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Tips and Tricks I've Learned While Writing
8 years ago
General
With the recent release of Janice Mercer, my ninth character, I now have around two and a half months of weird kinky tf story experience. Even though it seems like a short time (and felt even shorter) I've learned a lot about writing in general from this. Things that I will now humbly share to you, whether you want me to or not. I'm sure there are some writers reading this, so hopefully these tips make you a better writer too, or at least better than me.
1. Start an outline before anything.
Before writing a single letter of your story, jot down an outline. It's not essential of course, but it really does help the process. I started making outlines with Buster Matthews, and it turned my stories from 65 changes to 100. I wrote a character without it afterwards, and while it was possible, it took way longer than I wanted it to be. I use a program called Scapple, which is easy to toy with and gives me a great image of how the story will play out, especially since I use a lot of "WaitFors", stages that wait on another before they appear. The outlines are always a huge mess, but they should be. It'll then be up to you to take that mess and clean it up into a story. Even if your story is a paragraph long, set an outline.
2. Research, research, research.
Since the format of my stories revolve around physical and mental changes to something else, I really need to properly understand the "something else", and for that, I research. Copiously. I've searched for such strange things as Asian names, Southern slang, bone structure of feet, and looked at enough women's clothing to get Google to send me Sephora gift cards for the rest of my life. If you're going to tell a story, no matter what format or topic, you need to research too. And no, you won't end up using everything you've learned, but you'll have used something, something to give your story more life.
3. Names are important.
Ok, this might only be important to me, but I put tons of thought into names. Probably more than I should, but I believe that a name in a story with no significance is a waste of a name. Everything in your story should reflect your themes, name included. It fits into two sections. First, what the name represents. There's loads of symbolism for pretty much every name on the planet, and if you want to sneakily put some character in your character's names, use that symbolism. Akasuki Hachi, for instance (the bee tf), represents "Wise Helper Bee", which is pretty on the nose for the character. The surname in Taaril Sarkuvonyano, the Elf segment of Stella Sutherford III (the rat tf) literally translates to "Rat Body". As you can see, you can have a lot of fun with this.
What's probably more important than that, though, is the structure of the name. I think of both the metre (the stresses the name gives) as well as the name itself. What kind of characters do you think of when you hear the names Brad Stone, Maxyne Molly, or Josephine Valley? Say the names out loud. Do you think of a tough jock, a flirty and promiscuous slut, and a a laid back country girl? It's ok if you don't, but think to yourself about what feeling generates from the sound and spelling of names. If you still don't really understand what I'm getting at, read some Charles Dickens, the absolute master of the descriptive name. What does a name like Ebenezer Scrooge tell you about a character before anything else is said about them?
4. The hardest thing is to start. The easiest thing is to keep going.
Starting a story sucks. I'm certain that I'm not alone in this. Whether I have a million ideas in my head or none at all, it's always a struggle to start a story. Then I get started, and suddenly five hours have passed and I've written a rival to War and Peace. Starting your story is hard, but once you get going, you won't want to stop. This is another reason why outlines are so important: they give your thoughts an easy bridge to cross onto the page.
5. Have a thesaurus handy, even if you don't think you'll need it. You will.
I don't care if you're Meyer or Palahniuk, I assure you that everyone clings onto the same words over and over. Just like how you'll subconsciously walk in a circle when blindfolded, you'll keep using the same words and structure if you don't realize it. Wanna play a fun drinking game? Pick a word in one of my stories, and drink any time you see it. Such examples are "slight", "change", and "You feel a x as your y z's". Catch yourself when you start focusing on one word, and look up synonyms for it. And much like researching, you'll gain new information on how to write your character.
6. (the final one!) Push yourself.
If you keep writing the same thing over and over again, even if it's the greatest thing since a Shakespeare-Twain sandwich, your readers will go insane. You'll go insane. Think about the things that made you scrunch up your nose and shake your head when writing your story, and write exactly that for the next one. My next character is by far the strangest thing I'll have ever written, and I've written Asian bee porn and elves turning into prostitute rats. And I cannot wait to write it.
