Author Topic: Just a little question  (Read 4693 times)

Offline Ursiel

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Just a little question
« on: September 28, 2007, 02:38:30 AM »
Well, I enjoy writing greatly, which is odd for my age group (I'm 13) although, when I begin to write, I end up losing my inspiration and I have about 50 unfinished writing pieces that I just give up on or forget about XD. I need help finding some kind of inspiration. Anyone have any ideas? I feel like I should write something, but whenever I start, I don't really go back to it. And I get headaches because I just want to get the ideas out of my damn head and onto paper, wordpad, etc. So if you have any ideas on how I could find ideas or any ideas of your own, please post them.
Now I stand, the lion before the lambs... and they do not fear.

Offline Delarith

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Re: Just a little question
« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2007, 12:01:13 PM »
Think of the unfinished pieces as practice getting your ideas on paper which can be extremely intimidating itself.  I would say that eventually you will get an idea that just won't let go of you and then you will have experience putting that idea on paper.

Offline blgarver

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Re: Just a little question
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2007, 04:38:41 PM »
I had the same problem when I was your age.  My problem was having zero encouragement from the people around me.

Find a few people who are into writing, or storytelling in general, and hang out with them.  Once I came to college and found people of like mind, my productivity and focus shot through the roof.  When you're surrounded by that energy, with people talking about stories and writing constantly, you can't ever get away from it.  There will be no chance for you to put it to the back of your mind, therefore the urge will always be burning in you.

Also, I come to this board and read about writing every day, since all my writer friends moved to NYC.  It's invaluable to read and talk about writing.

And read as often as you can.  That's like reinforcment for writing.  You'll absorb things from the books and stories you read, and you'll notice improvement.  I always write much more, and more frequently, when I'm reading regularly.

Those are my two cents.  Good luck!
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Offline Murphy's Stunt Double

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Re: Just a little question
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2007, 05:55:36 PM »
I had the same problem at your age, AV. Now I'm almost 40 and I still struggle with it.

For me, I always wanted everything to be ok, so when I got to the part of the story where conflict was needed, I couldn't get past it. I must have about 250 unfinished stories laying around in my basement. All with great ideas, but no conflict and resolution.

I also would try furiously to get the whole idea on paper in every little detail, and then get tired and fall asleep and never go back to it. I couldn't get the same tone and passion after sleeping for some reason.

So here are a couple ideas to try.

First: notice where the rest of your stories stop. Is there a particular place you can't get past? (like for me it was conflict to be resolved.) If there is, try writing a few throw away scenes that are just THAT. You're not going to use these scenes for anything but practice, so it doesn't matter how crappy they turn out and they don't have to make sense with any of the current stories you have. Just get some experience and show yourself that it's possible for you write that kind of scene. It will get you over the hump for a story that's important to you later.

 

Outlining: On one piece of paper answer the following questions with ten words or less.
How does your story start?
How does it end?
What interactions/ scenes will it take to get from one to the other? ie, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy beats up girls new boyfriend, girl gives boy second chance, girl dumps boy cause he's a jerk anyway, the end. Be very general in this, don't get caught up in the details here.
What are your "buts" that give the story tension?...ie, my lead character want's to go to Harvard, but doesn't have the money and is not smart enough to get a scholarship.... maybe he'll rob a bank, maybe he'll sell drugs... you get the point.
Who are your characters? Give your characters each a paragraph of back story. The more clearly you define who your characters are, the easier it will be for their own feelings and actions to come out and drive the story.
Now add any little details that will give the story any twists and turns that you can think of.

Keep this one page to refer back to.

NOW, you've got all the ideas you need down and out of your head, and you can write the whole story out, one section/chapter at a time over however long it takes. Each time you sit down to write, pick a scene and decide to just write that one scene, completely. If you're still inspired at the end of that scene, you can pick another one and start writing. The point is, when you're done writing for the day, you should always be at the end of a scene. The scenes build on themselves like legos.

Good Luck!

If you are up to no good, please do no good for me too, okay?   ;D

Offline Dom

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Re: Just a little question
« Reply #4 on: September 28, 2007, 08:40:09 PM »
Ditto to the others saying the same problem...I had that issue at your age.

Just keep writing, and analyzing what you wrote.  Also, take books or stories you like...and books you DISlike...and analyze them.  What do you like about them?  What do you dislike?  Analyze and learn from them.  You'll start to pick up the nuts and bolts of storytelling...as well as writing...as you go along.  I did this at your age with Anne McCaffrey and Terry Goodkind, because I liked both of their works so much.

It may be a few years before you're in a position to finish a piece...or maybe not, who knows.

