I've been struggling with...really picking up my work and finishing it. Just to back-track, I've been working on a YA fantasy novel probably since late middle school, early high school and I'm 239 pages into the story and I don't know how much farther I have until I'm done, but I do feel like it's eh...maybe close?
Anyway, every summer I have this half-hearted goal that by the end of it, I'll also write the end of my novel, but THIS IS THE SUMMER to cut the crap and get this novel DONE.
So to help me get my act together, and if you need a boost to get YOUR act together (if you feel slightly guilty, I'm talking to you...McGruder) then I've collected some tips for writers in any stage of writing.
1. Make a goal of writing for five minutes a day, every day. That's what I've heard: either 5-10 minutes or just a page a day. And if you think about it, if you write a page a day for a year, that's 365 pages minimum done and that's a book! I have less to write and less time to do it in, so if I do a page a day, I could seriously pull this off.
2. Writing a good novel isn't just about great dialog or a plot to hook in the reader; both have to be as believable as possible even if it's fiction/fantasy. The best way to get believable characters is basically knowing everything about them, like they're a real person. Sounds super easy, right? Here's a few ways that I've heard works for different people:
*write a blog in the voice of your character. You get into their heads and make
statements and decisions like they would in real life. Obviously you can put it in a word
doc, or if you feel like it, put it in a real blog and design it, whatever. Just don't adopt
multiple personalities, okay?
*Fill out this sentence for as many characters as you can stand:
My name is {name} and I am a {age} year-old {place in society/occupation/ect.} who wants {something/someone}.
If you can't answer this for your characters, then take a step back and figure it out. If your novel doesn't outline this for your readers, then make adjustments! This also helps
when designing characters and giving them a driven purpose.
3. Everyone wants something; I want something (actually a lot of things) and I'm sure you want something; if you don't then you might be in a vegitable state. Every quality character wants something and the story is there to show the readers if they get what they want or not. So if you're stuck w/ the storyline (if I'm stuck on a storyline...) then that's something to help steer you back.
Does that help? I'm here for you! If you're writing, wanting to write then let me know where you are and where you want to go. If you want more advice, I hope to post more soon. None of these are my ideas; they're things that I've heard at LTUE Symposiums or in my Creative Writing class, so I'm not some kind of genius or published puffball. If anything, I need this advice, but I want to spread the word.
Do you have any advice you want to add? Feel free to comment and add!
2 comments:
Check out oneword.com. It's a really cool sight that gives you one word a day and you have 60 seconds to write about it and you can share with other writers, see what they're writing. Check it out!
That's quite a novel idea. I actually tried it, but when I clicked "go" the page said "time's up!" and I'm like, "you didn't even let me start to type!" So we'll see how it goes. But that's fun; I did something like that in my Creative Writing class and 1/5 entries are actually great and you could expand it into an essay or something.
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