard scene is what sets up that essential need or want of your main character. Let's take a Private Eye story for example. The springboard scene of a Private Eye story will almost always be the hiring of the Private Eye by an outside source, so you begin your story just before the hiring, during the hiring, or just after. This then leads to a story question which will fix the path of your character in the mind, in the above example the Private Eye might have been hired to recover a diamond necklace, so now we have the simplistic want of:

Recovering a diamond necklace.

Which then becomes a story question:

Will the detective recover the diamond necklace?

Everything that happens must stop the character from getting that want until the very end of the story, which is what we cover next.

How do you end a story?

The ending of every story is an answer to a question first asked in the springboard scene. It's is either yes, no, or maybe, depending on the effect you want to gain.

The Private Eye is hired in the first chapter to recover a missing diamond necklace. So the story question becomes: Can they recover the stolen necklace? Yes, no, or maybe is the ending of your story.

[jaxx6166]

Beautiful and succinct as always MoeJoe. =)

I have nothing to add. There is nothing to add.

Except, don't give up

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by jaxx6166

Beautiful and succinct as always MoeJoe. =)

I have nothing to add. There is nothing to add.

Except, don't give up

I have one thing to add: Enjoy yourself. This is the cardinal rule of writing. The one that you must not sin against!

This is a fun pastime, it's one of the cheapest and least expensive hobbies to take part in. You can do this with a pencil and a pad and still enjoy yourself thoroughly. Don't think about money, publication or any of the other stupid distractions we've come to think of as 'writing'. This isn't a career, this is an expression of your very essence, a fun house mirror you can hold up to the world and show back to anybody whose willing to read.

[Simon John Cox]

Hi Markman

A tip that I'd give would be to have at least a broad plan of your book before you write even a word. Before I wrote my first book I'd tried to write a few others, but they just went off at tangents and eventually petered out. The difference to me was having a determined beginning and a determined end right from the start - that way all I was doing was joining up the two.

This doesn't necessarily work for everyone - Stephen King says he never knows the ending of a story when he starts writing it, for example - but it was essential for me.

Good luck!

[markman]

Thanks guys!

There's some great info here and I'm looking forward to using it.

MoeJoe:
I will definitely get those two books, they sound like just what I need. As for your suggestions, all I can say is WOW!, great stuff. I really appreciate the tips. I can be over analytical at times so your basics (plot, characters, begin, end) will help me focus on actually writing.

I definitely am going into this purely for the "fun factor". I've always wanted to write but never set aside the time/motivation. Now's the time!

Simon:
I have started planning out the basics, much like MoeJoe suggested. I have a plot, beginning, and ending so far and will work on the main characters next. I'm using a free, web-based mind mapping application called Mind42 that is really helping me visualize the flow of the story.

I'll post an update of my progress after this coming weekend (the weather is supposed to be terrible which should be perfect for writing!).

[J. Dean]

Originally Posted by Simon John Cox

Hi Markman

A tip that I'd give would be to have at least a broad plan of your book before you write even a word. Before I wrote my first book I'd tried to write a few others, but they just went off at tangents and eventually petered out. The difference to me was having a determined beginning and a determined end right from the start - that way all I was doing was joining up the two.

This doesn't necessarily work for everyone - Stephen King says he never knows the ending of a story when he starts writing it, for example - but it was essential for me.

Good luck!

That's because King is actually Randall Flagg

Seriously, when you're writing, in addition to the already given sound advice by others, be creative with your word descriptions. Try to avoid too many cliches if you can. A thesaurus is your best friend here.

And for crying out loud: DON'T TELL YOUR WHOLE STORY IN YOUR FIRST CHAPTER!!! This has to be one of the most annoying things that I've ever encountered in writing!!!! Concealing information-particularly about your villain, monster, or antagonist-makes a story so much better!

Let me illustrate this point with a personal experience: A few years ago, I was visiting with an independent author who had published a horror story. It looked pretty interesting, so I bought it. By the time I got to chapter three, I put the book down and never looked at it again. Why? Because the author told me everything about the creature before the story even got going! There was no sense of suspense or wondering about what could happen next: I knew what the creature was, where it came from, how NOT to kill it, how to kill it, what it was intending to do, what it wanted to do, what it looked like from head to foot-all of this that I didn't want to know all at once! And the sick thing is (at the risk of sounding arrogant here), this guy is selling more books than I am, and I think my story is better!!!!

Let the story unravel, and keep the reader wondering what's going on. It doesn't necessarily have to be some sort of crash-bang plot twist a la THE SIXTH SENSE (although those are cool if they're pulled off right), but what you don't tell the reader can be just as important and enticing as what you do tell. Remember that.

[starrigger]

Two books that I use in my writing workshops are Bird by Bird, by Ann Lamott, and On Writing, by Stephen King. Bird is very much about the inner writer, and the King has a lot of practical tips (in the middle of the book; the first part is autobiographical).

