Hi, so I decided to make a thread about story writing! Writing is one of my favorite things to do, so I thought I should share some tips!
For things I haven’t covered, or if you just want to see other people’s perspective with writing, check out this thread!
Genre Choosing!
One of the most important things is the plot! Cliches aren’t terrible to add, but don’t add too many. When thinking/creating the plot, you want it to be more original to you! For example, there are many story’s showcasing a ‘bad boy’ and a ‘new girl’ or something similar. This isn’t necessarily a problem, it’s just on overused concept.
Next thing to take into consideration is the genre! Why? Because it sets the mood. I could write about a detective, and let’s say it’s in the drama category. I would add things to make the main character suffer a little. I would alternate between the good and the bad, probably giving the character two love interests.
Now, if I were to write this story in the action genre, I would focus more on her/his career. I wouldn’t focus too much on romance, only because it doesn’t really have an impact with the action part of the story.
Making this a comedy wouldn’t be recommended, but there are some authors that can execute the comedy/serious ratio. Comedy’s are a little harder to write in my opinion, because you need to add so much humor to make it considered a comedy. I don’t really have much advice for this genre!
Let’s talk about making this about adventure! Adventure’s focus on the journey of things. You could add how the main character is catching a con artist while traveling the globe. You could add how there stuck on a beach, and they have to use they’re training to survive. With this genre, there are multiple options.
What I gave the main character powers? That would be fantasy. With this one, you have to focus on the magical element instead of the career. Even though they are a detective, they discover they have magical powers!
Something I probably can’t write is horror! This doesn’t mean add jump scares, gore, and such, it means you want to give your readers a sense of danger. You want them to fear what’s happening to the main character. Maybe they’re catching a killer, but the killer is playing treacherous games with them.
Mystery would probably be the most fit genre for this story! Maybe the main character is catching a killer, and the killer is leaving clues behind. Maybe it’s a perplexing missing persons case.
Romance. I don’t recommend this genre for this type of story, but you can make it work. Maybe the main character saves the life of the love interest? Maybe the love interest is they’re partner?
Thriller! Thrillers are based on suspense, so be prepared to stop detailing everything! With this genre, you may want to leave out important information, such as maybe the killer and the main character are related? You want to add that jaw dropping element.
Choosing Your Characters Personality!
Character development. This is something that can either make the ending, or break it. When writing about characters, in the end, they should develop some way. Good or bad, the choice is yours.
Before you ever start with character development, you need to create the character first! I don’t mean look, I mean they’re personality! For the sake of explanation, I’m going to choose our detectives main traits!
So normally officers of the law can be determined, headstrong, and/or badbutt (keeping it PG lol). For the sake of complexity, we’re not going to use those three adjectives. Why? Because they are overused for cops.
Our detective’s name is going to be…River. Rivers are normally associated with calm, cooling effects. When choosing a name, don’t go for the meaning (unless it’s sweet and the parents want to name their kid that).
When choosing character traits, you can look up adjectives to describe a person if you’re having trouble!
If you need help the website listed below has a few hundred traits that can help!
http://ideonomy.mit.edu/essays/traits.html
Character traits actually lead the story! If a character is stubborn, they probably wouldn’t ask for help. This is useful because it changes some things for the story!
Now, let’s create our character River!
Depression- A lot of cops suffer from this! On a day to day basis, they see a lot of people who have been murdered, sexually assaulted, or even people who have taken their own life.
Obedient- I’m most professions, you need to follow rules. River may have grown up in a strict household, or is just very straight edged.
Loyal- River is someone who you can always rely on! He’s the type that if he trusts you, he will help you hide a body.
By the end of the story, we want River to change someway- good or bad. I wouldn’t choose that right now, seeing as we still need a lot more before we start writing our story!
I really hoped this information/explanation helps! I will probably be adding more tips and helpful information later on!
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