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So you want to write.
Holy crap you guys, this is my 300th lj post. What am I still doing here
Anyway I saw that number approaching something that could possibly be considered a milestone, so I thought I'd do something I haven't in a while and actually, you know, POST CONTENT. Like, thoughtful content. (I considered doing another poll, but I think I've subjected you all to enough of my laziness already.)
To start, a couple of months ago I was catching up on one of the webcomics I frequent - Questionable Content - and got ridiculously "8D" faced when a thread involving fanfic started up. Whatever summarizing I could do would pale in comparison to the actual storyline, so permit me to link you to it in its entirety.
1 2 3 4 5* 6**
*There are two comics I omitted from listing here because they do not tie in directly to the fanfic part of the storyline; however they are cute and you would lose nothing if you chose to read them.
**At the bottom of this page in the creator's notes he links you to the fanfic Marigold writes for Tai. I have to give him major kudos for penning such an accurate depiction of poor fanfic.
Now, after that storyline finished I got to thinking... How would you "teach" someone to write? I mean, comic 4 and 5 up there just kill me. THEY KILL ME, I DIE LAUGHING. And while I'm dying and laughing I'm nodding to myself at the same time, because that is total truth. When you are looking someone in the eye (and not shielded from being confronted with a human face when you get the opportunity to critique their work) it gets a lot harder to lay it all out there. And to try and advise them on how to improve...?
Anyway, it got me thinking - what would I tell someone to do if they wanted to become a good writer?
Obviously I'm not a professional. I'm not claiming to be an expert. I'm not even claiming to be that great. But I've been playing the fanfic game for nearly ten years now (HOLY FUCK) and when you're doing it for as long as I have you can't help but form an opinion about these things, and, if you're lucky, amass a few tips. At risk of ego-tripping... you know, fuck that, this is my journal, I'll post what I damn want.
So you want to write. Here is what I have to say to you.
Identify what you like. First and foremost. Chances are you have a preferred genre. Chances are you have favorite books. Or movies. Or TV shows. Or even video games. You might even read or watch or play them over and over. You might have favorite writers, or directors, or actors. And if you don't, then you'll figure it out the more you zero in on what you like. This requires thinking, and reflection. You have to be okay with spending time with yourself - talking with people about it is good too, but then you run the risk of letting their opinions inform yours, and while that is also a good thing (and something I highly recommend once you get better at forming your own opinions), first and foremost, you need to identify what you like.
This won't always be simple. That's okay. In the beginning, it's okay for you to say you liked something "Just 'cause." The more you read and watch and absorb, the more comparisons you can draw up between two different texts - "I like the dialogue in this one." "The characters are funny." "This was really dramatic." Etc., etc.. The more you do it, the easier it gets. That's the good news. The other, potentially bad news? It can take a long time.
When I first started posting fic, I knew I liked two things for sure - romance and drama. (Oh, and cartoons. Guess which one was my favorite.) Vague much? Over the past almost-ten years I've further articulated that it isn't romance and drama so much as it is human relationships and emotions. I've also figured out that I prefer character over plot, humor over angst, and snappy dialogue over florid prose.
I love Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series. I wish Brad Bird would direct a movie every year. Why hasn't Charlie Kaufman written more scripts? I need more shows like Community in my life, forever. And on, and on, and on.
Identify what you like. You will subconsciously absorb it. More than anything, you will be inspired by it. Inspiration? Is a pretty key step in the creative process. And knowing what you like will become even more important later on.
Pay attention in English class. I can’t stress this enough. As the saying goes, Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly. Now, this saying does not give you license to go ahead and eschew proper grammar, spelling, and capitalization skills. (In fact, if you really do pay attention in English class, it’ll be fairly obvious it isn’t giving you license to.)
The fact of the matter is misspelled words, heaps of run-on sentences, and lines of dialogue that don’t begin a new paragraph every time the speaker changes generally do not encourage people to read more. It also makes you look like an idiot. Do you want to look like an idiot? No. Seriously. Do you want to look like an idiot? Of course not. So fucking pay attention in English class. Funny thing: it kinda goes hand-in-hand with writing. Big surprise, I know.
