This is the Writing Help and Guides (WH & G) Thread. Here, you'll be able to come across help and guidelines in writing stuff you want to write. On the other hand, you might be a writer who wants to look out for his/her fellow writers and give them tips and tricks to polish up their works.
To start you all off, this thread will be divided into different sections. Some sections might be removed while new sections might be added. If you'll ask me about anything specific about them sections, the answer will be 'I dunno'. This thread is community driven. If you want to submit your tips and ideas, I'll let it in the thread and stuff.
Also for those who need a specific question asked, please don't be afraid to ask it here! Just post your question and some kind soul will help you! This is the Q & A Thread after all.
Section 1: Forum-Related Guides
-Before you summon your creative juices and spill it on the forum, these guidelines might prove to be helpful in getting the basics out of what to do in the Literature Forum.
1. Herobrine.
If you came to the Minecraft Forum to just go partyin' with us writers here in Literature, let me give you a heads up: Herobrine stories need a disclaimer before posting them. If your story has Herobrine as the white eyed creepypasta everybody in the Minecraft Community knows, you'll need to have an itty bitty text up top saying "Herobrine is not real and is merely a fictional character for this story" or "Herobrine ain't real my bruddas!".
In whatever way you write it, just tell people he ain't real. If you don't, admins and moderators will appear from under your bed and consume your forum-posting rights. More or less that. Here's a little official post for ya if you missed it.
2. Forum Code.
Sometimes the forum screws up your italicized or bolded word and something funny comes out. Sometimes you will find your whole thread dissolved in weird symbols and numbers that makes you wonder if somebody used your story as a sacrifice for a demonic ritual.
With that being the case, my number one recommendation is to write the story in Notepad or Microsoft Word or something similar before posting it here. This way your hours of hard work won't disappear in a freak forum accident.
3. Rules for the Fan Art Section.
Some of the stuff I'll be telling you can be found in the Rules of Fan Art. To be honest I haven't looked at it until now. Now that I have, though, I see how important it is. Go read it and become acquainted with the basis of civilization.
4. Spoilers.
The Minecraft Forum has a spoiler feature. This basically hides your text and stuff. If your story needs organization or has a buttload of text, putting your chapters in a spoiler might be useful. For reference on how spoilers work look at this thread (duh!).
Section 2: Minecraft-Related Guides
-Now we are in the Minecraft Forum. If you plan to start writing about the blocky world millions of people love then you gotta be acquainted with its fan fiction culture.
1. Often-Used Story Stuff.
When people go out and write about Minecraft, I find them doing three things:
-Steve goes and punches teh tree!
-Steve go killz teh Herobrine!
-ENDERDRAGONZZ!
All three types of stories are alright, but don't make them too simple or basic. Add your own spin to it. You're a writer; creativity is mixed in your blood along with minor insanity! If Steve punches a tree in your story, have the tree transform into a Nyan Cat upon contact! Herobrine could be Steve's boyfriend and the Enderdragon could be a lonely bounty hunter from the planet Yarrgh!
Like I have said: You're a writer. If you want to write about something, 95% of the time it means you got some creativity, curiosity and imagination in that mind of yours. Go find it and put it to good use writing about the stuff you love!
2. Minefic: Legacy.
Alright, if you're a newbie you won't know who I am. To make introduction short, I made a thread called Minefic that listed stories and stuff that was destroyed by a freak forum accident. Now the guy you might know, sc1020, created Minefic: Legacy, a successor to my old thread and my ticket to capturing the Earth's single female population.
Legacy is good and amazing if you want to have a reference guide to stories about Minecraft. My thread had more, but sadly you can't rebuild a burning house with its ashes. I do not need to link you to it since it's pinned on the front page.
...I'm lazy sometimes too so here you go, slacker.
3. Stretching the Minecraft Factor.
Let's say you want to write in the Literature subsection. You want to have Steve on an epic journey to find real world pizza in his unreal world. You add robot monkeys with ninja swords on a pirate ship. Binky the Vanilla Dragon makes an appearance in your fic. You're a Brony so Steve becomes a pony midway through the story.
