[Pegasus V]

I have finally come to the point where my universe is almost complete. I have found the missing link that can combine my final two stories effectively joining them into one massive saga.

In two weeks time (after my wedding), I plan to begin writing my first novel. I won't bore you any further, so I'll get to the point.

I've noticed that many of you write stories and I was wondering if anyone have any advise that they could offer?

Thankyou.

[Eishtmo]

Plan out your story with a simple outline.  Few can remember the exact plot, and fewer can remember specific details along the way.

Read new parts aloud, especially dialouge.  You'll catch a lot of errors that way.

Have people you trust read it, and don't accept "that rules " for a comment.  Make them tell you why it rules or sucks.  And don't give them the whole damn book, give them bits and pieces (in order, if possible).  You'll get a faster reply that way.

Don't think you have to start at the beginning.  Start wherever you damn well please.  You can always go back if you need to.

If you get stuck (and likely you will), write something else.  A different part of the current story or some little side piece.  Relax your mind and the words will flow.

Finally, if you're doing it on a computer, have two or three backups squirrled away on disks somewhere.  Life sucks when your hard drive crashes taking all your work.

[Pegasus V]

Originally posted by Eishtmo
Plan out your story with a simple outline.  Few can remember the exact plot, and fewer can remember specific details along the way.

I've started that thanks. Any ideas that pop into my head for the specific story, I'll add to my bullet (brainstorming) list.

Don't think you have to start at the beginning.  Start wherever you damn well please.  You can always go back if you need to.

Hey, that's a good idea!

Finally, if you're doing it on a computer, have two or three backups squirrled away on disks somewhere. Life sucks when your hard drive crashes taking all your work.

Good idea, I'll get the disks prepared.

Thanks very much for your advise.

Oh, if anyone wants to see my in-progress subspace network map, take a look www.geocities.com/alpha_quadrant_project/SC2_flat.jpg (726Kb) (copy and paste address). For the stars that I have already mapped, they're in their correct positions, distances, colours and sizes that they really are, but on a 2D map. It's been very hard!

-edit- picture address visible now.

[Knight Templar]

Page no worky

[ShadowWolf_IH]

Every description you give of the surroundings should be reflected in and colored by the emotion that the character is feeling.  

example:

He walked into the kitchen and found it a mess.  The dishes needed done, last night's burnt dinner was still on the stove and the towel was still thrown over the back of the chair.

vs

He felt like the towel thrown over the back of his favorite kitchen chair, limp, lifeless, and yellow.  A quick glance around the kitchen brought him back to last night's events.  The dishes, still dirty and in the sink, were they mocking him?  Daring him to do something about it?  Dinner still on the stove, a dinner that was supposed to be wonderful, and yet lay there incinerated.  Yeah, last night was about as much fun as burnt steak.



Emotions color how we see things.  It adds depth to our surroundings and a feeling of reality.


on plot development and thickening you can actually start at the end, and ask yourself, what made this happen.  Then write that event down.  and ask ok, what made that happen.  and write it down.  and so on back to the beginning.  


nothing grips the reader more than not knowing what is happening in the initial paragraph.  There's a fight going on to start off, but why?  what the hell is happening?  the reader will wonder.

my god there is so much to tell.  don't have a character tell his wife his background in the middle of an arguement, by this i mean things that reader should know, but that she already knows.

"yeah? well i wish i'd never seen oyu that day when you were in the red dress leaving your mother's house and getting onto that bus with a copy of war and Peace under one arm and and a black purse filled with stolen diamonds."

to which she replies:

"yeah well who would have thought that 3 years later while i was eating a donut at max's diner that i would meet you while you were gay and didn't want to have anything to do with me because your mom shot the dog and you didn't trust women?"

it's a bit exaggerated i know, but you'd be surprised how often i find this kind of atrocity. ( i don't read clive cussler anymore)

last but not least.  subtle foreshadowing.  each chapter should foreshadow something for that character, wherther it happens in the next chapter involving him, or one 4 chapters away.  It keeps the reader interested, and they don't even know it.

sorry about being so long winded, but these are some tips i have found along the way.