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Thread: So I've decided to write a book

  1. DarkCrow, good luck with writing your book. Hope you enjoy the writing process.
    matthewgood fan
    lupin III fan

  2. Originally posted by AFX
    Buy "The Elements of Style" by Will Strunk, read it four times in a row, and don't ever listen to Jeremy.
    I find it odd that throughout college I never heard this title mentioned. I grabbed it from the library earlier today, though I haven't had time to look at it yet.
    "Tick-tock"

  3. Originally posted by taloony
    I find it odd that throughout college I never heard this title mentioned. I grabbed it from the library earlier today, though I haven't had time to look at it yet.
    That's amazing. Every college English professor should have one stapled to his forehead. It's the most important book ever, at least for a writer.


    "I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery." - Tommy Tallarico

  4. The guy who wrote "Elements of Style" used to teach at the school from which I just graduated. Even now, each entering freshman gets a copy of the book stapled to their head.

  5. Darkcrow should cut me a piece of the profit because of my wonderous advice given to him above.
    Quote Originally Posted by rezo
    Once, a gang of fat girls threatened to beat me up for not cottoning to their advances. As they explained it to me: "guys can usually beat up girls, but we are all fat, and there are a lot of us."

  6. If you think Stephen King has the best command of the written word then don't even bother writing. Ditto Tolkien - 90% of stuff out there is rubbish.

    I'm going to suggest that HArry Potter is a good idea of how to write - Prisoner of Azkaban for preference. It really gives you a good idea of how to develop characters and stage your set pieces.

    My advice:

    1) Don't think about how long it's going to be beforehand. It'll turn out shit.
    2) Be CONCISE. People like M. John Harrison and China Miéville can get away with writing like Roget, but it's almost definite that you can't.
    3) Dialogue is HARD. You need to keep it realistic, while not including any of the rubbish that turns up in real conversation. Many writers fail here. My advice is to act out any conversations you write, and improve from there.
    4) KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS. Know what's happened to them, why they are where they are, what kind of people they like. If necessary, construct a timeline for your main characters. You don't need to map out ANYTHING (I find it impedes creativity), but you HAVE TO KNOW WHAT YOUR CHARACTERS ARE ABOUT. Otherwise, no one else will believe in them. If I ask you a question about your world, your setting, or your characters, you should be able to answer immediately. You may improvise or not have thought about it, but you need to know this setting inside out. Otherwise you'll get nowhere.
    BTFJ

  7. ...

    Well I recently made the move to fiction and here's some stuff that might help you out --

    First off, writing is like anything else, practice will help you develop it. You don't need to be an English major to be a good writer -- Chuck Palahniuk used to be a mechanic...

    Writing is way too subjective, so just write what you are interested in and try to stretch it for a few hundred pages...if you've never written before, you might want to try some short stories...

    Here's a very helpful tip I gleaned from a writing class I am taking this summer (I would suggest seeing if there is a writing group near you that you can join) -- you need to have "the thing and the other thing" -- I'll find the person who writes about this and psot his name later...

    It's really a helpful technic. For instance, I recently read a short story called "The Celing" which is about a giant celing falling from the sky. So that was the thing. The sky is falling and the people are trying to deal with it. But the other thing is that the story is really about the failed relationship between the main character and his wife and the ceiling could easily be interpreted as their relationship and how it's crushing them and there are a lot of other elements that add to it. So you have a surface theme and a real theme -- I know this is hard to describe...but once you have the idea down, it's much easier to craft a story around it...

    Well like the movie the Killer with Chow Yun Fat -- the thing is that he's a killer and goes around killing people, but the other thing is about honor in a lawless world -- even though he's a kiler he has a code of honor and this plays into the whole theme of the film...

    You need to have interesting characters and don't spend too much time on details that do not contribute to the overall meaning of the story...like overdescribing a mailbox that someone walks by, unless it is in the story quite a lot and is important to the story...

    But moslty, just write and then try to work with people who are writers and can help you along...I mean posting it on a message board or something is okay, but try to find a writers group where you can take a chapter each week, or once a month, and find out what people like and don't, what works and what doesn't...this is probably the best advice I can give you...or see ifa local college has some small writing courses -- what is beneficial about that is that you get varied opinions from people who have different writing and reading interests -- some may be into mainstream stuff like King, or more literary stuff, or more experimental, etc...

    For now though, just write, write, write, and then worry about the next step once you atleast have a chapter or 2...
    "50,000! You scored 50,000 points on Double Dragon?"

  8. Darkcrow should cut me a piece of the profit because of my wonderous advice given to him above.
    Does 0.000000000000005% sound good?

    Actualy I hit writers block pretty early on so I'm just taking it real slow.

  9. You know, whatever you have, DarkCrow676, feel free to post in the Pancakes thread.

  10. Ah, the Pancakes thread... My favorite TNL thread.
    matthewgood fan
    lupin III fan

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