Observe. In addition to reiterating the previous two points, you really need to look at things. Watch the way people move. Listen to what they say to each other. Listen to what they don’t say to each other. Try to read their expressions. Look at what they wear. What does that tell you about them?
This doesn’t apply only to people, either. Look at a couch. Do the cushions sag? Are there tears in the upholstery? Has the springiness gone out of it? What color is it? Does it match the other furniture? All this says something about the house, the atmosphere, even the people who sit on it.
Budding artists are told the same thing, whether they’re painting still life or animating. Miyazaki sat in a park for days watching women and girls go by in skirts so he could better animate the titular character of Kiki’s Delivery Service. Writing requires you to paint a picture in our head without the luxury of paint, be it of a couch, a girl in a skirt, or a dying relationship. You may think that’s way easier than actually painting it. The truth is it’s hard either fucking way, and if it isn’t, either you’re already at the point where you don’t need my advice so why are you asking, or you’re massively full of yourself. And possibly still a shitty writer or artist. Which leads me to my next point.
Write, write, write. Unless you’re a prodigy, a superhuman, or the product of a pop star producing machine, the only way 99.999% of us get any good at something is by practicing it over and over and over again. I mean, it’s pretty cut and dry. If you want to be a good writer, it’s kind of essential that you actually do some writing in the first place.
Get a second opinion. You need someone to see things you don’t, to catch things you will miss entirely. Ideally, this isn’t going to be someone who’s going to coddle you and enable your not-entirely-subconscious lack of desire to be criticized. At the very least, it should be someone honest. Even better if it’s someone whose opinion you trust. On that note…
Learn to take criticism. Of course nobody likes to be criticized. But there’s only so much growth you can do on your own. Those books and movies and TV shows and video games you love? All those things? Including the ones you don’t like? They’ve all had to take criticism. Even before they were published or made. Nobody (except for prodigies and superhumans; even talentless pop stars have to go through the wringer) gets anything published or made without enduring several Eyes of Scrutiny. Some of these Eyes will turn out to be fabulous second (or third or fourth, etc.) opinions, and will actually help you. Some of these Eyes will be utterly useless, but will still require you to stand up for yourself while maintaining your poise. The better you are at handling criticism (and the more you are in touch with your story), the less draining this will be. Still draining, yes – but a little less so.
You need a thick skin. Most of us fell off a bicycle several times before we managed to get it to move. The point is you’re not going to get anywhere if you just sit there being hurt. Make peace with the fact that you are going to suck at anything on your first try. Make peace with the fact that there are people who will only be too happy to tell you so. These people are assholes, even though they may very well have a point. The only productive thing you can do is to make peace with it and get over it. Get your ass up, get back on the bike, and pedal. (You might even be lucky enough to run over an asshole or two.)
And, to bring it around full-circle:
Write what you like. For God’s sake. Identify what it is that you like – character, dialogue, romance, angst, crack, what-the-hell-ever – and write it. Write what you want to read, because if anybody should be getting something out of all this fucking work, it ought to be the person who’s doing all this fucking work in the first place.
If you write what you like I guarantee you you’ll have a good time. (If you don’t, I suspect writing isn’t for you.) If you have a good time you’ll want to do it again. And the more you do it, the better you’ll get. (That in turn will make it less painful for the rest of us who may at some point read your shit. We might even become fans.)
To me, these are the basic essentials to getting started. All those details that plus it out and put things on the path to being superb - learning "show, don't tell," developing a style, subversion of tropes - will slowly take hold the more you do these basic things. Well, that's how I feel, at least. Oh, and for fuck's sake, KEEP READING. Like, actual books, too. Not just fanfic. (I myself often have trouble remembering this.)
While reflecting on all this I started thinking about doing an influence map for myself. Except in written form. Since, you know… the whole writing thing I do over here.
Happy 300th post! (TEF ch10a looks like it’s going to be over forty pages. Fuck, I was hoping to keep this a short one.)
ETA: Follow-up post (mostly consisting of TV Tropes links, but the So You Want To/ Index is a good resource on the whole and needs more attention) can be found here.
