The Advanced Writer's Club

[abandoned.]

XD ah okay I see
Just describe his daily routine and where he goes. Maybe he goes to get coffee first. Have his thoughts known, they usually reveal a bit of character. Maybe have a mini flashback somewhere to sorta explain why he's become the way he is. Has he always had this villain-ish personality?

Ah yeah dreaded first posts. Omg I don't know. I find its always good to plan with someone, have some sort of interaction set up.

[rose;]

I could just message it to you, but idk what strikes me fitting is I remember reading a book and it started out with the character looking at the picture, and sort of described it in real short, choppy sentences, but not a bad way. It said what emotions it brought up, what it reminded them of, that sort of stuff. (I think it was a picture of their mother and father) so then it went into a sort of backstory using that picture as a basis, covering basic events that had those same sort of feelings/thoughts/etc, and then sort of got into how that affected them. And then it got to who they were, and what they were doing that day and then got into story

O... Yeah that made no sense

[Artesian]

it's from the perspective of the villain actually and the first bit of the story will start off with a robbery so I can introduce the superhero. and to lead into the robbery, it will be a run down of his average day before he switches into horrible ugly villain mode (just kidding about that, but this is going to be sarcastic and picking fun at cliches/stereotypes) cx but like I said, I'd rather not start it off right into action and give a bit of background for him. I've thought about starting at the end and then going to the beginning like one of my fav authors does, but that would ruin my surprise ;A;

yeah, the starting post of a rp cx those kill my muse like super quick if I don't already have an idea floating around

Okay, I want to read this, Zuchi, when you feel it's ready to share. It sounds awesome. :3

As for beginnings... lemme just rattle off some ideas.

• Flash-forward: You can still do this and not give much away. Megamind did a good job of this, in that he was apparently falling to his death for no easily discernible reason, and the clues he did give away, as to the ending, did not really spoil it. You can be sufficiently vague so as not to spoil the ending, sometimes, and give it a sense of how the h*ll did he end up there?
• Flash-back: Basically a prologue, but shorter. You can start with a memory, then do a quick change into present-day action. If you are snappy about it, and the prologue is interesting enough, you can keep the reader's attention.
• Dream sequence: Another way to do a flash-forward (prophetic dream) or flash-back. If you're really slick, you can even pull in some metaphors and imagery and connect the dream of the every-day like.
• Pause button: For instance, the villain is fleeing from the hero. Pause the frame, and have him introduce himself, to the readers. (Ala Deadpool.)
• Dual introductions: Have the villain introduce/announce himself to his victims, all the while his thoughts are correcting himself. "My name is Voltar the Terrible!" Hey, it's a step up from Steve Garby, which is my real name.
• Using a 3rd person, switch to first person: This one's tricky, but maybe start with a police officer explaining to someone about Voltar, and then when he comes in sight, switch to his perspective.
• Ask a question: Ask your character a question. Things like, "Where did it all go wrong?" or "What started you as a villain?" or even "On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your job satisfaction on a given day?" See what they answer with. One of the questions might give you a good beginning.
• Start of a report, article, news broadcast: "On August 8th, blah di blah happened." Character throws down the paper, and complains that this isn't what happened and isn't what's going on. He then proceeds to explain.
• Psychologist: Just a random idea, but what if you started him at a psychologist appointment? How do you feel about your mother? And why did you get started in this business anyway? Then continue with his ordinary day.
• Fire the Narrator: Make the narrator a character. Have him start telling a story about the villain, and doing a terrible job of it. Cliches, purple prose, whatever. Then have the villain complain and take over telling his story, thank you very much.
• Start in the middle: A flash-back version, but if you don't want to spoil the ending, you could start in the middle and then go backwards.
• Interview notes: Start with the villain telling his story to a reporter or biographer or something. (One of my favorite movies, Going Postal, starts with the main character writing a letter about why he did what he did. Half-way through the movie, he finishes the letter and sends it off to his sweetheart to read.)
  

When in doubt, remember Elmore Leonard's advice: "I try to leave out the parts that people skip." If you start the story with the character waking up, getting dressed, having coffee, etc etc, people won't read it (unless there's some unusual hook that makes that scene fascinating. For instance, it's in space. Or the character is in costume. Or blind. Or something.)

[aphelion ✧]

omg, thank you all so much <3 like that was a lot of good advice
and omg thank you so much arty ;u; like you just gave me a slew of good beginnings that tie in with my character's personality. I'm really liking the idea of starting with a narrator that isn't the villain because with his personality, it sounds almost exactly of what he would do. Or the newspaper article would be even more amazing to start it off with his boring mundane life of reading before switching over to his villain side.

I'll definitely tell you if I ever post it somewhere though so you can read it. <3

[cappishe]

Username:
ShadowHunter
Nickname:
Shadow, Hunter, or Toro.
Writing Preferences (Poet, Novelist, roleplayer...):
I do all three. c:
Example (Can be anything; must be a good length):





'...tick...tick...tock...'

'...tick...tick...tock...'

'tick...' Nothing..

"Ugh! It's broken...again!"

"click"

With the subtle, yet recognizable push of a dark grey button, I flipped on my battery operated voice recorder, beginning transmission one of my voice diaries, something new I had just begun.

