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Unleash the writer in you
March 25, 2008 - 1:29pm — lizaz
Unleash the Writer in You
Everyone wants to tell the world their innermost secrets and how they feel inside. But everyone is either too shy or afraid to be rude. Then they start writing about it. Before they know it, they’ve written a whole story based on what they were too shy to talk about. Suddenly they get others opinions on their stories and begin opening up and posting more. And thus the life of a writer begins. What is writing? To the lazy underachiever, writing is something you have to know how to do if you want to get somewhere in life. To another, writing is a window to another world. A world that is a place that they can truly be themselves and not worry what anyone thinks about them. Usually because a writer posts on writing websites and keeps their identity secret and judging by the writing it’s easy to figure out who this person is on the inside. When a writer writes a story and posts it on a website, then they will get reviews if other people like it. If they get praised too much it builds their ego. Normally that is not a good thing. But there are some really shy people out there who need the extra boost. There are also soft critics out there who give some suggestions like things you could add and things you need to watch like Mary-Sues and grammar. In the hurry to post and be praised most people forget to spell-check and end up being scolded instead of praised. But that is a good way to keep your head in place and remind you you’re not perfect. But you are still confident about your writing and that’s what matters. But there are always those out there looking to crush your newfound confidence. The super harsh critics aka the flamers. They don’t just come to you and share their thoughts and opinions. They come to you criticize your story top to bottom, and to top it off tell you to never ever write something like that again or write something worthwhile. It is painful to hear these comments but most people ignore them and move on. “If I get flamed, I wouldn't abandon a story just because someone criticizes me. I'm used to criticism, and when someone criticizes me, I would try to edit the story. Also, some people [FR] flame others if someone asks, even though they never actually wrote anything themselves. If they will flame others saying their stories are horrible, then why do they not write any themselves just to show the world how a 'real' story that is 'good' is like. I don't pay attention to flamers because this is what usually happens, or they flame someone anonymously, so that their name doesn't show. Are they scared to get flamed back if their own stories are bad?” said Alice C, a fanfic writer. Most people tend to fight fire with fire and go flame their flamers. But a smart flamer doesn’t write their own stories just so they don’t get flamed. So how do you deal with flamers? Block them. Most websites allow you to block people if you don’t want them flaming you. While that does make them back off, it doesn’t exactly finish them off from you. One writer was getting flamed by a guy who then reported her story for deletion and succeeded. I told her to block him and she did. There were no problems for months and then he comes back with vengeance and all her stories get deleted. Still the best thing to do is ignore all flamers and they’ll feel overpowered by your own determination and give up. Then they’ll look for a new victim. Now that you’ve vanquished your flamer, you must feel proud right? Wrong! While most flamers choose random victims because they think the FF community is getting overcrowded, some actually crush you if they think you deserve it. Stories that attract flamers are ones with grammar problems, out-of-character characters, Mary-sues, stereotypical plots and clichés, and either simple plots or difficult confusing plots. All of those have to be avoided. A simple stereotypical plot with Mary-sue characters tend to attract flamers, but also keep readers away because they’re boring and you always know what’s going to happen. Yet overly developed plots tend to confuse the reader because of all the twists and flamers will yell at you saying you can’t write normally without confusing everyone. So what to do?Spell check. Grammar is the most famous of the flame magnets. A missing comma every now and then won’t do anything, but it could get to the point where your story is one big lump of words with no meaning and is read differently by everyone. Wonderful right?Character Development. If you’re going to make a character with a traumatized life, don’t suddenly make them happy-go-lucky without any explanation. They have to stay traumatized until they get over the trauma and can move on in their life. And if you’re going to have a ditzy character who is always making mistakes don’t make them perfect all of a sudden. Be especially careful with perfect characters. A perfect character, commonly known as Mary-sue, is a character that is always happy, always get what they want, never looses and are loved by everyone around them. If you have a character who matches that description, go click that edit button because no one likes them and if you get flamed its their fault. “I try to imagine myself as the actual character in the story. I'd ask myself, "If I were in his/her shoes, what would I do? How would I act?"” said Tiffany V. about keeping characters in character. Keep that in mind so your character isn’t silent and mysterious one second, and flirty and brash the next. If they’re not characters with a personality disorder, they’re almost as bad as Mary-sues.Now for the plot. Is your plot “A boy/girl goes on a journey with some friends and has to stop an evil organization from taking over the world?” If the answer is yes, you have something known as a stereotypical simple plot. They have no substance and everyone knows what’s going to happen. Try to make them more interesting like how the organization is going to take over, why it’s the main character’s business, and what does he/she have to go on a journey for. “It’s the right thing to do,” is great for 7 year olds but for a teen or adult, that just puts them to sleep. And for reason for involvement, do not, under any circumstance, say “Kidnapped/Killed Family member.” That’s a cliché and people heard them so often they’ll loose interest if they’re nice. If they’re mean, they’ll go to a flamer and request a flame. Yes that happens. But don’t go overboard with your plot and then try to explain it later. You’ll confuse everyone. You included. Stick to simple plots but make them interesting. That’s an important factor in writing. Now that you know these things, get a fanfic account, start writing and pretty soon, you’ll find some changes in you.
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