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Tips for New Writers

17 years ago

Heh, it's a writing site, and well, it's not going to be a story, just a thread. Some tips for writing in general would be nice to look up. So, I propose everybody write at least one tip on how to improve writing.

Here is my tip:

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is basically hinting that something is going to happen in the future, something that is a big event. You don't want to hint at it straight at the beginning, but before you hit any real action, you should have some. I'm going to give some events of foreshadowing.

1. In Final Fantasy X-2, there is a sphere that is shown of a person who looks like Tidus from Final Fantasy X-1. Also, as the story progresses, you learn more about that person, and who he loved was. It wasn't Tidus, but the person has a big impact on the game. Towards the middle of the game, you learn that there is this huge mechanical creature, that will attack anything. It was suppose to be a weapon, but because it would attack anything (doesn't know friend from foe), it was never used. This foreshadows that you may have to face it.

2. In Animal Farm, there is a bunch of foreshadowing. None of it starts though, until the end of the first (out of ten) chapters. An old pig gives a speech about the corruption of man. It gives many examples of things that should not be done. By the end of the book, every example has been accomplished, such as gambling and trading.

So, what is the best way of doing something? Well, in the game by Madglee, "Mother, may I go out and kill tonight" (I believe), you are told about your past at the beginning, but it's more of a history. If you didn't know any better about foreshadowing, you would believe that it's just a small statement of who you are. Than, it gets more noticeable that the story is going to move towards finding your past in a small flashback and thought. After you get to work, if you do, you get a phone, and that phone shows a bunch of messages left by a person from your past. From that point, it gets very obvious that you are going to be doing the game about your past. That would be the biggest part of the foreshadowing. There are smaller, and more subtle hints of foreshadowing, including some outright ones when you use your skills.

Anyways, as you see, many stories (yes, even FF X-2 has a story) use foreshadowing. The foreshadowing can be as blunt or insignificant as you would like them to be. In fact, I have one more small hint of foreshadowing on the game Ace Combat 0. It was so small, I actually missed it my first time through it. Well, foreshadowing gets more obvious if you've already seen the future.

In AC-0, there is a level called the Round Table. In it, you are suppose to help out your allies who are losing against the enemy. You are all in planes, and can talk to each other. A message goes across from a future enemy, Wizard, to your wingman, Larry. They talk about it all ending, and wanting to get out of there job. Anyways, a few missions later, Larry, your wingman leaves your formation directly after some nuclear explosions (which you wouldn't know happen unless you played AC-5 or listened to the cutscene after the mission). You learn about a Coup de tau force that wants a world without boundaries. It is led by Wizard, and your final opponent is Larry. Oh, but you wouldn't know that Wizard is the leader of the coup de tau forces unless you read the assault records that they give you when you shot down a pilot that's an ace. (You find that some are story based, and some are just their. I believe that about 8 of them are both, since one is a jammer. One is running away from their own forces (AWOL). 4 are following the people that's trying to shoot down the person going AWOL, and the other two are well, I don't remember. Maybe it's just 6. Well, anyways...

Foreshadowing can be as subtle or as blunt as you want. I have shown examples of many types of foreshadowing, and I hope that it will improve your ability to write successful stories, no matter why you wrote them.

YOUR TURN to write a hint, unless you have more to read.

JJJ-thebanisher

Tips for New Writers

17 years ago

Foreshadowing and character development are very important

tsmpaul

Tips for New Writers

17 years ago

Another tip for new writers, or a piece of free advice anyhow. Don't aim for the biggest, greatest, longest story in the world, for your first story game. You could if you wanted to, but part of making your first story game is also learning how to use the game editors on this website. You don't have to publish what you make, but I recommend creating a story experiment, and trying out how different things in the editor work, to begin with. For advanced games, learn about items, variables and scripting.

Cake

Tips for New Writers

17 years ago

So truuuue..

I'm actually new, so...all the advice I can give you is, read articles, test out the advanced editor, aaaaaand...CREATE A GAME!

JJJ-thebanisher

Tips for New Writers

17 years ago

Your a new writer. Teehee, didn't think I'd get a tip for you.

Also TSMPAUL (my good buddy cross the internet) is super uber duper right. Plus when newbs do that it pisses the shit outa me :D

Havacoman

Tips for New Writers

17 years ago

*So, is anyone going to write a long tip like mine, or are we just summing it up?

Rodney

Tips for New Writers

17 years ago

Here's one from me:

If you can't figure out how to do something, ask Havacoman!

Havacoman

Tips for New Writers

17 years ago

Eh, I'm looking for writing tips in general.

JJJ-thebanisher

Tips for New Writers

17 years ago

Character Development and History

Character development is one of the most important parts to epic and or long stories. Obviously a character who has just receivd a million dollars will act differently then before he gained the money. A character who'se grandmother was just killed by his brother may get psychotic and vengeful. When you develop characters you get to know them, sometimes enough to want to get them better; thus sequals are born.

However overdoing character development is horrible; say you make a fantastic character that everyone loves. He's the hero of your story and he has never done anything evil in your book then all of a sudden someone hurts his sister and he becomes the most bloodlusting evil hound from hell that you've ever created. Thats just horrible -- would such a humble and righteous guy do that in reality? Why not? Because he was righteous for a reason. However it could happen if the character had a history of being emotionally unstable or very insecure about his sisters welfare.

This brings me to history, before you begin writing its great to know who your characters are but its more important to know how they got there. For instance you have a completely evil character who knows no chivalry, but why is he like that? Was he beaten and abused by his father? Was he tortured by an evil wizard? Did he live hungry for years and began to hate the world?

Giving characters "phobias" is very useful to your story. It adds depth, but simply saying your character is afraid of lamp shades doesn't do it. Sure he might be afraid of lamp shades but why? Did his mother beat him senselessly with lamp shades all day? Why is he afraid of lamp shades? What made him that way. Its all very important to writing.

However the number one mistake for new authors trying to add all of this into a story is over zealousness. I've fallen prey to this horrible, horrible massicar of a story. The funny thing is that to you at the time it seems right, but when you go over it in a couple weeks you will be near to puking. The mistake is when you add all your history in at the beggining. If your first twenty pages are only history (sure well explained and such) your readers will get bored, and lose interest and it makes you look so weak as an author.

What you want to do is start the readers off with some action or whatever will make up the main part of your story and then release a fear or personality that a character has. Then later another character may ask them about it and the first character might reveal just what happened in his history that made him that way.

A great example would be the "Da Vinci Code". Langdon walks into the elevator and is very clausterphobic, it appears again later in the movie and Sophie asks him about it; He then reveals that he was stuck in a well as a child and was forced to tred water all night. This just allows you to get to know Robert Langdon that much better.

Also, I find that if I write all the history at the beggining I get really bored with the story, because I have nothing left to give out. You need to draw the reader in, teasing him with information until the climax of the story when you release what you have left to release and blow him away.

Anyone else want to write a parcel of information?