I'm not published, but I've been actively writing for about ten years. I'm by no means an expert, but since I know there are a lot of young writers and new writers around here, I'd love to lend some help and encouragement! I can't promise to know the answers to all your questions but I'll do my best and at least shower you with tips and cheer you on.
(P.S. you can always PM me if you don't want to discuss your books publicly.)
Go!
Wow! Congratulations, that’s a wonderful amount of work. :) I’ve been writing for about that long too but I’ve only got one novel to show for it (and I’m always nervous about showing it - I feel like I’ve gotten significantly better at writing since I originally plotted it and some parts of it are painful for me to read now XD).
I don’t know if I qualify as ‘young’ or ‘new’, but do you have any tips about creating a good antagonist? I’m working on a (new) plot and while I’m pretty happy with the protagonists’ personalities and motivations, the antagonist is still looking pretty bland.
Ohhh this is a great first question. We might need to really discuss this cuz I'll need to know what your story needs and what you want your antag to accomplish. If you don't want to talk about all your book's secrets publically, we can PM! Whichever you're comfortable with.
First things that come to mind:
(man I hope that made sense.) One of the largest things for me is to figure out whether or not your antag is ACTUALLY bad. A lot of good antagonists aren't actually bad and evil. But they present a challenge and a resistance to your protags that keeps the protags from getting what they want. Remember: fighting against an IDEA can be just as powerful as fighting against a PERSON.
Your antagonist is also just as important as your protagonists. Get to know your antags the way you do your protags. What does he like to eat for breakfast? What's his favorite color? What's his family like? Do his parents know what he's doing? What's his dog's name?
All these things will help you learn who your antag is and make them real and personal and not feel like a cardboard cutout.
At what point is there too much worldbuilding? This may just be a writing problem rather than a logistics problem, but there is so much detail that I want to include that I have trouble incorporating it naturally into the story, especially since I'm writing from a limited third-person view.
There's nothing wrong with have a ton of world building. Tolkien wrote an entire history for Middle Earth, starting with it's creation. So do aaaalllllll the world building you want.
The key//struggle is that you DON'T need to//should put all of that into your story. Does your reader really need to know about that one farmer's bad harvest 50 years ago in a different country in that one town no one knows about? …no. They don't. Even if you know about it and maybe secretly love that little detail and want to write that farmer's story, it's not imperative to your main story.
World building is mostly so YOU know what you're doing in your world. The reader won't know or care whether you plotted out the entire family tree of that one royal family back to the dawn of time. So don't tell yourself you don't need to world build, but also don't try to put it all into your story. It'll feel stiff and info-dumpy, and your readers will skip over it anyway.
Include what the reader NEEDS to know to understand the story. And don't forget you can ALWAYS go back and add more in your edits. Don't stress over your first drafts having everything in them that they need. They won't. Crank out your first draft with all the excitement and passion you have for your story. Then go back and suffer through the edits and revisions and include all the stuff you forgot.
How many protagonists would you think the limit is? I have a story I am working on that has six. Many things I've read would say this was too many, but I feel like it works out okay, so far. Any thoughts? Thanks!
Oh babe. My current book has ELEVEN main protagonist characters and at least that many main-side protag characters. I have a friend who regularly writes main casts with several dozen characters.
the main thing to think about is whether all those characters are necessary and if they need to be MAIN main characters. In my current WIP several characters have moved around, gotten more or less important or prominent, as the plot changed and I needed them elsewhere.
another thing is: how well do you write that big of a cast? Cast size honestly doesn't matter. It just depends on how well you write them.
Also, make sure, even if everyone is important, make sure you know who the REAL main character(s) is. My friend can write dozens of characters on the page, but it's obvious the story is actually ABOUT one or two people. Out of my eleven, half of the book is written from the first-person POV of one character. So he's obviously the mainest of the main.
and always remember: rules are meant to be broken. in creative writing, read and consider the rules, and then figure out the best way to break them. As long as you're writing well, nothing else matters.
