How to write more?

[Sultry23]

Hi, I’m new to writing and I love it! The problem, though, is that my writing is never fleshed out. I don’t include a lot of description (I am working on that though) and not a whole lot of dialogue either. It’s basically just “He did this. She did that.” I know that’s not how a good story is written, and I’ve been reading more and figuring out what I like and don’t like but I was wondering if you guys had any tips or resources for a newbie writer?

 

[alohadave]

Write more, it comes with practice. You know what you want to improve, so when you work on your second draft (don't worry too much in your first draft for now) to include more description and dialog.

Also, read stories and look at how they do it. You can learn a lot by examining how other authors do it.

I feel you, because I'm similar to you. After a year and a half, I'm getting better, but it takes practice.

 

[samhasstories]

I think you've already begun: read more, write more. It takes practice, and the more you read - and the more widely you read - the more tools you gain for what you might like to try. Especially when you start reading with more of a writer's eye.

 

[Sultry23]

Thank you guys! I’ll read (more) and write (more).

 

[AlinaX]

Dialogue is so important. I know it can be daunting for new authors, but you really can't afford to avoid it.

Set yourself challenges, like writing a short section entirely as dialogue without any he says she says attribution. Think about how to make the spoken dialogue sound flirty and fun.

 

[Bazzle]

"A picture paints a thousand words"
Use a thousand words to describe that picture?

 

[Brutal_One]

I think making a start is good. Even suppose your first few lines or paragraphs are sketchy. Typically stories have plot and character. Character dialog can be a great way to develop a simple story. Start small then expand. Just ask questions like what happens next or what is some characters reaction to a comment. Some tips I hope help. Brutal One

 

[KeithD]

Read more and become more observant in what you're reading that can be useful technique in your own writing.

 

[AlinaX]

If you have a story that goes A, B, C, then ask:
- What was before?
- What is next?
- What if C doesn't happen because the phone rings and ...?

 

[AlinaX]

And once you've mastered that, you can come back here and tell other newbie authors to go away and read more.

 

[SimonDoom]

Number 1, read a lot, and read carefully. Don't just read, really pay attention to the elements of the story, like the dialogue, and ask yourself what the author does that is successful.

Number 2, edit and review yourself. If you have too much narrative, then look at it closely and ask yourself if you can turn some of it into a dialogue sequence.

Number 3, look for and read some of the how-to guides available at this site.

 

[MrHereWriting]

It’s basically just “He did this. She did that.” I know that’s not how a good story is written,

Good stories are written in all kinds of ways.

 

[Becky_Sapphire]

Always try to think what the character is feeling.
So rather than just describe an action, also describe how a character feels. So for erotica, if someone is getting their pussy licked, describe how the tongue feels to them, while you could also describe the taste and smell that the licker is experiencing, then also the emotional connection between the two (is it a intimate sensual moment bringing them together, a new sensation they never felt before, an act of submission etc). This approach will turn a sentence into a paragraph while being more engaging for a reader.

That is just some general advice on how to 'write more'. Obviously there are many different approaches and styles so as you write more, you'll find your own voice and storytelling style.

 

[yowser]

If you can turn your little arousing event into a 'story,' where at least one of your participants experiences a change, learns a thing or two, makes a tactile human connection, and the ending point is different from the beginning, you're on your way. Movement, evolution, conclusion.

We urge you on, good luck.

 

[AlinaX]

Also, as House would say: Everybody lies.

As he is kneeling between her parted thighs, he's thinking about how the last time he tasted pussy it was his sister's (she's married now, but there was a definite hint of invitation in her eyes when they talked at the wedding), and she's wondering if he'll think she's sick if she tells him her fantasy of being taken against her will (more an obsession, really; yeah, there's definitely something fucked up in her head there)...

 

[gunhilltrain]

When you look at most novels and short stories, they are set in some recognizable time and place, even if fictionalized. The reader has an idea of what the characters are seeing and experiencing every day. Yeah, Melville really had been on whaling ships, although you certainly don't need to go into the level of detail he did. He was also able to write about New York office work in "Bartleby, the Scrivener" because he had experienced that too.

