Polls for Our Souls discussion

Got a bit of a conundrum when it comes to the biology of storytelling. Hoping to teach myself how to write I found I can make the bones of the story (the summary and underlying idea of what I want) but there's no meat on the bones.

My attempts all end the same: a bunch of bad summaries. I just freeze, sitting there staring at the blank screen. Writers of goodreads, how do you teach yourself to write better? And not just when the feeling takes you?

Write what you read and know.i'm not saying coping writers books but like "oh I know I want to write fantasy or young adult or contemporary
Oh what if I combined them all together.Right now I'm writing a young adult,fantasy,romance.
So right what you know and read and you'll accomplish great things😃❤️📚

For me, writing isn't something that I can force myself to do. I try to write on a daily basis so the art form can come naturally to me when inspiration does strike. Also, I find that the more I read, the more I gain from different authors' styles and methods. If summarizing your stories is a problem you have, what I would keep in mind is that the story and the movement/reactions of the characters are tied together. Don't write a story where your characters are driven by the plot. Write a story where your plot is driven by the characters: thejr decisions, relationships, goals etc. Sorry if my advice isn't the best😬

Well, I, for one, plot everything before starting to write, otherwise I know I'll give up in the middle. By everything I mean, beginning, some middle scenes, and an ending. Sometimes it's enough to know how to begin and how to end. From what I understood, you try to write a summary? If it's not working for you, don't do it. It doesn't work for me so I don't do it. Try topics instead. When you actually go writing, try to write the first scene. Even if it's crap, it doesn't matter, just keep going because you'll edit it in the end. But of course, what works for some don't work for you. You'll also find that, as you're writing, more and more ideas will come to you, so just do it :)

I think that, to put "meat on the bones", as you said it, you must listen to your characters. This is crucial. Before you start writing, while you're plotting your story, you have to spend a long, long time with your characters: get to know them, picture them talking, reacting to the different scenarios that fit your plot. To have the story flow out of you, you have to let your characters speak for themselves. You can't force them into anything because the reader will know and your story won't be believable. The time you spend with your characters before you start writing is crucial. If you don't know your characters well enough, you'll just keep writing summaries. If you know both your characters and where you want the plot to go, the writing will come out of you even when you're not feeling the inspiration.

Also, in the wise words of Stephen King, to be a writer you have to read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around it. You have to write a million crappy drafts until you learn what works and what doesn't (and, trust me, you will write a million crappy drafts, we all do). And you have to read a million books to know how each genre works so you can apply it to your writing. The more you write, the better you'll do. You just have to give it time. Don't expect to get better in a month or a year.

Also, as a last advice, I'd tell you to know your language well. Grammar, syntax, punctuation. Trust me when I tell you it makes writing a million times easier because you don't have to think so hard about how to phrase certain things.

Thanks everybody, I'll go throw myself into it!

@Ben just try to write your fave scene, the one that makes it to every draft of all your summaries. I think you'll find that will get you going.

@benjamin so I actually did a short story project from the end of June to mid/late August for a religion class I go to once a week and I never write tbh. I have this dumb disability that keeps me from doing it cause forming words into sentences and having to keep track of things etc is tough. It's not bad or anything, just when it comes to learning at my pace and things like this. But I had a feeling I should at least try it and had "Guinea pigs" read all 12 stories ha and so I saw some Instagram sponsored video from James Patterson and this is what helped me from something he said in his video for a master class. He said don't think too much basically and don't just write sentences. Just start writing. And I did and what was neat was for me was that there were times I'd finish one story and before I could go back to fix/proofread it, I'd be jumping into the next story.

And I've even had one friend tell me with certain characters I was killing it considering they're types of characters who were based on real people and that it's not easy to do but I killed it. But I also say BE YOUR CHARACTERS don't let anyone end up later thinking about them it's what YOU THINK your characters would do. I had a couple, girl and a guy for my MC and I "became them" and wrote what THEY WOULD DO not what I wanted them to do.

But also have confidence and i agree with Patterson. just start writing. :)

~Bellegirl91~ wrote: "But I also say BE YOUR CHARACTERS don't let anyone end up later thinking about them it's what YOU THINK your characters would do. I had a couple, girl and a guy for my MC and I "became them" and wrote what THEY WOULD DO not what I wanted them to do. "

That's kind of what I said as well: spend a long time with your characters, listen to them until they speak to you so loud and clear that it feels like they exist and they're with you in that room, and they will basically write themselves and you're just along for the ride. Although I like that you described it as "become them", because that's really what it feels like.

@valerie haha that's what i learned doing that project. Don't worry about what others think of your characters or anything and I would also say REMEMBER THEYRE YOUR CHARACTERS! Delve into their development like my main guy, Stephen, he loved walking dead and what's funny I'm not into that show and ONLY watching it on a bet and challenge from my friend and brother 😂 but I also hate zombies. Idk why but I do but either my character Stephen, I wanted to make him a total guy and his girlfriend Juliet not s fan and a little like me. Not all of her personality since she was a bit different from me but I wanted to make that part for example where you have your hardcore tv show fans the those who don't like or won't watch the show so to make it more realistic in a way (if that makes sense) but the BIGGEST thing I look for in books I read it character development by also if I can connect with them. So create them with their own personality and if you do a bit of yours, don't overdue it if that also makes sense but make them enough so it's them and not "about you." There was only 2-3 things similar between me and my character Juliet and that was it. The rest was her creation. So to me instead of focusing so much on a story, make sure you first spend time with your characters, start writing, make them normal and you're good. Don't make it so grand because again they're your characters not anyone else's nap see them the way you would see them.

Oh @benjamin my other advice is if you're doing chapters, as soon as you're done with each one GO BACK and proofread and fix anything that you want to take out or add, switch around, punctuation etc. it helped me a TON when I was done with each short story of he 12 I did. So it also helped me see what I thought would be better in either a scene or dialogue etc. so I say proofreading is the most important thing too cause trust me, you get carried away sometimes snd you make mistakes haha. So I say delve into your characters and I ditto what Valerie said. So that and PROOFREAD when you're finished with each chapter of that's what your doing. It's hard to do it while you're writing so write the short story and/or chapter one at a time and each me you finish proofread. Unless you start getting ideas for the next story/chapter then start writing it at least so you don't lose it. Haha but yeah, remember to proofread proofread PROOFREAD! Lol

Agree. Proofreading is SUPER IMPORTANT. Also, after you're finished, leave the story for a few months before you start editing, because you are too close to the story if you do it too soon and you won't be able to see any faults and mistakes.