Friday, June 25, 2010

Writing Interestingly!

Yes everybody thinks their story is interesting, but believe me, just because you like it.... well of course you like it you writer it. Unless your one of those people who hate everything they do.... my self included.

WRITING INTERESTINGLY>>>

Here's the deal, someone just picked up your book, the first chapter of your book explains everything and sets the reader up for the rest of the story! you know what I think of that? BORING!!!

The first chapter or first few chapters IS NOT supposed to set up the story, in fact usually in most anim/manga/stories/books the reader is thrown right in the middle of something without being informed of any thing about it, they must keep watching/reading to find out what the heck is going on, so in a sense the first chapter shouldn't set up the entire story in a nice little box, rather the entire book should slowly put pieces around the frame until you have a complete story....

because honestly, once the reader knows the complete setting, everything about the characters and their lives, the characters future doesn't seem so interesting any more.... and that's what most NOOB writers think, That "The reader's going to keep reading to find out what happens next..." No in fact usually they don't, that is a minor thing that keeps the readers interest, what really keeps their interest though is some bot of information that is left out, but the story seems to keep going even though that thing was never explained.

For EXAMPLE: it's much more interesting to describe how the character ran home, slammed the door, nailed the windows shut and hid under the bed, than to just say "He was so scared"

instead of saying "She became happy" try "She jumped up and down with the biggest goofy smile and shouted 'yippe!' and everybody stared at her until she sat down and class resumed." But in some rare cases it would be more effective to say "She became Happy."

DON'T EXPLAIN ANYTHING!!! NEVER EXPLAIN YOUR WRITING!! I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR EXPLANATION IT'S BORING!

The reader doesn't want to hear your explanation or justification! Don't say, "he ran away from home because he hated his dad!" In fact this goes back to the interest level, you just ruined the interest level by doing so because now the reader knows why the character ran away from home rather than the reader being forced to keep reading to find out you have just explained it for them so now the book becomes boring.

Instead only write about things that would happen in a movie or anime, you never see in an anime or movie "Because he hated his parents!" unless someone is speaking, the movie doesn't explain it's self either, no magic voice pops in saying, "let's explain what just happened" Nope! you have to keep watching to understand....

The only time explaining or pre-setting up is acceptable is something like this blog title! the title instantly gives away what this blog is about... but blogs are usually boring anyways so I'm not trying to keep your interest, I"m just trying to hand feed you information...

Which brings me to my next rant, Dont hand feed the reader every little detail, it's boring! don't waste a whole sentence saying he put down the paper, unless that paper was a super important death note or something don't say pointless things, don't describe every action, every detail every anything, the reader wants to personalize the story so let them!

Don't kill your story like that!

Actually when I wrote my story I actually did explain everything, but when I went back I removed it all or took some parts out and put them in later parts of the story so it becomes a slow revelation. I mainly explained so I myself could understand the story but I removed it because the reader doesn't want to know now, they will find out later.... this is called interaction.... the reader is actively interacting and thinking about the story "Why did the character do that?" "What was this thing the character referred to" Then their only choice is to keep reading!

One last thing make sure the story it's self isn't BORING! "Oooo I"m a writer, now I'm going to write about things anyone can go out and do!"

lame, readers read books because it takes them to a world where these things usually don't or never happen, who wants to read about everyday things? unless it's a comedy don't do it!

14 comments:

  1. Nice article. I don't usually have problems with an interesting story. Before, I published, people have said that my stories were quite interesting. My main problem was that I did not describe details very much, so the reader would not be able to draw an image in their heads. However, starting with the second story of my first book, I've heard that I am definitely becoming more detailed in my work. Also, my proofreader says that my second book is much more interesting than the first one. I hope the third, which I am currently working on, is even better.

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  2. yes, you told me about your book about the mysterious murders and then the murders not remembering it, that right there sounded very interesting to me! If I had to describe my novel to anyone, I think right off the bat it would sound like just your everyday normal story... even though I know it's not! good luck!

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  3. Thanks. I hope you do well with your book.

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  4. thank you, I sure hope so too, I'd much rather see anime inspired stories become more popular in the future, like mine, rather than twilight and harry potter books becoming popular...

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  5. You're welcome. Anime inspired stories sound much more interesting than mainstream fiction. However, what I really want is for people to realize that they have lost the most important thing in the world, which is an imagination. It shows that they lost it because there are tons of horrible stories told in movies and books. It's not even funny.

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  6. exactly! thank you! that's exactly what the moral of my novel is about! :D

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  7. The world has also lost other important stuff, but the imagination is the most important and most obvious to notice, when it is lost. Of course, I find one of the main reasons an imagination is lost is due to school. They just don't allow imagination to flourish the higher the grade level you go, in my opinion.

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  8. yeah, that's why I usually hate school! even when they give you an art project of something it's always strict and when I try to go beyond what I'm asked to do I get marked down points, so in a way it discourages it... and then the people who put no effort but follow the guide lines get A's...

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  9. I did not realize that school helped diminish people's imagination until I got into college and took a college survival class that had an exercise where it demonstrated that we were made to think inside the box due to K-12 education. I think it has something to do with the fact that school, K-12 at least, is not meant to educate people, but to make them "good citizens". In my opinion, an education system or educator that does not allow an imagination to flourish deserves to disappear.

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  10. what? good citizens? at high school everybody cusses and gets in fights.... maybe in kindergarten you can learn to be good, but honestly I feel I never learn anything at school anyways besides pointless stuff like chemistry equations and trig... 12 years is way too much schooling, heck I've hated school since 3rd grade! most of my life lessons come from anime, church and books!

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  11. I've hated school when I discovered it's true purpose.

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  12. to babysit while our parents are at work? Then to give us mountains of homework so we don't have time to pursue our dreams at home?

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  13. I thought I told you what is, but those are funny ideas. The true purpose is make us the government's definition of a "good citizen".

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  14. well my school certainly has anything but good citizens...

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