I'm drawing inspiration from Piers Anthony's novels… I just wanted to say this to book mark this forum.
Thank you, that was very helpful :) I'll keep it all in mind and I'm sure you'll here from me again soon XD
Another suggestion: read books with large casts to get a feel of how to write them well (or how to NOT write them).
Thank you!!! Also as my story progresses more would you be willing to read snippets?
I can't promise to read a lot but if you have questions or need help with certain bits, I can try! (Maybe chunks of like 500 words or less?)
Okay great. Thank you (again XD)
I have written that start of a hundred books but I am finally sitting down and getting a novel out. I am really struggling with how to change things enough so that people still understand them but yet not similar enough to earth. Its a black hole and I find myself frustrated often. Examples of this are distance, time, body part, colors, plants animals. Its fantasy and on another world, so obviously I dont want to use the term miles for distance, but does it make since to use days hours minutes. I dont want to use the same animals like lions tiger ants, but I seem forced to use terms like insects birds or reptiles. Unless i just want to say flying creature all the time. So I guess I am asking for advice on where to stop. Have you found a system that works for you?
If you're writing fantasy, especially reworking an entire universe, then you need to do some serious mega world building and figure out what your world looks like. I would encourage you to not reword everyday things like time and measurements. If you're making up new creatures then make up new names for them. If you rename every single thing then it'll be super hard and frustrating to understand your story. And your story is not about new words for time and measurements. Your story is about whatever your story is about. Focus on the real point of your novel, and not rehauling little terms.
So…I run into this problem ALL THE TIME and that is that, well…I start a story and I get anywhere from 2 pages to 1112 pages in, and then…I run out of juice/inspiration and just….stop. And then I move on to a new story and never pick up that one again, because…I don't know. And I don't like that I do that. I want to be able to stick with a novel all the way through, and finish it. So….what's your advice for this?
(also I'm super sorry if I'm being too vague about what I mean)
I would suggest you plot and outline your stories more before writing them. Also, how long does it take you to write your 2 -1112 pages? If you take too long to write a story (more than 2-6 months) you'll often run out of motivation. Writing a book (specifically fiction) should not be a leisurely activity. You need a game plan (your plot//outline) and at the very least a rough schedule for writing. It could be 30 mins a day, 3500 words a week, etc. But you need something to aim for, to keep you on track, to keep your head in the story. If you write once every two weeks, obviously you're going to lose steam and get frustrated. You need to have your all in your book, continually, until it's finished.
I will say, it takes a while to learn your own creative writing style//pace. I had 4-6 different stories during my early writing years and they were all terrible and I had no idea what I was doing. But I learned a lot. Slowly I came to understand my writing process and the steps I need to go through. And a very VERY important step is the plotting//planning process. It's super fun to get an idea and start writing it immediately, but sparks do not make stories. You need your spark and your ideas and mix it together with time and brewing. Let your stories simmer in your mind and take shape. This can take a few weeks or a few years. The book I'm working on now I've written from scratch 3 times, starting in 2014, and I'm only just to the point now that I have a mostly full plot in place and I'm rewriting//revising it. I consider this book to only just be past it's infancy and I've been working on it for 5 years.
Read books about how to write. Find blogs of authors and fellow young writers who are struggling along with you. Study the craft. Try new things. Figure out what doesn't work for you and what does work for you. Learn what your creative process looks like and learn how to make it work better. For me, all of my stories go through at least 3 major evolutions where my plot and characters and settings and everything can be completely rehauled and changed. Three times at least. I used to get frustrated, but now I know to let my stories simmer and take their time, plot and play with them, and once they hit that 3rd stage, I know I'm ready to start writing my first draft. I can appreciate the time and effort and love my stories go through, because I understand my process.
