Ultimate Writing Guide 1:1 - Getting Started

The Ultimate Writing Guide

Chapter 1:1 - Getting Started

What you'll find in this area of the guide is developing you and why you want to write and the skills you'll need to do it. One of the best ways you can improve your writing offhand is to read a lot of books, especially books that are of the genre you would like to write yourself.

In this part of Chapter 1, you will find out:
Why you want to write
The obstacles you will face
What sort of writing fits you

There will also be:
Hints and tips
Helpful advice
Writing prompts to practice with

Why You Want to Write

Now you're obviously here because you want to write, therefore you've already completed step one of this process. Creativity starts with you. You'll probably find that you're analytic and self observant and many of the things your create come from your imagination, personality and interests - whether you realize it or not.

It's important to remember you should write for yourself and never for anyone else. When you write for someone else, you'll find it harder to write and will damper your creative talents. Your motivation should come from you - not from others.

There may be some of you stragglers here sitting in the back who might be asking themselves 'can I write?' well the answer is almost everyone can write. Just how everyone can pick up a paintbrush and paint a picture. It doesn't mean that it'll be at first hand brilliant. You may not be a Stephen King at this moment in time, but that's because he put time and effort into developing and making his writing better. Like they say - Rome wasn't built in a day and your best selling novel isn't going to be either. Creative writing is a skill as well as a talent - if you aren't born with the talent for it, it doesn't mean you can't learn how to do it.

So - first, look at why you want to write. Just take a few minutes to seriously ask yourself why you want to write. There are various reasons why someone may want to write but what's important is that YOU know why you want to write.

Some good examples for wanting to write are:
There's a character that keeps coming to mind and I want to explore the depths of this character - I want to know more about him/her.
I've always had a strong passion for writing and I've been wanting to express myself through creative writing for years.
I get a lot of random story ideas that come to mind and one really sticks out. I'd like to write it to see for myself how the story pans out.
Things that have happened in my childhood make for a good story and have inspired me to try a hand at creative writing.
There's a voice in the back of my head nagging me to write! I just need to get something onto paper!
I remember we used to do creative writing in school and I miss those days. It would be cool to try and do it again for fun.

Any of those reasons, or something similar, are good reasons to want to write. One of them may only apply to you, maybe two, perhaps all of them apply to you - but the most important thing is to hold onto what makes you want to write. Whether it be a childhood memory or your inbuilt passion for writing that makes you want to pick up a pen and write (or open a word document and type!) hold onto that reason; because when you feel like there's no point in writing, you can fall back on that reason to empower you.

Here are some bad examples of wanting to write:
I want to become rich and famous and writing is an easy way to doing so.
I'm doing it just because people around me say I should - I don't have that much of an interest in it.
I feel as though by writing, I'll be able to get on the front covers of magazines.
I just want to write a best seller.
It's something to brag about to my friends because it makes me seem better than them.

Now while it is good for any aspiring author to have the motivation of having a best seller one day and being on par with J.K.Rowling for example, it's not a very good reason to build your foundation of wanting to write on. Creativity comes from passion, not from long term goals. If you find yourself wanting to write because of any of these reasons more so than the other reasons, it's not to say you can't write, but you need a reality check! You need to find that passion inside of you, what makes you want to write? For if you rely on these things as your primary motivations for writing, you'll be prone to facing a lot of inner and outer demons you won't be able to conquer.

The Obstacles You Will Face

What sort of inner and outer demons am I talking about? Well, the most common ones of course! If you're new to writing, you're in for a special treat! If your familiar with writing and its struggles, you'll be able to easily identify the troubles of writing without me having to explain them to you. However, let me give you the rundown of what you can expect to face when you begin your writing.

Things you can expect are:
Writer's Block
A writer's block is similar to any sort of 'block', such as an artists block. This is where you, as a writer, will come across a block in the road of writing your book or poem or FanFiction or whatever you plan on writing. You may not know where to go next with your story or have trouble starting a chapter or even ending it. This is perfectly normal. You are not a horrible writer or a failure, it's simply something all writer's face at some point and eventually, with enough motivation and willpower, you will overcome it.

Your Inner Critic
Your inner critic will tell you things such as 'you'll never finish this novel' or 'you're never going to get published - just give up'. Many new writers, and even experienced writers, have an inner critic. However you just have to find the best way to silencing this part of your creative self.

Your Outer Critics
Just like your inner critic, there will be people on the outside who will critique your work and will not be nice about it. Remember! Your story is NOT going to appeal to everyone, but you have to be accepting of useful critique. When people tell you your story is rubbish or stupid, this is NOT useful. When people tell you that a certain area of your story could use a little tweaking here and there, accept it! This is HELPFUL.

The Blank Sheet
Staring at a blank word document or a blank sheet of paper can be very intimidating to some people. When you first start out with writing, you'll find out very quickly the story doesn't write itself. This can cause many writers to panic and fret - don't. Set yourself a target for each day to overcome this blank sheet. For example, I use the page a day method. This is where you write one page every day. If that's a bit too much, try a paragraph a day, or even a sentence. Eventually, seeing a blank page will become familiar to you and you will overcome this.

