Okay, so I’ve been getting some requests by a couple of people to do a tutorial on how to write things – you know with the contest coming up and all… This is basically just a guide to help kick you off in the right direction. ^_^  REAL writing skill comes with experience – not with bookwork.

Okay, so first thing is first… The general writing basics. Most of you probably know these already, but it won’t hurt to review them, nee? XD

The bottom line of starting a story on the right foot is…

Never, never, NEVER EVER EVER EVER start it with a, “Hi, my name is…” or “This is a story about…” DO NOT DO IT. If you can’t think of another way to start the story, THEN JUST DON’T WRITE IT AT ALL. It is THAT important. For serious readers having a look, this is a huge red flag that says, “Hey – this person can’t write!” and then from that point on, you’ll have to try to redeem yourself from an audience who already expects you to be bad. In other words, they’re now looking for mistakes to criticize you about, and, trust me; you’ll have quite a few.

In many cases – including mine – the reader won’t even go past that point because they already know this person isn’t very experienced in the art of writing. So no matter how great your story is from that point, people probably won’t bother to read. Remember – in a story, first impressions ARE everything!

If you’re having problems starting off with the beginning, just start it off with dialogue and maybe a bit of sensory details. Not only is it MUCH better than the other two examples, it pulls in the reader so they want to continue.

So that’s the first part. Still hangin’ in there? Good. Second lesson is NO 1337 TALK ANDOR SMILIES IN THE FREAKIN’ STORY! Seems like common sense, doesn’t it? Well, I’ve seen my share of stories that look like a freakin’ TEXT MESSAGE, and it absolutely drives me INSANE. Now, obviously in a story like… say my AIM series, smilies and chat-speak is okay since it’s all basically supposed to replicating a chatroom experience. But even then, I have basic rules that I have to abide by like spelling and punctuation… Or else Larxene will grammar hammer me. ;~;

*brick’t*

Okay, so… anyways…

Yes. Good grammar. Always. >.<;;; If you need help, then I recommend using Microsoft Office Word to help you out – especially for spelling. As for grammar, the normal uses of periods, question marks, exclamation points, quote marks, commas, and capitalization will be enough, since… Well… If they get lost inside of a sentence and can’t read it, then they won’t bother trying to continue. If you're feelin' fancy, pay attention to what your English teacher tells you in school (it burns, doesn't it? XD) about ";"s and ":"s. I’m not an English teacher, and not getting paid, so I shouldn’t have to. :3

Also, try not to change persons or tenses in your story, either. This is just a suggestion, but I’d recommend writing in 3rd or 1st person, past tense for most of your stories. They’re the easiest, most natural styles to write in my opinion. 2nd person is more useful for emphasis than just natural writing. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, look it up or something. XD

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Okay, now that we’re done with the basics, let’s kick it up a notch! …Yes. That was only the basics. Now here comes the real pain!  >D

For one, trust me when I say, adjectives are your friend! I sprinkle them EVERYWHERE! Key word: SPRINKLE. Use too much, and, bam, your story becomes boring and hard to read. Think of them as salt, they can definitely make your story better, just don't over-do it.

Also, I would advise that you don’t use too many simple sentences. If you do, it sounds choppy, and sorta like a kindergartener wrote it. XD;

For instance:

Xigbar was walking down the halls of Castle Oblivion. He saw Demyx. "Hey, Demyx!" he shouted. He ran up to Demyx. "I wanted to show you something!" he panted.
"What?" Demyx asked. He blinked. He was confused.

Ya see how that totally BUTCHERS the flow of the story? XD; I really don't like reading stories like that...



Now... What I'm NOT saying is to completely STUFF your story with compoundcomplexcompound-complex sentences. XD; That can be just as bad - if not WORSE. >.>; Check it out:

Xigbar was walking down the halls of Castle Oblivion when he saw Demyx and shouted, "Hey Demyx! I wanted to show you something!", running up to him.
"What?" Demyx asked as he blinked, completely confused.

It just doesn't work. XD; The sentences sound like they're bleeding together, not blending together.



Now, let's try this again:

Xigbar was walking down the halls of Castle Oblivion when he saw Demyx. "Hey, Demyx!" he shouted as he ran up to him. "I wanted to show you something!" he panted.
Demyx blinked. "What?" he asked, completely confused.

