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helpful tips and tricks for your story on CS!
helpful tips and tricks for your story on CS!
So you want to write a story on CS, but you're afraid that no one's going to read it? Afraid it's going to fall into the depths into the internet forevermore?
I know that's a common feeling among us CS writers, so I decided to compile a list of the best tips and tricks that I've found helpful in writing stories online, and having people actually read them. This guide will cover writer's block to character development to plotwork. Whether you're new to writing stories or you've posted many, I hope this guide will be useful to you. The following are the top ten most important things to know and be able to do when you post a story here on Chicken Smoothie. Enjoy!
1) CS is not a writing site
I think this is something that you should keep in mind when posting your story here.
While there are some awesome stories here on CS that have gotten really popular, and accumulated many readers, CS is not a site geared towards writing. While it does have its own writing community, most members that come on CS come here to collect pets and draw on the Oekaki. Therefore, the vast majority of members don't come on this site to read stories posted here!
If you're working on a serious project and want to get really good advice and feedback, there are many other sites, such as Wattpad, that were created explicitly for writing and reading stories. That doesn't necessarily mean that you can't get that here on CS, (in fact, it's a quite friendly community for writers, and better if you don't have much experience!) - but just don't expect to have thousands of people commenting, and if you don't, it doesn't mean you're a terrible author. ^^
2) Originality is key
So you've decided to write a story and post it here on CS - but now you're faced with another problem. What are you going to write about? Most likely, you have preferences for the types of things you usually write about, so you just need a really good idea.
One important thing to keep in mind is that no matter how utterly amazing your writing is, most people aren't going to want to read another teenage "dear diary" story or wolf story. What's going to really grab people's attention when they're looking through the forums to find a good story are stories that stick out, that are different from all the others.
It might be really tempting to post a story similar to the other stories that seem to be pretty popular, in the hopes that people will want to read it, but don't give in to that! If you write a story that is very similar to all the other ones, no one will read it.
Ideas like this aren't going to come immediately! Not every inspiration you get will be well-formed enough to turn into a story, but always jot down notes, write beginnings, write little parts of the plot, and eventually things will start to come together.
3) Don't write for anyone but yourself
We all sometimes crave to be that "celebrity" author on CS whose stories everyone loves, but that shouldn't be a factor when you start to write. When you first start to come up with ideas, you shouldn't be thinking "Oh, no one would read this, it's terrible." If all you care about is what people think of your stories, there is no point in writing. You will never please everyone; it's simply not possible. Writing shouldn't be done for money or fame or reputation. If it's something that you enjoy doing, then don't mind what anyone else thinks, write for YOU.
Don't get me wrong, it's extremely rewarding and enjoyable to post a story and have people comment on in. It makes the whole process more fun and gives you motivation to continue. But you shouldn't start a story for the sole purpose of having people like you more, and you shouldn't not start a story because you're afraid people won't.
4) Make sure you have a good plot
So you've got an idea of what you're writing about and you typed up an amazing opening scene. Now it's time to post it as the first chapter in your CS story, right?
NOPE. Not quite yet.
If you want to be able to finish this story, you'll need to come up with a plot, and one that you will stick to. The problem with posting your stories online is that you can't go back and change them once you've started (apart from fixing minor errors) or you'll confuse your readers.
BEFORE you post your story you need to have a solid idea of what's going to happen from the beginning to the end. Of course, I'm not saying you have to write the whole entire story before you even start to post it, but you should have a series of events in your mind before you start writing, which will help prevent writer's block in the future. You can always add details and characters as you go. ^^
Plots are very tricky, and I'm not going to go into all of the intricacies of coming up with good plots, but even if you're unsure of how it will go exactly, you should have an outline in mind before you start. Starting to write without a plot is like trying to choose the colors of your drawing - before you know what you're going to draw.
5) Characters AREN'T PERFECT!
We've all read the story about the mean blonde cheerleader, the handsome, bad-boy jock, and the girl who's "different" and an outcast - but ends up dating the "popular" guy anyway.
These are perfect examples of perfect characters. Some would argue that no, they're not perfect, after all, the cheerleader is mean and the main character is 'unique,' but I beg to differ. These are very cliche characters - and they are perfectly flawed.
When someone is mean, they usually have a reason for being mean, something obvious or not obvious, a motive for all that they do. When someone is simply the haughty girl who thinks she's the center of the universe, she's not an interesting character. No character should lack flaws, nor should they be completely flat and two dimensional.
These are great examples of what are called Mary-Sues and Gary-Sues in Role Play, and it is no different in writing. Don't be tempted to make your character perfect, and don't be tempted to give your character uninteresting flaws. In real life, however we might see them, no one lacks reasons for their actions. They shouldn't be in stories either.
6) Long or short? Chapters or bits and pieces?
Writing stories for the internet are quite different from writing stories for school or for fun. One big reason is that you are going to be posting them piece by piece, usually as you write them. But how long should these pieces be?
