The writing process

[PokerFink]

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You should seriously consider joining a writing workshop. They're fantastic for getting good feedback.

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Good advice.

The other advice I can give is not to sorry about your first draft making any sense at all. Just write. Whether you start with one scene (the way I do) or multiple scenes, get your ideas on paper. Create some good lines, some good images, some good jokes. Just write it all out.

Making it flow into a full, coherent story comes later.

[JustSomeJackass]

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have been trying to get started on writing a fictional novel but I am really struggling with where/how to begin

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The night was sultry.

[poker-penguin]

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Anyone work on something similar?

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Not at the moment, but I should be. It's a discipline thing, just gotta sit down and effing well write.

[OtisTheMarsupial]

Give yourself a deadline. Announce it. The rest will come.

[Blarg]

A teacher of mine once said something I always gave credit to.

"If you want to find out if you could be a writer, go get a cabin or something and lock yourself up for a weekend. No t.v., no radio, no phone calls, nothing. Just write. If you can come out with a story, you're a writer. If not, forget it."

What he was trying to get at is that there are people who CAN write, but not professionally. If you want to do it professionally, you have to meet deadlines and can't sit around waiting for inspiration. You have to PRODUCE. It may be a love, but it's also a job.

I'm not sure if you can take much from that and apply it to your situation, but I thought it might bring home the need for action and commitment. I'm sure most of the best stories in history have gone unwritten because even absolute genius isn't enough unless you can park your ass in a chair and just write. Simply that.

[shakingspear]

A lot of good advice here. You should definitely just start writing, see where it takes you. Get as much as you can onto paper. It's amazing how quickly you can forget things.

Another thing you can do is create character sketches for the people in your story. Write all the important details about the character (physical details, how he/she talks, nervous twitches, job, family, etc.)...and the unimportant ones (favorite food, favorite baseball team, Mac or PC user, whatever). Minute details are as important as the major ones, even if the little ones don't make the story. It'll give you a better idea of who your characters are and make it easier to write about them later.

Good luck! Any hints as to what your story's about?

[brassnuts]

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have been trying to get started on writing a fictional novel but I am really struggling with where/how to begin

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The night was sultry.

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Nice.

Wanna see my coin collection?

[PokerFink]

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Another thing you can do is create character sketches for the people in your story. Write all the important details about the character (physical details, how he/she talks, nervous twitches, job, family, etc.)...and the unimportant ones (favorite food, favorite baseball team, Mac or PC user, whatever). Minute details are as important as the major ones, even if the little ones don't make the story. It'll give you a better idea of who your characters are and make it easier to write about them later.

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This is a fantastic suggestion. Good characters are rounded and have a backstory, even if that backstory isn't fully written into the story.

[jakethebake]

It's been a long time since I started a novel, but there used to be several freeware programs out there that would let you move scenes around and organize characters, etc. Very helpful for organizing your thoughts.

[Aces McGee]

I had this discussion just last weekend with my aunt, a playwright, storyteller, and general theater type. I mentioned to her that I had been trying to write a treatment for a screenplay that my friend (who went to USC film school) and I had discussed. I had been working on it for many months, but didn't seem to be getting anywhere (by the way, I write for a living, but it's magazine writing, not creative fiction).

I laid out the story of the screenplay to her, and she asked me which part of it I found to be the most interesting, the most intriguing. I told her, and she told me to look inside myself, look at my past experiences, and figure out what connection I had to that aspect of the story. Once I discovered why I was drawn to it, I'd be able to put my own perspective into the story, and I'd be able to write that scene, or that part. Once you get going, it just snowballs from there.

Damn good advice.

-McGee