Some people are more ambitious and want to do world-building in the fantasy and science fiction genres. Even there some predecessor works can help. The one science fiction story I did was based on an old "Twilight Zone" episode, although I changed the theme and built in some new details.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Write more, it comes with practice. You know what you want to improve, so when you work on your second draft (don't worry too much in your first draft for now) to include more description and dialog.

Also, read stories and look at how they do it. You can learn a lot by examining how other authors do it.

I feel you, because I'm similar to you. After a year and a half, I'm getting better, but it takes practice.

As much as I hate this, 100%.

EDIT: I hate the colloquialism I used, not the comment I’m replying to.

 

[EmilyMiller]

How to write more?​

Just a suggestion. And I’m a newbie too, so WTF do I know?

Practice writing descriptively. Not as part of a story, stand-alone. Write something random, like a description of the room you are in. Or your lunch. Or the ideal [insert gender / species of choice] of your dreams. Just a paragraph or two.

Then get more abstract. Write a paragraph about something you felt. Good or bad. Doesn’t matter. Then try the same but made up. Something that someone else felt - a real person or a character. Read it back. Did you capture it? If not have another go.

Try to write a conversation between two people. You and someone you know. Or Margot Robbie and Florence Pugh discussing cunnilingus technique. Or two entirely made up people. Review it. Does it sound natural? If not, what do you need to change?

Maybe try to combine the above. Writing a 750 word story is a good exercise.

Rinse and repeat.

All you are doing is training your writing muscles. It should help.

Emily

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I will offer some advice that works for me:

Focus on characterization first. Even if a lot of the details you develop never make it into the story, you will have them in your mind and be able to call upon them to bring more depth to each character. Think about more than their physical descriptions, but also on their behavior, personality, and especially how they are perceived by other characters. Having the details on characters in your back pocket allows to to expand and elaborate on them within the story much easier. Sometimes I'll start developing a character through the use of a timeline. Let's say I have a female character that will be 27 years old in the story. This means that she would have been born in 1996, likely started high school in 2010/11, and graduated from college in 2017/18. Having those dates in mind allows me to consider how events during these years might have influenced the person that she is now.

Setting is another element that can lend itself to greater expansion possibilities within a story without taking the theme off-track. You don't have to describe the seams on the wallpaper in a room, but drawing a clearer picture of the general setting(s) allows for meaningful insight that can be beneficial.

There are several other elements and devices (motif, symbolism, image, etc.) that can be used to add breadth and depth to a story without detracting from it. It all depends on what the writer wants to contribute.

 

[AchtungNight]

Settle issues in your life that are making your writing hobby difficult. Right now I am dealing with burnout, seasonal depression, and a credit card debt that is larger than I’d like. So I’m prioritizing overtime work to help pay down the debt and occupy me until the other two issues hopefully subside. My writing will feel and flow better when I can get back to it. You may have to do something similar one day.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Add tiny slices of observational stuff, like a shadow falling across a table as the tall woman walks past, or the way a leaf twists and spirals like a dancer when it falls from the tree. I call them "grace notes", little splashes of colour and movement that make the prose come alive.

Write active prose too, not passive. By being involved in a scene, not merely observing it, helps too, because you want to feel it more, make it come alive.

I write little sprays of freckles in her cleavage a lot, because that means you're seeing her skin, not just looking at her boobs. Extra details, those grace notes, that's how you fill in what's missing.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Hi, I’m new to writing and I love it! The problem, though, is that my writing is never fleshed out. I don’t include a lot of description (I am working on that though) and not a whole lot of dialogue either. It’s basically just “He did this. She did that.” I know that’s not how a good story is written, and I’ve been reading more and figuring out what I like and don’t like but I was wondering if you guys had any tips or resources for a newbie writer?

I am also a newbie writer, a complete amateur. I have no training. Anything I say here is merely my opinion, and worth very little.

I love stories told in dialogue.
If I was to offer advice on how to include more in your stories. Try to imagine what the characters would say, how they sound...
As a step, take a recent conversation you had with somebody. The topic is irrelevant. Write the conversation down as you remember it.
Then, read it back, and see if it makes sense.

Within stories, steal from your narrator. Let one of the characters say it. Then of course comes the reply, and them another reply. Suddenly you have conversation and your story has grown, and emotions are unveiled.
That is just my opinion.