See? Much better. =3



Okay... So this next lesson is based on the famous words of Mark Twain. "Don't just SAY the lady screamed... Bring her on and LET her scream!!!" Because I am horrible with explaining things, I'll show you what I mean. XD;


Let's say in a story, someone wrote something like:

Demyx burst into the room. He was mad. "Why did you do that?!" he yelled.

........ Aaaahhhh.... I'm shaking in my boots... Oh no, the Waterboy's MAD! Ruuuuun....! XD; It doesn't exactly strike fear in your heart, now does it? That because you're only basically TELLING the reader he was mad, not showing it.



Let’s try it again:

Demyx burst into the room, growling. His teeth were bared and his fists were clenched in anger. One of his eyes twitched slightly. You could practically FEEL the suppressed rage oozing off him. "WHY did you do that?!" he roared in a voice that was hardly his own.

*grly scrmz* XD; Seriously... Waterboy or not, that would scare the buh-jebus outta me... XD; The trick is using sensory details. What you see, hear, and feel mostly. And, when you're referring to feelings or emotions, STAY AWAY from the word "was." Paint pictures with your words! 8D

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Let’s get a bit more detailed, okay? For now, we’ll only be going over things like dialogue and tone.

My first and utmost rule about dialogue – NEVER used the word "said." NEVER! Unless you have an adjective right behind it. "Said" alone can mean many things and confuse your readers.

EXAMPLE TIEM!

“Demyx, you idiot!” Larxene said.
Not only does that sound weak, but it gives you the impression that Larxene is angry and screaming at Demyx.


Now... What if I were to say...

"Demyx, you idiot!" Larxene murmured slyly.
Wow... Changes things a whole bunch, don't it? Now, it seems like she's saying it to herself, plotting evil, no doubt.


Second thing about dialogue, try to shape the tone to fit the character.

Let's just say that Goofy said something like: "Hello, guys! I've just found something! Do you want to come and check it out?"
That's good and all, but it sorta sounds like it's missing something. His voice. It doesn’t SOUND like something Goofy would say.

Let's try it again: "Hey, fellahs! I think I jus' found somthin'! Ya wanna come an' check it out?"
That's Goofy, alright. *rolls eyes* Suthern accen' an' all. XD

The third rule is pretty simple to explain, but takes a tremendous amount of judgment to actually DO. In a way, dialogue is kind of like adjectives. You can’t use too much or too little.

Here’s where the differences begin, though. Dialogue works BACKWARDS in the fact of if you use too MUCH, it starts looking rushed and insignificant, and if you use too LITTLE your story gets boring and hard to work through.

One last theme and we’ll move on for good. The tone of the story itself. We've already gone over the tone for dialogue, but kind of tone is a bit different. I guess you could call it the underlying message of the story.

Okay, so you're probably wondering what all this mumbo jumbo means. The tone of the story can be manipulated by certain words.

For instance... Let's see 2 different tones about a boy whose day is going like crap. XD;


BZZZT... BZZZZT... BZZZZT...
Patrick rolled over and smacked the alarm clock, sighing. "Oh great... Today's that Algebra test I didn't study for..." he grumbled, sitting up. He yawned, rubbed his eyes, and sighed heavily. "Maybe I can get a few minutes of study in before 2nd period..."
He climbed out of bed, and started digging through his pile of clothes on the floor for something that didn't smell like fish. He couldn't find one. Too bad. He started to pull on some random shirt, when his eyes caught sight of the clock.
"7:25?!" he shrieked. "THE BUS COMES IN 15 FRICKIN' MINUTES!" He dashed around, panicked, trying to get together all he could.
Panting, he rushed into the bathroom, trying to brush his hair and his teeth before time was up. He rushed into the kitchen, slopped down a quick PB&J sandwich for lunch, and stuffed in his book-bag, then scooped all of his book-bags up and dumped them inside of his book-bag, also and burst out of the door, zipping it up.
<CRAP! I need an umbrella!> he thought, shielding his face against the rain. He glanced over, and saw the bus was already at the curb. <NO TIME!> He took off after the bus, waving his arms around. "WAAAIT!!!! STOP!!!!" The rain was coming down so hard now, that the bus driver didn't see him, and took off.
He tripped over something, and fell down inside of a puddle of rain, now completely soaked. He laid there for a while, then pounded his fist on the ground.