You might also take a peek at my free online writing course at writesf.com. It's very much for the beginning writer, and focuses on the basics. Although it's about writing science fiction, much of it is applicable to any kind of fiction.

And what others said: Have fun.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

While you're reading them, you write, but let me save you some time and share some shortcuts that came to me over time.

Playing counterpoint, here, because my experiences with fanfic don't all fit into this system. (This is really good--but it doesn't cover all types of prose writing. It may cover all stories, but only if we get picky about the definition of "story.")

Plot

There is only one story and you don't need to plot the story. Here it is:
The pursuit of a want or need through adversity that ends in either triumph or defeat.

Plenty of fanfic doesn't have this. Some is character studies; some is PWP ("porn without plot"); some is otherwise-different. ("Five things" fics come to mind, especially "five things that never..."; each of the five things might have a plot like this, but it also might not.) Archiveofourown.org has over 400 examples of 5 Things stories; mind the warnings (that "E" in the red box means "explicit") if you're concerned about such things.

Non-plottish stories are probably easier to write as fanfic--explorations of a known world--than as original fic, where you have to capture the reader's initial interest in addition to showing what happened.

I'm trying to think of examples of profic that don't have plots. Maybe Ellison's From A to Z, the Chocolate Alphabet.

Characters

Now all you need to do is add characters and their wants and needs. As to characters, you need only one sentence to pin a character in the mind. This sentence consists of an adjective, a job and a name.

Stubborn NY cop John McLane
Stoic Lawyer Atticus Finch
Cynical Private Eye Philip Marlowe.

"Job" assumes a certain shared cultural background. While it's easy to expand to non-career identities like "orphan" or "dilettante," if the character's main identity (in the story) is something alien to the reader, this may not be the best way to describe it. (I have no problem with "devout kaseka Martina Lau" but even googling the term won't give the reader an understanding of how that might relate to other characters in a story.) (And, wow, Google won't help a bit with that one.)

In a number of sci-fi, fantasy or horror stories, adjective-job-name may not adequately describe the character; the writer's notes might instead have 3 adjectives, or a simple personal conflict (Martina: responsibility vs curiosity) as the core aspect of the character to be expressed.

Character is action so just keep your characters in line with their simplistic descriptions and they'll write themselves, no need to know what their best friend's name was in 3rd grade or what happened to their pet cat that awful summer before they graduated (those experiences grow organically as you write the character)

This, I agree with. It's worth noting that it's often *fun* to describe characters in great details in one's notes; an author can outline three years of back history, complete with arguments with co-workers and the name of the cute guy at Starbucks she flirts with... none of which needs to make it into the story.

Background details aren't bad, but many of them aren't necessary for the story itself. And authors need to avoid being upset if the readers come up with entirely *different* bits of background story for their own understanding of the character.

Where to begin?

You begin just before, during, or just after the springboard scene of your story.

And very possibly, you begin before... and on re-reading, discover that the first 2,000 words aren't actually necessary. In which case, REMOVE THEM. Excessive backstory details is one of the most common failings in fiction writing.

The story may begin in the author's mind when the thief has a harrowing conversation with a loan shark who demands $10k by the end of the week, leading him to buy tools for burglary and nab the diamonds, leading to the traumatic birthday party where the owner had planned to give the diamonds to her daughter, leading to the eventual contact with the Private Eye... but for the reader, the story might be better if it starts when she walks into the PI's office.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Playing counterpoint, here, because my experiences with fanfic don't all fit into this system. (This is really good--but it doesn't cover all types of prose writing. It may cover all stories, but only if we get picky about the definition of "story.")

My guide covers only 'story driven' plots as defined by the popular mono-myth. It does not cover 'literature' in any way shape or form. In fact, I'd say that this guide should be completely ignored if you want to write literature as you would end up producing flat, dull and uninspired prose if you follow my rules.

As I've never read any fanfiction and wouldn't know it from Adam, or Eve for that matter, and I still have no idea what purpose fan fiction serves - other than as an outlet for sexual fantasy or adult dress up - then I can't comment on how those stories work one way or another. If you're writing a story about that sparkly dude from Twilight shacking up with Angel from Buffy, then I suspect 'story' is about the last thing on your mind.

[khalleron]

I always think I know how a story I'm writing is going to end, and I'm almost always wrong.

But then, I tend to write character-driven stories, and my characters have a way of doing unexpected things. I let them, because my subconscious is soooooo much smarter than my conscious mind.

Everyone's different. I know people who write from spreadsheets, which I believe would cause me to die from apoplexy if I did it myself.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by khalleron

I always think I know how a story I'm writing is going to end, and I'm almost always wrong.

But then, I tend to write character-driven stories, and my characters have a way of doing unexpected things. I let them, because my subconscious is soooooo much smarter than my conscious mind.

