Ever since I found the writer's workshop I've wanted to write my own. I tried. Multiple times. Without succes. Every time I try it just doesn't turn out or the chapter's are too short. I mainly go on this on a 3ds so I can't make it on google drive. If I want to write a chapter, I right it in one sitting. I'm wanting to try again with a simple journey fic but I don't really know how to write it, what to wtite, how to make sure I get long chapters. Thanks for any advice I get.
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- Thread starter Shock3600
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How to write it--There is no one "right" way to write a journey fic, so long as it stands out among the crowd. This can involve giving characters that don't really get much backstory a backstory, making up interesting Characters of the Day (COTD) for your cast to meet, or even making up events that don't appear in the games (this does depend on which region you wish to set this in, or if you're setting it in a fan region.)
If you pick one of the existing regions, most of the nitty gritty of worldbuilding is done for you. But you can still create unique events in an existing region. (example: The trip to the theater in "The Kalos Connection" was new for the story)
What to write: Again, this comes back to there being no one "right" way to do this. What kind of story do YOU want to tell? Sit down and brainstorm ideas, then piece them together into some form of an outline. Keep in mind that your plan is not completely set in stone--you can add to, delete from, and change it at any time.
Decent chapters: The short version: Detail
The longer version: Detail is what brings a good story to life. This includes:
--What the characters look like
--What the setting looks like
--Your casts' personalities and why they are like they are
--How they're feeling in this scene
--What they are doing
--What they like to do outside of Pokemon training
--Their families and what they are like
--What other characters would say about them
and that's only just for starters!
I do want to caution you that detail can sometimes be a double edged sword--unless you REALLY know what you are doing, we don't need fifty pages about a blade of grass. Just say it's green, and it rustled as the Pikachu ran through it, and you're done.
Good luck--if you have any mor questions or want me to beta read it, let me know
If you pick one of the existing regions, most of the nitty gritty of worldbuilding is done for you. But you can still create unique events in an existing region. (example: The trip to the theater in "The Kalos Connection" was new for the story)
What to write: Again, this comes back to there being no one "right" way to do this. What kind of story do YOU want to tell? Sit down and brainstorm ideas, then piece them together into some form of an outline. Keep in mind that your plan is not completely set in stone--you can add to, delete from, and change it at any time.
Decent chapters: The short version: Detail
The longer version: Detail is what brings a good story to life. This includes:
--What the characters look like
--What the setting looks like
--Your casts' personalities and why they are like they are
--How they're feeling in this scene
--What they are doing
--What they like to do outside of Pokemon training
--Their families and what they are like
--What other characters would say about them
and that's only just for starters!
I do want to caution you that detail can sometimes be a double edged sword--unless you REALLY know what you are doing, we don't need fifty pages about a blade of grass. Just say it's green, and it rustled as the Pikachu ran through it, and you're done.
Good luck--if you have any mor questions or want me to beta read it, let me know
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oh my
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Well first thing to know is that you no matter what, it won't be perfect your first time. I struggle with this too, but it's impossible to start out with perfection from chapter one.
I think it's a bad idea for you to try writing a whole chapter in one sitting. Unless you have a really good plan of what's going to happen in that specific chapter, it will end up short. The best ideas don't just come at once, they come spread out over a period of time. (Or, at least they do to me :x)
It also seems to me that you're just jumping in, trying to start writing right away. Yeah, I did that. Once.
Planning for a story, drawing out maps, writing character profiles, etc. is extremely important. Like Topaz said, sit down and write details about the story. Don't rush into the chapter even if you think you know what you want to do. Pre-writing and drafts are pretty much key in developing a story. You can't expect to get something you're happy with right away.
When you're done writing the chapter, try going back, editing it, adding details, and just fixing little errors. All these will help make your chapters longer.
Expanding on what Topaz said, whatever you write is completely your choice. It's also the fun of writing, in my opinion: writing a story and describing a world. It's completely up to you; whether you want to write a journey fic, academy fic, etc. Just remember that you should always be having fun while writing! It's not something you should stress or worry over.
I think it's a bad idea for you to try writing a whole chapter in one sitting. Unless you have a really good plan of what's going to happen in that specific chapter, it will end up short. The best ideas don't just come at once, they come spread out over a period of time. (Or, at least they do to me :x)
It also seems to me that you're just jumping in, trying to start writing right away. Yeah, I did that. Once.
Planning for a story, drawing out maps, writing character profiles, etc. is extremely important. Like Topaz said, sit down and write details about the story. Don't rush into the chapter even if you think you know what you want to do. Pre-writing and drafts are pretty much key in developing a story. You can't expect to get something you're happy with right away.
When you're done writing the chapter, try going back, editing it, adding details, and just fixing little errors. All these will help make your chapters longer.
Expanding on what Topaz said, whatever you write is completely your choice. It's also the fun of writing, in my opinion: writing a story and describing a world. It's completely up to you; whether you want to write a journey fic, academy fic, etc. Just remember that you should always be having fun while writing! It's not something you should stress or worry over.
