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What are some writing tips for young writers?

What are some writing tips for young writers?

  • Do you have any writing tips for someone writing a long story? My age is irrelevant, but just saying young in general. Im just starting out... Any tips/Suggestions? Thank you, all answers will be appreciated.

  • Answer:

    1. Know your book before you start writing it. I know many people say just start writing, but you will soon burn out and not know what to write next. Try outlining the plot and establishing basic character guidlines. For the plotting, I choose to just use Excel and list what's going to happen. For the characters, either have them firmly in your mind (what they look like, who they act like, how they talk, what clothes they wear, what their opinions or feelings are about different things, how they express emotions, etc.) or write stuff down about them. This planning may be the most important part about writing. (Also, if you are writing a novel that requires research about a foreign setting or something, research that and write information down as soon as possible.) 2. Dialogue. It can help spark conflict and tension. 3. Pacing. To keep the book moving forward, try summarizing things, dialogue, and action. To make the book move along slowly, use exposition, description, and flashbacks. 4. Feel free to experiment with your voice. This has helped me. If you read one part of your story and don't like it, try it all over again on a separate sheet of paper or another Word document. Try using more or less dialogue, description, making a character seem more vulnerable or harmful, etc. This is hard to make yourself break out of your normal shell of writing voice, but it can be fun to see what your potential is. 5. Never give up. If you have planned your story well enough (as I stated in part 1), you will be able to get something out of this story. If it's bad, don't erase it, but try again. (Just keep the old version handy in case you still want to insert one of the good parts.) 6. Finding time to write. This is especially difficult for young writers such as students because we have to do other things, like go to school. We usually can't be full-time writers. First, try to let your parents allow you to wake up earlier or go to bed later. You can write then, although you will be tired throughout the day. Second, use your free time well. For example, at lunch, go to a quiet place and write a scene. Third, just let stuff stew in your head. This is good too. And for this third option, just think about how you're going to write the next part of your story, and then write it down when you have a couple of minutes. 7. Description. Pick only the most important and significant details. Your reader can imagine a scene while knowing only a couple details. By significant, I mean that details should also say something as part of a bigger picture. For example, if you say that a character always wears a hat covering his eyes, this can show that he is someone who wants to hide, or that he's too shy to let other people look into his eyes. 8. Raising the stakes. This is important. It means that your characters have conflicts and they must overcome them to be able to succeed in life. Their victories are therefore essential. 9. For a long story like you are writing, skip around. Don't go in order neccessarily if you don't want. Write the first chapter, then the last, then the middle, then the fourth, etc. It helps you stay motivated and keep going. 10. Fine tune scenes until they're the way you like them. Read them aloud, let someone else read them, let many people read them, audio tape them and play them back to yourself, etc. Do anything and everything to make them better. You will be proud of your work if it's the best you can make it. Good luck! I really hope these suggestions help. They've helped me, and I think they can be of use to you.

Chickenw... at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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FIVE GOLDEN RULES OF WRITING 1. if you're not a reader you can't be a writer. read read read!!! it's some of the best advice i could give you. read the classics, learn from the masters, absorb their methods and ways. you don't have to be derivative in your own work to appreciate the way they write 2. your hero is only as good as your villain. if your villain sucks, say good bye to any chances of your story being relatively decent. also on that note, please don't make your hero a shimmering paragon of perfection. no one wants to read a story where they already know what's going to happen because the hero ALWAYS does everything right. that's just bo-ring. 3. write what you're passionate about, not what you think will 'sell'. i call people like that 'sell'- outs. if your love for your story shines through, it will make it that much better and will set you apart from all those copycatting sell-outs out there. 4. don't be afraid of criticism. it's what will make your story-and you as a writer- grow. even if it's harsh sometimes, take it with poise and show others that you're willing to take people's advice. people will respect you for that, even if your story isn't to their taste. and that brings me to my next rule- 5. there is always going to be someone who doesn't like your story. there's no getting around it. if you try and make your story pleasing to everyoen, what youll get is a big, confusing, glob of mess. write what you want, what you love and care about- chances are that there's SOMEONE out there who'll read it. there are so many other tips out there, but these were some of the most important. i really hope i've helped you here. all my love and luck for your story. <3

