Writing & Publishing Why and how did you learn to write? (Also, any tips you learned along the way.)

TDDracken

TDDracken

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My own story is simple. After I came to the conclusion that closing my indie game studio was unavoidable, I picked up a pencil and began to write in the hopes of capturing the stories I wanted to share. That's the why, as far as the how, when I realized what I wrote was little more than poorly-worded drivel, I read "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "The Lord of the Rings" to study how they were written. My next step to learning, after a few drafts that saw marginal improvement each time, was to join these forums.

The feedback and assistance from beta readers, here helped greatly in my learning how to improve. @carolinamtne, @suspensewriter, @zx1ninja, and @Zee stand out as being helpful in my memory. If you helped me in the past, I apologize for not mentioning you. I'm terrible with remembering names and I'm surprised I even remembered those four so well.

My next bit of learning came from the sudden feeling that something was missing from my current novel, that I'm also soliciting beta readers for. After a quick review of "The Lord of the Rings," I realized my descriptions weren't deep enough and mostly only related to how things looked and not sounded, smelled, or other.

The next realization in my style was realizing that subject before action when talking about something a character says is something I like better such as "I don't think so," Jameson said. Glancing through the pages of "Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief" is what convinced me that I like the flow of it better and that it may (possibly but not sure) be regarded as more standard practice.

The final, and most recent thing I learned was from the "The Boxcar Children Great Adventure 1" when I was reading to my daughter and saw a character description broken up between author voice and a character's observations to keep the description from coming off as being too long. This lesson may work itself into revisions of my current novel.

As a side note, I learned to always keep your eyes open for things that could inform or build your own skills.
 
Why and how...did I learn to write. Well, I've repeated this numerous times and I'm sure some are tired of hearing it, but I never tire of sharing it. I became ill in 2000 and seven months later, in February of 2001, the Lord spoke to my heart to write for Him. I think I played the roll of Sarah. I laughed. Who, me, Lord? All I had ever written was some stinky poetry. I write nonfiction, devotionals and inspirational stories. Not as much to learn as with fiction. This site has pumped up my learning and so with reading soooooooo many others. ::D
 
suspensewriter said:
Sound like you learned some valuable lessons along the way, @TDDracken !
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Yeah. I have the mentality that I'm always trying to analyze things and understand how to do them better. That's paired well with my desire to share stories through writing. It's reached the point where I'm glad my first novel wasn't published because that means I can apply what I've learned while writing this one.

"Drifters: Origins," by the time I'm done will be revised into "Drifters: Origins" and "Drifters: Revelations" to address the fact that some publishers outright said things along the lines of ["130K words? Wow. That's too long for us."] This will also allow me to put in some material that I actually took out of the story to cut down the length to what was still regarded as too long.
 
I've learned a lot by studying how different authors write as well. Reading a wide variety of authors has really helped me, especially trying to notice an author's style of writing or voice. Even reading a little of each of the following books/stories, you can see huge differences in voice:

Holes
Les Miserables
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
The Metamorphosis
The Accidental Tourist

Some things I've learned:

Every character should fulfill a role: antagonist, mentor, bad example, skeptic, etc.

Manage reader expectations. Your choice of genre automatically brings a set of expectations that you have to play to and manage.

Don't reveal things too soon. A story is a guessing game you play with the reader.

Stay away from low-hanging fruit.

Use dramatic, tension-filled situations. Conflict adds interest.

Don't always say things in a straightforward way. Imply, hint at things, say things in a roundabout way.
 
I started writing because I couldn't find anything else I wanted to read. I'm very picky about what interests me. Someone told me that I had a way with words.

I have no idea how I got here. I started writing, then stopped for about 20 years because I sucked at it. Then I picked it up again and wrote something like 4 full books, which I know I'll eventually rewrite. Most of the stuff I 'learned," about writing and the advice that was offered was, apparently, wrong because I'm doing everything I'm not supposed to do.

I initially thought THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB was a sort of "meh" story. My wife loved it. People love it. I have no gauge, other than my wife and beta readers, if something is good or not. So, I'm obviously not a good judge of story quality.

I write as if this a movie playing in my head. That's the best I can tell you. The only rules I follow are:
1) Write what you want to read.
2) Don't repeat yourself (unless you have to).
3) Don't bore or confuse the reader.
4) If you dread writing it, the reader will hate it (dreading having to edit the work is just a given).
 
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I am happy to stumble here. I believe this thread is meant for me. I am trying to become a writer and I have been frustrated by it.
You said you study some books to improve your writing. Please can I ask how did you study those books. What are the points and things you were looking for when you read them?
I read a lot although I have seen a bit of improvement in my writing , I believe it should have improved more than . So I googled why my writing hasn't improved and in the course I saw something like read like a writer. How do I read like a writer? Or how do you study books to improve your writing?
 
I'd say just try to notice the things the author does and try to figure out why he/she does them that way

For example, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, why does Lewis start the story with Lucy getting into Narnia, but then she comes back and there's a whole period when no one believes her and she doesn't get back there for a while?

Well, for one thing it makes us sympathize with Lucy. She's misunderstood. We come to identify with her more. Also, it starts to make Narnia a place we are longing to get back to. Lewis is teasing us, making us want it more. And it allows the character of Edmund to be established, in preparation for what he does later.

Things like that.
 
Thanks Baruch. I really appreciate your response. What do you say about copying a writer's sentence and trying to modify it . Does it help to improve writing?
 
Probably not copying/modifying a sentence. You could certainly try writing something similar to an author you like. Mostly just do lots of reading of different types of things, let it all soak in. And write. Submit things here for critique.
 
Why and how did I learn to write?

I was talking with a rather large Christian group and someone mentioned a book that someone had written.

I said "I'll bet I could do that."

