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Cicobe1

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~~List of Reviews~~
This is where some my past reviews can be found (The rest is in the Library archive). Not only does it help me and reviewers to moderate scores, but also for any hopeful applicants to check out the standard of writing required.

17-May-2009 23:57:21 - Last edited on 17-May-2009 23:57:48 by Cicobe1

Cicobe1

Posts: 4,823 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

~~English’s Writing Guide~~

In this writing guide I’ll demonstrate a walkthrough from the first idea to pen on paper. For years I have studied the art of writing with many creative writing guides and they’re all basically the same. Here I’ll show you my way of writing, which condenses the essence of the writing guides I have read. This is purely my opinion, however, as it is ONE way of doing it.
1) Forming of an idea
Personally, I’ve never exactly experienced writer’s block as such. The secret? There is no secret. Story ideas hit me about once or twice a day – although not always new story ideas, they’re often of plot and character development. Or rather, how much do you THINK about your story? It goes without saying that writers spend five times the amount of time planning and thinking about a story than writing it itself. Why are some stories so GOOD and WELL CRAFTED? Practice is an answer, but these links have to be developed one by one. It is mostly done by thinking about the story every day. Try applying extra thoughts to everyday objects and use your creativity. It is about finding the extraordinary in everyday events. Once you’ve asked yourself why, and what is the back-story, an image could just come up.
Good writers are also good thinkers. Writers enjoy thinking and applying logical sequence sequences. The excessive thinkers are often the ones who notice odd things in the real world and how they work – just like a toddler is interested in his surroundings. Somehow writers have to revert themselves back to that stage. This also helps when analyzing the people around you, and the society in which we live.

17-May-2009 23:57:22 - Last edited on 17-May-2009 23:58:10 by Cicobe1

Cicobe1

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2) Putting it down on paper
Never trust your memory, and never go anywhere without a notepad. The muse, and any story ideas can strike at ANY time, be it in the middle of a shower (okay, no notepad in shower, but you must write it down the first thing you’re out of there), or on your way to school. Not ALL ideas will be incorporated in your story, sadly, but eventually, some will. It is vital that you have a whole list of story ideas with you before you start your story.
3) Deciding to write a story
This also includes deciding the format of the story – many stories ideas of a particular theme may point towards a novella, a couple of ideas of a particular theme may point towards a short story. Obviously from Point 1 to here should take more than a week. This is NOT done in one day, I’m afraid. If you’ve decided to write a story, you might want to write to reflect what you see in the world, write to reflect about what you want, write to reflect about what you are or what you don’* want to see. In terms of writing there is no taboo subject (If you have, then you should list three of your taboo subjects, and write about them). A writer may also want to write to express a strange image or scenario or an awkward situation based on the ideas he/she had jotted down on their notepad.
4) Writing up your plan
Personally, with each story I write down all the essential characters of the story first. This is subject to change as the story progress, but by this stage you should already have an idea of beginning, middle and end if you’re writing a novella, or just an image if you’re writing a short story. If you haven’t got these, it means that you haven’t spent enough time thinking.

17-May-2009 23:57:23 - Last edited on 17-May-2009 23:58:43 by Cicobe1

Cicobe1

Posts: 4,823 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

After you’ve written down the essential characters, apply further thoughts to their personality, and associate them with suitable traits (mind map might help). Try to make each character as distinct and unique as possible, so that they’re not the same group of mobs who had roughly similar looks and similar personality. As long as it is clear in your mind that characters are distinct from one another, it should show in your story.
Then, you write down the aim of your story and remind yourself (and when writing) what you’re trying to achieve to produce a focused story. Why do you want to write it? Is it to express certain feeling of yours, or is it to shock people? Believe me, this also helps you to persevere with your story a lot of the times too. Aim doesn’t have to be long: one or two sentences will do.
Then, you write down the THEMES of your story, be it this versus that, conflicting ideals or extended metaphors, this is what lies at the HEART of your story. What is your story trying to say to the reader? Write down the semantic field you could be using in the story to remind you to insert as much as ‘this’ kind of description into the story, or insert what object as a symbol of one of your themes.