Stories like this are accepted only if they have even the tiniest of connections to Minecraft. Fortunately, stories like the one above are still technically okay since Steve is a Minecraft Character and the unreal world would pertain to Minecraft.
But if you wrote about a medieval island set in 18th Century France with the Archduke of Spain falling into drug abuse or something like that, you'd best find another place to do that.
Section 3: Writing Tips
-Now on to the main mean of this thread. Section Three will comprise all the tiny little things that makes your post feel shiny and amazing to look at. Heck even if you wrote about a pink sludge crawling on sand but used some of the tips here, you might pull it off.
-This section is community-driven. This means most of the stuff here will come from the community.
Make better mistakes. You're never going to become a writer without mistakes, they're what makes you stand as a writer. Remember, this is a writing COMMUNITY. We're here to help you, not to criticize every single action you do. Maybe a little of both, actually...
Don't let yourself fool by the thought that every posted chapter/segment/story is set in stone. You can always go back and sneakily tweak this... and change that... and so on. If you made a mistake, go back and correct it, older readers won't profit from that, however potential new readers (which can be up to earth's population, so clearly more than older readers) will. The earlier you do such changes, the less confusion it will cause. But PLEASE be careful with what you change. If you change something little like 10 coal to 11 coal, it won't bother anybody, but if you want to change like... I don't know... the name of the man character FOR THE LOVE OF <name here> DON'T DO THAT, it will screw you over.
If you are describing something, make sure to describe it completely the first time it gets mentioned. This is valid for charakter or scenery looks, adding information later completely destroys the image that some of your readers had in their minds. The only time you can add something later is when it is supposed to be hidden, for example a scar with a story behind it or the face of a mysterious hooded person. But in general it is best to introduce something and instantly write everything about it.
Section 4: Basic Guides
-This Section is for those people who want to get started on writing or has little to no writing experience until now.
-This section is community-driven. This means most of the stuff here will come from the community.
A chapter is basically an event or a something in your story. Let's give an entirely fiction Chapter One as an example. If I were to write Chap. One, I'd be focusing on the introductions and the other stuff, as well as the setting etc. etc. That said, a chapter's length is equal to how your story will go.
If you will be making a big story about Steve roaming the desert with his demon camel to find the temple of Long-Nosed Snotjobs and find the Enerdragon who kidnapped your sister which you have an incestuous relationship but turned out she was the Dragon's daughter and not your sister, meaning she's legit and in the end get married or die together...
Well, then go ahead and make a large chapter. if it's just a simple short story, then go ahead and get crazy with the chapters. This is the Literature Subforum, not a frickin' publishing company. Feel free to experiment and make weird test runs on ideas to see if they work or not.
Also try to make each chapter TL;DRable. That means you can sum up your story in a few sentences. That way, the next chapter will make use of the juicy plot you've driven on the previous one, and you will have a nice organized little work on art in your hands.
Characters:
The amount of characters is entirely up to you. If you'd want/need/crave/die for my personal opinion, I'd say I like to have one or three main characters and a dozen supporting characters with as much personality and character as the main ones. This makes your story more realistic and have more characters people can relate to. It also is a nice challenge to think of multiple personalities.
But then again, it's your story and it's your God-given right to mess with how your story's gonna be.
Other:
Now just a little tip. Try to write a lot of content before posting or keep it short and constant. The two ways will ensure you'll be a constant fixture on the front page. The "slow and steady" tactic works for long stories while the "fast and furious" one is for them shorts.
Since you will probably post your story (With a prologue and or a first chapter) instead of the whole finished story, make sure your tittle is relevant. Plan in advance at least the general plot of your story and as lessons are important, get something from the lesson and the story itself.
For example: Stardust by Neil Gaiman (Sorry, just, favorite author alert.). It is an award winning book, it has a nice title (See 2.) because it is literally what the story is about. Three people (Actually, more like people and groups.) want this star, all for different purposes, and knowing that they all want it in the same amount of time, they get in each other's way. So on and so forth.
Make the title catchy and luring. A book called Air Conditioner isn't that good a title is it? What about, if you were writing about a boy who has cancer, you wouldn't name it Sunshine and Rainbows would you?