Everyone's different. I know people who write from spreadsheets, which I believe would cause me to die from apoplexy if I did it myself.

I would rather stick two pencils in my eyes and chop off both my hands than use a spreadsheet in the writing of fiction.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

My guide covers only 'story driven' plots as defined by the popular mono-myth.

And it's an excellent starting point for that.

It does not cover 'literature' in any way shape or form. In fact, I'd say that this guide should be completely ignored if you want to write literature as you would end up producing flat, dull and uninspired prose if you follow my rules.

I'm oblivious to what "literature" is, aside from short-stories-and-novels.

As I've never read any fanfiction and wouldn't know it from Adam, or Eve for that matter, and I still have no idea what purpose fan fiction serves - other than as an outlet for sexual fantasy or adult dress up

1) Don't knock it if you haven't tried it

2) The current "shared world - Poe-inspired stories" project is fanfiction. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is fanfiction. The Wind Done Gone is fanfiction. Niven's story, "Man of Steel; Woman of Kleenex" fits in the range of fanfiction.

3) Fanfiction hits a wide range of purposes. Personal fantasy & wish-fulfillment is one that catches the most media attention, but it's not the most interesting to fanfic writers & most fanfic readers. It's often a way to retell stories from a different perspective--instead of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," it's "Draco Malfoy and that brat who stole all the attention that should have been mine." Sometimes it's just a character study, a sort of review & analysis in story format. Sometimes it's a way to consider how two different fictional worlds are portrayed--what would happen if Fox Mulder discovered the Twilight vampires? Who's a better detective, Bruce Wayne or Sherlock Holmes? Sometimes fanfic fills in the gaps in the original story--either describing a missing scene, or giving a hypothetical explanation for an apparent loophole. A lot of fanfic is commentary done in story form.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

And it's an excellent starting point for that.



I'm oblivious to what "literature" is, aside from short-stories-and-novels.



1) Don't knock it if you haven't tried it

2) The current "shared world - Poe-inspired stories" project is fanfiction. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is fanfiction. The Wind Done Gone is fanfiction. Niven's story, "Man of Steel; Woman of Kleenex" fits in the range of fanfiction.

3) Fanfiction hits a wide range of purposes. Personal fantasy & wish-fulfillment is one that catches the most media attention, but it's not the most interesting to fanfic writers & most fanfic readers. It's often a way to retell stories from a different perspective--instead of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," it's "Draco Malfoy and that brat who stole all the attention that should have been mine." Sometimes it's just a character study, a sort of review & analysis in story format. Sometimes it's a way to consider how two different fictional worlds are portrayed--what would happen if Fox Mulder discovered the Twilight vampires? Who's a better detective, Bruce Wayne or Sherlock Holmes? Sometimes fanfic fills in the gaps in the original story--either describing a missing scene, or giving a hypothetical explanation for an apparent loophole. A lot of fanfic is commentary done in story form.

I'm only teasing ya. I know, for instance, that a hell of a lot of really good writers started off writing stories set within the Lovecraftian mythos. And I think I might be getting fanfic and slashfic confused here. Is slashfic the one where they have everyone screwing each other?

I would consider 'literature' to be anything that does not fit easily into any category. Jeffrey Eugenides' Virgin Suicides is literature, Mickey Spillaine's I, the Jury is fiction. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye is literature, James Patterson's Along Came a Spider is fiction.

Me? I write pulp.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I'm only teasing ya. I know, for instance, that a hell of a lot of really good writers started off writing stories set within the Lovecraftian mythos. And I think I might be getting fanfic and slashfic confused here. Is slashfic the one where they have everyone screwing each other?

Only in the good stuff.

Slash is a subcategory of fanfic. It's often loosely defined as any romantic/sexual-focused stories about same-sex characters. There's a lot of debate about whether it's "really" slash if the characters in the original show aren't straight (Torchwood, Will & Grace), or how explicit a relationship has to be before the fic is considered "slash" as opposed to "friendship." (If House tv episodes were written as-is, they'd probably be considered slash stories. Or pre-slash.)

I would consider 'literature' to be anything that does not fit easily into any category. Jeffrey Eugenides' Virgin Suicides is literature, Mickey Spillaine's I, the Jury is fiction. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye is literature, James Patterson's Along Came a Spider is fiction.

Me? I write pulp.

I write fanfic. And filk. And slash. Especially weird slash. I'm considering expanding out to non-fannish writing, and having to think about things like "plot" and "how to describe a character that the reader hasn't already invested dozens of hours thinking about."

(Which makes it sound like fanfic is full of shortcuts, gah. It's got a different focus from other literary genres. And while a fanfic writer doesn't have to get the reader *interested* in the characters, she does have to make the reader believe this is a plausible portrayal of them. Authors of original short stories don't have to deal with, "I don't think Joe Q Detective would disarm the bad guy before looking at the girl.")