I'm sure as you read, discover, and broaden your whimsical horizons of literature, you may feel a tiny bit over whelmed. You want your story to be something you're proud of, something that is unique and special. You want it to have a strong beginning, and a satisfying end. But for a novice writer, this may be intimidating.
You need to understand, you have only the limits you put on yourself when writing and thinking creatively. I'm not going to tell you to be free and go where ever you flow, because for some, thinking in such a free and watery way just makes them grind their teeth and wear down their enamel. So I'll tell you straight up; people will always tell you to think outside the box, but what they don't understand is that limits are good. It's healthy for a story, relationship or a concept to have limits and a point in which you just shouldn't go.
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For example, a story without limits:
Steve swaggered up to the bus stop, chewing his gum obnoxiously and smacking his lips to the annoyance of the only other occupant of the dingy bus seats. He plopped down and swung one fabulous heel onto his knee in a classic rebel pose.
Then the school bus appeared, and the sun dropped out of the sky and began to sing opera while the moon quietly rehearsed it's lines in the corner, Steve thought that perhaps the sky was blue because it was a Kool-Aid bubble.
End example
If you're thinking, 'what the ?' then I've proven my point. If I just wrote without a plot, things would become chaotic and hard to understand. I would lose the basic structure that keeps my story afloat.
A good story would do these things:
1. clearly identifiable characters
2. An established world or plot or idea
3. Consistency in writing style
5. An end goal (whether this goal lie in plot, audience, or popularity)
6. Grammar/ correct structure
For the last one I do give some lenience, but in order to clearly communicate an idea you must make sure your audience understands what you are trying to say.
Here's some tips and pointers I never knew until it was slapped in my face:
- When someone is speaking in a monologue or is churning out a great wall of text, and you break into a new paragraph because their just really going for it, the way you use those smart little double apostrophes to indicate speech ( " ) changes.
e.g.
"Wall of text, very large, very wall-ee, yes. Hmm, smart semicolon; I'm an evil villain, listen to my evil monologue about my potato, which tries to grow in my cupboard because it's stupid and thinks it's still underground. What a silly potato."
Still talking, very complex example, wonder where my potato went to. Yadda, yabba. End talking now."
End example
Do you see how when a new sentence is started, I don't use a new double apostrophe at the beginning because you are already aware they are talking.
That's all the time I have, unfortunately. If your one of the 163 that clicked on the title page, and subsequently become one of the 42 people who actually read to the second page, then congrats, your either very dedicated, or very desperate.