Different Methods Of Coming Up With Titles
Again, life lessons. One of the main reasons we read books are just to find that. Or at least, with some people and plus, it really does help your character and development. Usually, life lessons come from some small phrases that mean a lot or something bigger than those very words. Phrases that will make you think "Oh yeah!" or "Wow!" Just the emotions a reader will get when a title is related to a phrase in the book and suddenly find a connection between them. Amazing isn't it?
Catchy titles can have two or more words that start with the same letter. Like Rescuing Raindrops or Creating Catastrophe.
Rhyming seems more for, children's books, doesn't it? Well, if you are writing a children's book, you can do this. As long as the title is relevant (See 2.)
As long as it is relevant, you can use a phrase from a lot of books (It could even be a cliché phrase.).
Like Happily Ever After could become Ever After.
Title Warnings
Make sure that your title hasn't been used, and if it has, tweak it a little.
Don't use overused titles.
Make sure your titles are not offending to your readers
Section 5: Comprehensive Guides (WARNING! TL;DRs ahead!)
-If you're really itchin' for some crazy heck ton of information on writing, I'd suggest you go here. If you want something that doesn't induce a stroke, go to Sections 3 and 4.
-This section is community-driven. This means most of the stuff here will come from the community.
Section 6: Reference Sites
-If this thread ain't cutting out for your needs or you want a broader and wider view of how to write stuff, this Section has websites for you to find a database for names, writing methods, adjectives and so on and so forth. You could do this on your own with Google or Yahoo or Bing or Whatever, but we'll be nice and do the searching for you.
-This section is community-driven. This means most of the stuff here will come from the community.
1. Baby Names
We were all babies at some point, right? This website can give you names and their meanings. It's pretty useful if you want to give a character some weird sounding name while still sounding realistic. It also has some news about babies so... bonus points?
2. Random Word Constructor
This thing makes a new word from a word you typed it. This could have many interesting uses.
3. How to Use a Semicolon
A comic by The Oatmeal that pretty much explains the semicolon; the author's amazing so check it out!
4. Pixar's Tips on Storywriting
I found this picture on imgur. It's a good start to getting your bearings in writing about a character.
8. TvTropes
This is about classifying what a good guy is, how much good is he, how much good that good is, how good that good that good is... Something like this, only encompassing the entire writing schtuff.
9. Photographic Height/Weight Chart
This is for knowing what size your character is and knowing how to say it. Don't call your ladder-tall character 4".
Section 7: The Secret to Knowing if You're an Ultimate Writer
Here we go:
Do you really want to know?
Seriously? Are you that desperate?
Keep going! This is a journey of wisdom!
Almost there!
Almost...
You're here! Psych. Continue if you still can.
What if I have a Rickroll waiting for you at the end of this..?
Did I actually put the secret here? Hm, I forgot.
I wouldn't want you to waste anymore of your time, go back. Now.
Darn it, you're still here!?
I WAS LYING! There was no secret in the first place!
Go 'WAY!
Sigh, you won.
The secret to knowing if you're a good writer is when you managed to have your reader stick to your story as long and as faithfully as it took you to reach this message!
I just want to point out that this thread is pinned.. really.. fast.
Thanks Koumus (Did you pin it?) !
Just leaving a tip as a medium writer,
Follow the success of others. Not the success of your own.
(Learn from other's literature, it's entertaining and educational)
Farteh, you are a genius, nice with that last one. When I saw it, I went like, "SHOWMEDA'SECRETNOOOOOWWWWW!" I kinda want to contribute, so here:
Make better mistakes. You're never going to become a writer without mistakes, they're what makes you stand as a writer. Remember, this is a writing COMMUNITY. We're here to help you, not to criticize every single action you do. Maybe a little of both, actually...
Farteh, you are a genius, nice with that last one. When I saw it, I went like, "SHOWMEDA'SECRETNOOOOOWWWWW!" I kinda want to contribute, so here:
Make better mistakes. You're never going to become a writer without mistakes, they're what makes you stand as a writer. Remember, this is a writing COMMUNITY. We're here to help you, not to criticize every single action you do. Maybe a little of both, actually...
I just want to point out that this thread is pinned.. really.. fast.
