story help

[gamer9643]

look i know I babble alot but i metioned in a different post I'm writing a book and I am but i need some constructive help. everything i said is true i named it "Night stalker" and it takes place starting in a tomb a couple hundred years ago and then a school is built over it. now you can tell i started writing this when I was in highschool. i put my book on the backburner for over two years now and am getting back to it but it doesnt seem right to me. do you think i should change the location from a school to maybe a shopping mall and change the ages from late 18-19s to early twenty's. also as a teenager i was not quite in controll of my temper and when i was mad my character cursed like a parrot.

does anyone have any suggestion on how to make my book a classic novel or do you think i should give up.

 

[cloudy]

look i know I babble alot but i metioned in a different post I'm writing a book and I am but i need some constructive help. everything i said is true i named it "Night stalker" and it takes place starting in a tomb a couple hundred years ago and then a school is built over it. now you can tell i started writing this when I was in highschool. i put my book on the backburner for over two years now and am getting back to it but it doesnt seem right to me. do you think i should change the location from a school to maybe a shopping mall and change the ages from late 18-19s to early twenty's. also as a teenager i was not quite in controll of my temper and when i was mad my character cursed like a parrot.

does anyone have any suggestion on how to make my book a classic novel or do you think i should give up.

Honestly?

I'm in helpful mode now, not sarcastic - you really need to learn basic grammar, punctuation, and capitalization before you attempt a novel, just judging from your posts here.

A building collapses without a firm foundation, and you can't write a coherent story without the foundation of basic skills.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

do you think i should change the location from a school to maybe a shopping mall and change the ages from late 18-19s to early twenty's. also as a teenager i was not quite in controll of my temper and when i was mad my character cursed like a parrot.

actually it sounds like it could be very interesting and fun... look how well "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" took off as a series, and it was kind of this idea (high school on the fault line of a "hellmouth")

It would depend on how it's written, whether you're going the serious horror route or more of the sarcastic horror route

I'd keep it in a high school, I think... but that's my bias... so is it your basic slasher kinda thing?

as for writing a classic novel... gosh, if anyone has a formula, let me know!

 

[Selena_Kitt]

you really need to learn basic grammar, punctuation, and capitalization before you attempt a novel, just judging from your posts here.

and a good suggestion.... although to be fair, there are spellcheckers and editors... we aren't all as careful here as we would be writing a story. I mean... look how many... ellipses... I have... a tendency... to use... in my... posts... <grin>

 

[cloudy]

and a good suggestion.... although to be fair, there are spellcheckers and editors... we aren't all as careful here as we would be writing a story. I mean... look how many... ellipses... I have... a tendency... to use... in my... posts... <grin>

True.

I refrained from correcting his post, but it was hard. (that damn English degree rearing its ugly head again).

I'm trying.

 

[gamer9643]

it may sound corny but the evil is actually a demon sealed in stone and it escapes after an earthquake wich brakes the foundation and being a demon it can become a shadow and kill you and rip you apart before you run. the main character is 19 and his girlfriend is 18 and somewhaere in the middle of the book there is supposed to be a pointless sex scene. why? i dont know but every horror movie i see has a pointless sex scene that has no meaning in pushing the story along. it starts with him his girl and four friends and before its done all his friends die along with a handfull of people who really have nothing to do with the story but make the creature seem heartless and disgusting.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

You may want to read some stories by other authors in the same genre and get an idea of how to put things together in a way that makes sense.

 

[gamer9643]

done it

mary shelly frankenstien
stephen kings jurrasic park, jurrasic park 2
?, spawn
L Ron hubards, battlefield eath
stephen king, green mile

and at some point im going to read constantine

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Your first question deals with a basic component of any story, the setting. Without reading it, knowing the ideas you have ad the direction, it's very hard to comment on what setting is appropriate to the work.

the second deals with characterization. And for that, you are again in a position to know. If your character has a foul motuh, that's part of the character. If it's just you injecting it into the character when your mood is foul, it's going to create internal inconsistancy.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

done it

mary shelly frankenstien
stephen kings jurrasic park, jurrasic park 2
?, spawn
L Ron hubards, battlefield eath
stephen king, green mile

and at some point im going to read constantine

Very good....this may also be of some help...

Horror writing

 

[gamer9643]

thanks i guess i have my work cut out for me

 

[ABSTRUSE]

thanks i guess i have my work cut out for me

Keep in mind, you are writing for you and not for the public, it makes it easier to write and you'll enjoy it more.

 

[Stella_Omega]

it may sound corny but the evil is actually a demon sealed in stone and it escapes after an earthquake wich brakes the foundation and being a demon it can become a shadow and kill you and rip you apart before you run. the main character is 19 and his girlfriend is 18 and somewhaere in the middle of the book there is supposed to be a pointless sex scene. why? i dont know but every horror movie i see has a pointless sex scene that has no meaning in pushing the story along. it starts with him his girl and four friends and before its done all his friends die along with a handfull of people who really have nothing to do with the story but make the creature seem heartless and disgusting.

And is that the same story you want to write? Why? I'm not asking to be snotty, but it's a question you should ask yourself.

Written horror and movie horror are quite different.
read every single thing that Stephen King has written.
read lots of other stuff, too- the structure of a novel is a fluid thing. Read Agatha Christie, Norman Mailer, Hemingway, faulkner, Danielle Steele, Tom Robbins, Terry Pratchett, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, James Joyce.

You will be a better writer the more you read, and, IMO, no one can be a good writer at all, unless you know how to communicate in the language of fiction.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

And is that the same story you want to write? Why? I'm not asking to be snotty, but it's a question you should ask yourself.

Written horror and movie horror are quite different.
read every single thing that Stephen King has written.
read lots of other stuff, too- the structure of a novel is a fluid thing. Read Agatha Christie, Norman Mailer, Hemingway, faulkner, Danielle Steele, Tom Robbins, Terry Pratchett, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, James Joyce.

You will be a better writer the more you read, and, IMO, no one can be a good writer at all, unless you know how to communicate in the language of fiction.

Well-said. I don't think there are many words to say past this. However, if he doesn't understand what you mean, it's a good sign he's simply not ready to write the novel, eh?

Read, then write. The two go hand-in-hand.

But, gamer, Stephen King wrote neither Jurassic Park.

Q_C