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My first book.

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fohfoh:
Dammit Nazo, where have you been? I posted my story somewhere in theses forums if you want to take a look at it during your free time.

I concur. Start with short stories first. Not really to explore ideas, but to explore your writing style. Learn to develop your ability to communicate your idea to the fullest. I actually have several books I want to write, but I have to do different things first to begin.

1st book needs more story development. I want intertwined stories, so that will likely need some type of small scale model to make sure I don't incorporate certain "fallacies" into the story
2nd needs a lot of writing development. It came as a dream so there's all sorts of weird "excerpts" but introducing the idea properly in prose is very important. (introduction). Last I counted I think I had like 4-5 different worlds in my idea. (parallel existences), a main character moving towards searching for others, a side character and her father as well as the full 1st world fully mentally developed.

One thing I have to work on, is that sometimes I spend too much time writing about details that to a certain extent aren't needed. I may be working backwards since I like to mentally create a world, develop it and then record it rather than write about a world, develop it and then mentally create it after the fact.

Xenoran:
ok. thanks everyone ... ill take it all into consideration and prolly do a partial to 75% rewrite and i midht post it back to see if its any better sometime later in a few days or something or i might just do the blog thing

-------

well my book it put up at http://xenoran.blogspot.com/

i edited some of the beginning stuff and added things to end if anyone wants to read where it currently is

Ixarku:

--- Quote from: Xiong Chiamiov on December 03, 2010, 02:12:52 AM ---It may be easier for you to start with short stories, rather than a novel.  Not only is the length helpful, but the writing style is different: characters are just introduced with no prologue, and defined by the actions they take, rather than discussing motivations and all that jazz.

--- End quote ---

This is certainly good advice.  There definitely are substantial differences between novels and short stories - pacing and level of detail probably being the most significant.  Short stories are generally much more direct and to the point, with character development shown more through dialogue and action.  Novels leave quite a bit more room for narrative text.

To take it a step further, it's also possible to improve writing style by writing short scenes instead of stories, kind of as an exercise.  If you have trouble coming up with ideas, there are different things to try to spark the imagination - like the time-honored tradition of observing people in some random public setting.  Or you could lift scenes from TV, movies, or books, and try rewriting them with your own twist, just for practice.

Novels also require a HUGE time committment and a ridiculous amount of self-discipline, as in, months or years of near-continuous work, depending on your writing skills, your ability to focus, the amount of time on your hands, and how clear your ideas are.  It's tough enough to write a bad novel; writing a good one requires a lot of tenacity.

Xenoran:
My imagination is huge. The reason I chose to do a novel instead of a short story is because if we go with the 20,000 word deffinition of a short story ... I can easily write way beyond this for this. I have everything going on in my head right now and i have pages and pages or thoughts and scenes and ideas for this story that it could never be considered anything like short. I have mounds of scenes and ideas already jotted down in a notebook and a backstory to each character already that define who they are ... ive been working and writing nonstop for over 24 hours constant writing ideas and lines and scenes in my notebook. i just dont think i could do a short story. the content for a novel is there i only need to work on my writing.

CRxTRDUDE:
Hello.

So what happens after ch 1?

Chapter 1 (I call chapers as "ch") could be the present plot. Then you recap it to the past experience say 1 day ago (or for nurses 1 day Prior to Burial  ;) ) in the second ch. Is that what you have in mind?

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