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/lit/ - Literature

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15265773 No.15265773 [Reply] [Original]

How do I start writing /lit/? I have ideas but no idea how to write them down.

>> No.15265794

It is more likely that you don't have any ideas at all, rather than a simple inability to write.

>> No.15265795

me feel same

>> No.15265812

>>15265773
lock yourself in a room, block all contact with technology and any distractions and dont stop until you force yourself to write something

>> No.15265858

>>15265794
I really do have ideas of stories that I played out in my head, I just don't know how to do prose

>> No.15265932

write them down
doesn't matter if they are just the ideas, just put them on paper or in a document file
write more when you think of more to expand on with them
WOW REALLY HARD

>> No.15266009

>>15265858
Put your story ideas into 6 words each. See their boiled down essentials in that form and expand from there. This has helped me in the past.

>> No.15266713

discuss the ideas with others or join contexts where they are discussed. but forget your own writing during the discussion and just dive in the argument. then, keep your interventions and try to paraphrase them in general terms. the rest happens by itself.

>> No.15266820

I don't have any ideas. What do?.

>> No.15266943

>>15266820
Something else.

>> No.15267484
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15267484

>>15265773
Imagine you're telling someone one of your stories, where do you begin? what's the first line?
Just start at the beginning.

>> No.15269050

>>15267484
So I know this guy...

>> No.15269124

>>15267484
apu enters the coffee zone, he gets a coffee
>can u leave some room for cream?
>yeah, definitely
>thanks
he doesn't have to wait cause hes just getting coffee. Because it doesn't take much more than filling up the cup with coffee in order to serve a coffee. Besides rent and being at the store all the time i suppose. Anyways I'll put in the half n half myself
>yo ur out of half n half
>oh, one second
>okay

>> No.15269145

>>15265773
Strive.

>> No.15269361

Start with fragments. Jot down images or situations in a few words to summarize, and expand on it later. Start with a poem, it doesn't need to rhyme or be profound. Then a one page story or essay. Then a short story. Then a script/screenplay. Then a novella. Then a novel. Then an epic.

Writing is more like figure skating than anything else. You just have to keep practicing and doing it over and over again. Nobody pulls a triple axel (in lit terms) without years of practice. Don't worry about being good with your first stuff, just have fun. Your first writing is similar to your first drawings as a kid. You'll look back on them fondly.

>> No.15269913
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15269913

>>15265773
write down the idea as a sentence.
>anon tries to write a story
go into details about each section of the sentence
>Anon
becomes
>A sad-clown young man called Gavin, who uses humor in his outcast group of friends to mask his own pain and detachment from the world
>tries
becomes
>paces around his room at midnight muttering to himself in a grand theatrical manner, imitating Kelsey Grammar's voice.
And you do that with the whole sentence.
Then you take those detailed sections and do the same thing: get more specific, pay particular attention to how actions and mannerisms of your characters reflect their 'inner thoughts'. if he's "angry" how is he angry, does he bang his fist on the table, or does he make snide passive aggressive comments, is he too much of a pussy to express his anger? Details anon. details of actions and manners.

>> No.15270129

>>15265773

You suffer from the same delusion that I see about ten thousand times a day on /lit/. You think that stories come from ideas.

IDEAS ARE WORTH ALMOST NOTHING.

ALMOST LITERALLY EXACTLY ZERO.

I can give you a thousand interesting ideas. If you paid me one dollar for them it would be about right. Maybe five dollars if you wanted to be really generous.

STORIES ARE NOT MADE FROM IDEAS.

The reason that good writers talk about a certain idea sparking a story is that A GOOD WRITER ALREADY HAS ALL THE OTHER STUFF IN PLACE WHICH IS JUST WAITING FOR THE IDEA.

Imagine you want to make a fire. You collect combustible material and then you light it.

The idea is like the match.

The emotions and people and dialogue and stuff of life is the wood. And the craft of writing sure. Word by word. Line by line. Paragraph by paragraph. That's wood too.

You have a match, but nothing to light.

The "idea" for a short story is about 1% of the story. Go forth and acquire the other 99%.