Writing Advice

Gotta start somewhere mate.

If I had to suggest two or three books that are engaging to get you into it, I’d say start with something simple and high fantasy (Deltora Quest holds a special place in my heart and would be my recommendation), then move on to something like The Warrior Heir or The Lies of Locke Lamora.

After that my suggestions would be The Name of The Wind, Dragonlance, or Lord of the Rings.

Course that’s just assuming you’re into High Fantasy. I have a toootally separate list for Sci Fi :stuck_out_tongue:

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My favorite thing to do is genre mixing. I’m doing high fantasy based off Celtic myth and superheroes. Or pirates and dinosaurs.

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That’s always fun to work with.

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Myths are always an interesting source for stories. I have a story about the seasons personified in human form, based on some of the Greek details about them (including the four winds as side characters). Though I’m still not at the point of writing, since I haven’t decided on who the antagonist will be or what specifically they would do for conflict.

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Hey guys, I need help, if you were writing for an elementless Matoran/Toa. What would your backstory be for that character?

For a G1 Matoran, it’s easy. None of them have elemental powers. So you could just have them become a Toa by some unconventional means that prevents them from tapping into the elements. Maybe a synthetic Toa was made to try and have extra Toa, but the manufactured design can’t retain elemental energy.

I’m not quite sure about G2 since there wasn’t much lore to begin with.

For G3/Brickonicle, I believe their canon says only 6 Matoran per generation have that because they gain it as Toa. And the cast had made it clear that they would have no other Toa after that (besides Voriki).

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Now I’m not a big writer, but I have posted a few things out here. So This may not be of any use to anyone.

One thing that really helps me is building MOCs of the characters and acting out the scene with them. It really helps me visualize the scene.

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You Pretty much just summed up the last half of one my character’s story but without the assassin part.(I won’t say which because spoilers.)

. Also during the point wher he’s starting to see the evidence that he’s brainwashed have him question what’s normal or not( gah I hope that’s not to edgy.)

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One thing I’ll always remember from my AP English teacher is to avoid using adverbs that end in ‘ly’ when writing creative works. Because ‘ly’ words are an easy way to describe things, challenging yourself to not use them forces you to think creatively (ha, I used an ‘ly’ word) and write larger, more vivid descriptions. It’s an expansion and specific application of “show don’t tell”

For example:
Instead of “he approached slowly,” try “he crept forward.”
Instead of “he spoke softly/quietly,” try “he whispered” or “he said in a hushed tone.”

Sometimes it isn’t easy to find a simple word/clause to replace an ‘ly’ word. In those cases, there’s a good chance you can spread the description across the piece in several sentences. For example, instead of:

“‘Bruh moment lol,’ he said nervously,” try conveying that nervousness through the body language like this:

“His hands shook and his eyes darted back and forth. He started to say something but stopped, shook his head, and then begun again, only to stop once more. At last, he managed to stutter the words ‘Bruh moment lol’.”

I wrote all these examples straight off the top of my head so they’re probably a bit rough, especially the last one, but hopefully those demonstrate the gist of my post.

I hope someone finds this helpful :slight_smile:

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If there’s a concise term for this please, I’d love to know it. I’ve had trouble finding a balance appreciating both reading and writing descriptions. Perhaps this falls under the ‘showing vs telling’ debate/spectrum, but it’s more about applying it to how much of your worldbuilding you build into your writing. (‘worldbuilding’ used as a catch-all term, not mean to exclude realistic and historical fiction).

I’m picturing it as two ends of a spectrum, possibly related to genres. 1) lots of description, often rich, detailed, consistent, etc. in high fantasy and historical fiction (like Lord of the Rings and Count of Monte Cristo). Extreme “telling”, if you will. 2) Fly by the seat of your pants and leave more up to the reader’s imagination, and Vogon poetry from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comes to mind, where we hardly have any real references to the nouns/verbs/descriptors, but still get a sense of what’s what.

