I am looking for advice on how to get a first story completed.

[Kaziarl]

As further encouragement I must say you seem very articulate. I was diagnosed with a mild form of dyslexia as a child, so I do know how annoying it can be to deal with one. In any case, I do hope you post here from time to time. It's always nice to see new writers join the rest of us.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

It's different for everyone. There are times when I use columns "Setting" "Characters (Primary)" "Time Period" "Main Plot Points". There are times when I just throw ideas onto a page and from my word and number stew on the page, I start to write.

It's whatever you feel the most comfortable with.

Valeris, in response to your reply and as a general note to everyone on this thread, in looking over your advice I have applied some of it in conjunction with some of my spare this weekend to assemble a writing plan for myself that should allow me to make a go at seriously getting my writing from an idea stage to a concrete form and allow me to effectively map my progress in stages. As one piece of advice from DarKush said that it is good to post regularly a marker of progress so I am going to use this thread to post updates on my progress in completing segments of my writing plan. It is my hope that any further advice or encouragement from doing so will help to further strengthen my focus in getting one of my ideas developed and in progress before the year out.

Excellent.

I think you'll do just fine. I wish you luck.

 

[Etched]

I don't know how helpful this is but if you're struggling with dialogue I've always found it really helps to read/say it out loud. You may feel a bit daft but its a great way of getting a feel for the words and can help you give the dialogue a more natural feel. When I've written I've often found myself acting scenes out as I write, it may not work for everyone but for me it helps me find the voice of the characters.

Other than that I wholeheartedly agree with the advice of others. Push on through, leave a place holder or just sketch out a rough version of the dialogue and move on. You may find the inspiration comes to you as you get further into the story, after all this is just the first draft you can always go back and change things once you've got the structure of the story down.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I thought that I should ask the writers here how you managed to go from wanting to write a story to getting your first story written and posted?

You see I have been wanting to do that for the last couple of years. I made up my mind that this year is the year I will do it but getting over the hurtle of moving from idea to written word has been stymieing my all year. So far each time I start to get a first chapter written in one of the three story ideas I have tried I seem to get bogged down in how to do the dialogue which results in get frustrated and then I set it aside only to come back to it and get frustrated all over again. As a result I am not getting anything accomplished. I thought if I had some other writers to talk to maybe I could shake lose whatever is causing my hang up so that I can start writing like I want to.

I have read some writing advice sites and have a book on dramatic writing but those are static and I am hopeing something with a little more interaction like a fan fiction forum would be more helpful.

Thank you.

KJ A, I am indeed a former fan of General Hospital. I pretty much stopped watching when Robert was "killed" off back in 1992. Came back briefly in the late 90s when Stephan Cassadine came to the show, and hoped he become the new Robert. Then it became the Sonny/Jason show, and all that mob stuff came, so I left again. Came back when Robert was revealed to still be alive, but left because he was just there to be a glorified xtra.

Then he came to GH: NIGHTSHIFT (a spinoff of GH) and enjoyed him on that show. Loved the tribute episode they did for him, especially when they had them all there...Robert...Anna...Luke..Sean..Tiffany...ROBIN and Mac...(would like to have seen Frisco show up)

After that, I haven't been back since then. But loved GH in the late 70-early 90s.

Rob

 

[Shatnertage]

I don't know how helpful this is but if you're struggling with dialogue I've always found it really helps to read/say it out loud. You may feel a bit daft but its a great way of getting a feel for the words and can help you give the dialogue a more natural feel. When I've written I've often found myself acting scenes out as I write, it may not work for everyone but for me it helps me find the voice of the characters.

You can't go wrong doing this. If it sounds stilted and artificial when you say it out loud, change it.

 

[KJ_A]

KJ A, I am indeed a former fan of General Hospital. I pretty much stopped watching when Robert was "killed" off back in 1992. Came back briefly in the late 90s when Stephan Cassadine came to the show, and hoped he become the new Robert. Then it became the Sonny/Jason show, and all that mob stuff came, so I left again. Came back when Robert was revealed to still be alive, but left because he was just there to be a glorified xtra.

Then he came to GH: NIGHTSHIFT (a spinoff of GH) and enjoyed him on that show. Loved the tribute episode they did for him, especially when they had them all there...Robert...Anna...Luke..Sean..Tiffany...ROBIN and Mac...(would like to have seen Frisco show up)

After that, I haven't been back since then. But loved GH in the late 70-early 90s.

Rob

The story was pertty fun back then. I used to watch GH in the late 80's, 87 to 89, time frame I think, when I was 5 to 7 years old. My mother used to watched it at three o'clock just before my four o'clock cartoons came on. The characters you mentioned stand out. I remeber Sean and his secret room. Also the alien that showed up with the glowing blue rocks sticks in my mind.

Anyway as a general update I have gotten phase one of my plan, creating folders for each idea and organizing them, completed. Now I am on phase two, creating files on the different aspects of story development for each story. This is going to take me a just a bit longer. Still just writing things down has brought back memory to a Trek story idea that occurred to me back when DS9 was still airing new episodes. I am working I fleshing that one out now.

 

[celia19O5]

I like stories with happy ending Is it considered to be an advice

 

[RobertScorpio]

I like stories with happy ending Is it considered to be an advice

I agree. Some people like stories that end on a sour note, because they are more 'realistic'. Hooey. In my own life I have known grief, but I have known happiness MOST of the time. So, I too, like stories that end on a good note.

Rob