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If I'm honest, you might continue to have a hard time without a word processor and internet access. I'm assuming that because you're typing on your 3DS that's what you have to work with, but do you have a library or somewhere where you can type? You might be able to do your writing my hand and transcribe it that way
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Concerning the idea of planning things out, I agree with what others have said - it's really important. I'm not one for written plans myself, but I had plans in my head of where my story was going, who all the characters were, etc, and then just wrote it. Correction, I tried to just write it. It didn't come to me as well as I'd hoped and progress was quite slow. But still, I finished eventually. And now, because it was my experience of writing a whole story ever, I'm rewriting it. All of it. Basically, the significance of this to you is that it doesn't matter if your first draft is bad. As the writing workshops will tell us, think of any author. Anyone. Their first drafts are also bad. The essential thing of a first draft is to get it written, so then you can either heavily edit it or rewrite it entirely like I'm doing. It sounds like a difficult process and to be honest, it is. But it's worth the struggle for a good story.
Another point I noticed you mentioned is struggling to write long chapters. As said earlier, detail is important for giving length and depth to any scene. But you should also consider this: what exactly is happening in your chapter? It's important here to establish the difference between scenes and chapters. A scene covers an event or short sequence of events at a particular place and time. A chapter can encompass multiple scenes if they flow into each other properly. I'm not sure if this is the issue or not, but it seems most likely to me, since it's an issue quite a few early writers suffer. I did too for a fair while. Even if it isn't the issue, I doubt it would hurt to read up on it.
I'll use an example from my story (after I'd sorted the problem out) probably not the most useful to you, sorry, but at least I can talk about it in relative depth, though I will miss out some details because of spoilers and stuff. One chapter starts with my character, an umbreon, waking up in a cave and talking to her friend and her sister briefly before wandering off to a nearby town to steal food. She gets caught by a charmeleon and has to fight him off, but eventually manages to escape with some stolen food. Then when she gets back to the cave, she meets someone who says he can help her with a certain problem. None of them trust him, and they talk about what they should do while they have something to eat. Then, at the end of the chapter, they decide to go along with his idea.
That chapter included three scenes, strung together. My characters waking up at the start was a scene. The umbreon going into town, fighting the charmeleon and stealing the food was the second scene, also the longest. And her arrival back at the cave and their discussion of the stranger and his plan was the third scene. The chapter ends when they decide to go along with his plan because the story skips to another time and place (they start climbing a mountain, if you must know) ie, a scene which doesn't flow along from the ones before. It helps if you think of your story not in chapters but in scenes, and plan it that way too. It can be better to write the whole story just in scenes, and then pair them up into chapters later. If you find you always seem to just have one scene per chapter, alter something or add more, so that you can string multiple scenes together. It should help with your chapter length issue, and also tends to look more sophisticated.
Well, I get the idea I wasn't explaining that very well, sorry, but I hope it was useful.
Another point I noticed you mentioned is struggling to write long chapters. As said earlier, detail is important for giving length and depth to any scene. But you should also consider this: what exactly is happening in your chapter? It's important here to establish the difference between scenes and chapters. A scene covers an event or short sequence of events at a particular place and time. A chapter can encompass multiple scenes if they flow into each other properly. I'm not sure if this is the issue or not, but it seems most likely to me, since it's an issue quite a few early writers suffer. I did too for a fair while. Even if it isn't the issue, I doubt it would hurt to read up on it.
I'll use an example from my story (after I'd sorted the problem out) probably not the most useful to you, sorry, but at least I can talk about it in relative depth, though I will miss out some details because of spoilers and stuff. One chapter starts with my character, an umbreon, waking up in a cave and talking to her friend and her sister briefly before wandering off to a nearby town to steal food. She gets caught by a charmeleon and has to fight him off, but eventually manages to escape with some stolen food. Then when she gets back to the cave, she meets someone who says he can help her with a certain problem. None of them trust him, and they talk about what they should do while they have something to eat. Then, at the end of the chapter, they decide to go along with his idea.
That chapter included three scenes, strung together. My characters waking up at the start was a scene. The umbreon going into town, fighting the charmeleon and stealing the food was the second scene, also the longest. And her arrival back at the cave and their discussion of the stranger and his plan was the third scene. The chapter ends when they decide to go along with his plan because the story skips to another time and place (they start climbing a mountain, if you must know) ie, a scene which doesn't flow along from the ones before. It helps if you think of your story not in chapters but in scenes, and plan it that way too. It can be better to write the whole story just in scenes, and then pair them up into chapters later. If you find you always seem to just have one scene per chapter, alter something or add more, so that you can string multiple scenes together. It should help with your chapter length issue, and also tends to look more sophisticated.
Well, I get the idea I wasn't explaining that very well, sorry, but I hope it was useful.
This. Just this.
Also keep in mind what the reviewers say. It may seem as though they are coming along harsh, but they are just trying to help a fellow author!
Good luck on your stories Shock3600
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When an idea comes to you you should latch onto it and let it take you where it will, and cast it out into the wind. Don't worry about what others will think until you've got something out there.
Having access to a word processor would probably also help. A 3DS isn't the best medium to be posting fanfiction from.
Having access to a word processor would probably also help. A 3DS isn't the best medium to be posting fanfiction from.