Chapters, in published books, are USUALLY 10-20 pages long. There are quite a few exceptions to this rule, and of course, it depends upon page and font size.
For the internet, I would suggest writing much shorter pieces and posting them. First of all, many people don't enjoy reading huge lengths of texts on the computer at one time, and if you post huge amounts, many people simply won't take the time to read it. (Haven't you noticed that many people don't even take the time to read through your trade rules, short as they may be? Yeah, welcome to the internet.)
However, if you post three paragraphs for every chapter, you will end up with many, MANY chapters in your story.
I would suggest, first off, to make your chapters as concise as possible, trying to cut down on unnecessary sunset-describing and other random description that doesn't really move the story along. Then, I would split your chapters up into a couple sections, and post one at a time, perhaps 800-1000 words apiece (which is a good two or three pages.)
This all depends upon the length of your story. If you're intending a shorter story, you might want to do smaller increments and keep your readers on their toes.
Remember - never post large blocks of text that don't have separate paragraphs. This is hard on the eyes and will turn off readers from giving your story a try. It may work in a published, ink-and-paper book, but most definitely not on a computer. And, of course, no very light fonts or very tiny fonts.
7) The almighty spelling, grammar, and punctuation
Well, well, well. We have come to this part.
You got an original idea. You came up with a great plot. You created interesting, original characters. You've written out the first piece of your story, and you posted it. You can see people have viewed it...but why did no one comment?
Answer: It looked like this.
it was sunday morning and the rain beat on th streets like it wanted to brake through them. though it was just after sunset lizzy was alredy up and looking out the window onto the street beyond.
I know that if I were the one reading, as soon as I finished the first sentence I would have hit the back button.
So basically what I'm saying is that before you post, you NEED to proofread. It's extremely important. If you aren't good at that sort of stuff, ask someone to do it for you. Nothing ruins a good story like bad grammar and punctuation. If you don't really think that it will matter whether you put the wrong "there" - think again. Constant typos make it annoying to read, and if your spelling is really bad, makes it just downright hard to read. Always make sure your spelling and grammar is correct - that should never bring down an amazing story!
8) Let people know about it!
FINALLY! You've finished the first part of the story, you've read through it, it's going to be great, you've posted it - now you just need to get people to read it! Tell your friends on CS to read it, and get their opinion. Hopefully some people will see it when you first post it in the Share Your Writing forum, so you'll see what people think. Put a link in your siggy, join a writing thread, ask people to review your story when you review theirs...Simply get it out their and build up your views!
If enough people start posting, it will start to become a thread that's always hovering on the top - and people will see that and become interested. Simple as that.
9) Getting past Writer's Block
Every writer's biggest nightmare...Your story is going well, your fans are excited for what you're going to write next, when all of a sudden it descends upon you.
Yes, it's writer's block. It may sound terrible, and it may seem like you will never write again - but guess what? You can overcome it.
First of all, you need to identify what's giving you writer's block. Is it a character? A tiny part of a scene that you don't know how to write? A plothole?
Writer's block is something that you need to get around, kind of like a tree falling down in the middle of the road. If you try to get your car over it, you'll have a lot more trouble than if you simply turn around and take a different way. Or you can wait until someone comes and moves it, but just like that would take a fair amount of time, waiting for writer's block to go away will also take a long time. Something that you won't be able to afford if your readers are counting on you for that next chapter.
If it's a scene that you need to write and words simply won't come out, in my experience the best thing to do is to write the next one. Yes, skip it, and go onto the next scene, which probably will interest you a lot more. Nothing will come out of stopping the story and staring at a blank page. After you've written the next couple scenes, you will probably have gotten more ideas for how the one that you skipped might go, and you can go back and write it.
If it's a character that's giving you trouble, then simply think about what that character wants. What is his or her motivation, and what is driving them? Think about what is it that is preventing them from getting what they want. If a character seems flat in a scene it's probably because they don't have any purpose. The answer? Give them one!
Your problem, however, may be more complicated and may take more time and more thought. But writer's block doesn't have to last for as long as it sometimes does. If you give up all hope, you'll find yourself not being able to write for much longer periods of time than if you simply work around it and try writing something different or thinking about what's wrong.
10) Happily accept and USE criticism
Constructive criticism is your best friend as a writer. DO NOT be the person who gets emotionally hurt and offended when someone has something negative to say about your story. Most likely, they're right in saying so. Your job is not to get upset, but to use it to your advantage. If they think a character is unrealistic, then go back and read it with an objective point of view. When you start to write the next chapters, try to make your character more detailed and developed. If they think your writing itself needs improvement, listen and make note of your suggestions.
No one expects your writing to be perfect. But if you are serious about writing, you should strive for that which is unattainable - and it will vastly improve the quality of your stories. ^^
Still need more help with your writing, and want to meet some fellow writers? I highly suggest joining the writing threads, in which you'll be able to get much more specific advice and get to know some likeminded people.
I hope you found this guide helpful! Good luck! ^^
