Writing a book!

Hi guys i have always loved Richard A. Knaaks book's, he is the writer of the "Warcraft" books i hope someone is familiar with that story line or at least the name, anywho im so inspired by books with long epic story-lines such as warcraft, naming the planets, telling how the races were created and describing them to my liking is just awesome! )

Anyway i was really wondering if anyone had any experience writing these types of books and could give me a few pointers(like what paths in those type of paths to avoid, and to take) and what person is best like 1st or 3rd is best??......Thanks!!!!

First of all, if you want to write seriously, read something besides "World of Warcraft" novelizations.

There's nothing wrong with liking books like those, but ay) they most likely aren't well-written and bee) if you're influenced by only one author, it will SHOW in your writing. You need to read a massive variety of work--not just writing in the genre you want to write--and get a good feel for what makes good writing overall. And write a lot, too. Write write write until you find your individual voice. It's fine to be inspired by one author (that'd be Vonnegut, in my case), but only reading things by that author will do nothing for your writing, because everything you write while under that author's influence will just be a shallow imitation of their work, not your own.

But yeah. The first thing you want to do is read a lot. You can't be a good writer if you're not a good reader, too.

Bickazer wrote:First of all, if you want to write seriously, read something besides "World of Warcraft" novelizations.

There's nothing wrong with liking books like those, but ay) they most likely aren't well-written and bee) if you're influenced by only one author, it will SHOW in your writing. You need to read a massive variety of work--not just writing in the genre you want to write--and get a good feel for what makes good writing overall. And write a lot, too. Write write write until you find your individual voice. It's fine to be inspired by one author (that'd be Vonnegut, in my case), but only reading things by that author will do nothing for your writing, because everything you write while under that author's influence will just be a shallow imitation of their work, not your own.

But yeah. The first thing you want to do is read a lot. You can't be a good writer if you're not a good reader, too.

Have you read books by Richard A. Knaak?

I agree with Bickazer. Read a wide variety of books, not just one specific type of writing. It's OK to read lots of one genre, but you want to read all sorts of that genre. For example, if you write fantasy, you should not only read sword and sorcery fantasy, but also some modern fantasy.

Also, you need quite a bit of creativity. Never copy anything from any of the novels you've read or games you've played. You have to create your own world, using your own creativity.

Now, if you're completely new to the world of writing, I reccomend checking out YWS' knowledge base. There are tons of useful articles to help you get started.

As for style and such, once you've read some knowledge base articles, write something and post it here. Try a short story. You'll get critiques that will improve your writing skills.

Writing is a very difficult field to enter. But you can pull it off. You just need to set your mind to it.

And don't expect to get published by writing something mediocre. You have to be really good in order to get published, and even better to sell well. You need to edit so much, you think of your story as flawless, then put it up here and get the finer details.

I'm not trying to scare you off. You just need to realise that we can't all be Steven King or CS Lewis. You'll need a job besides writing to get by. You have to be willing to handle that to go into this field.

thunder_dude7 wrote:I agree with Bickazer. Read a wide variety of books, not just one specific type of writing. It's OK to read lots of one genre, but you want to read all sorts of that genre. For example, if you write fantasy, you should not only read sword and sorcery fantasy, but also some modern fantasy.

Also, you need quite a bit of creativity. Never copy anything from any of the novels you've read or games you've played. You have to create your own world, using your own creativity.

Now, if you're completely new to the world of writing, I reccomend checking out YWS' knowledge base. There are tons of useful articles to help you get started.

As for style and such, once you've read some knowledge base articles, write something and post it here. Try a short story. You'll get critiques that will improve your writing skills.

Writing is a very difficult field to enter. But you can pull it off. You just need to set your mind to it.

And don't expect to get published by writing something mediocre. You have to be really good in order to get published, and even better to sell well. You need to edit so much, you think of your story as flawless, then put it up here and get the finer details.

I'm not trying to scare you off. You just need to realise that we can't all be Steven King or CS Lewis. You'll need a job besides writing to get by. You have to be willing to handle that to go into this field.

I thank you so much for you're advice, these are the kinds of things i like to here and i will be comming out with a small beginning to my story soon and i hope to have some constructive criticism .....once again i thank you