Thanks Koumus (Did you pin it?) !
Just leaving a tip as a medium writer,
Follow the success of others. Not the success of your own.
(Learn from other's literature, it's entertaining and educational)
I added both of your tips. They're motivational and that'd important. Now I need someone to gimme a very good guide about writing and stuff. I got something of mine from on old reply. I'd like it if you guys go think about stuff. Also, encourage writers to ask questions here and stuff!
Let me contribute to the tips too *clears throat and readies prophetic voice*:
Don't let yourself fool by the thought that every posted chapter/segment/story is set in stone. You can always go back and sneakily tweak this... and change that... and so on. If you made a mistake, go back and correct it, older readers won't profit from that, however potential new readers (which can be up to earth's population, so clearly more than older readers) will. The earlier you do such changes, the less confusion it will cause. But PLEASE be careful with what you change. If you change something little like 10 coal to 11 coal, it won't bother anybody, but if you want to change like... I don't know... the name of the man character FOR THE LOVE OF <name here> DON'T DO THAT, it will screw you over.
Okay, that didn't fit the prophetic voice very well, did it?
I'll maybe do some moar tips some day.
I posted this on "Do's and Don'ts to your Fanfiction" or something like that:
Creating Your Title
Since you will probably post your story (With a prologue and or a first chapter) instead of the whole finished story, make sure your tittle is relevant. Plan in advance at least the general plot of your story and as lessons are important, get something from the lesson and the story itself. For example: Stardust by Neil Gaiman (Sorry, just, favorite author alert.). It is an award winning book, it has a nice title (See 2.) because it is literally what the story is about. Three people (Actually, more like people and groups.) want this star, all for different purposes, and knowing that they all want it in the same amount of time, they get in each other's way. So on and so forth.
Make the title catchy and luring. A book called Air Conditioner isn't that good a title is it? What about, if you were writing about a boy who has cancer, you wouldn't name it Sunshine and Rainbowswould you?
Different Methods Of Coming Up With Titles
Again, life lessons. One of the main reasons we read books are just to find that. Or at least, with some people and plus, it really does help your character and development. Usually, life lessons come from some small phrases that mean a lot or something bigger than those very words. Phrases that will make you think "Oh yeah!" or "Wow!" Just the emotions a reader will get when a title is related to a phrase in the book and suddenly find a connection between them. Amazing isn't it?
Catchy titles can have two or more words that start with the same letter. Like Rescuing Raindrops orCreating Catastrophy.
Rhyming seems more for, children's books, doesn't it? Well, if you are writing a children's book, you can do this. As long as the title is relevant (See 2.)
As long as it is relevant, you can use a phrase from a lot of books (It could even be a cliché phrase.). Like Happily Ever After could become Ever After.
Title Warnings
Make sure that your title hasn't been used, and if it has, tweak it a little.
Don't use overused titles.
Make sure your titles are not offending to your readers
Sometimes the forum screws up your italicized or bolded word and something funny comes out. Sometimes you will find your whole thread dissolved in weird symbols and numbers that makes you wonder if somebody used your story as a sacrifice for a demonic ritual.
2 things.
One: I have a story idea now. XD
And
Two: You are too inventive for your own good.
What happened to Afartar?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
OnceInALongTime: "You confuse me, Mage. Amazability should be a word so I could describe your words."
Sometimes the forum screws up your italicized or bolded word and something funny comes out. Sometimes you will find your whole thread dissolved in weird symbols and numbers that makes you wonder if somebody used your story as a sacrifice for a demonic ritual.
2 things.
One: I have a story idea now. XD
And
Two: You are too inventive for your own good.
What happened to Afartar?
Arfartar will be in the backseat for a good while. I won't have time to work on it. I can't give guarantees. When I can write stories or am creative in general, my ADHD returns and stuff. Can't frickin' concentrate. I've never finished a single story in my life.
I'll be spontaneous about Arfartar so I can think better.
I have another tip to add to the list, this time a rather short one:
If you are describing something, make sure to describe it completely the first time it gets mentioned. This is valid for charakter or scenery looks, adding information later completely destroys the image that some of your readers had in their minds. The only time you can add something later is when it is supposed to be hidden, for example a scar with a story behind it or the face of a mysterious hooded person. But in general it is best to introduce something and instantly write everything about it.
