Post by Site Administrator on Nov 26, 2009 20:57:08 GMT
Question asked by "Ameera" via Yahoo! Answers.
Answer:
If you want to know how to go about becoming a competant writer, the first thing is to read. Read read read. Read the paper, read the TV guide, read magazines. But if you want to be a fiction writer, you're going to have to read books, and lots of them.
You won't get to be a good writer by reading popular books. Dan Brown and J K Rowling don't count as "literature" (sorry guys). You can learn more about writing by reading stodgy books with crummy stories - James Joyce and Charles Dickens are prime examples of good literature with rubbish storytelling! - than flicking through books that are easy to read.
The HOW to write is different to what to write ABOUT. When it comes to the ideas themselves, they have you come from you. Don't write anything you have seen before, or stuff that's been done to death. I can't count the number of times people submit vampire ideas on Yahoo, just because they've been exposed to it recently. What HAVEN'T you read about?
Start with a character. What's interesting or special about them? Then, how might this affect their life? This will give you a scene of your story. How do you get the reader there in an interesting way? How does this change things for your character? How do they feel, and what do they do about it?
This is advise I give to a lot of people. I'd be mortified if one of my books or stories was called unoriginal, so work hard on this.
Good luck!
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Answer:
If you want to know how to go about becoming a competant writer, the first thing is to read. Read read read. Read the paper, read the TV guide, read magazines. But if you want to be a fiction writer, you're going to have to read books, and lots of them.
You won't get to be a good writer by reading popular books. Dan Brown and J K Rowling don't count as "literature" (sorry guys). You can learn more about writing by reading stodgy books with crummy stories - James Joyce and Charles Dickens are prime examples of good literature with rubbish storytelling! - than flicking through books that are easy to read.
The HOW to write is different to what to write ABOUT. When it comes to the ideas themselves, they have you come from you. Don't write anything you have seen before, or stuff that's been done to death. I can't count the number of times people submit vampire ideas on Yahoo, just because they've been exposed to it recently. What HAVEN'T you read about?
Start with a character. What's interesting or special about them? Then, how might this affect their life? This will give you a scene of your story. How do you get the reader there in an interesting way? How does this change things for your character? How do they feel, and what do they do about it?
This is advise I give to a lot of people. I'd be mortified if one of my books or stories was called unoriginal, so work hard on this.
Good luck!
What do you think of this answer? Disagree? Have something to add? Post your message below!
