What is my story (really) about? The Struggle 2

At any stage when you write your story, you need to ask yourself "What is my story about?"

I have found, through my own experience writing one story for 7 years, that if you can't explain it in one sentence, you're still lost. And if you're lost, imagine what the reader must feel like... :0

No one wants to listen to you talk like a little kid explaining their dream they had last night, right?

Example:

Should I Edit My Story? Is it important?

The basic of basics of being a writer is that you need to edit.

Of course, if you have money, you can get a professional editor to help you out but still you should be able to at least do a basic edit yourself.

What is editing though? Well, here is a little introduction to editing for you newbies out there.

Is Editing...?

Is editing...

What to do with Antagonists (in general)?

Every hero story has a bad guy in it. The villain.

Harry Potter vs Lord Voldemort
Frodo Baggins vs Sauron
Luke Skywalker vs Darth Vader...you get the idea.

Watching them from afar is okay. You're not the writer, you don't need to worry about how the villain plays a role in the MC's plotline.

But when you're the writer, you have to think, who are my bad guys? Or,

How much research should I do?

With "how much" I mean "to what extent" and this is something I am currently dealing with so I don't have a clear-cut answer. But I hope to give you some insight, and maybe some reassurance with research in worldbuilding.

Spellcheck is telling me "worldbuilding" isn't one word but I think it should be so let's roll with that.

How much research should I do?

I ask myself this a lot, and more so recently since I'm aiming for publication. The point of research is

How to: Start Fiction? Like...how???

So, I thought this question was pretty interesting considering, well, I had never thought about it really. Fiction writing has just been my natural style of things. Maybe it's because I read a lot of fiction, perhaps that influenced the kind of writing I eventually plunged myself into. I also loved playing make-believe when I was little so maybe that came into play, as well.

I asked on Whisper, of all places, what questions they (other writers) had about writing fiction.

One was, how to start fiction.

Nothing else. Just, how to start fiction.

Well, I would have to imagine myself in their shoes for a moment. Perhaps, say, some of you have NEVER really read a good fiction story. All you have read are non-fiction stories, magazine articles, or some very heavy philosophical, political, or religious books. Maybe when you read books for class they were just FOR CLASS and you were never interested in the sequel. Maybe you have never even read any of the famous books. Nothing's wrong with that. Of course not :)

But then one day you are intrigued by fiction and want to start writing it. You have been writing memoirs, non-fiction stories, articles...but never true fiction. You never made up a whole entire story.

What do you do?

How much should I worry about grammar?

Writers' workshops have at least one of them. But sometimes it can get ugly and we can be outnumbered.

Just realized there's some grammar errors in this meme :P
Wonder if it's on purpose...hmm

*shudder*

But then, do we grammar Nazi or grammar not-zi?

I hear many views about grammar in writing.

Such as,

Grammar is important.

It's okay for it to be messed up because that's the way the character speaks.

As long as it isn't so heavy that it takes the reader away from the writing then a little here and there is okay.

Word Spellcheck system doesn't always correct everything. So then it must be sort of okay.


Well then, how much should we worry about grammar?

Should I worry about chapter length?

Some of you might be wondering this and the answer is no, not really.

I say "not really" because you do need to think about it if wordcount is important (NaNoWriMo).

For NaNoWriMo, I usually aim for 8-10 pages in the Word Document A4 size, single space.

For my novel, I also aim for the same amount but if it happens that when I'm writing, I feel a finish coming up and it's only 6 pages in or I'm not done yet and it's over 12 pages, it's completely fine :)

I have seen chapters in books only a few pages long and others that go on for a big humongous chunk. But as long as "Each chapter in your book tells a mini-story that forwards your overall plot" then it's gonna be completely utterly okay (quote from Writer's Digest, 2015, Brian A. Klems).

So unless it's for NaNo, DO NOT worry about the chapter length. That is the LEAST of your problems, trust me (says me).