A few tips that I thought of to post here. If I ever get around to it, I'll try and write up a comprehensive guide to writing, but don't hold your breath.
General:
Good writing is all about execution. You could have a fantastic, logically progressing, emotionally investing plot, deep and intricate characters, witty and wonderfully written prose, and a creative, unique setting, but if you can't pull it off and utilize that potential, your story is going to suck, and your readers are going to be disappointed. Alternatively, you could have a fairly standard setting with fairly standard characters and write the next big novel. Anything can be written well if you have the skill to pull it off.
Research, research, research! Nothing is more painful to the reader than the obvious failure of the author to research their material. Nothing as an author shows how much you did not care when you fail to research. Note that good research adds verisimilitude to your story. It adds that layer of realism that can really immerse the reader into your setting.
Characters:
Make sure your protagonist (main character) is both interesting and part of the main action. If your plot revolves around a war going on, your character should be one of the soldiers or leaders of that war, not a civilian living in a sleepy cottage who only gets to see the action through weekly newspapers. In other words, your protagonist should be the person most invested in the main plot.
Plot:
Any information that the characters need to progress needs to either be obtained (preferably with blood and sweat), or already established earlier on in the story as information the characters already know. Having characters suddenly know things without warning or explanation is both cheating and bad writing. Remember, while you may be all-knowing as the author, the characters only know what you've established that they know.
Plot should progress logically. Actions need consequences, and consequences need reactions. If your plot cannot develop without deviating from the path you have already established, either explain why the deviation happened or rewrite your plot.
Resolve your story with something emotionally satisfying.
Prose:
Brevity is wit. Don't take 10 words to describe something that can be done in 2. You'll find your writing is much better for it.
Don't go overboard on the purple prose. To define: Purple prose is intrusively ornate prose. When done correctly, it can enhance a scene, but when overdone it detracts the reader from the story because they have to get through paragraphs of description to progress. Alternatively, don't make your writing too dry. "Beige prose" can be terribly boring and dry to read and can fail to immerse the reader in the story as it doesn't do very well helping the reader visualize. To summarize, balance your prose between utility and eloquence.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[12:41] Coffeeeeeee!
---
[16:29] "And lo, the tacos were delicious"
This is the Writing Help and Guides (WH & G) Thread. Here, you'll be able to come across help and guidelines in writing stuff you want to write. On the other hand, you might be a writer who wants to look out for his/her fellow writers and give them tips and tricks to polish up their works.
To start you all off, this thread will be divided into different sections. Some sections might be removed while new sections might be added. If you'll ask me about anything specific about them sections, the answer will be 'I dunno'. This thread is community driven. If you want to submit your tips and ideas, I'll let it in the thread and stuff.
Also for those who need a specific question asked, please don't be afraid to ask it here! Just post your question and some kind soul will help you! This is the Q & A Thread after all.
Section 1: Forum-Related Guides
-Before you summon your creative juices and spill it on the forum, these guidelines might prove to be helpful in getting the basics out of what to do in the Literature Forum.
1. Herobrine.
If you came to the Minecraft Forum to just go partyin' with us writers here in Literature, let me give you a heads up: Herobrine stories need a disclaimer before posting them. If your story has Herobrine as the white eyed creepypasta everybody in the Minecraft Community knows, you'll need to have an itty bitty text up top saying "Herobrine is not real and is merely a fictional character for this story" or "Herobrine ain't real my bruddas!".
In whatever way you write it, just tell people he ain't real. If you don't, admins and moderators will appear from under your bed and consume your forum-posting rights. More or less that. Here's a little official post for ya if you missed it.
2. Forum Code.
Sometimes the forum screws up your italicized or bolded word and something funny comes out. Sometimes you will find your whole thread dissolved in weird symbols and numbers that makes you wonder if somebody used your story as a sacrifice for a demonic ritual.
With that being the case, my number one recommendation is to write the story in Notepad or Microsoft Word or something similar before posting it here. This way your hours of hard work won't disappear in a freak forum accident.
