Writing stories, how do you do it? (tips) Started a thread where people can post tips for story writing. Hopefully this will inspire members (both new and old) to post some stories in the Library! How do you get started on writing a story?
The first thing to do to start a story is write this : Once upon a time... i'm joking. I think that first of all you need one idea!
What I do is this: I plan my story vaguely either on paper or in my head (paper's better because that way it's easier to see what you've planned so far and that way you won't forget it - if you don't loose the paper! ). Sometimes I write the story before I've created my sim family and then take the screens later. If your having writers block then why don't you make yourself a nice sim family and make them plan out a story for you? Pictures: Take lots of pictures while you're playing (I say, you should take as many pics as you can - your better off with too many than none at all). Looking at the pictures that you've taken can make you come up with an idea for a story. Ideas: Write down the ideas that you've come up with (like my teachers like to say: make a brainstorm! :yuck:). It might be lame ideas but write it down anyway so you don't forget it. You might want to use it in some of your stories later. If writing them down doesn't sound good to you then just plan them out in your head (like I usually do) but then you might forget some of your ideas that you came up with. Titles: I HATE choosing titles for my stories. They always make the stories sound so uninteresting. I never come up with anything that's smart and witty like Michelle's "Flirting with Diz Aster" (great story, BTW! You should check it out in the library if you already haven't - it's under Humour, I believe ). What I like to do is to write all the lame ideas on a scrap piece of paper. Every single piece of crap that I can think of, I write down. I leave it for a few days, going back and writing more things down and editing a few names here and there. Then I take a look and choose the name that feels the best and then I roll with it (you can always come up with something new later). I also recommend not thinking of a title until your story is done (unless you come up with something magnificent from the start). too.
(carrying on my last post, chopped it so that it wouldn't get too long. ) Naming your characters: The names that you give your characters in the book are very important. Personally, I think that the name ads more character to your person. For example: Liz in my "The Viscottis' Tales at Pesky Peek" is a nice person and her name makes her sound nice (I think anyway :silly. Edgar for a smart, witty person. Mirelly for a helpful and friendly person :winks:, etc. If your having problems with names for your character, I recommend doing the same thing as with the titles. Editing: NEVER FORGET TO EDIT YOUR STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is one of the most important things when it comes to writing, I think. You will always find something in your story that you don't like or want to change. To make a 'perfect' story you have to edit it. And you'll spot those annoying spelling mistakes and typos. And the most important thing with your story is that you're happy with what you've got. Even if you don't like it, someone else probably will. And a good story doesn't have to be 100% perfect. Books can have their ups and downs too, just like people. :classic:
The Beginning and End: Everybody likes a good ending. Ending your story with a cliff hanger is nearly always a hit. It's always great with a good beginning to capture your readers (this can be very hard 'cause a lot of people - me included - like to base the beginning on getting to know the main characters, which can get rather boring -- both for the writer and the reader). If the beginning sucks for example, then work on your plot and end. If the plot or the ending is good then it won't matter that your beginning wasn't great. (I've noticed this with some of the stories that I have written in the past. ) Some pretty obvious ways not to begin/end your story: like Vega was hinting, do not begin your story with the classical "Once upon a time". :silly: It makes the story seem uninteresting and childish. Another thing that annoys me is if someone has written a great story and then ends it with "... And then I woke up and it was all a dream" because they were too stressed or too lazy to write a proper ending. And another thing: You don't have to write the story starting with the beginning and then ending with the end. If you have a massive brain wave or something that has to do with the end, then don't wait for the end to come along in the story. Just write it and then stick the bits together when you're done! A lot of famous authors do this, might I ad. :winks:
This is an outstanding collection of hints, Muffin-Tacos. They're good for ANY story writing, not just sim stories. Might I add -- Write something, whatever comes into your head: Sometimes I feel completely uninspired, but force myself to start writing something, anything, down. It doesn't take long before I'm absorbed in the story again, and the words and ideas come more easily. It's just getting that very first sentence down on paper (or up on the screen in your word processor) that's so hard. Beyond the first sentence it gets easier. But what if it really WAS a dream? What do you do then? Just curious because I ran into this problem. Reference: Andromeda Rose So it wasn't a dream dream, but an illusion from a telepathic high priest sort of guy. Tricky stuff. And I need to figure out a proper ending for the story.
Nice one, Lynet! That's a great tip! Might I ad this your tip: :winks: If it's the first sentence that's hard. Why don't you try to write the rest of your story and forget about the first sentence for a while? You can always stick it in there later when you come up with something. If I start writing the rest of the story, then I start getting ideas for that annoying first sentence (or sometimes sentences) and coming up with something isn't as hard as it was before I started writing the story. That was a smart move, turning the dream into an illusion. And I've had this problem too, a couple of times when I've been writing. This is how I overcame the difficulties of the ending of the dream. I tried to carry on the chapter a bit after the dream, by explaining how the person felt in my story after the dream and how he wasn't sure if it actually was a dream. I also tried to explain how he was forgetting bits of the dream - which often happens in real life too - as he tried to remember what had happened in it. That way I kind of avoided the "... And then I woke up and it was all a dream. THE END" bit.
OK, Andy Rose and Cory never clearly knew what was real and what wasn't at the very end. There was ambiguity. (I like that word.) Too much ambiguity, as I think back on it. I think I should rewrite the chapter just a little to have the plot lean more toward some sort of mind-controlled time machine, rather than illusion. (Oi, I am just now called down to breakfast. Love that man! ) Anyway, you are WAY right about the "It was all a dream" business. And thanks for the suggestions. They're very good.
Great tips! Thanks so much, muffin and Lynet. I'm going to do some simming this weekend and take lots of pictures. I'll also brainstorm some ideas and try to make a story plan. Keep the tips coming!
Here are some tips off the top of my head: Just write. Get it down. Have a good idea? Sit down and write it out, as much as you can, with notes at the end if you run out of time that outline the rest of the story, so you won't forget. Carry a notebook (and don't forget the pen!). Inspiration always strikes me when I'm somewhere inconvenient, like the train. Use active, evocative words, and be careful to choose the right word. Think about what you want your reader to feel or see. (This comes in editing. On the first round, again, just write.) Avoid helper verbs like was or were and try not to use gerunds (words that end in ing). "She trembled" is so much more powerful than "she was trembling." Even small details can be very telling about a character. For great atmospheric descriptions, see Lynet's stories. She can say so much about someone from the way they clean a toilet or sip their tea. Details bring a reader into your story. For example, just saying someone drank their coffee is boring. Saying she drank it slowly, clinking her spoon against the inside of the cup so it played a little tune that annoyed Reginald to the point of tears is better. But having said that, don't "over detail." Use the right details and move on. Just be sure to use the five senses as much as possible to draw your reader in. Know yourself. Find your style, which you can only do by writing and writing and then writing some more. I'm a spartan writer. I hate background details like what color the tablecloths are, what the sky looks like. I like to get to the point and then fill the rest in later. Hubby jokingly calls me Ernest Hemingway. Mirelly's a fanciful writer who likes to play with words. Lynet's an evocative writer who can make the scenery tell her story for her (can you tell I'm jealous?). Dialog should move the story along. It can be natural, and seemingly mundane, but should say something about your characters. Do not use dialog for exposition, as in "Are you going to the fair?" "You mean the one where everyone in the world will be there, including my arch-nemesis Reginald?" No one talks like that. Be natural, be funny, be sad, be real. Remember that almost no one says exactly how they feel when they talk. No one wants to be that vulnerable. A brave character who does is often refreshing and funny, a whole story of them, a little far-fetched, unless you're doing it on purpose. I love writing wacky characters because they can be brave and funny, like Luna Fey, who talks to topsoil. But a whole city of Lunas would be trying. Listen to people talking. Write it down if you can do it without getting caught. It will help you with your own dialog. Every scene should have a point. If someone just goes to the theater and watches a movie and then goes home and nothing happens it doesn't belong in the story unless you are underscoring that this person a) is lonely and always has to go to the movies alone, b) is a creature of habit and next time will be surprised out of their routine or c) you get the idea. Scenes can be small, like a moment of understanding between two people (actually, that's huge) or seeing a butterfly and realizing your life has meaning or falling off a cliff and having to be rescued by helicopters. The point is something should happen, and it should move the story along. Pick a story you care about, and characters your reader will care about. Make them human. Give them flaws. Show their warts. The more vulnerable your characters are the more human they will seem. No one wants to read about Polly Perfect unless underneath her perfect veneer Polly's getting reading to crack. And the more you care about the story you're telling, the more your readers will care. So if you hate ice and snow for goodness sake don't set a story in Antarctica. Every story needs conflict. If the characters are already in love at the beginning of the story you will need to give them some conflict like one of them cheats or they lose all their money or they must join forces to fight evil or whatever. But there needs to be conflict or it's not interesting. In a short story, you just need to paint a picture. Here's a snapshot of this person's life, an epiphany they had, a closeup if you will. Longer stories require character growth. Suzy should start out hating turnips but at the end of the story find them quite nice. The most important tip I can give you? Just write. I have been writing all my life, but it's never too late for anyone to start. Don't talk yourself out of it. If you want to write, do it. Don't tell yourself you can't. You can. Go for it. Practice really does make perfect.
One last tip: don't "head hop." By that, I mean, pick a point of view for a scene and stick to it. Don't hop from John's head to Suzy's and then back again. And a story should have at the most two protagonists, and then one of them should take precedence over the other. Decide whose story it is and stick to that. I break this rule like crazy in PDL, but for my "real" writing I have one character (or two, if it's a romance) and I stick to it. And each character gets a whole scene to themselves, no buttinskys. And don't follow the very bad example I set in Veronaville, where I careen from present to past tense. I wrote that on the fly. Pick a tense you like and stick to it. The expected tense is past tense and that suits most stories just fine. (I said, rather than I say.) I may edit Veronaville some day to only use one.
Wow! Thanks for those wonderful tips SBW. Those examples such as 'trembled' and the coffee cup example made an important point about the wording in the story. Thanks again to all who are contributing in this thread - it's really inspiring.
I'm blushing, SBW. Those are awesome complements. Passive voice versus Active voice. Microsoft Word beats me up about using passive voice all the time. Passive voice, and sentence fragments. That last sentence was actually just a fragment of a sentence. I like sentence fragments. Use 'em all the time. ATMOSPHERE I love playing around with the idea of atmosphere, trying to add it to the scene. Sometimes I even succeed. When I'm writing, I think of the natural world as ALIVE. Not just the animals and the trees, but the rocks and stones, mountains and oceans. I guess the idea might be called anthropomorphism. The world around my characters breathes and moves and throws things at them.
Wow, thanks for those tips, SBW. Some of them made me re-write my third chapter for the Viscottis story. (I'm finding that chapter harder to write because it's adding so much more to the story than my other two chapters that were kind of boring and sucked. *LOL* ) Keep the tips coming, everybody! I'm loving them to bits. :slaphappy:
wow guys thanks for the inspiration, i really want to start writting but i cant think of anything, haha like someone said (i cant remeber which person sorry!) its never to late to start writing, hmmm well im having my haircut soon so that should give me some time to think.....
I've always planned to write up a little how-to about my "sim falling out of window" pictures. So I wrote it up in my blog, here. I broke it up into parts I and II, because each blog posting only allows 4 picture. I also resurrected a couple of old picture from I,Sim as additional examples. It's simple, requiring only the exercise machine and the moveobjects cheat. Not a big deal, but occasionally, someone asks about it, so there it is.
I think that another thing that helps good writing, is to read alot. You visualize images as you read and learn what words evoke what pictures. I, not that I am anybody, think that clarity of thought is hard to achieve. Much of our thinking is muddy, confused and contradictory. Of course, what some people recomend is: simplify, simplify, simplify. (Or in other words, keep it simple, st...d.)
