Writing+Help?

//**Writing is not the easiest thing to do by a long shot.**// I personally find short stories the hardest to write, simply because you have to come up with a plot, characters that the reader can relate with, and resolve it all within a few pages. But that is just my opinion - perhaps you find longer texts harder to write than short ones. This is by no means an artical written by a professional, but merely stitched together by someone who has written quite a few short stories, finished a novel, and is working on too many stories to think about in comfort. If you have had writing experiences you wish to share, feel free to add them below mine, so long as no derogatory comments are made. If you have any questions or comments, please share them on a thread. Anyhow, there are a few key things within a story that hold it together. They are as follows:

Character
Characters are the heart and soul of the story. Making your character should not be a 'bung in a name, all done' process. If you do this, inevitably your characters will start acting the same. Different people like making their characters differently. For names, I suggest finding a word that describes your character - for example, my charrie, Ariana, is described with the word 'silver' - and fiddling around with it on a translation website (e.g. GoogleTranslate, hereby referred to as GT). GT is a useful tool for unusual names. The 'familiar' of one of the Witches in Ariana's story is called 'Karreg', which I'm pretty sure means 'stone' in Welsh. I typed in 'names that mean silver' for Ariana's name, and every site I went on had 'Ariana' or 'Aryana' listed. Ariana means 'silver' or 'most holy' in Welsh. For the villain, I chose the word 'crow', and after a long time of searching on the web found the collective word for the three Irish/Celtic goddesses (the Badb, the Morrighan, and the Macha) is Modran. Hence Modran's name. Last names are hard. Just try not to put your character in a situation where they need a last name, or look around the room randomly until you see something which could be used as a last name. OK, you have a name. What does your character look like? Unusual? Normal? Easy-to-overlook? Please, please, please do not have a character with green eyes. That is the height of stereotypes in writing. What's wrong with hazel/brown/blue eyes? Even grey eyes are more interesting... Hair colour? Please not red. Again, this screams //**"STEREOTYPE!!!!!"**// at the top of its lungs. Great! Phys. description, name, whatever. What about the character of your character? Funny/sulky/pessimistic/optimistic/realist/mischeivous/stupid/mad (a personal favourite of mine/split personality disorder (ooh, love those! So unpredictable!)/blah blah blah... just don't have a fourteen year old girl called Kylie who says 'like' in every sentence and can speak eleven languages including Russian and Cantonese. This kind of character is unbelievable. However, having a nice gramma who makes cookies and has a marijuana plantation in her back garden isn't a bad idea... (Though don't write too much about drugs. It'll get you into trouble guaranteed.)

Now, get to know your character, as if they were a person. What's their favourite song? What do they eat for breakfast? What's their biggest fear? Smallest fear? Best friend? Person they like? I'll answer these for my character Icepaw: **Fave song:** "Dude, anything by Ke$ha... she rox ur sox!" **Breakfast:** "What d'you think? Any more stupid questions?" **Big fear:** "Not becoming leader." **Small fear:** "ShadowClan taking over the forest. **Best friend:** "Firepaw! Ripplepaw doesn't count, she's mah sista." **Crush:** "No one! Serious! Fine, I kinda like Flamepaw. Tell him, you won't see another banana in the sky." As you can see, Icepaw got an A+ for Attitude, and has no sense of priorities. She is pretty weird, too.

Let it be noted that characters NEVER listen to you, and will wander off and do their own thing unless you keep them under control with a whip. If a character is constantly disobedient, dedicate a few pages just for their death scene. Make it morbid and gory. Then chuck it away. Hopefully, your character will start behaving.

A great way to get to know your charrie is by making a Facebook page for them. Not a real one, just a fake one using a word document. Don't be too fussed about formatting, just use bigger font sizes and take advantage of **bold**, //italics//, and __underlines__. Here is a little excerpt from Icepaw's FB page just after she gets apprenticed:

**__Icepaw:__** __WHOOT! Got my apprentice name at LAST!__ __♥ __ // Flamepaw likes this // // Quickpaw likes this // // Firepaw likes this // // Ripplepaw likes this // // Dewpaw likes this // Flamepaw: Lol, so did i!!! Icepaw: haha, ikr? u got urs first. i got mine last T.T Dewpaw: BURRRRRRRRRN iceh!!! //Flamepaw likes this// Icepaw: go away dewpaw u moron Quickpaw: sibling love …  hey Icepaw, congrats on the name ;) Icepaw: thanx! ♥  i could hardly believe it. u can ’ t boss me around anymore! Ripplepaw: No, he certainly can ’ <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">t, not whilst he is in the medicine den <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">… <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Firepaw: xD almost fainted when Birchstar called out my name! <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">//Ripplepaw likes this// <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Flamepaw: duuude, y <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">’ <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">need to chill lol <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">//Icepaw likes this// <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Dewpaw: just like Icepaw needs to burn roflmao <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Icepaw: ur ttly not funny dewpaw <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">… Just keep going like that. Have characters interact, have corny ones, dumb ones, friends, sibling fights. You could use a twitter page instead, I suppose...

That's it really for characters. Just know them like your best friend, and you'll do well~!

POV
POV stands for 'point of view'. I assume you have been introduced to the whole 'first person/second person/third person' thing, but I'll explain it for those who haven't. First Person: This is writing from your character's point of view. Use words like 'I', 'me', 'mine', etc. This is a slightly more personal kind of view on the story, since everything is being told by the main character. Second Person: This is by far the most unusual. Second person is 'you', as in, the author is telling you that you are doing things. The 'choose-your-own path' Goosebumps books (which I sincerely hope you do not read by now) have this. "You jump over the balcony. Suddenly the ground is a lot closer than it seemed before." Use words like 'you' and 'your'. Third Person: There are three categories in this, ones I made up myself. There is 'omniscent', 'omniscent with a bias, and 'omniscent from everyone'. Omniscent means 'all-seeing', so it's the 'he', 'she', 'it' stuff. Plain omniscent is boring. This is the typical 'The puppy ran past like a bolt of lightning. Jack ran after it, sweat dripping off his face. He caught up to the dog' stuff. No emotions, no nothing. You can add more stuff in, like adjectives, but all in all, this isn't a very good view. Then there is omniscent with a bias. This is your ordinary stuff, the POV I prefer. This is telling it all from the omniscent, all seeing eye, but concentrating on the thoughts and emotions of one character in particular. For example: 'Jack felt the puppy's tiny body brush against his leg as it ran past, racing away like it was being pursued by wolves. He blinked, surprised for a moment, before taking off after it. "Oi!" he yelled, legs pumping as he fought to catch up. His muscles burned, and it was almost too hot to breathe.' That kind of stuff. Omniscent from everyone is slightly confusing, since you are recieving emotions, thoughts and feelings from all the characters. Add this to the end of the passage I wrote for OWAB: 'The puppy ran as fast as it could, paws slipping on the hot pavement. Her breath came in little gasps as she heard the boy running after her, and fear made her run faster than ever.' Fine for short passages, but in the long run it's confusing.

By Mehrbano

Please note that this page is under construction. Bear with me whilst I finish it.