Cagivagurl

 

[TheRedChamber]

I think what you are describing is something I see in stories quite a lot. People tell a story as if they were telling it to someone in a room. So if you were describing meeting someone new it might go.

We exchanges a few messages on-line and then we agreed to meet. She likes Italian food so I chose a nice place on the edge of town. I was nervous because I hadn't dated for a while. It didn't help that she was fifteen minutes late. I thought she wasn't coming, but suddenly there she was. She'd dressed stunningly for the occassion, a long red dress and high-heels. She looked even better than her pictures. We went inside and ordered. The conversation was slow at first, but then we discovered we had so much in common.

And so on. In a lot of stories people only break out of this when the sex starts and we get actual paragraphs of who is doing what to whom. I agree that it's not great writing (assuming I'm understanding you right) although it can be okay to get short strokers underway.

What can help to get out of this habit is to start to think about your story in terms of a movie. In a film you'd have to compose the above words into an actual scene. You probably wouldn't write everything that was said during the whole two-hour date, but you would actually have to write something to show 'we had so much in common'. You would have to think about where the scene starts and where it ends.

(Boiling a scene down to entry point, exit point and a bulletpoint list of what what you want to achieve in terms of plot progess, displaying and advancing character, atmosphere etc isn't for everyone but it can work for plotter writers)

So, with my above example, you'd have to decide what you're going to show and how. Is he passively waiting already seated a table (likely, but probably boring). Is he pacing around outside the restaurant, his breath freezing in the winter air (better, both in terms of showing his emotional state and allowing her a more dramatic entrance when he turns a corner around and she's there). And then of course, they will have to actually say something to each other - how does she apologize and how does he react.

You can cheat a little bit, fast-forwarding though a starter to get to something said over the main and then skipping to the moment where they decide if they're leaving together. But the general point is you are trying to hit the important beats with a certain amount of efficiency. Warning though, doing it this was is likely to make your stories significantly longer.

(I should end by saying that trying to write as if your making a film also has it's own pitfalls, but I still think it's a useful first step in expanding your writing)

 

[Sultry23]

I think what you are describing is something I see in stories quite a lot. People tell a story as if they were telling it to someone in a room. So if you were describing meeting someone new it might go.



And so on. In a lot of stories people only break out of this when the sex starts and we get actual paragraphs of who is doing what to whom. I agree that it's not great writing (assuming I'm understanding you right) although it can be okay to get short strokers underway.

What can help to get out of this habit is to start to think about your story in terms of a movie. In a film you'd have to compose the above words into an actual scene. You probably wouldn't write everything that was said during the whole two-hour date, but you would actually have to write something to show 'we had so much in common'. You would have to think about where the scene starts and where it ends.

(Boiling a scene down to entry point, exit point and a bulletpoint list of what what you want to achieve in terms of plot progess, displaying and advancing character, atmosphere etc isn't for everyone but it can work for plotter writers)

So, with my above example, you'd have to decide what you're going to show and how. Is he passively waiting already seated a table (likely, but probably boring). Is he pacing around outside the restaurant, his breath freezing in the winter air (better, both in terms of showing his emotional state and allowing her a more dramatic entrance when he turns a corner around and she's there). And then of course, they will have to actually say something to each other - how does she apologize and how does he react.

You can cheat a little bit, fast-forwarding though a starter to get to something said over the main and then skipping to the moment where they decide if they're leaving together. But the general point is you are trying to hit the important beats with a certain amount of efficiency. Warning though, doing it this was is likely to make your stories significantly longer.

(I should end by saying that trying to write as if your making a film also has it's own pitfalls, but I still think it's a useful first step in expanding your writing)

Thank you! Yes you understood me right and thank you everyone else too!

 

[ronde]

Dialogue is so important. I know it can be daunting for new authors, but you really can't afford to avoid it.

Set yourself challenges, like writing a short section entirely as dialogue without any he says she says attribution. Think about how to make the spoken dialogue sound flirty and fun.

I agree that you need dialogue and I use a lot of it in my stories. You can accomplish in a few lines of dialogue that could take paragraphs to get across to the reader in text.