Tips in writing a story

[Acolyte01]

So I’m kinda planning on writing a story though I’m still at the planning phase so to those who have written stories can you give me some writing tips that can make the story good

 

[Kotohood]

All I can give you is three main tips that I've faced during these past few weeks writting up chapters.

1) Plan out everything you can. Characters, traits, plot, premise, direction, and your style.

2) Find your own voice, write what you want to write not what others want to read. Take criticism to heart but don't butcher your work for the sake of pleasing audience.

3) Edit twice or more, maybe once after you wrote the chapter and once after a week or so.

4) Brush up on your grammar. It will save you lots of time during editing.


If you are looking for more practical advice and not 'Do your best' kinda advice then I suggest reading up on some writting techniques. For example, The Emotion Thesaurus is a good book if you want to better write on the emotions your character is feeling. I would list down more books, but you can more find books like that just by google searching.


Edit: I said 3 but I listed down 4, don't mind that failure.

 

[GDLiZy]

Write first then go back to edit to add some foreshadowing or corrections. Or, make a comprehensive outline for your story and let your imagination connected the dots during your writing phases. Remember, don't be afraid to delete the whole chapter to rewrite or scrape the whole plotline for something even better!

 

[Deleted member 9915]

Just cry. Like me. Writing a series/book takes a lot of commitment, persistence, and patience.

Lastly, be prepared for bursts of inspiration because they'll mercilessly destroy the pace of story. You might end up writing another story or worse, discard your original plot. Just keep swimming. Persist. Persist. Persist. Fighting!!!

 

[Pistachio]

So I’m kinda planning on writing a story though I’m still at the planning phase so to those who have written stories can you give me some writing tips that can make the story good

Another thing too is to start writing. Start on a chapter be it the intro or a random scene, just start putting it to words. Begin writing a word, a phrase, a paragraph; baby steps like these are akin to a domino effect. You can plan and all that but from my experience, if you don't start a chapter, you'll only be struck there; at the planning stage. It is a fact that it won't be perfect the first time, probably be all over the place too, but what's fascinating with writing is that you learn along the way. The 'practice makes perfect' adage applies here especially if you're a beginner and even the phrase, 'quantity over quality'.

To have a good story, planning and outlining won't be enough, you have to open your laptop, or maybe get your pen and paper, and sit down to write the tale only you can deliver.

Good luck!

 

[jinxs2011]

Make sure to note down ideas so you don't forget them. Before starting to write, decide whether you'll write in third or first person, from which character's perspective and in what tense. Make sure you pay attention to your tenses, as you're probably liable to slip up quite a bit when you're starting out. Make sure readers can always tell who's talking - unless, of course, they're not supposed to know. This doesn't necessarily mean put the character's name in brackets before each bit of speech, but just make it fairly clear. Don't just do this:
"talking"
"talking"
"talking"
"talking"
If there's more than two characters in the conversation and you do this, the reader will have absolutely no clue who is talking, unless characters have specific vocal quirks. Even if there's only two characters talking, if one character says two lines in a row, it could still throw the reader off. Best to have some sort of indication. even:
"talking" he said.
"talking" she said.
"Talking" he said.
"talking" he said.
is significantly better than nothing and pretty much sufficient in cases where there are only two people of opposite genders in a conversation, and the readers know the genders of the characters beforehand.

 

[Gledis]

Plot development—Stay true to the story.
Characters development—don’t make your characters stray away from your given path.
Regarding ideas—Keep them in a notebook
Keep note of everything—Don’t forget what you write on your last chapter else it will come haunting you in the form of criticism.
Always create a weakness your characters must have, else it will be too op and can’t be any special from the rest.
Harem gender—MHeroines must have their own side story and development else it will all be like some girls trying to use the MC for their own gains.
MC must stay in good shape: if you damage him then say that there was a fruit that made him recover then that’s Bullshit.
Keep Fan service brief: else somebody will ask for more and the novel will derail from the correct path.

Most importantly ~~>Make The beginning of every chapter and it’s ending great! Else viewers won’t see any funny stuff.
Good Luck Kouhai!

 

[DaoFox]

focus on what story you want to tell then build on from there. plan enough to be able to go ahead with the story, but don't over plan such that you just end up procrastinating from writing said story.

also be accepting of the fact that your plans will change. as you progress you will find that what you planned doesn't work for the characters, so work in the changes so its fits, but not so much that you change the story you wanted to tell, in that situation you have to reverse it and instead make changes to the character.

by the end you will find your story and characters very different to how you planned at the beginning. this is just the nature progression of things.

 

[Azrie]

Know what you want to write and just write it. Outlines are nice but I think finding your style comes first. Also one word for writing when you don't feel like it. Commitment. There is one word for an author that never gives up: Published.