How much to leave up to the reader’s imagination? How much to write out for them? I also get that this is highly subjective, varies by audience, individual, culture, genre, contemporary time period, etc. Personally, I know I prefer to read less description, but writing-wise, I do really enjoy working out the details of worldbuilding and writing them in, but I do worry it becomes too descriptive (where the ‘creative’ part of writing should kick in, I guess?)

Interested in other perspectives from reading and writing side of things : )

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I once read that a good writing exercise was to write a little bit every day.

I hope this helps you :slightly_smiling_face:

For me, it really comes down to what a particular piece is going for. I love all the books you gave as examples, but LotR wouldn’t be as good with HHGttG-style descriptions, and vice versa. Imo, the most important thing to consider is what genre/style you’re aiming for, and fitting your descriptive style to that.

My writing advice to all of you: Check your spelling

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My new phone has the worst autocorrect. XD

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Give yourself an engineered word count: not too big - not too small. If you make it too big, your story may seem exhausting and lose passion and profit from descriptive vocabulary. Too small and not enough could be accomplished, or at least in a polished way. Word counts can provide a goal for writers to be used for tracking progression through a story.

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But if wikipedia said it, it must be true, because nothing you read on there is ever wrong or under-researched, so therefore, them citing themselves as a source must make it even more true! :stuck_out_tongue:

The chosen rule, this may be, but nevertheless, a darkness in it, I do sense. It is too old, and be accepted into training, it shall not. :stuck_out_tongue:

I would like to add that “writer’s block” is a myth. Even if I’m in a situation where “nothing inspired comes to mind”, I can still keep coming up with words to put down on paper/the digital file; sure, they might be really boring words, and it will probably be really boring to write them, but the important part is that I follow the plan and meet my word count. Once I actually have something down on paper, then I can edit, revise, and make it worthwhile to read; similar to a principle of comic book drawing: “Erase, Erase, Erase!” no one (without accessing savant-esque abilities) got drawing right the first time, but everyone can draw something, keep making corrections 'til they get it right, and build up muscle memory to get it right earlier the next time.:slightly_smiling_face: (I’m not saying word counts per se are an absolute must, but I’m using them in a project I’m currently working on).

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I beg to differ!:slightly_smiling_face: Here’s an idea-manufacturing process for you:

  1. Take something normal that’s not extraordinary in the least (in this example, we’ll choose a coffee shop)
  2. Give it an extraordinary element (in this example, the extraordinary element is that talking weevils have a hidden city in the shop that they access through cracks in the brick sections of the shop’s walls, and there is also a hidden gateway somewhere in the shop that lets people access this small world of wonder.)
  3. Now that you have your setting, think of story engines that this setting can bring (Does one of the young middle-child weevils feel like he’s a just a face in the crowd in the midst of the rest of the litter he’s a part of? How does he resolve this? (He could spend many episodes coming up with and enacting different plans on how to deal with it that all blow up in his face before finding the right way.) Did the workers at the at the coffee shop enlist some of the weevils’ help Ratatouille-style, but need to get rid of the evidence now that the health inspector’s coming? Antics ensue. Is one of the regulars a cop who is also in-on-the-secret and occasionally gets some of the weevils’ help to fight crime? You’ve got some good old-fashioned mystery and good vs. evil right there. Is one of the owner’s kids afraid of bugs, so he introduces him to this hidden world to help him overcome his fears? Let wonder and audience exploration ring!)
  4. You’ve got your story world. Now, simply do all the “How To Write A Great Series” stuff, and you’ve got yourself a great franchise!:slight_smile:
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@Jathru_Cranli That’s a great piece of advice! Thanks :slightly_smiling_face: With stories, I’ve often found it difficult when at the idea stage, finding something and deciding it’s good enough to write about.

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Thanks, @captain_subtle! :slightly_smiling_face: :+1:

All glory to God.:slight_smile: :+1:

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Praise Mata Nui! :smiley: