Although my experience as a writer is limited, I believe I have at least some advice I could give you, that could help any aspiring writer get through the first steps. When you first start out writing, it's helpful to know what kind of writer you are. The two terms you might hear flying around are plotter, and pancer. A plotter is a person who likes to plan their story out, a pancer is a person who writes their story as they go along. Personally, I'm more of a plotter. But these two terms are separate ends of a spectrum, and you could be on either end of it, or you could be a little bit of both.
As a plotter, this information will be mostly geared towards planning out your story, but this information can help you even if you're more of a pancer.
When planning your story, world building is a key step. Think about the world that houses your story. How does society work, who is incharge, who makes the rules, what are the religions of this world, what do the inhabitants believe in, how do they get around, how do they treat others, what is the weather like, what are the names of places in this world. Understanding the basics of your fictional world, can help you generate new ideas and decide how the story should go.
When I begin to write a story, I follow a formula that I came up with, that I believe can help you write chapters, episodes, books, movies, and anything else you might be writing. To understand this formula, you must first know my terminology.
Intangible problem
Tangible problem
An intangible problem is a character flaw, emotional problem/ conflict, or a moral dilemma. A tangible problem might be an argument, a fight, a villain, a monster, or something that poses a threat to the character's life or wellbeing.
The formula is as follows: In the beginning of the story, address a tangible problem while hinting at the intangible problem. The characters spend the middle of the story trying to solve the tangible problem while dealing with the intangible problem. At the end of the story the characters usually solve the tangible problem and in the process, either end up fixing the intangible problem or lessening it.
Point of view
When writing, choosing which point of view you use can be very important, because it can determine the feel of your entire story. There are three main points of view. First person, second person, and third person.
First person point of view, is when the person the story is about, tells you what is going on in the story. An example of this is. "I walked distractedly through the school halls as thoughts of the previous day flooded my head."
Second person point of view, is when the story explains what is happening, but it acts like you are a character in the story. An example of this is. "You walk through the halls of your school as thoughts of the previous day flood your brain, distracting you." This point of view is less common than the other two, and it can give your work a "choose your own adventure story" feel to it. But there is nothing wrong with that.
Third person point of view, is when a narrator explains what is going on in your story. An example of this is. "Thoughts from the previous day distracted her, as she walked through the empty hallways of her school."
Abiding by language rules
When writing, you need to pay attention to these three things. Punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Try to do your best with all three of these language rules, do your own research to write understandable sentences and paragraphs. But remember this, even if you are confident your work is good and everything is correct, you should really have someone, anyone proofread it, because no matter how good you think you are, you are still human and you can still make mistakes; unless you are a robot. And if you want to sound a little more intelligent in your writing, try to use uncommon, strange, and/ or unique words in your story instead of very common words.
Characters
When writing characters, make sure to create compelling characters. I have noticed that most characters are made up of four main personality types.
Terminology:
Beleaver
Cynic
Comic relief
Business
Believer. The believer is the character that is kind to most people, believes in people's innocence, sees the world through a child's eyes, and thinks everyone deserves a second chance.
Cynic. The cynic is the character that is sarcastic, makes jokes, is not so kind to people, not always convinced of people's innocence, and doesn't think a lot of people deserve a second chance.
Comic relief. The comic relief is the character that makes us laugh the most, and they might not be very smart in a lot of things.
Business. The business character usually has been hardened by the world, is distrustful of others, selfish, and doesn't think people deserve a second chance at all.
Characters might have just one, or up to all four of these personality types.
Arcs
Making compelling characters also usually involves giving the character one or maybe more than one of the three main character arcs, which are transformation, growth, and fall.
Transformation arc:
This arc type changes the character from an ordinary person into a hero, and is similar to. “The hero's journey.”
The hero’s journey:
We begin in the characters' ordinary world.
2. The character receives a call to adventure of some kind, somehow the character accepts the call, either willingly or not.
3. The character receives assistance, most likely from someone older and/or wiser.
4. The character leaves their world and enters the adventure.
5. The character goes through many trials.
6. The character prepares to face their biggest ordeal.
7. The character enters their darkest hour, there on the verge of death and in some cases die, but they get re-born and better than ever.
8. The character claims some kind of reward, treasure, power, recognition, or respect.
9. The character faces the consequences of their actions, whether that be good or bad.
10. The character returns to their ordinary world.
11. The character has been changed through their adventure, and has outgrown their old life and self.
12. All the plot lines are resolved.
13. The character has returned to their life but better in some or a lot of ways.
Growth arc:
This arc type has the character go through some character development but they do not necessarily go through a complete change.
Fall arc:
This arc type makes the character doom themselves, and possibly others through their own bad choices, and at the end they have usually negatively changed completely.
Also keep in mind, not all characters have to go through an arc of change. These characters would have a flat character arc.
Character development
Try to give characters a good mix of character traits and flaws, and depending on which arc they have, try to show what the traits and flaws turn into. This is a good way to plan their character development.
Example:
Their name. (sara)
Write down what character personality types they have. (Beleaver, cynic)
Their arc type. (transformation)
Then list what you think their traits and flaws should be, and how you think they should go:
Kind
Friendly
A little distrustful of others –to– more trusting
Sarcastic
Insensitive –to– more sensitive
selfish –to– selfless
Dishonest –to– honest
Note:
Numbers 3, 5, 6, and 7 would be intangible problems.
How to plan a chapter or segment of your story
Personally, I plan segments of my stories like this:
The name of the character whose perspective the chapter/ segment is in. (Sara)
What the intangible problem is. (Selfish –to– selfless)
And a description of the beginning, middle, and end of the chapter/ segment.
Tips
Important tips to remember:
As you write, remember that you can switch between each character’s perspectives when a new chapter or segment begins, to show a different character's thoughts and feelings.
2. Pair interesting characters with interesting situations.
3. The overall story is more important than one scene or sentence, so If your story is better going without something or going in a different direction, DO NOT be afraid to change it.
4. Try to think of characters you love and see how those kinds of characters might work in your own story.
5. Write what you know. The things that you know well, will be more accurate then something you know very little about. If you don't know a lot about something you want to write about, do your own research on the subject. If you don't understand what you're writing about, it will show in your work.
6. Trust your instincts when planning/ writing the plot and story.
7. Remember to try not to redeem the unredeemable, like any person or group that is pure evil.
8. When you're writing, try to imagine the scene you're working on as a movie clip. This can help you think of details you might have missed.
9. Try to imagine how someone else would write your work, or try to imagine your work in a different perspective. This can give you new, and great ideas for your story.
10. Try to think how you would write scenes from movies and books. This can help you get more ideas of how to word things in your own writing.
11. No matter how good the art is, if it's not a good story no one will read it.
12. You might start to think that your work is not good enough, or that you should just give up, even if you might have half a novel already written. I'm here to tell you, keep with it. Even if no one buys your work, it would still be quite an accomplishment to write a full story, whether that be a book, screenplay, or cartoon.
13. Try to keep in mind that if you don't do something, no one will.
14. Take your sycology and/ or personality into account maybe give a charictor an arc of what you have been through or what you want to happen to you.
15. When designing the sequence of your story try to make a time line of your chapters also title them and give each one a symbol to distinguish witch charictors perspective its in.
Final words
All of this information is my own personal way of writing stories. It's not perfect, but it can get you through some of the hurdles of writing. But I encourage you to come up with your own ways, and formulas for writing, as you observe stories. After all, no one will understand the method to your madness quite like yourself.
If you want to see how all this information can come together into a story, look up my book "The War of Colossals." I used all the advice listed above to write this story, and it is available on amazon.com, barns&noble.com, and lulu.com
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