Please peoples, I need advice on how to start with this whole writing thing. Hopeless amateur talking here. If you could point me in the right direction I would be really grateful, but, you know, I probably wouldn't say it out loud or anything because I'm kind of a dick. And that sounds like a lot of effort.
Hi Brett,
First I would recommend checking out the some of the very usefull hints for new members, it helped me out no end!
http://litreactor.com/discuss/an-in-depth-introduction-to-litreactor
Other than that I would attack the craft essays which hold all sort of usual suff to get your projects going and tips for improving craft.
Read others submissons and reviews to get a flavour of how this process works, and other than that ask any question on the forum. Plenty of nice folks on here to lend a hand.
Hope this helps.
Regards.
Dave
Welcome.
Drugs, duh.
I'd compare it to when you first learn how to drive. Focus on the objective, present, look for signs and speedbumps, but don't watch every car passing by and think you'll run into him, because YOU WILL. Thoughts create reality, basically. Intention creates self fulfilling prophecies. Just do what you love, and inspires you. The emotion really comes from the reader. You kinda have to act as omniscent scientist I guess, yeah so don't get overwhelming, we're all learning here!!
Observe.
Connect.
Feel something.
Write.
When your inner-critic says, "This is garbage," turn, stare, say, "So what?" and then write, anyway, with total, candid, brutal honesty.
Brett, just start writing. Do a little bit every day. It doesn't have to be anything you take too seriously. Sometimes just stream of consciousnesa just loosens the flow of ideas, then when something strikes you, whether it be a phrase or an idea, elaborate. It doesn't have to be anxiety-inducing at all.
Also, read the The Artists' Way by Julia Cameron. She talks about the above technique as morning pages. Just start writing every day for 15-20 mins See what happens, what stories unfold. Here's the link to her tools, online.
Hope this helps!
Every time someone decides to become a writer, an angel gets her wings.
I've found that almost every story is a formula. 1st blank being location of action, 2nd blank being time(s) of action, X = character taking action, Y event attempted, 3rd blank being motivation, Z being thing/character reacting to X, and the rest of the choices being descriptive grammar.
In the land of _________ (during or on) _________X attempts Y (successfully, unsuccessfully, or with mixed results) because _________ (.,!,or?) Z reacts by _________(.,!)
Hmmm, this formula reminds me of the " there's only ten differnet types of story" idea.
http://www.readwrite.co.za/2011/07/14/10-story-types/
It does seem overly simplistic, not to mention depressing. I think stories are like music, they force emotional echoes through what isn't said at least as much as through what is. Does this mean we cant apply frameworks to them?
No.
But it would invalidate the --usefulness-- of the formula. The sun is yellow because of such and such a reason, but a sunset is glorious for reasons that render the fact that it's yellow completely superfluous. And the mentioning of the fact - belittling.
My advice is to read a lot!
@H.I. - Even if it is simplistic and depressing, that is irrelevant to it being true. Although I'm more of a Plotto guy myself. The basic idea is that story/plot/conflict can be broken down into it's base elements, but there are thousands of them. http://www.amazon.com/Plotto-Master-Book-Plots-ebook/dp/B008913086/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1355338660&sr=1-1&keywords=Plotto
You seem to describe a world which makes trying to paint or photograph a sunset by anything but dumb luck belittlement. Your photos are limited until you understand cameras, your pictures are limited until you understand paint, and your writing is limited until you understand story.
Once you understand the story you are telling you are freed up to add more. You can add plot twists and character development and world building and word choice and even that certain undefinable essence. But if you don't understand your story well to describe at least what you've done so far quickly, how are you going to tell it well?
Your photo's are limited until you understand cameras.
Your pictures are limited until you understand paint.
Your stories are not limited by not understanding these kind of formulas.
I agree writing is limited until you undersatnd story. There are ways of not going about this. I can divide stories into 10, 16 or 73 different types. I can make several neat formulas. Every single one of them will be true.
But they are not useful, they are a distraction. We are not Mr Ford building cars, reducing engineering problems into their smallest parts in order to better understand. Beware Maslow's Hammer.
Yes plotting, pacing, etc all imply that such applied engineering will be useful.
It's not, because stories, like humour can't ever be truly understood this way. Not in whole, not in part.
Saying all that Dwayne, I've got nothing but respect for your writing ability, your capacity (in the various posts of yours that I've read) for intelligently explaining your point of view far exceeds my own. But in this case I think Liana said it better than either of us.
If I were to try to make an (equally facile) formula as yours for understanding writing, it would be something like Read, Write, Repeat. Hmm, that's not actually a formula. Could you make it into one for me? ;)
And remember my good buddy Daffy, it is Duck hunting Season.
;)
Just start reading and writing every day. There is no real trick to it. If you read enough and write enough, you will start to pick it up. I immediately suggest you get Strunk and White's Elements of Style and Ray Bradbury's Zen and the Art of Writing. Strunk and White will get you quickly up to par as far as sentence mechanics. Bradbury got me so excited to write that I couldn't wait to get to a keyboard. If I start feeling down about writing, I still break out that book.
Overall, there aren't any real tricks. It's just hard, sweaty labor over the writing apparatus of your choice.
Strunk and White, yes. Though I doubt there's many people on this site who dont have a copy. Ray Bradbury's Zen got me excited too, and after two weeks of writing a poem a day and doing his word association stuff I kinda realised that I'd never be Ray Bradbury. "On Writing" by Stephen King spoke to me the most. I still reference it all the time.
I think part of what's terrifying when you first begin writing is not knowing what's going to spill out. What will you write about? What will it look like? What will it mean? How will it read? What is your voice, your style? For the most part and until you get your feet wet, ignore all of that and just put your nose to the keyboard (or pad).
As you go along, the best way to improve and evolve, in my very humble opinion, is exactly what's been stated above: Read, Write, Repeat. I would add that "Read" means really grappling with challenging material. Again, just my opinion.
@Jack Campbell Jr. - I've never read Bradbury's Zen and the Art of Writing. I'm going to fix that double quick.
"On Writing" is definitely another good one to read. It's sort of a modern classic as far as writing books.
