Tips and Traps for Writing Fiction

[ray gower]

My apologies! :wave:
I mis-interpreted. However the point I think is valid?

 

[Bayleaf48]

That's okay ray, no need 2 apologise

True it is a valid point & so another tip should be 2 explain words/phrases that COUYLD be easily misunderstood

:blush:

 

[ray gower]

How to Write a Parody?

Asked how to write a Parody by an enthusiast of Fleet Lark on Startrek Fanfiction.

I don't claim to be an expert on the subject. So I bring the question here for better answers.

For my money:-
It goes without question all the good points listed here apply, only more so. Plus:-

Don't exagerate (too much)! It gets boring

You need to set up good characters e.g. To send up Jean Luc Picard, you need to prove he is a stuck up pompous twit and produce some real smartarses to make him look a fool.

Play on the characters characteristics, but ensure it is generally believeable- Tuttenbeck's, Geroff, for instance is a very laid back fixer.

Things that happen should be possible, at least within the context of the story. Choose and place the props carefully.

Things should work, just not necessarily quite as expected e.g. a replicator that can produce coffee, but not a cup.

 

[Highlander II]

Excellent thoughts on parodies there --

something I've seen done in good ones -- choose one character trait from each character, and slightly over-exaggerate it -

ie: Daniel and his coffee addiction (Stargate)
or: Angel's brooding (Angel / BTVS)

little things -- things that everyone knows are there, but won't really pick up on until they're pointed out --

 

[Bayleaf48]

In books that I've read, I've found that characters are developed as the book progresses & that 4 me is a good thing as you get 2 read about the characters developing - if that makes sense at all!

:blush:

 

[Dave]

I'm pleased that you liked my idea for original character names.

Along similar lines, as I am interested in Family History research, I came across this excellent site with a list of obscure and ancient occupations. I realised that it would also be a great resource for thinking up original occupations for your alien and off-worldly characters.

List of Occupations

 

[Qwxy]

i love all these tips and have found quite useful while preparing to re-write my latest story (i started it about four years ago but due to one thing and another i keep on losing stuff.

 

[Asmiley]

It is always handy to have a thesauras and/or a dictionary nearby when writing a story.

 

[ray gower]

When looking for a 'Turn of Phrase' to use with good meaning, a Brewsters Dictionary of Phrase and Fable is very helpful.

 

[Dave]

Aliens

All Science Fiction has aliens. Even Hard SF needs well designed believable aliens. If they are too like us they are just humans with foreheads, if they are too wacky, natural selection would not have created them.

I have found a good site concerned with Exobiology and designing believable aliens:
Mia Molvray - Speculative Fiction - Alien Biology

You could also take a look at the NASA Exobiology Branch or type "Exobiology" into a search engine. Try looking at some of the weird forms of life that actually exist on Earth by visiting National Geographic.

 

[LM Rosa]

Really good tips for writing you people are gathering here.


Know the ending to a story before you begin it.
It might seem a weird one, but i'm not suggesting something like Memento - if the writer has a good knowledge of how the story is going to end, he can have a better control over the pacing, plot and subplots and thus will avoid loose ends - plus, this allows the writer to throw some clues throughout the book so when the reader comes to the great climax, he goes back to read it a second time, sees the clues and thinks: 'why didn't i notice that at first?' Well, that's what i think though

 

[ray gower]

Characters
It goes without saying, without strong believable people you cannot write a good story.
So where can I get some?

Fan Fiction Characters
Fan Fiction writers are blessed and cursed.
They have a ready made stock of characters they must use and they must follow the rule of at least starting and finishing as the same people as they are on the show.
Unfortunately many of these standard characters are rather annonymous and/or ambiguous, so many viewers have created their own opinions upon them, which are not necessarily the same as yours. Some care is needed to show why they do what you want them to do.

Original Characters
Do not be afraid to use people you know, or have met, as the basis of original characters. It is much easier to make them believable.
Similarly mixing characteristics and even egging a few is quite acceptable. But not to the point of making them perfect in all things (i.e. the extremes of Mary Sue).

 

[kelsi]

So would you guys think that it's easier or harder to write a fanfic about an already established universe? (For example, writing about the Tollan, or creating your own advanced race?)

 

[ray gower]

I think that is a case of personal preference.

Personally I find it easier to create races, unless the established ones become well known e.g. Borg, Klingons et al.

 

[Rik_the_Riff]

Hmmmm.... fanfic versus original.

I've always preferred original - more freedom. However, if you arent' good at coming up with characters or aliens, or if you know a show really well (always my achilles' heel - I don't watch dedicatedly enough), fanfic is an excellent medium. You have to be careful, though.

Just a thought

Rik

 

[Highlander II]

Personally - I seem to be really bad a creating original characters who don't suck, so I write fanfic - the characters already exist and are comfy in their own world - and the fandoms I write in, I generally know backwards and forwards (BtVS and HL are my two major ones) --

And, fanfic is a great place to 'get your feet wet' if you want to be a writer. In fanfic, you can take those established characters and locations and work on plot-building techniques.

However, if you need to build characters - original work might be better. (Yeah, I should probably do this, but I'm too lazy, so I write the fandom stuff instead - hey, at least I'm honest) --

 

[tschurter]

Going against the grain I would say:

AVOID FALLING INTO THE TRAP OF TRYING TO WRITE BY RULES, instead find your "voice", your natural storytelling writing style, and GO.

Although many points made here are valuable and important I see to many good writers walling themselves in chasing a "writing formula" that DOES NOT EXIST.

The only real measure of your work is if readers read it.

Love it, hate it, kiss it, or curse it - if the readers' can't put it down then you are THERE.

Whereas, you take the comprehensive set of writing rules and wisdom applied with complete diligence to a great idea and you'll at best end up with a mediocre mighta been.

 

[ray gower]

Welcome to Ascifi, tschurter :wave:
Hope you enjoy it enough to keep coming back!

Your comments reflect my own thoughts to a tee. Yet all the books on the subject always say one must write like this or that:dead:

Unfortunately many current publishers have read those 'how to write books' books too. Worse they believe them! Hence our thread for the tips that really matter.

Rules are made for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools!

 

[Rik_the_Riff]

I'll tell you how to write
1: Turn on computer/ pick up piece of paper
2: Load Word/pick up pen
3: put words on paper in grammatically sensible order

That's the only bit of the process which is anything like universal.

Anyway, my writing process;
I write a lot of long-narrative stories, so I do a 'macro plan' where I lay out where the story is gonna go and what'll happen to the characters first. Then I just sit down at a keyboard and turn a 3-sentence plan into 2500 words (or something like that - half a page of scribbling might become a TV episode, or a chapter). I tend to do it flying by the tips of my fingers - nice and easy, without really concentrating on anything. I find that if I'm not concentrating, the bits of my subconscious that drive the different characters come to the suface, and the damn thing writes itself, pretty much.

But obviously, that's just me.

 

[Highlander II]

Actually - I got a bit of a 'tip' / template from Jim Butcher's LJ -

Okay - so, here it is (now that LJ has stopped being a moron) -

Jim Butcher

The story skeleton (also called a story question) consists of a simple format:

*WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS*, *YOUR PROTAGONIST* *PURSUES A GOAL*. But will he succeed when *ANTAGONIST PROVIDES OPPOSITION*?

Taken from: Jim Butcher's LJ

He also says a lot of other really cool stuff there - feel free to friend the journal and read the tips -