17-May-2009 23:57:24 - Last edited on 17-May-2009 23:59:04 by Cicobe1

Cicobe1

Posts: 4,823 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The forming of a plot is a different matter. Some plots come naturally, and some don't. It maybe plots you have read before, and applied it further thoughts so that you changed what happened and consequently the entire outcome, or you imagined your own. The latter is probably harder but with practice it will get easier in time. If one invents their own plot they must create interactions between characters too. If you’re stuck, a good way to start is by thinking what you DO NOT WANT to happen in your story when you view it in your mind as a film. This includes what you despises as an ending, too. Hopefully you’ll be closer to what you are at the start. It often takes days to think up a plot, and there is no way around it except keep thinking and applying your characters situation into it, and let them direct the plot. Some people however, will get the general mood of the plot (like a direction. Imagine a straight line and if it’s going up, the plot gets more and more exciting – if it’s going down it’s getting more and more depressing as if it is heading for tragedy).
A story is about CHANGE. If in the end it didn't change anything there’d be no story. Even if it is a dream, there should at least be a different person coming out of the other end. It is important that you write down bullet points outlining the stages in your plot. It doesn’t matter if you can’t finish it in ten minutes – keep thinking and you’ll get there. If it is a long story then you might want to split it up into sections, and work from that.

17-May-2009 23:57:24 - Last edited on 17-May-2009 23:59:27 by Cicobe1

Cicobe1

Posts: 4,823 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Once you have the initial plot line, you have to refine it. It is okay to write down key speeches in bullet points. Once you have all the points, you can expand it by writing 2 extra lines to each point, and so on, until you have about 5 lines or more to each bullet point. Each bullet points can be chapters, and five lines of plot material will be enough for each chapter. By now you have thought about the plot more than enough to know exactly how it goes. Minor characters may come into your mind at this point, so don’t forget to add them to character’s list! You are now ready to write. Congratulations.
P.S. Remember, a writer is somebody who writes, not somebody who thinks about writing all day.
In the second part of the guide I’ll show you a lot of ‘How to’ topics. Remember this is MY craft of writing, so you’re free to take on board parts that you find fitting to your own style.
This is the tedious procedure by which I go through before posting on the forums:
A) Write a plan (as we’ve mentioned earlier).
B) Revise a plan for flaws and inconsistency.
C) Write a First 1st draft (Not a perfect draft, just a rough story without much grammar. This is the time to get creative and exploratory.)
D) Write a First 2nd draft (Now I correct most of the mistakes and add anything you feel missed out in the first 1st draft)
E) Write a Second draft – this includes further proofreading for errors, and adds description to the story as well as writing devices. Review the plotline, linking the plot together and trim out unnecessary bits. In my case, this means typing on the computer.
F) Third draft – Final error check and perfect the story by improving the syntax, and adding anything you want.
*) THEN I post it.
If you ask me, I find it much easier to write on paper first – particularly the first drafts. I find that computer screens often do my head in and drain my creativity … and the smell of paper and the freedom of a pen is has awesomeness beyond compare.

17-May-2009 23:57:25 - Last edited on 18-May-2009 00:00:38 by Cicobe1

Cicobe1

Posts: 4,823 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

How to create 3-D characters:
To simplify things, there is two areas you should consider when you create a character. The physical details (good to have one or two details returning throughout to remind the reader), and the mental image (how the character interact with others, how he speaks and his overall personality, this also includes how the character thinks and feels – from his ultimate dream to his mysterious past, even secret desires. Lacking in one of the two can cause problems in a longer story. It is important for the reader to see the character’s name and could picture his personality and likely reaction instantly. In a sense the latter is the more important of the two. No character is completely good or bad – find something likable about every one of them (Yes, even the Ant-King and the three muscular men, to those of you that read those stories of mine).
You must think clearly how each character react to each situation and show their thoughts – justify why they do the things they do. It is what people DO that makes them interesting, and not who they are. The readers will care if certain thing is happened to one character but not the other – and of course you have to make them care about made-up people in the first place. It is never possibly to simulate a complete human being in writing – that would require infinite space – we aim to resemble them, just like the fact that every word we use in the story is technically a symbol, only a hint at what we mean, because the word ‘dog’ had never bitten anybody.
To have a character of any depth at all, there must be some kind of CONFLICT in the character.

