Story Writing

[E.A Rumfield]

I think I need some advice on writing stories. It is not often I want to write a story. When I do sit down to write one I feel it is a good idea. I even feel like the writing itself has really bright moments but usually I can't manage to finish the story. I'll get half way through and it will be a few pages long and then I'll rush an ending or get bored or dejected and stop writing. Poetry I find to be a lot easier to come up with ideas for, so if I write a few bad ones it's ok because I write a few poems a day. Stories are different and any tips would be appreciated. I can write a story on some stupid idea like "What if Hitler had try to Goebbels make the tastiest soup." but I'd rather not or is that the way to go? Because right now I feel like all I can write about is stories that require imagination or abstract ideas. Should should I write what ever comes to my mind just to get the bad stuff out. Kind of like a cleansing. If I tried to write about life the way some of my favorite writers write I feel I'd fall flat because I simply do not have enough experience to write a real life story. I think maybe I'm close but not yet. Anytime I attempt to do a story like that I insert to much of my own thoughts and personal rhetoric and it's not subtle and sparse the way I feel something should be written.

[cacian]

I think one writes to feel good and to projects thoughts one would have never otherwise.
Finding things to write about is not the difficult bit.
Countering expectations and finding a place amongst the many writers is what it is all about.
Topics are just a mean that leads us there. Writing is a journey a bit like climbing Mount Everest. It is not just about reaching the peak/sommet but it is about the discoveries and challenges one encounters whilts getting there. Hopefully writing is not as hostile as climbing but it merges on similar.
For me to write is to build a niche of audiences expectations and different experiences.
Whether it is for everyone is not important but as long as some find something in there they like or grow to like is what matters.
Just like the expression 'it will grow on you' this is the kind of sommet I like to reach.
So for ideas I was thinking the other day take a dictionary pick a word any word, alphabetically ordered or not, and write about it.
That is a start and it is as good as any.
I hope this helped a little bit.

[E.A Rumfield]

I wasn't looking for a cliched pep talk. I apologize for being blunt. Maybe some advice from someone who's been through the similar experiences as myself. I've reached the point with my poetry where I write everyday. I never sit down with the goal to write but I'll be writing something in my mind all day. I would like to get to that point with my prose.

[hillwalker]

You're right about getting the garbage out of the way first. If you write something every day (no matter how stupid or bizarre) it does clear your head. It also does two other things - exercise your 'writing muscle' and train your subconscious to fill the spaces with new material.

Writing poetry (several poems a day!) seems to be the way you do this at the moment. But you also need to get into the habit of writing prose. Stream of consciousness writing is the best way to do this. Discipline yourself to write for fifteen minutes each day completely off the cuff without stopping to edit as you write, or even stopping to think about what you're writing. If you find it impossible to get the first sentence on paper, begin with something like 'The reason I'm writing this is...'

Writing stories needs a different discipline to scribbling down a poem. It takes more commitment to see it through to the end. It also requires you to somehow place yourself in the story - not by being there in person and sharing your own thoughts and observations, but by becoming the character you are writing about (acting out a role as it were). I often say that my main characters tell me what to write - I let them do their own thing and just take notes. It sounds weird but some of my best stuff has come through this method.

As for getting bored half way through - no one says you have to write a complete story in one sitting. The best way to keep it 'alive and fresh' is to stop writing when your character reaches a pivotal point in the story. Perhaps you can place him in an impossible situation or have him meet someone he'd rather not speak to. Then go away and do something totally unrelated to writing. Allow a couple of days for the plot to ferment inside your head and I guarantee your subconscious will be working on the story in the background like a screensaver. Then when you're ready (and you'll know when that moment comes) pick up your pen and...

Good luck,

H

[cacian]

I wasn't looking for a cliched pep talk. I apologize for being blunt. Maybe some advice from someone who's been through the similar experiences as myself. I've reached the point with my poetry where I write everyday. I never sit down with the goal to write but I'll be writing something in my mind all day. I would like to get to that point with my prose.

Not at all.
I hope you do find what you are looking for.
About prose and poetry I think it is hard to juggle the two equally well.

[Bonsai Ent]

I think I need some advice on writing stories. It is not often I want to write a story. When I do sit down to write one I feel it is a good idea. I even feel like the writing itself has really bright moments but usually I can't manage to finish the story. I'll get half way through and it will be a few pages long and then I'll rush an ending or get bored or dejected and stop writing. Poetry I find to be a lot easier to come up with ideas for, so if I write a few bad ones it's ok because I write a few poems a day. Stories are different and any tips would be appreciated. I can write a story on some stupid idea like "What if Hitler had try to Goebbels make the tastiest soup." but I'd rather not or is that the way to go? Because right now I feel like all I can write about is stories that require imagination or abstract ideas. Should should I write what ever comes to my mind just to get the bad stuff out. Kind of like a cleansing. If I tried to write about life the way some of my favorite writers write I feel I'd fall flat because I simply do not have enough experience to write a real life story. I think maybe I'm close but not yet. Anytime I attempt to do a story like that I insert to much of my own thoughts and personal rhetoric and it's not subtle and sparse the way I feel something should be written.

If you get stuck in a short story it really is worth putting it down for a bit rather than forcing it.
A really good short story takes a bit of time to write, there's the fact of it.
And once you've written one, you can start editing the crap, seeing what doesn't work and carving it into what you want it to be.
Most writers need to have some basic editing ability these days.

And yes, just write any old crap in the interim.

I often find small scraps work out into a whole story eventually.

[E.A Rumfield]

delete

[Charles Darnay]

What kind of dog eats tuna? To each his own I suppose.

As for the writing: it is a series of descriptive paragraphs. There is no story here, which begs the question, "who cares?"

[E.A Rumfield]

delete

[Volya]

I felt the dialogue and his thoughts in that one were pretty poor. Apart from that it was decent.

[hillwalker]

Writing a story... it seems so easy... anybody can do it. But you manage to make a complete hash of it.

Story 1

First of all, why do we need a weather update at the beginning?
How can the moon reflect 'serenely'?
And 'lost in a world without thought'? Come on. Are you seriously expecting any reader to swallow this nonsense?
You spend an entire paragraph telling us your protagonist lights a cigarette and waste the rest of our time feeding us irrelevant filler.
Perhaps you don't understand the definition of the word 'story'.

Not being able to sleep nights he sometimes walked the streets for hours, getting lost down countless streets until he could finally go home and sleep. When she was around he still couldn't sleep but he enjoyed watching her sleep peacefully, hair strewn across the bed or even simply listening to her the rhythm of her soft breathes was enough to sometimes coax him to sleep.

Spot the deliberate mistake.

'Story'? You have to be kidding. Nothing happened.

Story 2

The air inside the laboratory was cold and sterile and so was the atmosphere.

Is there a difference between the 'air' and the 'atmosphere'???
Not the greatest way to begin. Already I'm bored.

After ploughing through the opening paragraphs I managed to work out that there's a man inside a machine and some people pacing outside. Forgive me, but why would I even care what the people outside are doing?
Then the man inside the machine begins reflecting on his 'his wife, his beautiful wife. He thought of her back at home waiting for him until his return. What if she didn't wait for him?

Yawn.
I thought this couldn't get worse... I was wrong.*

A number of things happen 'suddenly' as if that's supposed to make our pulse quicken. Yet so far it's as exciting as watching custard grow cold. The typos don't help 'poured' when you meant 'pored' and 'steeped' when it should be 'stepped'.
But It's obvious you have no idea of how to construct a plot arc or develop your characters. This is nothing more than a list of events.

*But there she sat ravaged by life patiently occupying herself with a look of infinite wisdom in her eyes. Her eyes seemed young, full of light and life. She looked up from her work and greeted the wary man.
“Would you like something to eat or drink. Have you been traveling long?” she inquired sympathetically.
“You have no idea.” he stated unable to conceal a small personal chuckle.
“From where do you come?
“Baden.” he said quickly and with the proper pronouncement.
“And what was your occupation there.” she continued.
“I am a writer.”
“A writer, how unusual.” she remarked shuffling around the kitchen preparing a fire “We don't have one here say, what kind of profession is that anyway.”
“The only one I could have."

Have you ever read anything so daft in your entire life? I didn't dare read further.