Also, go easy on yourself. Being a young writer just entering the world of writing is really tough. There's a lot to learn, a lot to do, and no clear roadmap because everyone does it differently. Enjoy the process. Be patient with yourself. Learn everything you can.
I would specifically encourage you to learn how to plot your stories better, in response to your question. I found this amazing article yesterday that may help you learn how to structure your plot.
https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method
I also encourage you to check out NaNoWriMo. What you write for NaNo may be trash (writing 50,000 words in 30 days) but it will teach you how to be dedicated to writing every day, take your writing seriously, and to create a full story in a short amount of time.
Suggested blogs(will add more links as I think of them):
Actually, my longer one, at 112 pages, was for NaNoWriMo. My issue is the plotting, exactly. So thank you!! My issue is that I'm not a patient person, and i don't like taking the time to plot out stories, even though i know I need to. I like just jumping in, despite the fact that that means they all sputter and die pretty quickly.
Thank you for all the advice! It really is helpful, and I'll be sure to check out the links.
How do you start a story? How do you keep motivation for it? I've let several projects die because I wasn't able to pick them back up, being too tired or bored or some other excuse, and I'd rather that stop happening.
What do you do when there's a plot hole so big you could drive a bus through it? I'm curious as to your strategy.
How do you start a story? How do you keep motivation for it? I've let several projects die because I wasn't able to pick them back up, being too tired or bored or some other excuse, and I'd rather that stop happening.
Hey, Sparky! A lot of what I told Icefire above would probably help you out. Plotting, planning, and letting your story grow in your head before you start penning it is definitely key. It's super hard to start a story and keep with it when you have nothing more than a cool idea. You need to let that idea seep and simmer until it fleshes out into a full story that you know the beginning of, and at least have some version of an ending to work toward. Be patient with yourself and your stories! It takes years to learn your craft and figure out what works best for you and for your stories to get better. Learn everything you can and don't stop trying!
What do you do when there's a plot hole so big you could drive a bus through it? I'm curious as to your strategy.
Besides lay on the floor and cry? XDDD
If your story has a massive plot hole like you describe, without further details of the actual story, I would venture to say your story may not be complete yet. If you have a general outline but that ONE PLOT HOLE ruins your entire story, then you need to plot some more. Little plot holes here and there are usual and easier to figure out, but if you have one hole that makes your whole story collapse, then you don't really have a story. I would say figure out the main problem with your plot hole and start trouble shooting. If something doesn't make sense//doesn't work//messes this up, what needs to happen to fix it? Your answer will probably cause more problems. But this is good. Ask the same question about the new holes. What needs to happen to fix this? Keep doing that over and over, as far as it branches out into your story, and fix all the related issues. Once you're done your story may look very different than when you started, but it's gonna be a lot tighter.
Never be afraid of letting your story change. Finished stories look wildly different than their original ideas or first drafts. Change is part of the process.
What do you do when there's a plot hole so big you could drive a bus through it? I'm curious as to your strategy.
Besides lay on the floor and cry? XDDD
If your story has a massive plot hole like you describe, without further details of the actual story, I would venture to say your story may not be complete yet. If you have a general outline but that ONE PLOT HOLE ruins your entire story, then you need to plot some more. Little plot holes here and there are usual and easier to figure out, but if you have one hole that makes your whole story collapse, then you don't really have a story. I would say figure out the main problem with your plot hole and start trouble shooting. If something doesn't make sense//doesn't work//messes this up, what needs to happen to fix it? Your answer will probably cause more problems. But this is good. Ask the same question about the new holes. What needs to happen to fix this? Keep doing that over and over, as far as it branches out into your story, and fix all the related issues. Once you're done your story may look very different than when you started, but it's gonna be a lot tighter.
Never be afraid of letting your story change. Finished stories look wildly different than their original ideas or first drafts. Change is part of the process.
thank you!!
.png)
What do you do to motivate yourself when you know you need to write but just don't feel like it?