In my case, I started writing when I was 10 or 11.  When I was 19, I could do the technical stuff...sentences, dialogue, spelling, etc...but I was really really frustrated that I didn't have the experience to write scenes as I wanted them to be.  They weren't good enough, because I knew there were some things I just wasn't understanding yet.  Not the nuts-and-bolts things, but about storytelling itself, and how to enrich things with my own experience.  So even after 9 years of writing, CONTINUALLY, I didn't finish anything, because my skill wasn't up to doing the job as I wanted it to be done.  Now I'm 24, and finally on the road to completing a novel, because for the first time I feel as if I have the knowledge and experience to pull it off.  So it's possible it could take a while.  But...keep writing, even if you don't finish anything.  Re-write.  Edit.  Keep playing with stuff; sooner or later, if you're well and truly persistent, the pieces will fall together as they have for me.

I'd look for other folks in your school who write, although there's unlikely to be very many people in your school that write stories; I took a creative writing class in high school, in my senior year, and out of my entire class, only three of us wrote stories.  Everyone else?  Poetry, and not too serious about it either.  I think I was the only novelist. So I'd look for other folks who do it, but you probably won't find a huge crowd.  Might just want to keep your ear in on writing forums like this one, or other writing communities online, to compensate if you don't find many people in real life.

Also...I'm somewhat old-school, I didn't come online until I was 17 and I'd already been writing my own original fic before then for years...but some people find writing fanfic and sticking it on fanfiction.net or some other place really helps them out, because it takes some of the work out of it.  The world, and often characters, are already there.  You need to provide the plot, the narration and description, and the characterization.  You don't need to do the heavy lifting of creating a character from scratch, or worldbuilding or creating your rules of magic or whatever.  This doesn't work for all people, but it works for some, and the chance of having people review your work (fanfiction, even bad fanfic, gets far more comments and attention than original work online does unless it's spectacular original fic) can be a goad to write more for some people.  I know one Harry Potter fanfic writer in particular who is now edging into pro, since she's sold her first original novel recently.  I also know of a pro writer who used to write Xena fanfic.  So you might want to explore this avenue, to see if it suits you or not.
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Offline Ursiel

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Re: Just a little question
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2007, 03:35:15 AM »
Well, I've been playing around with this idea for a while today, I came up with this, it's not finished and I know it sucks but here it is:

   Damn it. Why couldn't I do it? I'm so pathetic. Here I am, lying in a pool of my own blood while he goes and plots to destroy the world. I failed them. My family. My friends. I slammed my fist on the damp soil, making it sink slightly, leaving a print that the Earth would remember for all time as the final regret I noted.The knife still seared my flesh like snake venom. I tried to keep the blood in my throat from choking me as I made my way toward him. The bastard couldn't get away with this. I won't allow it. I CAN'T allow it.
   He looked down at me in an almost sympathetic way. He dug in his coat and pulled out a gun. He pointed it at my temple. Thunder belowed in the distance. Rain poured on my now soaked (in blood and rain) clothing. "Good-bye, brother." He sneered. He squeezed the trigger.

   I woke up, sweat came down in beads on my face. My vision was blury at first but they soon found their focus and I could see the inside of my small aparment. Thunder still rumbled in the distance. Rain danced on my window sill like some kind of exploding liquid. I raised my fore-arm up to my head and brushed away the salty drops of condensation from my fore-head. I touched my abdomen to find no cuts or gashes, no knife wounds or wet, warm, scarlet liquid of any type. It was a dream. Yet it felt so real.
   Another surprise was that my phone rang. I looked at it for a second, admiring it's good timing, considering I just woke up. I reached over and placed a hand on the reciever. I let out a breath and held it to my ear.
   "Hello?" I asked my caller.
   "Hey Ed, you're awake finally." An all too familiar voice answered. His voice was low but you could feel his pride even then.
   "Hey Michael." I responded, yawning as I did. "Why did you call so early?" I asked, looking at my clock which read 8 AM.
   "Well, it's kind of hard to talk about on the phone." He paused and I heard someone shuffling in the background. "Could you come by the station so we could discuss this in a more private setting?" He asked.
   "I guess. I don't see what's so important that you have to tell me in person..." I thought out loud. I sighed. "Is 1 o clock ok?"
   "That'll be fine. Thanks man." The phone clicked as he hung up his end. I placed the reciever back on the cradle and got up.
   I walked out of my room. As soon as I opened the door. Max, my fury little ball of love, ran for me. His claws made odd clicking sounds on the hardwood floor. I gave him a scratch on the ears and let him outside so he could do his business. I walked over to the icebox and whipped it open. I was amazed to see that there was actually food in it. I pulled out two eggs and placed them on the counter with conola oil and a spatula. After a few minutes of flipping and shifting a pan, I had breakfast. Fried eggs with toast. The breakfast of champions.
   When I let Max in, he already had the paper in his mouth so I took it from him and placed my breakfast on the table. I sat down in a chair quietly and pulled the newspaper out of it's usual green package, placing it on the table in front of me. It was kind of hard to read it in my apartment. My lights were dim and half of them were out anyway. I was just too lazy to replace them. I took a bite out of my egg and began reading an article that caught my eye.
   The title read "Another Body Found. Supposed Serial Killer, or Deadly Animal?" I laughed slightly. Only because you could tell it was obviously a nephilim. A nephilim is the child of an angel and a human. You don't believe me? Yeah, yeah, it does seem hard to believe, but if you saw that stuff I saw, you would be up in arms about it. Nephilim were very deceitful creatures. Many have turned men and women against their family, friends, and their life. I don't want to go into what happened to any of them, but they were there.
   I heard a shuffling sound and turned around to see mail slip through the slot in the door. I got up from my breakfast and newspaper and walked over to it. I picked it up and looked through it. Mostly junkmail. Figures, no one needs a jack of all trades these days. Yeah, that's what I consider myself. You see, I'm not exactly human myself. I am what people would call "a freak." My mother was a hooker and my father was... well, a demonic spirit trapped in human form. Which made little ol' me half demon hooker. Of course, I'm not a whore. I put most of my time into my job life, rather than my social life. I'm usually hired to find lost items, or to solve some kind of mystery. I'm no Sherlock Holmes either. I did things here and there, kicked around a few monsters. Just the daily life for Edward Dantes, right?
« Last Edit: September 29, 2007, 03:38:51 AM by Analytical Visionary »
Now I stand, the lion before the lambs... and they do not fear.