3. Rules for the Fan Art Section.
Some of the stuff I'll be telling you can be found in the Rules of Fan Art. To be honest I haven't looked at it until now. Now that I have, though, I see how important it is. Go read it and become acquainted with the basis of civilization.
4. Spoilers.
The Minecraft Forum has a spoiler feature. This basically hides your text and stuff. If your story needs organization or has a buttload of text, putting your chapters in a spoiler might be useful. For reference on how spoilers work look at this thread (duh!).
Section 2: Minecraft-Related Guides
-Now we are in the Minecraft Forum. If you plan to start writing about the blocky world millions of people love then you gotta be acquainted with its fan fiction culture.
1. Often-Used Story Stuff.
When people go out and write about Minecraft, I find them doing three things:
-Steve goes and punches teh tree!
-Steve go killz teh Herobrine!
-ENDERDRAGONZZ!
All three types of stories are alright, but don't make them too simple or basic. Add your own spin to it. You're a writer; creativity is mixed in your blood along with minor insanity! If Steve punches a tree in your story, have the tree transform into a Nyan Cat upon contact! Herobrine could be Steve's boyfriend and the Enderdragon could be a lonely bounty hunter from the planet Yarrgh!
Like I have said: You're a writer. If you want to write about something, 95% of the time it means you got some creativity, curiosity and imagination in that mind of yours. Go find it and put it to good use writing about the stuff you love!
2. Minefic: Legacy.
Alright, if you're a newbie you won't know who I am. To make introduction short, I made a thread called Minefic that listed stories and stuff that was destroyed by a freak forum accident. Now the guy you might know, sc1020, created Minefic: Legacy, a successor to my old thread and my ticket to capturing the Earth's single female population.
Legacy is good and amazing if you want to have a reference guide to stories about Minecraft. My thread had more, but sadly you can't rebuild a burning house with its ashes. I do not need to link you to it since it's pinned on the front page.
...I'm lazy sometimes too so here you go, slacker.
3. Stretching the Minecraft Factor.
Let's say you want to write in the Literature subsection. You want to have Steve on an epic journey to find real world pizza in his unreal world. You add robot monkeys with ninja swords on a pirate ship. Binky the Vanilla Dragon makes an appearance in your fic. You're a Brony so Steve becomes a pony midway through the story.
Stories like this are accepted only if they have even the tiniest of connections to Minecraft. Fortunately, stories like the one above are still technically okay since Steve is a Minecraft Character and the unreal world would pertain to Minecraft.
But if you wrote about a medieval island set in 18th Century France with the Archduke of Spain falling into drug abuse or something like that, you'd best find another place to do that.
Section 3: Writing Tips
-Now on to the main mean of this thread. Section Three will comprise all the tiny little things that makes your post feel shiny and amazing to look at. Heck even if you wrote about a pink sludge crawling on sand but used some of the tips here, you might pull it off.
-This section is community-driven. This means most of the stuff here will come from the community.
Section 4: Basic Guides
-This Section is for those people who want to get started on writing or has little to no writing experience until now.
-This section is community-driven. This means most of the stuff here will come from the community.
Section 5: Comprehensive Guides (WARNING! TL;DRs ahead!)
-If you're really itchin' for some crazy heck ton of information on writing, I'd suggest you go here. If you want something that doesn't induce a stroke, go to Sections 3 and 4.
-This section is community-driven. This means most of the stuff here will come from the community.
Section 6: Reference Sites
-If this thread ain't cutting out for your needs or you want a broader and wider view of how to write stuff, this Section has websites for you to find a database for names, writing methods, adjectives and so on and so forth. You could do this on your own with Google or Yahoo or Bing or Whatever, but we'll be nice and do the searching for you.
-This section is community-driven. This means most of the stuff here will come from the community.
1. Baby Names
We were all babies at some point, right? This website can give you names and their meanings. It's pretty useful if you want to give a character some weird sounding name while still sounding realistic. It also has some news about babies so... bonus points?
2. Random Word Constructor
This thing makes a new word from a word you typed it. This could have many interesting uses.
3. How to Use a Semicolon
A comic by The Oatmeal that pretty much explains the semicolon; the author's amazing so check it out!