On the strength of this you have a long way to go before you can even contemplate writing a story. Spend the next 12 months or so reading then try again. These were both really bad.

Bukowski? Rimbaud? What a ****ing joke!

H

[Volya]

Well that seems unnecessarily harsh hillwalker. I thought they were alright. No need to be so insulting when commenting on somebody's work.

[hillwalker]

Well that seems unnecessarily harsh hillwalker. I thought they were alright. No need to be so insulting when commenting on somebody's work.

Somebody who is rather deluded?


I wonder what kind of stories a guy like Bukowski was writing at my age. Rimbaud was writing timeless poetry at my age?

I could say it was great... which would achieve what? This was poor by anyone's standards.

'alright'? Hardly a meaningful critique.

H

[E.A Rumfield]

delete

[E.A Rumfield]

Somebody who is rather deluded?



I could say it was great... which would achieve what? This was poor by anyone's standards.

'alright'? Hardly a meaningful critique.

H

I agree with you. I have some aspirations and I would like to improve but right now I feel muddled and I'd rather not just give up. A little reality never hurt anyone.

[hillwalker]

I agree with you. I have some aspirations and I would like to improve but right now I feel muddled and I'd rather not just give up. A little reality never hurt anyone.

It's late here but I'll give this next extract my best shot:

Your first paragraph has one simple job to do. Make the reader want to keep reading.

The street was silent except for the sound of his feet beating the pavement in off time.

So far so good, but 'in off time' suggests he might have a wooden leg.
But then It was a crisp overcast November night and he walked hurriedly with his hands stuck firmly in his jacket.

Already I've lost interest. Do I care about the weather? Why would I care about the weather? And his hands are stuck in his jacket - firmly. So what? He puts his hands inside his pockets like 99.9% of the population. What I desperately want to know is where is he going? Is there some point to his journey? If not - thanks very much, but I'll shut the book and look elsewhere for something entertaining.

What does follow is terribly jerky. It's like you had some outline for a story in mind and decided to write it down in some kind of shorthand. We don't know about 'the girl in the picture' so you're wasting your time feeding us this piece of information. It's meaningless because this is the first we've heard about her.

As for the conversation between the MC and his client (?) - I can't say it added anything to the story. It was as if you decided to paste in a bit of dialogue for some dramatic variety. But it didn't work. Dialogue has to enhance the plot or drive it forward. Yours did neither.

Then we have scene 2 - pointless as far as I could see other than complicating the entire story. Your characters are no longer remotely believable. They're macho stereotypes at best.

“Get to the ****ing point!”

You stole my line.

The rest of this just wasn't worth the effort I'm afraid. You're trying to write in a pulp fiction style but it comes across as amateurish and awkward. Try reading some James Ellroy if that's really the genre you're aiming to emulate. Then you'll see how far you still have to go.

H

[breathtest]

ray bradbury wrote in an article on writing that what he does is, upon waking up in the morning, write down any words or phrases that seemed to come to his mind. These could become story titles, or ideas, or anything like that. What he was trying to get at was his own subconscious. The things he would write down on these mornings were his fears and things that meant something to him. They would be powerful images because they were what his mind was thinking about without his being aware of it in some cases. And then he would select one of the words or phrases and write a story about it until he had worked his way through the list. It's a good exercise and works well for me, too.

[Bonsai Ent]

Hillwalker,
Poured isn't a typo, it is the British spelling. Heathen :P

[hillwalker]

Hillwalker,
Poured isn't a typo, it is the British spelling. Heathen :P

Sorry, Bonsai, that's not quite correct.

'poured' and 'pored' are two different verbs and I don't think American English uses the one spelling for both (according to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language anyway):

to 'pour' = what you do when you pour milk onto your cereal

to 'pore' = to study intensly, as in to pore over a book.

In this instance the writer certainly wasn't pouring a liquid over anything. He was inspecting something - so the correct spelling would be 'pored'.

H

[Bonsai Ent]

Ah, my mistake. Teach me for not reading what you were correcting.
I'm just too used to spellcheckers trying to remove my U's even when they're set to British English (British English itself is an Americanism, English varies a lot by region)

[hillwalker]

No problemo.