Whatsername

sometimes stop writing it as an author and read like the reader and take out the things you would predict with something unsuspected

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limit you use of adverbs. adverbs tell and don't show. study show vs tell replace "to be" verbs with active verbs--weed out am is are was were when you can don't head hop. I never use more than three points of view in my stories. Hero, heroine and villain. sometimes I only use one or two. find a good critique group. you learn from other writers. critiquecircle.com is a good one study deep pov do character studies. know all you can about your characters, even stuff that won't make it into your stories. their motivations have to be clear. this includes the villain. the villain thinks he's the hero of the story know that without conflict, you have no story. give you characters goals and also give them obstacles to reaching these goals buy the book "on writing" by stephen king make every word count. don't burden your story with information that doesn't matter start out with action, not backstory. you need to hook the reader immediately. end each chapter with a hook. never give the reader a convenient place to stop reading I like to outline. I usually have a really detailed one. it keeps me on course. when you read over your dialogue, pretend you're watching a movie of your characters in your head. make sure the dialogue sounds natural and not stilted that's about it ;) Best of luck to you

Michelle P

1. Read - reading wide and far is the most important part of writing. It not only helps you understand what good writing looks like, but it also, and perhaps more importantly, helps you understand what *bad* writing looks like. 2. Don't neglect revision, because as some very smart individual once said, great books aren't written, they're revised.

Subcomandante Insurgente Steve

Some tips on plot: I will start first by going into plot-engines. A plot-engine is what gets the plot up and running and keeps it in motion. There are 2 main ones. Event Driven : These are plots that advance because of a sequence of events. They change about everything included in your story-the setting, action, mood, tone, and your character's reaction. One thing to note is that your protagonist doesn't need to undergo any drastic changes. Character Driven: The events all spring from ongoing changes within your character. If your character is driven to make things happen, they will probably happen. You need plot components to have a good plot. They are problem, complication, and resolution. There are 4 main types of problems. Man against society: These are the stories in which your protagonist is an individual who sees the world differently from those around him. Man against man : A highly recognizable problem is the tale of two rivals. You create two dynamic characters who are totally different. Man against himself: These are more complex, and probably requires a good understanding of psychology. These are the inner struggles of a protagonist who must decide upon a particular path. Man against nature: These are the stories where the protagonist has to dive to the bottom of a trench, climb a mountain, defeat the animal, or survive a disaster. Complications Complication is what make plots interesting. It's not enough to just have a problem, you need to have complications ot make it worse. Keep 2 basic things in mind. 1. Things must look bad as they can possibly be, and then get worse. 2. Complication create change. Resolution It is the way you decide to wrap up your plot. There are 3 main resolutions. Protagonist wins: This is the most popular, because he is the main one the audience has been pulling for throughout. Protagonist loses: This takes the audience in a different turn. You need to make sure even in defeat, the protagonist has become a better person. Antagonist wins: The audience isn't gonna accept the bad guy winning unless he goes some sort of transformation, maybe shedding his evil persona. Plot Requirements It needs direction, changes in points, and obviously, suspense. It also needs a clear beginning, middle, and end. Tricks Multiple viewpoint, narrated from more than one person In Medias Res, meaning in the middle on things, because it starts off right in the middle of action. The reader is yanked in and doesn't get a chance to really come up for air, and that's when you throw in a few chapters that 'back-fill" the events. Your plot has to make sense. 3 examples of bad illogical plots are: The Idiot Plot, when everyone acts like an idiot, like in the horror movies where they split up and get picked off one by one. Nothing that just happens for no reason, author convenience. Rabbit out of hat: Related to author conscience, it is totally unexplainable and no reason for it to happen. Sorry if It's long. Good Luck

Happy Killmore

Don't write long stories until you've mastered short stories. It takes quite a deal of patience and confidence to start and finish a complete novel.

poop

Stop writing. The world has enough bad authors.

R.I.A.,Esther Earl

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