That's it. I might do this again, but I might not (excellent observation, huh?) If anyone got even a smidge of advice from this journal, I'll be happy with it. And please share your advice and learnings from writing too. It'll be a weird and slutty schoolhouse.
-yoshielder
1. Start an outline before anything.
Before writing a single letter of your story, jot down an outline. It's not essential of course, but it really does help the process. I started making outlines with Buster Matthews, and it turned my stories from 65 changes to 100. I wrote a character without it afterwards, and while it was possible, it took way longer than I wanted it to be. I use a program called Scapple, which is easy to toy with and gives me a great image of how the story will play out, especially since I use a lot of "WaitFors", stages that wait on another before they appear. The outlines are always a huge mess, but they should be. It'll then be up to you to take that mess and clean it up into a story. Even if your story is a paragraph long, set an outline.
2. Research, research, research.
Since the format of my stories revolve around physical and mental changes to something else, I really need to properly understand the "something else", and for that, I research. Copiously. I've searched for such strange things as Asian names, Southern slang, bone structure of feet, and looked at enough women's clothing to get Google to send me Sephora gift cards for the rest of my life. If you're going to tell a story, no matter what format or topic, you need to research too. And no, you won't end up using everything you've learned, but you'll have used something, something to give your story more life.
3. Names are important.
Ok, this might only be important to me, but I put tons of thought into names. Probably more than I should, but I believe that a name in a story with no significance is a waste of a name. Everything in your story should reflect your themes, name included. It fits into two sections. First, what the name represents. There's loads of symbolism for pretty much every name on the planet, and if you want to sneakily put some character in your character's names, use that symbolism. Akasuki Hachi, for instance (the bee tf), represents "Wise Helper Bee", which is pretty on the nose for the character. The surname in Taaril Sarkuvonyano, the Elf segment of Stella Sutherford III (the rat tf) literally translates to "Rat Body". As you can see, you can have a lot of fun with this.
What's probably more important than that, though, is the structure of the name. I think of both the metre (the stresses the name gives) as well as the name itself. What kind of characters do you think of when you hear the names Brad Stone, Maxyne Molly, or Josephine Valley? Say the names out loud. Do you think of a tough jock, a flirty and promiscuous slut, and a a laid back country girl? It's ok if you don't, but think to yourself about what feeling generates from the sound and spelling of names. If you still don't really understand what I'm getting at, read some Charles Dickens, the absolute master of the descriptive name. What does a name like Ebenezer Scrooge tell you about a character before anything else is said about them?
4. The hardest thing is to start. The easiest thing is to keep going.
Starting a story sucks. I'm certain that I'm not alone in this. Whether I have a million ideas in my head or none at all, it's always a struggle to start a story. Then I get started, and suddenly five hours have passed and I've written a rival to War and Peace. Starting your story is hard, but once you get going, you won't want to stop. This is another reason why outlines are so important: they give your thoughts an easy bridge to cross onto the page.
5. Have a thesaurus handy, even if you don't think you'll need it. You will.
I don't care if you're Meyer or Palahniuk, I assure you that everyone clings onto the same words over and over. Just like how you'll subconsciously walk in a circle when blindfolded, you'll keep using the same words and structure if you don't realize it. Wanna play a fun drinking game? Pick a word in one of my stories, and drink any time you see it. Such examples are "slight", "change", and "You feel a x as your y z's". Catch yourself when you start focusing on one word, and look up synonyms for it. And much like researching, you'll gain new information on how to write your character.
6. (the final one!) Push yourself.
If you keep writing the same thing over and over again, even if it's the greatest thing since a Shakespeare-Twain sandwich, your readers will go insane. You'll go insane. Think about the things that made you scrunch up your nose and shake your head when writing your story, and write exactly that for the next one. My next character is by far the strangest thing I'll have ever written, and I've written Asian bee porn and elves turning into prostitute rats. And I cannot wait to write it.
That's it. I might do this again, but I might not (excellent observation, huh?) If anyone got even a smidge of advice from this journal, I'll be happy with it. And please share your advice and learnings from writing too. It'll be a weird and slutty schoolhouse.
-yoshielder
Also, nice trivia about the names! It's always a nice touch when learning that there's significance behind it.