dragoncatofpern wrote:Do people have any tips on writing full-size stories? As in actually writing to the end of them? I have quite a bit of trouble with that because for the mpst part I can only come up with plots that take at least sixty pages to fill. I t gets quite annoying because I can't often finish the long ones.
Oops, a huge wall of text...
Plot it. Detail it. Think it. Live it. Love them. Hate them. Live with your characters. Add it. Rethink it. Write it. Rewrite it. Live in the world. Think in the story. Talk to your charaters. Learn who they are.
Not always in that order, but those are some of the things I think about when starting a story, to the point of ending a story.
You've got to plot it out, sometimes the plot is messy, you don't like a part, or even a bit too odd. A plot is a story in its self, and working with the plot to flow your wording until a point where you can turn around and say; 'Hey, this is a story, I've done it, I've written it.' Is hard, but it's wonderful. If you like the plot, you'll normally went to stay with the story until you truly feel it's done.
Detailing isn't easy. But, if you have more than one character, and say, they're in a forest, character#1 is lighting a fire, character#2 is setting up tents, character#3 is cooking or unpacking. What is character#4 doing? Detailing a story can be as easy as saying, well, maybe character#4 is trying to scare character#2. If #1 is your main character, and #4 is simply a background person, you can add in little bits of writing where #4 is trying to be silly, or helpful. Detailing the storyline itself is harder. Just like with everything, a story starts with a thought, slowly rises into a voice, and ends in an echo. When I detail a storyline, I plan way ahead, normally at least 50 pages, then I can work on it for longer.
Think about it a bit more. Sure, you've got a plot, you're in the middle of detailing it, but stopping to think about it can really help. You can plot it, detail it, think of everything. But think about the start, the ending. Where's it gonna end? Am I adding in a plot twist? What about the start? That's what makes most people want to read it, right? Really think about your storyline, about all of it. You may write the first few pages and then not go back for weeks. Always keep a notebook handy, after all, even one of your friends saying something simple can catch as something that will go nicely in a storyline!
Live it. After all, your characters are going to live it, right? So why don't you do that too? Take walks and think about your world, think about the people, think about the forest, the sky. It's all detail that can make for an alright storyline! Live in the world you're writing and you'll really begin to enjoy it.
I'm sure all writers have, at some point, thought about what their characters would do if they were there and not you - I bet a lot of people live with characters they've thought up, it's all apart of something that can be fun. Living with your characters is a great way to write them, putting them up against the normal things you do. 'I wonder how character#3 would deal with an upset friend?' 'Would character#2 have tea or coffee?' 'I bet character#5 would find this funny!' And living with them, you'll learn to love them too. Say, if character#2 was hanging off a cliff, and let go. If you truly loved that character, you can think about the way character#1 would react, but also put how you'd react to this death. It's a bit odd, and sometimes really upsetting. But living with your characters can help you want to make the story longer.
Love them and hate them are about your characters too. I guess you could call this part 2 of 'living with your characters' haha. Do you like coffee? Maybe they like coffee too, but like it with sugar and you don't. It's just little things like this that can make you dislike the character, but also love them too, wanting to add this into the storyline somehow. Character#3 is making breakfast, while character#1 is laughing with #4 and #5. 2# comes down and asks for coffee, character#3 leaves breakfast for a miute to do that, putting in one too many sugars. There you go, plotline follow up! And you can even bring it up again later on. Maybe character#3 did it because they like watching #2 glare and then do it themselves. Love the way your character reacts, but also hate it sometimes too, it'll add to the writing, trust me.
Add it is simple, add to the plotine, storyline, character list, etc. Write it, is... well, writing it. Rethink it and rewrite it? Sometimes you have to! For a million reasons too, one could be you disliked how you had it written, another could be because you thought one character was too OOC for that part.
Think in the story and live in the world are both the same thing really? Think yourself into the story, into the world. How would you cope with character#2's death, or #3 being ill. #5 being disloyal. If you can live these things, you'll live the story, the reader will live the story.
Talk to your characters, learn who they are. Ever sit in your room, bored out of your mind? Why not have a chat with your character, talk about their life in the story. Maybe act it out as if it's a movie? 8 times out of 10 you'll have learnt something new about that character you made up, you may even feel like wanting to write something else about them!
And another thing, just because the story is something like 60 pages, doesn't make it short! Just because the plot can only be carried on so far, doesn't mean it isn't good. Some of the greatest books and stories are sometimes books around 40-50-60-70 pages long. It isn't how long the story is, it's the writing and how gripping your plot is to the reader, how much they'll enjoy living with those characters as much as you did! A story or book doesn't truly need to be 300 pages long, in fact, some drag on, leaving a reader bored and wanting to skip pages. It's the writing that counts.
One last thing, I promise! I always think about the ending, the beginning, and the plot twist / middle before writing most of it, then I have time to change it and rethink!
I'm really sorry this is rather long, plus if anythign I say sounds rude, it's past 2 AM in England and at the moment I'm writing a part of a story where my character is angry and upset. I don't mean any of this to sound rude, and will gladly rewrite part of it if told to!
Also not sure if you'll get what I'm saying at all, or if this is even what you may want to hear, but those are my ways of writing a long story/book.
I'm really bad at writing these types of things, which is why I normally write through my characters, haha. None of what I've said is likely what you're looking for. But keep on writing, I'm sure your plot and storyline, characters, etc, are great!