4. Pixar's Tips on Storywriting
I found this picture on imgur. It's a good start to getting your bearings in writing about a character.
5. Better Storytelling
A website for... better storytelling. Shocking.
6. Ways to say "Say"
A list of how to scream, whisper, mutter, sneer or giggle your words.
7. Ways to say "Say": Mindbreak Version
A bigger list of words. Seriously, this is the first link on steroids.
8. TvTropes
This is about classifying what a good guy is, how much good is he, how much good that good is, how good that good that good is... Something like this, only encompassing the entire writing schtuff.
9. Photographic Height/Weight Chart
This is for knowing what size your character is and knowing how to say it. Don't call your ladder-tall character 4".
Section 7: The Secret to Knowing if You're an Ultimate Writer
Here we go:
Do you really want to know?
Seriously? Are you that desperate?
Keep going! This is a journey of wisdom!
Almost there!
Almost...
You're here! Psych. Continue if you still can.
What if I have a Rickroll waiting for you at the end of this..?
Did I actually put the secret here? Hm, I forgot.
I wouldn't want you to waste anymore of your time, go back. Now.
Darn it, you're still here!?
I WAS LYING! There was no secret in the first place!
Go 'WAY!
Sigh, you won.
The secret to knowing if you're a good writer is when you managed to have your reader stick to your story as long and as faithfully as it took you to reach this message!
I find the last tip exceptionally useful. I will use it.
Yeah I hope that they do. By the way, you guys got some good tips or something I can fit into one of the Sections?
The secret hidden is epic.
Thanks Koumus (Did you pin it?) !
Just leaving a tip as a medium writer,
Follow the success of others. Not the success of your own.
(Learn from other's literature, it's entertaining and educational)
Make better mistakes. You're never going to become a writer without mistakes, they're what makes you stand as a writer. Remember, this is a writing COMMUNITY. We're here to help you, not to criticize every single action you do. Maybe a little of both, actually...
I added both of your tips. They're motivational and that'd important. Now I need someone to gimme a very good guide about writing and stuff. I got something of mine from on old reply. I'd like it if you guys go think about stuff. Also, encourage writers to ask questions here and stuff!
Don't let yourself fool by the thought that every posted chapter/segment/story is set in stone. You can always go back and sneakily tweak this... and change that... and so on. If you made a mistake, go back and correct it, older readers won't profit from that, however potential new readers (which can be up to earth's population, so clearly more than older readers) will. The earlier you do such changes, the less confusion it will cause. But PLEASE be careful with what you change. If you change something little like 10 coal to 11 coal, it won't bother anybody, but if you want to change like... I don't know... the name of the man character FOR THE LOVE OF <name here> DON'T DO THAT, it will screw you over.
Okay, that didn't fit the prophetic voice very well, did it?
I'll maybe do some moar tips some day.
2 things.
One: I have a story idea now. XD
And
Two: You are too inventive for your own good.
What happened to Afartar?
OnceInALongTime: "You confuse me, Mage. Amazability should be a word so I could describe your words."
-Perpetually inactive-
Arfartar will be in the backseat for a good while. I won't have time to work on it. I can't give guarantees. When I can write stories or am creative in general, my ADHD returns and stuff. Can't frickin' concentrate. I've never finished a single story in my life.
I'll be spontaneous about Arfartar so I can think better.
If you are describing something, make sure to describe it completely the first time it gets mentioned. This is valid for charakter or scenery looks, adding information later completely destroys the image that some of your readers had in their minds. The only time you can add something later is when it is supposed to be hidden, for example a scar with a story behind it or the face of a mysterious hooded person. But in general it is best to introduce something and instantly write everything about it.
Like fantasy? Like Minecraft? Check out a blend of the two here! Fall and a Rise: A Vanillacraft Tale!
General:
Characters:
Plot:
Prose:
[12:41] Coffeeeeeee!
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[16:29] "And lo, the tacos were delicious"
I'm Waiting for the title of "Emerald Miner" then I'll keep it!
I love that very last tip.
Thanks,
SkidmarkLive
-Note: Better signature coming soon!