The Length
People also find the length of a story quite intimidating. Writing requires a lot of effort - it doesn't take a few hours and boom it's finished and this can be intimidating for people who want to write novels. Once again, use the method above except with words. Try writing 100 words a day. When you feel more confident, maybe move to 500 words a day and then up to 1000. It's all about how comfortable you feel and what pace you want to go at when writing. The length of your work is how long or short YOU want it to be.

Planning
Some people plan, some do not. When people plan, they find that then they've looked too deeply into a story and lose the interest in it. Some that don't plan forget what they were going to do at this part and mix it up with that part and it becomes an excessive jumble. Planning is optional, but recommended. Do the right about of preparing and planning and this will be an easily overcome obstacle.

As you can see you will face many obstacles in your writing life - and those are just a namely few.

You can easily deal with these obstacles and every writer deals with them differently. For example, when your inner critic laughs at you and tells you your plot movement is bad - you may want to yell at him/her out loud and tell it to shut up. Or you may decide to take a break from writing, listen to some inspiring music or look at some inspiring artwork - whatever motivates you, and come back to it when you're feeling more confident. You need to find what works for you.

What Sort of Writing Fits You

So, let's move onto the next part - what sort of writing fits you. Now if you know what sort of genre fits your style, it's always good to practice writing in another style or genre. You may surprise yourself by finding another genre you love to write! If you don't it's still practice and one of the key things about writing is practice.

Now, when you write you must always trust yourself and your judgement. Write for yourself and be open to trying out new ways of writing! Don't ever expect to write brilliantly right away because no one can. And most importantly, learn from other writers. Find a writing buddy who writes for the same genres as you and compare your work, learn what techniques they use and apply it to your own style - and they will benefit from doing the same with yours!

In the beginning of this part, I mentioned that reading is one of the best ways of learning how to write - it is. You should always be reading! Especially of the genre you want to write for. So let's say you wanted to write a teenage fiction, read teenage fiction! Pick up a copy of something in the teen section at book stores that tickles your fancy and buy it! If you want to write a book for young children about Lily the Lion and her best friend Timmy the Tiger and Rosie the Racoon and their greatest adventures around Alphabet City then pick up children's books that are like that and read them!

If you're a FanFiction writer and want to write a story about how Hermione Granger actually fell in love with Harry and not Ron, then read stories centering around Hermione and Harry as a couple and find out what sort of stories have been done and how you can do it better! If you want to write poetry, google a poem by Byron or Blake or a poet that you aspire to be like and look at their work, look at the techniques they use and how they use it. Learn from writers/poets and the best way to do so is reading.

So, back to genres. You may be the next George Lucas or J.R.R.Tolkien but slow down for a moment. You may say to yourself - what's the difference between the two? Well, both Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are of the Fantasy genre, yet they are WORLDS different. Star Wars has Jedi Knights with advanced technology whilst Lord of the Rings has Hobbits and a Wizard travelling through the Middle-Earth to get to Mordor in order to destroy a ring. Yet, they are both in the same genre. Do you see what I'm getting at? No? Then let's look at it in more depth.

There's Fantasy, for example, and there's different TYPES of Fantasy. Sci-Fi Fantasy and Medieval Fantasy are the best to describe the two books above. It's the same with any genre! With Romance there's Tragic Romance or High School Romance. They're both still Romance novels, yet they're completely different in what they're trying to portray. This is why it is always good to write for different genres and their sub-genres. You may think 'Yeah I just wrote a great tragic romance between a man whose wife was suffering with cancer! I don't need to try writing another romance story.'

You couldn't be more wrong! You want to stretch your talents and explore your genre once you've found it!

WRITING EXERCISE
So how can you practice writing for different genres? Here, I'll give you some prompts you can practice with. If you try them out and publish them on deviantArt, you are welcome to link them below. I'll just be using general genres - so whether you write something futuristic for the Fantasy genre or something cheesy for the Romance, it's up to you! Whether you use it for FanFiction or actual original writing practice is also up to you! How long you make the practice prompts is up to you!

Fantasy - Write about two young men who have just discovered an ancient relic that holds mysterious untold powers. Focus on the importance of this artifact.

Romance - Write about a character seeing their crush/loved one in a crowd of people. Focus on their emotions and the impact it has on them.

Mystery - Write about a death in a high-class family. Focus on the impact the death has on the family and WHY the death is a mystery.

Sci-Fi - Write about a human encountering an alien from another planet. Focus on the reaction the human has to this new being and/or the aliens reaction to planet Earth.

Tragedy - Write about an old man or lady looking back on the death of someone or something very close to them. Focus on the intensity of their emotions and the importance of this person or thing.

Adventure - Write about two young children exploring a forest and how they encounter something unusual. Focus mainly on the journey and surroundings.

Crime - Write about a break in consisting of three or more gang members. Focus on the actual break in and whether they are caught or get away.

Horror - Write about a serial killer murdering his most recent victim. Focus on the detail of the murder and how the victim feels OR how the serial killer feels.

Supernatural - Write about a paranormal being accidentally stumbling across the human realm. Focus on their reaction and how that paranormal being would react in this circumstance.

Next time, we will solely be focusing on three things you may hear a lot but might not be too familiar with! Nouns, verbs and adjectives! We will be looking how to use them and  looking at the sentence structures, different sentence moods, techniques to put into you writing and more.