Anyway I saw that number approaching something that could possibly be considered a milestone, so I thought I'd do something I haven't in a while and actually, you know, POST CONTENT. Like, thoughtful content. (I considered doing another poll, but I think I've subjected you all to enough of my laziness already.)
To start, a couple of months ago I was catching up on one of the webcomics I frequent - Questionable Content - and got ridiculously "8D" faced when a thread involving fanfic started up. Whatever summarizing I could do would pale in comparison to the actual storyline, so permit me to link you to it in its entirety.
1 2 3 4 5* 6**
*There are two comics I omitted from listing here because they do not tie in directly to the fanfic part of the storyline; however they are cute and you would lose nothing if you chose to read them.
**At the bottom of this page in the creator's notes he links you to the fanfic Marigold writes for Tai. I have to give him major kudos for penning such an accurate depiction of poor fanfic.
Now, after that storyline finished I got to thinking... How would you "teach" someone to write? I mean, comic 4 and 5 up there just kill me. THEY KILL ME, I DIE LAUGHING. And while I'm dying and laughing I'm nodding to myself at the same time, because that is total truth. When you are looking someone in the eye (and not shielded from being confronted with a human face when you get the opportunity to critique their work) it gets a lot harder to lay it all out there. And to try and advise them on how to improve...?
Anyway, it got me thinking - what would I tell someone to do if they wanted to become a good writer?
Obviously I'm not a professional. I'm not claiming to be an expert. I'm not even claiming to be that great. But I've been playing the fanfic game for nearly ten years now (HOLY FUCK) and when you're doing it for as long as I have you can't help but form an opinion about these things, and, if you're lucky, amass a few tips. At risk of ego-tripping... you know, fuck that, this is my journal, I'll post what I damn want.
So you want to write. Here is what I have to say to you.
Identify what you like. First and foremost. Chances are you have a preferred genre. Chances are you have favorite books. Or movies. Or TV shows. Or even video games. You might even read or watch or play them over and over. You might have favorite writers, or directors, or actors. And if you don't, then you'll figure it out the more you zero in on what you like. This requires thinking, and reflection. You have to be okay with spending time with yourself - talking with people about it is good too, but then you run the risk of letting their opinions inform yours, and while that is also a good thing (and something I highly recommend once you get better at forming your own opinions), first and foremost, you need to identify what you like.
This won't always be simple. That's okay. In the beginning, it's okay for you to say you liked something "Just 'cause." The more you read and watch and absorb, the more comparisons you can draw up between two different texts - "I like the dialogue in this one." "The characters are funny." "This was really dramatic." Etc., etc.. The more you do it, the easier it gets. That's the good news. The other, potentially bad news? It can take a long time.
When I first started posting fic, I knew I liked two things for sure - romance and drama. (Oh, and cartoons. Guess which one was my favorite.) Vague much? Over the past almost-ten years I've further articulated that it isn't romance and drama so much as it is human relationships and emotions. I've also figured out that I prefer character over plot, humor over angst, and snappy dialogue over florid prose.
I love Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series. I wish Brad Bird would direct a movie every year. Why hasn't Charlie Kaufman written more scripts? I need more shows like Community in my life, forever. And on, and on, and on.
Identify what you like. You will subconsciously absorb it. More than anything, you will be inspired by it. Inspiration? Is a pretty key step in the creative process. And knowing what you like will become even more important later on.
Pay attention in English class. I can’t stress this enough. As the saying goes, Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly. Now, this saying does not give you license to go ahead and eschew proper grammar, spelling, and capitalization skills. (In fact, if you really do pay attention in English class, it’ll be fairly obvious it isn’t giving you license to.)
The fact of the matter is misspelled words, heaps of run-on sentences, and lines of dialogue that don’t begin a new paragraph every time the speaker changes generally do not encourage people to read more. It also makes you look like an idiot. Do you want to look like an idiot? No. Seriously. Do you want to look like an idiot? Of course not. So fucking pay attention in English class. Funny thing: it kinda goes hand-in-hand with writing. Big surprise, I know.