Offline Ursiel

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Re: Just a little question
« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2007, 03:36:56 AM »
Note: I know I have typos, sorry about that...
« Last Edit: September 29, 2007, 03:38:32 AM by Analytical Visionary »
Now I stand, the lion before the lambs... and they do not fear.

Offline Murphy's Stunt Double

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Re: Just a little question
« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2007, 03:43:09 AM »
It's a good start AV, now where are you going to go from there?
If you are up to no good, please do no good for me too, okay?   ;D

Offline Ursiel

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Re: Just a little question
« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2007, 03:47:33 AM »
Well, I was either considering demonic attacks on children or some kind of cult consisting of vampire or demon guys with some kind of plot lead by Ed's brother. XD That's pretty much the basic idea I have in my head.
Now I stand, the lion before the lambs... and they do not fear.

Offline Murphy's Stunt Double

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Re: Just a little question
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2007, 04:37:53 PM »
Sounds good! Keep us updated!

Have you checked out this Dresdenverse site? www.goaheadand.com/DresdenverseRPG

Have a look.
If you are up to no good, please do no good for me too, okay?   ;D

Offline meg_evonne

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Re: Just a little question
« Reply #10 on: September 29, 2007, 11:19:07 PM »
Hi AV and welcome!  Wow, you've been given some top notch ideas from fellow writers. The writers here indicated they had trouble writing at your age. There are physical & developmental reasons that they had trouble.

I will share the flip side of writing at an older age, in my case 54.  You rapidly lose the ability to remember what it was like to be 13 or 15 or 20 or 30.  You lose that wide eyed wonder at the world.  The best writers can put their minds back into those ages and write from that point of view, the average try to remember.  Think your Mom can't understand what you are feeling? Well most mom age writers can't remember either!

What I'm saying is, that if you haven't the stamina for a longer work or the concentration skill to nail that perfectly written short story---don't let it stop you from trying.  DO keep a journal and think of it as a story bank.  You'll have a story bank of ideas to last a lifetime at your finger tips.  Best of all, if you save your started but not finished work*, you will find that the voice from youth will shine through so you can recall that very special youth viewpoint!

And for crying out loud, learn what every writer on this board has learned!  BACK UP YOUR WORK,  BACK UP YOUR WORK, BACK UP YOUR WORK.   What seems trite now, might be the next Bradbury by the time you graduate college!


Geez, a footnote?  What am I thinking, but the writers here will back this one up!
*NO MATTER how crappy you think it is when you re-read it in high school or college or 10 years into a successful career--  NEVER delete it,  NEVER.  No matter it's quality, it was honest and it will be invaluable. RESIST THE URGE TO PURGE as the years past.
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Offline Murphy's Stunt Double

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Re: Just a little question
« Reply #11 on: September 30, 2007, 12:29:12 AM »
hear hear, Meg!  ;D
If you are up to no good, please do no good for me too, okay?   ;D

Offline Ursiel

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Re: Just a little question
« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2007, 04:10:17 AM »
EUREKA! I know what I'll write :O but first, I sleep >_>
Now I stand, the lion before the lambs... and they do not fear.