My biggest advice is just write. Everyone has their own ways of telling their story and pacing, just plan out the general outline of the story but it is likely to change if you don't know what you are doing with it. So I think you shouldn't worry much about it. My story was supposed to be a LitRPG and it ended up as a lighthearted slice of life.

 

[Nihilaine]

Don't start your writing journey, with a heavily themed plotline that focused onto kingdom building and politics or anything which needed alot of research.

I implore you, don't do it! Its brutal and time consuming! Don't be an idiot like me who pick those things and instead start your first story with something more simpler instead.

 

[in_awe]

The more you write, the more you'll fall in love with it so you'll be fine

 

[S-Scherr]

There's a lot of great advice above for writing a story. I would add, if you're just planning on writing a story, that's one thing, but if you're planning on writing a serial story, that's something entirely different. Once you start publishing a serial online there is now the added demand to keep a deadline for the sake of readers who are following your story. So be sure you know what you're getting into before you start posting. I would recommend not posting anything for a while (if you're going for the serial route) and just enjoy writing your tale behind the scenes. Get those first few chapters on the pages and stay consistent. Building momentum as a writer goes along with the commitment that's already been mentioned. Just write... and keep on writing until you've reached a point where your story can 'breathe'. From that point, it's often much easier to plan and plot and deviate your course if necessary. And no matter what you have outlined, leave room to be flexible with your storylines because when your characters come to life, they often do unpredictable things. Good luck ;)

 

[Ai-chan]

Several simple tips:
1. Plan at least the basic frame of your story, which are
a) Basic plot (intro, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion)
b) The main characters
c) The setting
d) The main premise

2. Do not worry about chapters. There may be times when some chapters get someone hard to write, so just to the next or any chapter that you find easiest to write. Don't stop writing.

3. Have thick skin. Humans are trash. There will always be jerks and trolls who think they're being funny by kicking you down over and over. There are also people who have no lives who think they're better than other people and will give you the worst rating just because you exist and you created it. These are people who would claim that they can make better fighter jets without knowing how fighter jets work. They are basically trash, but there are plenty of them around, so before you can identify them as trash for ignore, they'd first come off as legitimate readers, so you invest a lot of attention on them only to realize that they're just assholes who want to kick you down. We really need another world war to put the fear of gods back into these assholes.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

i planned nothing but ero, ended up not writing about ero, still got nearly a million views at webnovel. The lesson? Memes. Write about memes, milfs and a MC slightly touched in the head. Thats all you need, my friend. Thats bad advice though, dont take it. Unless you're a genius like me, then fake it till you make it. Bullshit your way to glory. Thats also bad advice, always assume you're shit tier and be humble. For reals? Create your characters fully. Their personality. Then the scenarios. Then let them run wild. Think, "what would X do in that situation?" Me, i take no responsibility for my characters. To me they're "people" and they do whatever they want in the situation i present them in. Know your characters and you know how they'll react. Then all you gotta worry about is the plot. Also, thats bad advice if you already have a detailed plotline. But if not, if you're wingin' it, do that.

 

[Ruyi]

I found that reading a lot helps my writing. Reading stories, I mean, because it lets me see how other authors set up their plot, characters, and arcs and figure out ways to make my own.

I used to plan out all the little details but now I stick to just having a beginning, middle, and end and a list of relevant plot points that should happen in between to drive my characters from A to C. Then I start them off with what I've prepared for them at the beginning and see where the characters lead me from there. There's no rush to get to the Next Big Plot Point, and I end up having more fun seeing them take the path less traveled. :)

 

[Jemini]

All I can give you is three main tips that I've faced during these past few weeks writting up chapters.

1) Plan out everything you can. Characters, traits, plot, premise, direction, and your style.

2) Find your own voice, write what you want to write not what others want to read. Take criticism to heart but don't butcher your work for the sake of pleasing audience.

3) Edit twice or more, maybe once after you wrote the chapter and once after a week or so.

4) Brush up on your grammar. It will save you lots of time during editing.

These are generally good tips, but they can be refined further for more effective use. Especially the first one which I take the most issue with.

1) Plan out everything you can. Characters, traits, plot, premise, direction, and your style.

Planning is good, but it can also parallelize you and make you never wind up starting in the first place. So, when it comes to planning you do have to do some prioritizing. There is also something missing from the list, that is your world's lore. This can range from "It's the real world, but this location in the real world has this kind of history and background." to the entire magic system, history, and geography of the fantasy or alien world your story is based in.

I would prioritize the items from the list, plus the lore as I just said, as follows.

1) Lore and premise.

These are the two most important things on the list. You want to have a VERY good idea of your lore and premise. This is the foundation of the story, and this goes double if you want to skimp on the other items further down the list. Even if the rest of the items are almost completely ignored, having a strong lore and premise will be a firm foundation that allows you as the writer to improvise and figure out where those other things need to be while you are writing.

