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Young Writers Society


Starting My First Story



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Fri Jan 25, 2013 9:58 am
GlitterGabbi says...



What do I do??? I'm lost, it's like, the first day at school! Very confusing!

Can anyone help? Like, how to begin and other stuff?

Thanks, GlitterGabbi. :)
Last edited by GlitterGabbi on Sun Oct 20, 2013 2:17 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:43 pm
crossroads says...



Do you have a plot already in mind? The characters? What genre is it? Is it a short story, or do you want to make it a novel?

It depends on a writer how he or she will start a story, but in any case it's important to keep the reader interested. Many readers decide if they'll read on based on the first sentence or a few, so you should try to put in the spirit of your novel/story in there.

What do I mean by that? Well, if it's about to be humorous, don't start in a too serious tone, because people will just think you don't have a good sense of humor. If it's a crime story, start with a little mystery already involved. If it's first person, and/or talking about the life of the MC, you can start with something like "Even after so many years, I still remember being ___".. And so on. Especially if you're writing in first person, make the character have his/her voice from the very beginning.
If you already have the biggest scene in mind, but nothing before yet made up (or is unimportant for now), you can use the in medias res technique, bringing the reader in a moment you choose. Say, if you have a story about a team fighting demons, it may be more interesting to make a fight be the opening scene, and explain in retrospective how the team met and got to the task, than the other way around. It can work the other way around, of course. Like I said, it depends on the writer.

After all, you can always change the beginning later, if you see something else to be a better fit to the rest of the story ;)

Personally, I started each of my novels from the series (written all in first person, but different people talking) at the beginning of the MC's life, moving the time forward fast enough but mentioning all the things that will be important later. My novels also mostly end with the end/big change of the MC's life, though, so that kind of beginning makes sense. Also, I have that thing with everything being connected with one another, and the stories I tell are really long. So unless you're about to write something like that (in which case, PM me!!), and especially if it's a short story, you don't need to give away a lot of information of the characters in the beginning.

. . . That was long. I hope at least a bit useful, though. You're most certainly allowed to PM me even if you're not writing something like the thing I am xD If you need any more help, or if you want a private review of what you have written, or if you wonder if you're doing it right, I'll be here :3
• previously ChildOfNowhere
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literary fantasy with a fairytale flavour
  





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Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:46 pm
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Cadi says...



Aria's covered a lot of things already, but I figured I might as well weigh in as well!

First, have you got an idea of what you want the story to be about? It could be a plot idea, a character, a setting... whatever. If not, go look for one! Look up writing prompts, write something based on a song, write a re-imagining of a fairytale you like. I have some stories I would never have written if my friend hadn't challenged me to a writing prompt challenge, so if you haven't got ideas and want some, go out looking!

If you've got an idea, you might like to try outlining a bit. This is very subjective, but there are two main camps on this: do it, and don't do it. Some people like to sit down and think about their characters and their setting and write out a whole sequence of events to cover in the story before they start. Other people like to start with a few characters in a setting, and see what happens. Either way, think about what your characters might want to get by the end of the story, and whether you're going to let them have it. This is your character motivation - the stuff they want that's the reason they do things in the plot. (e.g. Ariel in The Little Mermaid wants to be with her prince (and sacrifices her voice for that).)

Whether you plot or not, at some point you have to start writing. Again, how you do this is up to you! You might want to start at the beginning, and go through it all chronologically. Or you might get an idea for a scene halfway through, and write that, and then go back later on. Something I find really helps is to just write stuff, and try and get the whole story out, without worrying about it making sense. Then I go back afterwards and change things that didn't work, and make a second draft.

I hope this helps a bit! Feel free to send me a PM if you want to ask more questions!
"The fact is, I don't know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn't collapse when you beat your head against it." --Douglas Adams
  





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Wed Jan 30, 2013 7:23 am
GlitterGabbi says...



I also heard about:

-Editors
-Publishers
-Front Cover Designer
-and etc

How would I get them if I want to sell a book, etc, because I wanna be an author. Anyone wanna tell me how?
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Wed Jan 30, 2013 4:14 pm
crossroads says...



You should have a book written first, and then worry about that lot ^^

Now, the system (especially names of jobs) are slightly different in my country/language, so I hope I'll get everything right.

When you finish your book, you send letters to the publishers. Some publishers will accept and read the whole manuscript, some ask for excerpts and explanations beforehand, to decide whether they'd be interested or not. I think it's polite to ask about what you need to send in a letter in any case, though just sending them the whole thing may mean they won't be able to just ignore it :mrgreen: p

I'm not sure what job "editors" do outside of my country xD like I said, it's a bit different. They do, however, obviously edit your novel. I suppose, prepare it for the print *after* it got accepted by the publisher.. I could use some info about that too.

There are also agents, in some countries at least - they accept your book and find the publisher instead of you. They say that authors with agents have more chance to get published, but I have no personal experience.

As for covers, you can have one designed at any time - professionally or not, doesn't really matter. You need an artist who will make you a picture, and there's a lot of those. Some charge more, some less, some don't at all - when I do covers (not often coz I don't have the time, though), I usually only ask for my name written in the book as the artist.. And if the writer *wants* to add a payment, I surely don't mind.
About the same goes for illustrations inside of the book, if you have the need for those.
• previously ChildOfNowhere
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literary fantasy with a fairytale flavour
  





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Wed Jan 30, 2013 11:10 pm
Amily says...



To start you need, of course, a basic idea, on the basis of which the plot will revolve. Then you should make up a plan which will coincide later with the stricture of the book. Then, express your thoughts.
  





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Fri Oct 18, 2013 4:37 pm
deleted5 says...



I'll try what someone else said to me to do on my old forum:
If you have an idea, try posting the first chapter of two so we can look at it.
If you don't, brainstorm some ideas and choose your favourite THEN post the first few chapters.
This really worked for me and now I am starting my own book.
Don't worry sailor you'll know what to do. :pirate3:
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