Another of the group says "Well do it then." And the challenge was on, that became my first novella.
I emailed her a copy and she said she loved it. I didn't learn to tell stories, it was already there. That's when the learning began. It comes easy and natural to me to tell a story, but the grammar comes hard for someone with my background.
I've told a lot of stories and hope someday to learn to write.

My tip? Never and I mean never ever...give up.
 
I remember that I wrote my first story in the third grade. What it was about? Probably about horses, but I don't know. I took a creative writing class in college. The professor really liked my story about a riding going over the horse's head when the horse refused a jump. I do wish I had kept a copy.
Otherwise, I didn't write much while raising my daughter, but I started writing again after my divorce. Retirement has given me the time to work at it seriously. And like others, I've learned a lot from being here.
 
I wrote stories when I was a child. Some of them were okay. Some...not so much. I even tried writing a couple of novels way back then, though I mainly used the make-it-up-as-you-go method. I've written off and on since then, though most of it was blogging, and not all of it was uplifting.

Then, a few months ago, on a lark, I took something that I was just writing for fun and very quickly (to my surprise, if no one else's) transitioned it into something with an actual plot and outline. And I discovered that, for the first time in a while, I was doing something that ignited any sort of passion inside me.

Here's to finding out what comes next!
 
Th fall of 1983, I became very depressed. I was working a full-time job about an hour away from our home. One day at work, I sat and cried for eight hours as I worked. my husband called me on another day and suggested that I "do us both a favor" and request a 30 day leave from my job. This was at the end of November. During that next month, I discovered I was needed at home because things were not as they should have been. I found myself writing in a steno book and found myself relieved from some of the tension I felt. I decided to try to write. I had some times where "life got in the way ". I took a writing class through my husband's union hall. That led to a writing group being formed by that teacher. I had to stop going to the group when I took a job in a library in our county, The writing group needed to find a new place to meet. The organizer lived in that area and it met at the library. I rejoined the group. I also was on an online writing group for a while.

In 2017, self-published a devotional book. I have had a blog since 2008 and I also contribute to an online Christian website. I have written a newsletter for a church I was in. I also have written two newsletters, in alternating months for a Christian Faith-Based Non-Profit Organization.
 
There are many books you can read about the craft of writing. They will help you polish and remove blemishes but cannot add what is missing. To find depth and originality so that you can put them into a story is hard. I got lucky with my first few books because I did the following:
  • I asked good questions
  • I took stories I liked but which had a feature that I didn’t like and decided to fix that feature
  • I tapped into my own spiritual journey
For the spiritual journey part, I felt like I would not be a good father because I didn’t have the right priorities. I didn’t know what the most important things of Christianity were, so how could I teach them to my three daughters? Before I got married, I realized that I didn’t know what the treasures in Heaven that Jesus spoke about were. I decided to research that question.

For the “I can do this better” part, I thought about books and movies where someone dies and goes before an angelic judge. One thing they all lack is a fully developed legal system. They seem too simplistic. secondly, I thought about the Divine Comedy by Dante. I loved Inferno but Purgatorio was boring. It seemed materialistic. What I mean is that the process of purification was about spiritual disciplines carried out over large stretches of time. Since the person in Purgatory knows where they are and that God is real and they will eventually make it to heaven, there is no surprise, no need for faith. There is no story. Thirdly, I reflected on many stories that are anachronistic. They are just warmed over copies of New York City or London or some place that we are familiar with. Why should every fantasy have a culture and government ripped out of Medieval France?

So I set about designing my own Purgatory, where people remain in suspense about what is going on and still need to act on faith. I wanted a unique government for the place. This is where the good questions come in. Each question I asked led to another, as I went deep into my subject. What is the core of culture? It is government. What is the core of government? It is law. What are laws for? They enforce a moral code. What is morality for? To protect something valuable. What are the things of ultimate value? That connected my story to my personal mission.

I set about studying the Bible and other religious texts to find what were the common things each sought to protect, the ultimate values. I made them into pillars in my version of purgatory. I had my hero devalue them, leading to his punishment and journey to redemption. I studied the legal systems of the US, Mexico, England, France, Hinduism, Indonesia, Judaism, and Chinese folk religions. I took bits and pieces of each plus some ideas of my own to form an entire legal system for Purgatory, like the appellate process, court procedures, roles and offices, and such. Like a city planner, I designed a whole city to operate the court system. Then I built a government around it, fragmented it and came up with principles and tactics of war in the afterlife. War between people who are already dead is a strange and different sort of thing!

All these questions and searching were to find ways to do something unlike what anyone has ever done before, to stake out territory unlike that in any other books but built upon recognized legal and spiritual principles. Along the way I came up with a supernatural “magic” system. The hero and the villains learned how to acquire and systematize the spiritual abilities and come up with new weapons and tactics for large scale warfare among the dead, a veritable arms race. This involved concocting a few new substances and working out a crude material science to govern their operation.

I employ a simplified version of this in all my world building since. I aim for a distinct legal system, form of governance, magical system, and the like instead of copying everyone else. To do that you need to know the elements of each so that you can define them and suit them to your story.

My world building method is neither easy nor quick, but it is rewarding. However, it does not free you from the burden of developing interesting characters, telling good stories and finding an engaging style. I have one tip for the last: read poetry. After high school, I seldom read poetry. By accident, I chose to make a character in my story an English professor. To develop her, I needed to know her favorite poems so I could work them into the story. I forced myself to read lots of classic poetry. I eventually developed a liking for verse. This really helped me improve my phrasing, my imagery and come up with great speeches. You don’t wax poetic all the time, but it is important to turn it on at the right moments And for that you need inspiration. Reading poetry helped me improve my style. And yes, now I even write my own sometimes.
 
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