by CKent45 » Tue Jun 14, 2022 3:41 am
There's literally no barrier to entry to trying your hand at writing. Start with a simple idea, then write it down. Such as, "a neighbor's single mother catches a shrinking virus."
Then ask yourself questions about that idea. How much will the virus shrink her? How long will it shrink her? Will she recover? Is it just a common bug in this universe, or is it an epidemic? How does she deal with her illness? Who is available to help her? And on and on. Each of these questions will create a new building block for your story.
Make sure to do your best to think in scenes. Something like, "Mary was generally feeling fine, despite the dizziness and aching in her sinuses. She insisted it was probably just allergies despite the fact that she normally didn't have problems with allergies this time of year. Honestly, she was quite adamant about it with her coworker, James, who had showed some concern for her, but she shrugged his concerns off, feeling confident in her immune system. It wasn't until she was sitting at her desk with an irresistible and infuriating itch in her nose that she finally gave in and let loose a powerful sneeze that she was forced to conclude that it wasn't allergies that were the problem. She didn't even notice at first as in an instant, her head sank two inches lower in her seat. Mary only got a rude awakening to her condition when she rubbed her irritated nose and heard the klink of her bracelet hit the linoleum floor to her left."
So, that scene should flow naturally from another scene and also flow naturally into the next that you feel is the most important for your story. Keep the dialogue as realistic to conversations you would have in real life and try not to delve too much into her inner thoughts unless it's absolutely necessary. Using that kind of narrator voice opens you up to all kinds of problems, which is a discussion and a half in and of itself.
Other than that, try to keep it at a size you know you can manage. Then get used to reading and rereading it over and over again with the mindset of you being the reader and not the writer. Once you like what you see, post it and then rinse and repeat. You will get better at it the more you do it, and the harder the criticism is you receive from others, the more it will help you improve, even though it's really hard to hear it.
Hope that helps.
There's literally no barrier to entry to trying your hand at writing. Start with a simple idea, then write it down. Such as, "a neighbor's single mother catches a shrinking virus."
Then ask yourself questions about that idea. How much will the virus shrink her? How long will it shrink her? Will she recover? Is it just a common bug in this universe, or is it an epidemic? How does she deal with her illness? Who is available to help her? And on and on. Each of these questions will create a new building block for your story.
Make sure to do your best to think in scenes. Something like, "Mary was generally feeling fine, despite the dizziness and aching in her sinuses. She insisted it was probably just allergies despite the fact that she normally didn't have problems with allergies this time of year. Honestly, she was quite adamant about it with her coworker, James, who had showed some concern for her, but she shrugged his concerns off, feeling confident in her immune system. It wasn't until she was sitting at her desk with an irresistible and infuriating itch in her nose that she finally gave in and let loose a powerful sneeze that she was forced to conclude that it wasn't allergies that were the problem. She didn't even notice at first as in an instant, her head sank two inches lower in her seat. Mary only got a rude awakening to her condition when she rubbed her irritated nose and heard the klink of her bracelet hit the linoleum floor to her left."
So, that scene should flow naturally from another scene and also flow naturally into the next that you feel is the most important for your story. Keep the dialogue as realistic to conversations you would have in real life and try not to delve too much into her inner thoughts unless it's absolutely necessary. Using that kind of narrator voice opens you up to all kinds of problems, which is a discussion and a half in and of itself.
Other than that, try to keep it at a size you know you can manage. Then get used to reading and rereading it over and over again with the mindset of you being the reader and not the writer. Once you like what you see, post it and then rinse and repeat. You will get better at it the more you do it, and the harder the criticism is you receive from others, the more it will help you improve, even though it's really hard to hear it.
Hope that helps.