Observe. In addition to reiterating the previous two points, you really need to look at things. Watch the way people move. Listen to what they say to each other. Listen to what they don’t say to each other. Try to read their expressions. Look at what they wear. What does that tell you about them?
This doesn’t apply only to people, either. Look at a couch. Do the cushions sag? Are there tears in the upholstery? Has the springiness gone out of it? What color is it? Does it match the other furniture? All this says something about the house, the atmosphere, even the people who sit on it.
Budding artists are told the same thing, whether they’re painting still life or animating. Miyazaki sat in a park for days watching women and girls go by in skirts so he could better animate the titular character of Kiki’s Delivery Service. Writing requires you to paint a picture in our head without the luxury of paint, be it of a couch, a girl in a skirt, or a dying relationship. You may think that’s way easier than actually painting it. The truth is it’s hard either fucking way, and if it isn’t, either you’re already at the point where you don’t need my advice so why are you asking, or you’re massively full of yourself. And possibly still a shitty writer or artist. Which leads me to my next point.
Write, write, write. Unless you’re a prodigy, a superhuman, or the product of a pop star producing machine, the only way 99.999% of us get any good at something is by practicing it over and over and over again. I mean, it’s pretty cut and dry. If you want to be a good writer, it’s kind of essential that you actually do some writing in the first place.
Get a second opinion. You need someone to see things you don’t, to catch things you will miss entirely. Ideally, this isn’t going to be someone who’s going to coddle you and enable your not-entirely-subconscious lack of desire to be criticized. At the very least, it should be someone honest. Even better if it’s someone whose opinion you trust. On that note…
Learn to take criticism. Of course nobody likes to be criticized. But there’s only so much growth you can do on your own. Those books and movies and TV shows and video games you love? All those things? Including the ones you don’t like? They’ve all had to take criticism. Even before they were published or made. Nobody (except for prodigies and superhumans; even talentless pop stars have to go through the wringer) gets anything published or made without enduring several Eyes of Scrutiny. Some of these Eyes will turn out to be fabulous second (or third or fourth, etc.) opinions, and will actually help you. Some of these Eyes will be utterly useless, but will still require you to stand up for yourself while maintaining your poise. The better you are at handling criticism (and the more you are in touch with your story), the less draining this will be. Still draining, yes – but a little less so.
You need a thick skin. Most of us fell off a bicycle several times before we managed to get it to move. The point is you’re not going to get anywhere if you just sit there being hurt. Make peace with the fact that you are going to suck at anything on your first try. Make peace with the fact that there are people who will only be too happy to tell you so. These people are assholes, even though they may very well have a point. The only productive thing you can do is to make peace with it and get over it. Get your ass up, get back on the bike, and pedal. (You might even be lucky enough to run over an asshole or two.)
And, to bring it around full-circle:
Write what you like. For God’s sake. Identify what it is that you like – character, dialogue, romance, angst, crack, what-the-hell-ever – and write it. Write what you want to read, because if anybody should be getting something out of all this fucking work, it ought to be the person who’s doing all this fucking work in the first place.
If you write what you like I guarantee you you’ll have a good time. (If you don’t, I suspect writing isn’t for you.) If you have a good time you’ll want to do it again. And the more you do it, the better you’ll get. (That in turn will make it less painful for the rest of us who may at some point read your shit. We might even become fans.)
To me, these are the basic essentials to getting started. All those details that plus it out and put things on the path to being superb - learning "show, don't tell," developing a style, subversion of tropes - will slowly take hold the more you do these basic things. Well, that's how I feel, at least. Oh, and for fuck's sake, KEEP READING. Like, actual books, too. Not just fanfic. (I myself often have trouble remembering this.)
While reflecting on all this I started thinking about doing an influence map for myself. Except in written form. Since, you know… the whole writing thing I do over here.
Happy 300th post! (TEF ch10a looks like it’s going to be over forty pages. Fuck, I was hoping to keep this a short one.)
ETA: Follow-up post (mostly consisting of TV Tropes links, but the So You Want To/ Index is a good resource on the whole and needs more attention) can be found here.