H

[AuntShecky]

First of all, if you're still a student, start paying more attention in English class. If you have finished school, you might consider enrolling in a refresher course in basic grammar. There you might learn the first (of only four) main aspects of the structure of the language. Numero Uno is Word Order. If you do that, perhaps you'll no longer write awkward sentences such as:


Poetry I find to be a lot easier to come up with ideas for,

Additionally--since you did begin your thread soliciting advice, I'll give you the same advice I just gave another fellow LitNutter a few minutes ago: as a beginning writer, you should spend more time reading rather than writing-- not that you shouldn't engage in both activities, but at this point you might want to start learning the craft. Fill up that mental database.

Read a copious amount of various short stories, especially those written during the last and current centuries. (I'm willing to bet that the nice folks at your local library will be happy to help you find some good anthologies. Right here on the Literature Network Forums there is a substantial number of classic stories in the public domain from which you can learn and also enjoy for their own sake.)

While you're reading ask yourself not only what the story is about but also how the writer presents the work. See if you can figure out what works and what doesn't work, how character, setting, plot work together in subtle ways, and how the author follows (or breaks) the Cardinal Rule of Fiction Writing: "Show, Don't Tell."

Here are some more links to cheap advice, if you're so inclined:

You'll Know I'll Stop Reading Your Short Stories When. . .:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41000&highlight=Stop+Reading+Short+Stories

Show Don’t Tell Redux:
http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67728

Down and Dirty Guide to Punctuation:
http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56601&highlight=Dirty+Guide+Punctuation


Good luck. We're here when you need us.

[miyako73]

"First of all, if you're still a student, start paying more attention in English class. If you have finished school, you might consider enrolling in a refresher course in basic grammar. There you might learn the first (of only four) main aspects of the structure of the language. "

AuntShecky, are you contradicting what some have been saying in this forum that grammar is not important in writing but idea?

[Dreamsqueen]

I think the key for good writing is good reading, read , read and read then decide what is the field that you can write in " like romance, sience fiction" or so, and if you get stuck with ideas, dont force yourself to go on, leave it for a while and think of the story as if you are watching a film or something not as the writer , what do you expect next? try to isolate the writer in you to become a reader, then you will get answers to many questions that might help you

[xtianfriborg13]

Me, I just keep writing whenever I get the chance to. Eventually, you'll come to realize that you are writing something really good.

[Steven Hunley]

Are you the kind of person who feels COMPELLED to tell someone a story? When you witness something, something unusual, do you feel COMPELLED to tell someone else? A story can be short, a story can be simple. A story can be as long as a novel and take months to work on. But only if you feel compelled to finish it.

Maybe you don't like the act of writing. For me, I had to learn everything from scratch, even though I took a creative writing class once. I wasn't ready, so I learned nothing for the simple reason I wasn't motivated enough to probe the lazy teacher's mind. Ask questions.
But I always read quite a bit. Then my grandkids moved away. Up until then I'd been the repository of the family's history. But now my audience was far away, and I decided I'd have to use a written form instead. Always shy, and never confident in conversations, I found out that with writing, all my characters could say exactly what I wanted them too, and my heroes, just ink and paper cut outs of myself, could (with re-writes if necessary) say just the right thing back with no hesitation.
I could create my own world. I could make it any way I wanted. I couldn't control reality worth ****, but I could control what happened on my pages. So I started writing.

Now, on one site, I have over 90,000 reads. The comments still, are few and far between. But 90,000. It blows my mind, and that's only on one site.

Of all the sites, Lit net is my favorite. It's really something new. You can post for free, and bedsides some restricted words, write what you like. You can include music and videos and images too, something because of copy-write laws would be prohibited on a paper published work.

It's given me a new means of self-expression. The acceptance of my work gives me the impression I may be a 'right guy' after all. If the work is valued, then I, as a person, have worth. I make up stories, people read and enjoy them. We laugh and cry at the same things, we share, the connection between author and audience it forged. To me, as a human being, it's satisfying as hell. I wouldn't trade it in for a salaried profession. But I sure would like to sell a few stories!

So maybe you're just not cut out for it. I got here by trial and error and have never looked back. Don't worry, take heart. Sooner or later we all find what we need.

[AuntShecky]

the reply above is terrific ^^^ by one of the finest LitNutters we have.