17-May-2009 23:57:26 - Last edited on 18-May-2009 00:01:59 by Cicobe1

Cicobe1

Posts: 4,823 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

It is important to put a part of yourself into each character’s shoes and possibly find a common trait between you and your character. Emotion is very important – I believe the only way to make emotion seep through is to put yourself in that situation and work up your own emotions in the same time (Ever took Drama lessons? They really help characterization). This often takes a pause before writing to try to work yourself up with the same emotion your character is going through, and you could do it by holding your breath – you’ll feel your own heart beating quicker. The idea is that you must feel the same in the first place before writing a convincing scene – it doesn’t mean you have to cry, but somewhere close to it. Remember, only about 40% of the emotion you feel is actually passed through the text and into your reader so you’ll have to feel for your characters a lot!
Lastly, have respect for your characters. Don’t contradict their traits to fit into your storyline. To convince the reader they are real people you have to convince yourself first, which means respecting them and treat them as unique human beings.
How to create good description:
In my opinion, description is quite overrated, particularly on this forum. A lot of people feel that they have to put description into a sentence or a paragraph, or add an extra block of description into their story just because somebody else told them they need description. No, no, no, it’s not like that at all. A description must first come naturally in a sentence, and has to have some sort of relevance to the character + plot. If it’s not relevant, don’t add it. I don’* want to read through a whole page of family history or facial features I want to see the CHANGE coming on. Imagine the nouns and verbs are the backbone of the story, and adjectives, adverbs are the tea makers – if they don’t add anything, then DON’T add it.

17-May-2009 23:57:27 - Last edited on 18-May-2009 00:02:15 by Cicobe1

Cicobe1

Posts: 4,823 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Another thing about description is that they have to flow beautifully. Show, don’t tell. Why don’t you appeal to the reader’s senses and describe what they hear/see/smell? A lot of people panicked at the comment of ‘More description please’ and they’d find a lots of irrelevant details to a story. Although important, description is not really up there with the plotline and the characters. I like to think it as an art – to use different colours while painting a picture. I like to think that it is an opportunity to show that you can describe ordinary objects with creativity and infuses interest in the reader. Readers are interested in the WAYS in which you describe the object, not the object itself. It’s one of the areas where you can really show off your creativity, and to make your description something enjoyable and interesting to read, rather than making the reader wanting to skip paragraphs.
How to acquire a wider vocabulary:
Well, it’s just reading! Read lots of other novels (lots of big words in pre 1900) and look them up in the dictionary. Understand the word, and copy + paste (or alter it slightly) into your own work for the expression you need. It’s fun.
How to create a good sense of flow:
A good flow is important. I believe writing a story is not just writing down words. Prose should not be different to poetry in a sense that it could still contain condensed imagery, rhymes, and balanced rhythm. You’re also writing down sounds – music. You must check that your sentence is making a beautiful sound and take care of the syllable count. Half rhyme and alliteration should be used. Smooth out the rough sounds and replace them with suitable words and treat the reading voice like a beautiful, ethereal music, and experiment with the available syntaxes.

17-May-2009 23:57:28 - Last edited on 18-May-2009 00:02:51 by Cicobe1

Cicobe1

Posts: 4,823 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The above, of course, is providing that you use each word correctly and that your grammatical errors are at minimum. Mistakes and typos can inhibit the flow heavily. To avoid this one must read over his/her own work over and over again.
How to use writing devices:
Well, what are writing devices? A lot of them are usually spotted on second reading of a story, but they can add to a huge amount of structural interest. Writing devices work subconsciously, be it traps or hints. I like to think of them as Boo Boo traps, and they can create a wide range of effects – suitable for readers from children to English Scholars.
The two common devices that I use are Foreshadow and Hypocrisy.
Foreshadow hints at what happens next, or as a direct irony of what happens next, or as an irony of what should’ve happened. It keeps the suspense of your plot and impress your readers with your ‘well-craftedness’. It’s like a seed planted in earlier part of the story that will become significant again later. Not only it creates interest in second reading, but also demonstrates to the world that you have thought about this story in the first place.
Hypocrisy occurs when somebody is pretentious and says things that contradict beliefs and behaviours of oneself. It somehow makes fun of the person speaking hypocrisy, but also challenges the reader to think beyond the story and into the minds of the character. Is that what he/she really believed? It adds dynamic to the characters and could be very powerful when getting your point across. Remember, hypocrisy exists in all human beings.
There are some other techniques such as ironies, symbolisms (a recurring image or object representing something in/about the story or characters), references (refer to earlier parts of the story or other novels), and contrasts. These will add a lot of interest in to your story and make it worthwhile reading.

17-May-2009 23:57:28 - Last edited on 18-May-2009 00:03:09 by Cicobe1

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