I Need Help, Please............

[living_inlights]

Hi there my name is Phil, and as you can guess I Am new here. I Am hoping to start writing a novel/story, but I dont know where to really begin. Well, I have sort of started, but I do not know how to continue.
I have a slight plan of what I want my story to be based on, but I dont know what type of characters to use. I was wondering if anyone would like to hear my ideas, and possibly help me get started (and maybe even finish the novel). I know this may sound like a long shot, but I would be greatful of the help.

Thanks
Phil

 

[Talysia]

First off, welcome to Chronicles! I'm sure you'll find a lot of help here. There are a few threads about characters and character building - and as for what characters to use, what sort of story are you writing? Is it fantasy or sci-fi, or some other genre? That makes it easier to decide which types of characters to use. The world your story is based in can also give you a lot of insight as to what types of characters to use.

I'm sure that if you post some of your story elements - what makes up your story, the genre, a sketchy storyline and such - some of the people here would be glad to help you with character building ideas and a lot of other things to help you write your novel.

 

[Robert M. Blevins]

Write what you know the best...always good advice for beginning novelists. Anything you don't know...do some research, even if it's only on Google.

Go to AB Videos for Writers and view the video 'Hunting Down the Pleonasm,' which was based on Alan Guthrie's famous how-to-cut-the-deadwood-from-a-novel list. Guthrie is an editor for Point Blank Press in Edinburgh. Smart guy.

Important: BEFORE viewing the video, there is a link next to the video link which will take you to Guthrie's actual paper. Copy/paste/print the paper FIRST for reference, and then view the video.

Also, the previous poster mentioned something about providing more details, in order to recruit better advice for you. Good idea.

The only thing I can offer you on limited information is this: Make sure you have a good 'hook' to open the book. A 'hook' is the first sentence or paragraph in the book...something that grabs the reader and makes him want to continue reading.

'Hook' example: 'I wrote my first software program when I was thirteen years old. It was for playing tic tac toe. The computer I was using was huge and cumbersome and absolutely compelling.'

From: 'The Road Ahead' by Bill Gates.

 

[Laura Stamps]

Hi, Phil--

I have written two articles about how to write your first novel from scratch. They are written for people who have little or no experience at this and would like to try a different approach from the norm. The methods in these articles work for all genres, very basic.

They have appeared in hundreds of magazines across the web, but I don't have any links handy at the moment to give you, so send me an email at laurastamps@mindspring.com and I will email them to you.

Writing is an exciting adventure and big fun...keep at it!

 

[Marky Lazer]

Write the story, see where it goes.

However, starting a story is never the problem, it's finishing that's the hard nut to crack. If you're having problems starting it, I'd say you'll never finish it.

 

[Laura Stamps]

Sometimes when I am having trouble starting a novel it is because I am trying to start in the wrong place. So I close my eyes and concentrate on the characters. Eventually they start moving around and talking and almost always let me know where the story should start.

Or sometimes I have a hard time continuing it because my idea of what the novel should be about is different from what the characters think it should be about. Once again I ask them, and they are always right.

What can I say? The characters always know more about my novels than I do (grin)!

 

[Interference]

At the early stages, I tend to work the story out in the twenty-odd minutes between closing my eyes and falling asleep - over several nights, of course, with the occasional after-lunch doze. I used to hope that this method would filter over into my dreams, but it never has yet. Even so, it shakes up the details and often provides an image or a line that stands out as a fresher way in to the story than I can come up with by using logic alone (when I'm working on a comic, for instance, the patterns of action, word or plot will very often suggest a page layout in its almost-entirety.)

Another thing I do with just about every kind of story is just sit down and start writing until I reach something of dramatic interest or impact. Then I cut everything I've written leading up to it, which can be pages worth of material, and let that become the new start. I know that if I've said anything useful at all in those excised lines, I'll find a way of working them in again later.

You know the way that, as you're writing, a word or phrase can suggest itself as a title for a chapter or even the book? For me, it can be just the same with an opening line or scene may not present itself until half-way through a week's scribbling. The important thing, really, is to know your story, in my humble wotsis...

 

[Laura Stamps]

At the early stages, I tend to work the story out in the twenty-odd minutes between closing my eyes and falling asleep - over several nights, ...

That is a magickal time for sure! I know many times I will be having trouble with a sentence and just the right word or phrasing will come to me as I am about to doze off.

In fact, about 11 years ago, when I was only writing poetry, a passage came to me just as I was about to fall asleep. I woke up enough to pay attention to it, and then sat right up in bed, wide-awake, and said, "This isn't a poem...this is the first paragraph of a short story, and I've never written one before!!!!" So that is how I started writing fiction, first short stories and then novels, and the rest is history (grin).

One more reason why that time of the day is very special to me as a writer. It also goes without saying I always keep a pen and pad of paper next to my bed. No way I could fall asleep and then remember word for word what had come to me as I was about to fall asleep. And writing it all down rarely makes me stay awake. Mainly because I know I have it on paper and can fall sleep now without worrying about losing it.

 

[AphroditeMSC]

I usually start a story somewhere totally random. And go back or forward as the need arises. Any start is better than no start.

But....it's not the start you have a problem with. You're stuck. You need help to get out of your rut. That's what this place is for, am I right?

Tell us what kind of story you're writing, and how, why and where you're stuck. I'm sure someone will come up with an idea or two to get you back on track!!

 

[Interference]

magickal time

Ah, les mots juste!

It's often been said the times just before sleeping and just after waking are the most creative. The unconscious still has a grasp on your sense of reality.

Connected with AphroditeMSC's point about random beginnings, I'm working on a story now that started with a dream-image of a scene and a man's name. That's all. I wrote the scene as a plausible event and now I'm looking for the beginning, which as it's being entered in a Challenge format I can do later as a flash-back.

That's the theory, anyway.