posted
Hi. I have a question that I was hoping some of you might be able to help me with. You see, I'm an avid reader. I especially love fantasy and Sci-Fi. I've been trying to get into writing for a while now, just for kicks and giggles, but I just can't seem to do it. The problem is, I can come up with fantastic worlds (well fantastic in my opinion anyway ), create rules for those worlds, hierarchies of being, gods, demons, heroes and villians but I just can seem to come up with anything for them to do. I can get an overarching plot for them but its the details that really get me. What are the characters actually doing and such. It seems like anything I can come up with is derivative and trite. I feel like its all been done before. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone had any tips on how to get things really moving. Thankyou in advance.
posted
It has all been done before. If you let yourself dwell on that you'll get paralyzed, as you found out.
The trick is find a different direction, and to base your story on people instead of setting or genre. My favorite two examples are Stephen Gould's Jumper and Robert Silverberg's Dying Inside. Both deal with cliched old standbys: teleportation and telepathy. And neither are like anything done before. Jumper is about the person and his relationships with others. Dying Inside is about a man coming to grips with aging and the loss of his abilities. Neither could be written without the fantastic elements, but the stories are not about those elements.
Write about people. Come up with their stories, their needs and obstructions and worst fears and greatest triumphs, and then drop them into the setting you've devised. But people first.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I have to agree. All of my favorite books are character-driven, regardless of genre.
And Chris, you took the words right out of my mouth (better, though, of course! muuuch better!). It *has* all been done before. Even Shakespeare borrowed storylines.
Posts: 1545 | Registered: May 2002
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posted
I agree with what Chris said, but would like to add something more. You said you like creating fantasy worlds and larger overarching plots but aren't as good at the smaller character based story. I've done writing in "shared-world" settings before, in my case 3rd party D&D settings. It's similar in that the larger world and the major history, cultures and such are already there. Now you have to write a story in that world. Here's one way to do that:
Pick a standard TYPE of story, the sort of thing everyone knows. Let's say a Rescue Mission.
What are the elements of that story? A Hero, a Victim, a Danger, and maybe a Villain who caused the Danger. What could each of these things be like in this world? Find something unique about the setting to become the Danger. Have something about the setting's larger plot be the Villain's motivation. Shape the Hero and Victim as people who grew up in this place that you know so well.
Start writing a rough draft or outline of the story, but let the setting give you complications. Let your characters do things based on the way they would see the world, not just on how you think the story should go. If this means completely changing the plot from your original idea, even better. Eventually your story will have evolved into something loosely recognizable as the "standard rescue story" but full of unique twists that can only happen in your world.
posted
I find that it helps to make your characters real people--with real desires and problems. Take a bunch of real people and throw them in one of your fantastic worlds, and I bet they'll start doing stuff.
Posts: 2880 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
Some people are able to write using outlines and such. They plot the whole thing out and then write within the structure. They'll rip out passages that don't fit the structure without much of a qualm.
That's a valid way to do it.
Other people think of a situation, or a problem, or a feeling, and just start writing. And the characters they create along the way are what they need to be, and they pretty much dictate how the story is going to go. This kind of writing is a journey of discovery for the writer, because he or she doesn't know for sure how things are going to turn out.
That's a valid way to write as well.
I could never do it the first way. The structure paralyzes me. Knowing how everything is going to happen makes the writing feel pointless, because in my head, the story has already happened. It'd be like rewriting a story by someone else.
But that's personal preference. My little sister's first novel is coming out next year, and she's definitely the outline type of writer. I have a short story (just shy of novella length) coming out in an anthology in November, and other than some grammatical tweaking and rearranging, I pounded the whole 9970 words out in four days when I was working as a secretary.
If you find that you're stuck, just write. Seriously. Just sit down, think of a person, real or imaginary, and have them walk into a room. Or trip over a branch. Or pour themselves a drink. And just write. Forget about what you think might happen... find out what happens.
I started my story with "Kara never felt the bullet hit her."
And pick up a copy of Stephen King's On Writing. It's got loads of great suggestions and ideas about writing.
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), create rules for those worlds, hierarchies of being, gods, demons, heroes and villians but I just can seem to come up with anything for them to do. I can get an overarching plot for them but its the details that really get me. What are the characters actually doing and such. It seems like anything I can come up with is derivative and trite. I feel like its all been done before. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone had any tips on how to get things really moving. Thankyou in advance.
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