Story Writing: Little Tips and Tricks from a Fellow Writer

Hi, I'm Grace, a member of 1st Birstall Rangers. In my part of this blog I would like to share with you my interest in story writing. 

In the time that we find ourselves in at the moment, it’s important to get as many good vibes as possible. One of the ways you can do this as by doing something you love. Whether it’s reading, painting or sewing, it’s important to keep yourself happy. In my case, that’s writing. In this, I’m going to give you a few tips and tricks I’ve found to be helpful through my experience in writing.



Disclaimer: I am not, I repeat NOT a professional writer and do not claim to be. This is just a really big hobby of mine. Also, I decided to include pictures of my garden throughout this post for good vibes. I hope you enjoy them.

Story writing these days tends to stray away from handheld books you can buy in a shop. Lots of stories can be found ready for you to read on the internet. This is usually either someone’s made-up fiction that they’ve published online or fanfiction, which are stories using pre-existing characters from movies or TV shows that are written by fans. Personally, I adore the idea of fanfiction and one of my favourite past times is reading the stories fellow fans have written. About a year ago, I decided to give it a crack myself. I wrote down countless stories and story ideas in my notes but never uploaded them out of fear they wouldn’t be liked. Luckily, some lovely friends encouraged me to upload them to fanfiction websites and I’ve never looked back since. Thanks, guys. Much love to you.

So, there’s my story, now it’s time for yours! 

Drawing Inspiration

One of the best methods I’ve found in coming up with an idea for a story (or fic as we call them!) is to draw inspiration from other shows or books I have read. It goes like this; you might like a particular plot element from one show you love and would like to see how that would play out in another. Boom. Story idea. You might see a character you adore go through something traumatic and may wish to see how another character you adore would cope going through the same thing. Another story idea. You can even combine things as much as you like for your story, the more creative, the better!

Dialogue – “What did you say?”

Admittedly, one of the hardest parts of story writing is coming up with the dialogue for your characters. Especially if those characters are pre-existing and you want them to feel as much in character as possible. However, I argue that if it’s your story, you should write the characters as YOU want to write them. You’re not a producer of the show or the real author, you’re writing your own groovy thing.

My best dialogue often comes when I’m out walking by myself. There are many times where I’ll talk to myself as if I am all the characters in my story chatting away to each other. It may look slightly insane, but it’s the best way that works for me. I have to be able to hear my dialogue before I write it. This may also work for you; I’d give it a try. Another way that I find works well is by doing a draft of just dialogue in ‘script’ form without anything else. This way, you can see how your characters flow with each other clearly and can make easy amendments. Once you’re happy with it, you can start to include all the other bits in your story that surround the dialogue. I.E. what’s going on, the place your characters are, etc. All that essential stuff that helps your story to make sense.

Publishing

It’s absolutely no problem if you feel like you don’t want to share your story with the world. If you’re comfortable with keeping them to yourself or just sharing it with friends or family, I say go for it! On the other hand, there are a lot of people who publish their works for the internet to read, myself included. The best fanfiction websites, in my opinion, are as follows:

·         Archive of Our Own (AO3)

·         Fanfiction.net

·         Wattpad

These are all the platforms I upload my stories to. Of course, you can upload them anywhere, even to your own blog! On these websites, you can include tags (words related to your story, such as its genre) that allow readers to find stories they like so much easier. They will search a tag they like, for example, a character they love, and the site will filter the stories on there that include that tag. It’s all very technical. 

Comments and Feedback

If you do publish your story online, you will likely find that some people will take time out of their day to let you know their opinion of your story. For me, comments are always welcome. It’s important to expect that some individuals might comment something along the lines of “This is good, but I want the story to go this way…blah…blah…blah.” And to that, I say, no. It’s touching that someone is thinking hard about your story and where it should go, but at the end of the day, it’s you who decides where it goes. You are the writer, after all. Do not succumb to the pressure that some commenters may radiate. If you have a set idea as to where your story is going, you stick to it. On the flip side, sometimes commenters may help you think of other ideas for your story, especially if it’s a multi-chapter. Take what you like from your feedback and see where you end up.

A quick tip: I love to reply to comments. Even just a simple “Thank you!” or an array of hearts to someone who gives me positive feedback can go a long way. It gives you a more personal connection to your readers, who will likely feel encouraged to come back and read more because you’ve replied. It shows that you’re acknowledging them! I always like to sign my name too.

Epilogue

Clay Shirky in his ‘End of Audience’ theory states that due to technology, product consumers are now producers. In other words, we as fans (consumers) are taking what we are given and making our own thing (meaning we are like producers). This is called the ‘new’ media and is nothing like the ‘old’ media.

I couldn’t agree more with this theory.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out our other ones by our amazing team of girls! And if you want a follow up to this post, be sure to let us know.

Write stories and stay safe!

-Grace 😊