You can never go back and fix your lore and premise once you bungle them, but almost everything else can be explored and fooled around a little bit with as you are trying to find your feet.

2. Characters.

Good strong characterization is what sells the story for your readers, it is extremely important. While you are making a character, character traits and personality are minor factors. The thing you REALLY want to focus on is what professional story tellers call a "character spine." A character spine is the one thing you can sum up in a single sentence that best describes your character's motivation in life. The character spine is the thing that drives and defines all of your character's actions throughout the story. Everything else just flows from that.

Aside from coming up with some idea of the character spine, the other thing I would recommend is get some experience in role play. Role play is the best place to learn how to wing it with a character. Having to improv due to your one character being the only thing under your control and having to respond to other people who are controling their own characters will challenge you more and force you to pay a lot more attention to what defines and motivates your character.

3. Style.

This goes into finding your own voice. You need to have your own voice in your writing in order to make a compelling story. The lore and premise are the body and bones of your story. The characters are the heart and blood of the story. Your style could be said to be the soul of the story. It is etherial and hard to define half the time, but without a good sense of defined style your story just feels dead, especially in regards to the more definable things like chapter length, perspective, and defining writing characteristics which will make your story a total mess if you are inconsistent with your style in regards to those things.

4. Plot and direction.

These are important, but just starting your story is more important. Remember, web novels are kinda like your rough draft. This allows you to just start without having pre-planned your plot and direction. You can find those later. (Just... you DO actually have to find them at some point, the sooner the better.) It is entirely possible to edit later in order to fix an early lack of plot and direction so long as the rest of your work is good.

5. Character traits.

Your character spine, as mentioned in #2, is very VERY important. However, simple surface level character traits, while they can be endearing, are so unimportant that you could decide to just not think about them at all. In fact, I would actually recommend against planning character traits. Allow them to develop on their own as a result of the character spine. If you have a well constructed spine for the character, good traits should pop up on their own while you are in the middle of writing.

 

[tak]

Are you writing a printed book or webnovel?

Printed book: take your time, you can edit as much as you want. Story might change, but it's closer to perfection with every revision.

Webnovel: TBH reader-me care more about frequent updates so... Think of this like your draft. You've edited it a few times. You plan the big picture but not the detail. It's not perfect, but it's out there. There's WN and LN, chill.
-said someone who haven't updated because my plan isn't whole.

 

[Ninetailed_Furball]

A bit late, but I wanted to point out something that's been neglected.

I think these suggestions are great for starting a story. Especially Jemini's post, but there's one thing that's critical to writing that most people tend to forget. That's a schedule.

You don't need a complicated, multi-step schedule, but you need to commit yourself to something like "finishing a chapter by 5pm on saturday". You can be a little late on it by a few hours, but never, ever, let the date turn before finishing it. Don't ever slack on this one aspect, or else you'll end up procrastinating, pushing your date by one day, then two the next time, then three the time after that, and eventually you're looking at being weeks late and wondering if it's worth even bothering to open up that half-finished chapter anymore.

It's a very common mistake, and one that I really think people need to watch out for. It's not just starting the story that's important, it's continuing to put pen to paper after you've finished your big spurt at the beginning. I know, as I've got dozens of half-finished stories that are as long as 50 chapters in that I gave up on for one reason or another, with the biggest being that I stopped committing to continuing them.

 

[TLCsDestiny]

You'll need a plot. Even if it's a basic type of plot, just give the readers a reason to get involved in your story and you yourself too!
Write about something you like! What's the point if you're going to write a story about something you don't like!? If you like romance, do it! If you like Historical, do it! Figure out your genre's!
Don't write too much that you don't know about...If you haven't experienced something, it would be hard to write about it, so try to keep close to what you already have experienced or could know from someone you know that has experienced it.
Give your characters one thing that shines the most, whether it is greedy or smart, let at least one thing stand out to not only show the difference between them but also helps you remember who would say or act as such.
Don't give yourself a deadline, it'll push you and you might stop writing altogether!
Don't worry so much about how many people read it, it doesn't make the book good or bad! Remember not everyone will like it, because each person has their own likes and dislikes.
Well, it looks like lots of topics have already been talked about so, just go ahead, write for a while and point some things down and see what you can do with it.
(-MC will start like this, grow to become like this) ?
(-A game that will only be half of the story because in rl, this will happen) ?
Stuff like that...
Oh, and write it first in word or whatnot, a few people have lost their work if done online because of some reason or another.
Good Luck!

 

[gaylolis]

It all depends on what you think is good. Maybe you want to list the things you like in a story and incorporate your own version, learning 'bout those that work for you or not and switch things up accordingly.

Like they said, write what you love and have fun :D /