The Writer's Survival Guide

Okay. Here's the big one. For any of you guys who write stories on here, sometimes I check them out and see what I think. And they're pretty alright, but there's some things I notice in stories and I don't know how else to explain but on here. I'm a pretty experienced creative writer myself, I won an award for 1st place in a contest with a lot of the Catholic schools participating. So, for some of you guys who are starting to write, I hope that you can use this to refer back to whenever you're at a stump. I'm really gonna try my best and remember EVERYTHING. Because I always forget what I want to say whenever I write Blogs. I'm gonna dividing everything up into sections, so... read on!

ENVIRONMENT
- First, you have to set up a place you'd like to work in. Find a nice, secluded place inside. Having chaos going around everywhere doesn't help.
- One word. S-N-A-C-K-S. You have no idea how annoying it is to get up constantly for food. Bring a shitload of snacks to your work area. Plus, it helps the brain to wake up.
- Pop in some music or whatever else you need in your working space. You really want to concentrate, so you might as well be comfortable. I like to get my laptop, rest on my bed, and just go.
- This may be personal preference, but... don't WRITE your rough drafts. Just don't. I used to do that, but then one day I tried typing them out, and for some reason it came out a lot more descriptive and articulate. Trust me, it's easier.

BRAINSTORMING
- It sounds dumb, but it helps organize your thoughts. It helps me a lot to remember the order of what's going on in the chapter, and the roles of the characters.
- This is your idea sheet. Write WHATEVER ideas you have about the chapter here. Also, include descriptions of new characters, and write about the role of every single person in the chapter. Include your purposes, and some random quotes by people that you just HAVE to enter. Write. Everything.
- I type mine, but I find it better to write it. Because there's no deleting. Even if you think something's a bad idea, just write it down anyways, it might get worked in. If you find that a certain idea can't be worked into the story, jot it down and see if you can build on it.

CHARACTERS
- Try and figure out ALL of your characters before starting your story. Coming up with a character out of nowhere half-way through writing a chapter, it throws things off. Write them in the Brainstorming.
- Are you guys familiar with Mary Sues and Gary Stus? If so, here's the downlow. Mary Sues are perfect, liked by everyone, get the guy, and everyone loves them. I see a lot of them in stories here. You know, regular 14-year-old-reject who meets Green Day, blahdy blahdy blah. It gets old.
- Be innovative with characters. Try and mess with people's personalities. Try and make a new type of character for every story. Interesting, uncliche characters make it all the better.
- When developing a character, you want to completely plan out their personality. Which also means you have to think of a background for them and how they got to be the way they are. You don't always have to INCLUDE their background, but it helps with characterization.
- Character development = PLUS.

STORYLINE SET-UP
- You DON'T always have to reveal everything about the character at the beginning. It gives too much away. Why not make the background part of the story's plot and the character's development?
- Try to start your story at an unusual place. That way, you want to know more about what's going on, so the reader continues to... read... it makes it more interesting. Don't just start off with, "Bob is a very special person." Catch my drift? You can even start your story at the middle of the plot, and have some backstory and other events fill the reader in. Experiment with it.
- Happy endings are nice, but not always appropriate. Mix it up. Why can't the main character lose? It can be more effective.
- Suspense, cliff-hangers, all very nice touches. However, don't overuse them. I'll go more into that in a sec.

YOUR WRITING STYLE
- REMEMBER THIS FOREVER: CLICHES ARE EVIL!
- Don't be so heavy on the drama. For instance, I read a lot of stories on here that go into great detail about a character's suffering. Look at the difference in these two descriptions, it sums it all up.

BEFORE: "Her day at school was awful. She was so fucking pissed at the world and she wanted it all to end. Losing control of her emotions, she grabbed the knife on the table and..." Yes. Very unnecessary.

AFTER: "She entered her room, exasperated as always. Trudging in, with a bitter expression glowing on her face, she heaved her backpack onto her bed and took a seat next to it. Plopping herself on the bedside, Sue reflected on the day's events. After some mental debate, she strode over to her desk and picked up her razor-sharp blade."

I would end it at that. Do you notice the difference? I didn't talk about her emotions at all. Not once. Instead, I talked about her ACTIONS. Actions speak louder that words, you know. It has all the drama right there. Still, as a writer, you want to develop your own style. If funny's your thing, find humorous ways to detail events. Such as, "After realizing that Rachel was throwing a beach party, Patrick was positively elated! With the passion of a thousand burning suns, he leaped out of bed and dressed himself with such an inhuman speed, one would never have guessed he barely woke up."

EDITING
- The usual grammar and all. Also check for repetitiveness. Try and stay in active voice (He sent the mail vs. The mail was sent to him.) Stay in present tense.
- Have someone else check your chapter before submission.
- Before reading over your paper, GET AWAY FROM IT. AS FAR AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. And stay away from it for 24 hours. Come back and look it over. Trust me, it helps tremendously.

I hope that helped!