Ouch... What does that look like to you? Sad, depressing, "cry me a river" type stuff. But a slight change of words can change the mood completely. Check it out.

BZZZT... BZZZZT... BZZZZT...
Patrick rolled over and smacked the alarm clock, yawning. "Bleck. I've got that stupid Algebra test today..." he grumbled, rubbing his eyes. "Oh well... I can probably sneak a minute or two of study before 2nd period..."
He got up from his bed, stretched, and started looking through the pile of clothes on the floor for something that wouldn't burn the hairs out of his nose. He couldn’t find any, though, so he pulled out a random shirt and some jeans and started to get dressed.
As he was pulling his shirt on, his eyes wandered to the clock and... "7:25?!" he screamed. "THE BUS COMES IN 15 FRICKIN' MINUTES!" Suddenly, he started scrambling about, a madhouse of activities as he hurried to get ready in time.
He scampered into the bathroom, and started trying to brush his teeth and hair at the same time. He almost ended up with hair full of toothpaste. After that, he scurried into the kitchen and started trying to make a PB&J sandwich while hopping on one foot, trying to put his shoes on at the same time. He stuffed the sad excuse for a sandwich into a plastic Ziploc bag, and chucked it into his book-bag as fast as he could. Then, he scooped up all of his books together, dumped them into his book-bag, and burst out of the door, zipping it up as he went.
<AGH! I need an umbrella!> he thought, shielding his face from the rain. He caught a glimpse of the bus right on the curb. <FUGEDDABOUT DA STUPID UMBRELLA! Just GO!> he screamed at himself. He took off after the bus, waving his arms around, madly, and screaming, "WAAAAIT!!!! HOLD ON!!!!!" but since it was raining cats and dogs, the bus driver didn't see him, and left.
He tripped over something and did a face-plant inside of a puddle of rain. <Today is just not my day...> he thought, sighing.

Weird, huh? The exact same things happened, but the way I stated them changed the mood from sad, depressing, "poor me" type stuff, to humorous, "oh I'm an idiot" type stuff. (That's the one I mainly use. =P) So, the moral of these stories is, choose your words wisely. They can seriously impact how your story is being viewed.

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O-KAY! Now we go on to characters! Fun stuff, right? Well, if you’re a fan of making a bazillion OCs like a couple of my friends are, you’ll probably find this VERY useful! ^_^

Okay, first let’s talk about introducing the character. Just like pulling a “Hi, my name is…” at the beginning of a story is a no-no, so is doing something like, “This is Billy Bob who is 14 years old and has green eyes and blue hair and purple skin—”

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

If I catch you writing something like that, I will hunt you down and eat your firstborn son! D<

I mean it.

So what’s wrong with this picture? It all goes back to the screaming lady. XD You’re TELLING the reader how the person looks instead of introducing it. You don’t let the reader EXPERIENCE how this person looks for themselves. So instead of just telling what he looks like, why don’t you do something like have Billy Bob’s green eyes twinkling in the sunlight and his blue hair blowing in the wind? ANYTHING to change things up a bit.

Ancient Chinese secret about character traits – it’s nice to have them spread out over a couple of paragraphs instead of mushed together in a huge block like that, too. It makes things more mysterious that way. ;D  Since it’s a royal pain, though, I wouldn’t bash ya if you only used it once or twice in a story. However, a character’s personality, and their appearance I’d ALWAYS suggest keeping separate.

One last thing! When describing your character, avoid boring colors like black and blue and yellow. Instead, try to spice things up a bit by having words like “raven” or “azure” or “golden”. It gives your story acquire a more… elegant feel.

BE CAREFUL, THOUGH! XD; It’s easy to get carried away if you’re using a thesaurus, so make sure your colors actually MATCH! Don’t say someone has violet (dark purple) eyes one moment, and lavender (light purple) eyes the next!

Well, I think that's really all I can teach you. ^_^; The rest comes with experience and hard work! Remember – practice often, and keep trying! No one can ever be a perfect writer! =P

Lord of the Wings,
~Leah.