Suggestions

[Eternal Ivan]

Hi. I am a newbie. As an amateur writer I am attempting a novel. Any suggestions?

[Nephylim]

Write. Lots

 

Splurge all your ideas onto a page or into your computer.

 

Then get a beta to make sure that the story is consistent and to advise you on how to make the flow better etc.

 

Then get an editor to polish the grammar etc

 

Then panic

[Johnathan Colourfield]

I agree with Neph.

 

I would also reccomend editing it yourself before sending it to an editor. My editor Cia, I try only to ask her to do final spelling, punctuation and grammar checks. Although she almost always finds a plot bunny...

[Andrew Q Gordon]

Hi. I am a newbie. As an amateur writer I am attempting a novel. Any suggestions?

 

First: Ivan - welcome

 

Second: Ignore the dark one Nephylim - okay just kidding. She gave you some good advice - thought I would ignore the whole panic thing.

 

My suggestion is get yourself a beta reader -someone who will be honest with you, who understands the structure of how to write a novel, including plot, sub plots, character developments etc. Some one who is not going to be afraid to say - this part isn't going to work and here's why.

 

Editor is very important too.

 

One question I have is are you looking to post it on line or are you trying to get published? I ask because they are two very different things. Many of the very good stories here would have trouble in the rigid world of publishing because they violate too many 'rules'. If you are just trying to write for because it makes you feel good, then you can pretty much do as you please, write as you see/feel it.

 

But if your goal is to be a published author - then buy a few books on writing, read what they have to say about structure and what not and then - again as Nephy said - practice by writing a lot and soliciting feed back.

 

There are two very important elements here - one is vision and the other is execution.

 

Vision is the plot, basics, concepts etc. If it's just a rehash of a common theme filled with lots of cliches i.e. nerdy, beaten down boy falls for hot super popular jock and they fall madly in love and everything works out and they live happily ever after, then it's probably not going to do so well. The plot needs to be interesting and can't be too predictible.

 

The execution comes down to how well you develop your characters, do they feel alive to the reader, does the reader care, can the reader relate, do they have distinct personalities, do they remain in character. These are all elements that give depth to your story.

 

Okay, I've said more than enough. If you have more questions ask them in the Writer Corner Forum for best results.

 

Andy

[Marzipan]

My five cents here:

 

Read a lot, figure out what you like. Think what kind of story you would want to read. Write it. Get in touch with people here, find a team to work with, beta is useful even in the early stages to bounce back ideas.

 

Maybe write some short writing prompts we have here in GA and see what kind of "author voice" you have. When you start your story, think about the beginning and the end, and what happens in the middle. Fall in love with your characters, even with the darkest ones. You gotta care for them to make reader care for them.

 

Enjoy the process, have faith in your story. If you don't FEEL it has to be told, then it probably wont entertain readers either.

 

Panic all you want, but remember it is supposed to be fun!

 

I started writing a little over a year ago and I'm totally addicted. I try out new things and test my boundaries. One of the best moments of last year was to complete my very first story, it turned out a bit over 70k words and it still has a special place in my heart. I didn't expect it to be perfect, but I did spend much time working on it.

 

Happy writing

[Cia]

Everyone has a lot of great advice here and I won't repeat it. I will only put one big thing out there. You get out of GA, and any website you join, what you put into it. There isn't much you won't be able to find out about writing, or at least a direction to look for the information, if you look around. We have a great many members who are all different in their writing, editing, and reading habits. You can almost always find a like mind to work with; I have found many and it's enriched my life immensely. I hope you can find as much inspiration for your writing here as I have for mine.

 

Welcome to GA.