"Only god knows how many times I've attempted to fix that moronic clock. Yet time after time again it malfunctioned, or was hit by a stray baseball thrown through the open window by an irresponsible young child, forcing me to scrounge around for any household parcels with the capability of mending something, like duct tape maybe. In all honesty, I hate children. And don't pull that "you were a child once too" crap on me. Of course, I know that much already. And I'm sure that during those miserable kidish years of my life, I hated it. In any case, children annoy me. Snotty nosed little infants running around willy nilly, their only accomplishment of the day being the largest and most expensive thing that they manage to demolish. In actuality I don't know what it's like to be a kid. I'm not quite all sure about what happened in my own childhood. At approximately age 17, I lost all memories that I ever had, communication put aside, accompanied by the vitals...like breathing. I don't even remember my parents, or family, let alone any friends I might have possibly had. What I do know, is who I am, for the most part. My full name is Alexander Dorrian Grey. Don't wear it out. I am precisely 19 years, three months and 7 days old as of today. Since we're now entering the frigid month of January, that would make my birthday in October. Gender wise, I'm fully male, I can assure you that with the necessary proof if needed. As for my height, I stand at 5 feet 6 inches. A little short for an 19 year old yes, but no matter, I simply haven't hit my growth spurt yet. I hope. My hair is a dark grey black, straight as a pin and usually messed up in some way. Whether it be a bad haircut, or simple bedhead, I have no regards for what it looks like. Normally, you can recognize me by my casual hoodie and jeans atire, if you manage to actually see me outside. "
"click"
Mumbling curses under my hoarse voice, I shuffled lazily over to my old, well at least I'm sure it's old, desk, if you can call the cluttered piece of wood with legs that. After stuffing the cheap recorder in my sweatshirt pocket, I brought my fingers along the under edge of my makeshift desk, searching for a groove with which to pull open a compartment, one that I soon found. A long rectangular shaped drawer slid roughly out from beneath the surface as I tugged strenuously on the bulky handle. With some time and the slightest of effort, I sifted through the contents of the drawer until finally coming across my silver cellphone. Why I kept it in there, who knows, I'm a little odd. Perhaps I used to toss my phone, or keys, or something in the drawer upon arriving home everyday from work...or whatever I did. The fact that I would repeat this routine consecutively every day would provide reason enough for a hardwired habit. Anyway, I stuck the small device into the pocket of my jeans and headed for the door of my small Clock Shoppe. The air that greeted me as I stepped out onto the concrete steps of my porch was considerably cooler than it had been in the morning, as well as the lighting on the all but empty town streets was darker, which drew my attention to the sky as if the reason for this frigidness was held in it's cloudy mystery. To my surprise, dark cumulonimbus clouds had hidden the sun's rays in their midsts, dimming the brightness I had expected of this day. Disregarding the subtle uneasy subconscious feelings that put me in the slightest of a distraught mood, I made my way, first down my steps, then proceeding forward on the newly paved sidewalk. Aside from the change in weather, or whatever it might be, the day was eerily calm, more than usual, which drew my attention to the streets. Empty. Not a car to be seen, nor an ignorant pedestrian attempting to cross the typically vehicle filled road. Although the situation was becoming slightly odd, I myself was not particularly sane, which tended to interfere with my sense of reality. Ever since I lost my memory, I hadn't been quite...right in the head, the level of extremeties varying from catching glimpses of what I call crawlers [ to most people, ghosts ], or the occasional hallucination here and there, to entire scenes playing out in front of me that never happen in the real world. I guess you could call me a bit delusional, but I don't think that I'm to blame if I am.


Links to stories / roleplays:
I will edit this later on c:
Other:
Nope.

[pumpkin.]

Looks like I've changed my username!
Old username: ｐｕｍｐｋｉｎ ｑｕｅｅｎ
New username: ｃｉｔｒｏｕｉｌｌｅ ;
Club Number: fifty-nine

[OrangeNeon]

Bump.

[I'm Not The Only One]

Looks like I've changed my username!
Old username: Lorde.
New username: :.Clary Fray.:
Club Number: 58

[indebted]

Peru's Lucha Libro is kind of like that, without the violence. It's literary "wrestling." New writers don masks, and head onto a stage where they’re given three random words, a laptop hooked up to a gigantic screen, and five minutes to write a short story.

At the end of a match, the losing writer has to take off his or her mask. The winner goes on to the next round, a week later.

I want to do a writing contest with this, anyone interested?

I'd need three judges, not counting me because I really want to do this

because i have no great pets the winner would receive the medal of winning and stuff

[I'm Not The Only One]

Peru's Lucha Libro is kind of like that, without the violence. It's literary "wrestling." New writers don masks, and head onto a stage where they’re given three random words, a laptop hooked up to a gigantic screen, and five minutes to write a short story.

At the end of a match, the losing writer has to take off his or her mask. The winner goes on to the next round, a week later.

I want to do a writing contest with this, anyone interested?

I'd need three judges, not counting me because I really want to do this

because i have no great pets the winner would receive the medal of winning and stuff

This sounds really fun! I could help you organize something like this?