Writing styles?

Question

I'm writing a very complex book, a bit like Tolkien's LOTR. But I'm stuck at the beginning. Should I focus on drafting a complete plot, should I just start writing away poorly (and edit later on) or should I write well from the start? I could do with tips, I'm a poet but therefore maybe obsessed with effective and beautiful writing.

Answer 1

I write from a loose story board. It is posted on the wall, on corkboard, and to it I add all kinds of things as the ideas come to me. I jot down words and phrases that I want to use, analogies that might be helpful, turns in the plot, etc. It's a mess for certain, but gives me a lot of clarity when I write, and allows me to work in ideas that I might otherwise forget...

Answer 2

Well, Tolkien himself started at the beginning, not focusing on drafting the plot. He just wrote whatever came to him, and if he didn't like it he threw it away and started over. That's why it took him so long to write those books! So I would say, write down what comes to you, just start somewhere, and then keep editing it as you go until you have exactly what you want.

Answer 3

Start with brainstorming. Write down everything you think of: names, situations, events. But you should understand from the beginning before you even start brainstorming what you want the theme to be. If it's large and complex like lotr, it would be good to have a big picture story involving multitudes of people along with a small story inside it (maybe a romance). Any intricate details are good as long as they're original. But let your imagination run wild and let the theme always revolve around 'the human condition'.

Answer 4

I'm a writer also. I find that sometimes when you have a plot you struggle. Its good to have an idea of where the story is going, but for me, my best stories seem to flow and in a way they write themselves. Don't be too particular with your first draft you can always perfect it in the third and fourth draft. Its then that you can really look at perfecting the language and imagery. Goodluck!

Answer 5

I suggest you first draft a complete plot. Then just start writing away with the plot to guide you.

Answer 6

I'm a writer too, and I find it helps if you have a plot idea in your head. It doesn't have to be fully developed, just an idea. Then start writing out scenes, they don't have to be in order or perfect, just get them down, you can fix them later. That will give you a skeleton to work with that you can add muscle and matter to. Good luck!

Answer 7

Draft the complete plot, and then begin writingas well as you can. If you write poorly for a whole long novel, you will reinforce your bad habits.

Answer 8

i take advantage of a ton of foreshadowing often than i'm getting at once to the element and that i additionally beat around the bush the place i think of it quite is needed. It builds the rigidity and with all of the different issues I suck at in writing, i'm unlikely to disclaim that i'm stable at development rigidity. i'm undesirable at descriptions, i think of. I additionally do unlike analyzing books the place the author is continually describing issues or is going on and on whilst it is composed of descriptions. I certainly tend to grant slightly component to easily clean lots of the staple products up and then I circulate away it as much as the reader to fill interior the blanks, to make it their own. I many times write what I write and don't exchange it. there are cases the place i alter a observe maximum of cases, i'm unable to even permit you comprehend what the 1st observe I used grew to become into. yet i've got stopped doing that. I certainly am the form of author who *continuously* ends the financial ruin with a cliffhanger. this is how i like it accomplished. To me, a financial ruin isn't finished (whilst i'm writing) if i've got not ended it with a cliffhanger. I call it a financial ruin whilst something super and exciting has occurred, something significant to the story, and that i've got ended it the place i comprehend the reader will desire to circulate on. do not you basically hate it whilst a e book is so stable and you're up till finally 3 o'clock interior the morning analyzing and you save telling your self, "i visit close it top after this financial ruin," yet you already know the subsequent financial ruin is unquestionably greater effective than the previous one? and you basically *comprehend* you may not placed the e book down without analyzing that financial ruin? Yeah, this is how i desire my readers to react to my books. **I in simple terms had to function that besides the reality that I overexplain right here, i don't do this once writing memories. i'm hyper-responsive to the failings I do whilst writing, so I make advantageous that what i'm writing is on no account something that i does not desire to verify in a revealed e book and something that may not annoy the reader. i'm uncertain regardless of if I prevail, nevertheless.

Answer 9

Write a rough plan (but be prepared to change as your characters develop)

Write as well as you can from the outset

Edit at the end

Get a friend you trust to read and critique the first chapter

Answer 10

Here's the rules:

Don't get it right, get it written.
You cannot fix a blank page.
Give yourself permission to write crap. Crap can be fixed.


So basically, the best thing to do is write, write, write. You can edit and perfect it later, but get the skeleton done.