8 Tips to Write Stories Like a Pro

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Originally published at: https://shanniiwrites.com/2019/01/01/8-tips-to-write-stories-like-a-pro/

8 amazing tips to start your writing year off right. Trust me: you won’t regret it!

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Added a blogs tag, also this is one of my favourite blog posts :eyes:

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I’m glad you like it! :eyes: It was probably one of my favourites to write

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I actually really liked this post, because it provides some questions that I think are also important for RPing.

  • Why are they there?

  • How do they feel about the location?

  • What’s going on in their personal lives?

  • How do they feel about the other people in the scene?

  • Do they know something important?

  • Do they want to find something out?

  • What is their personality like?

  • Is there anything they want to happen?

  • Is there anything they don’t want to happen?

  • What are they expecting to happen?

  • Do their motivations clash with anyone else’s?

  • Do their motivations align with anyone else’s?

  • What do they say?

  • How do they say it?

  • Why do they say it?

  • What do they react to?

  • How do they react?

  • Why do they react like that?

  • Do their lines have double meanings?

  • Do they get what they want?

  • How do they react to their success/failure?

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Point number for about not analyzing your work too much when you’re writing it really struck me because I’m in the editing phase of writing something and overanalyzing everything.

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“So many people I know struggle to write strong female characters. Why? Well, because they’re stuck thinking that strength means muscle.”
This is a great point, I see this a lot on Episode! Heck, even I created a female character in my head that I thought was “strong” because she could fend for herself but mentally… she’s not that great.
I have this other story where I am really thinking about strength as well. Cinderella. I love Cinderella and that whole story and I’m not completely sure why. I think it’s because of the kindness that Cinderella shows her stepsisters and her stepmother even when they’re abusing her. That’s a different kind of strength that I didn’t even really think about until recently when someone brought up the fact that Belle from Beauty and the Beast is incredibly strong but in a more feminine way that not a lot of Disney princesses present (usually they’re slightly tomboyish in order to be perceived as different or “strong” - basically the point that the person was making) and then after they said that I thought of Cinderella fitting this as well!
But then when I was really thinking about the character I always thought of her - my character Paige (my own Cinderella) I always saw her as weak and never quite managed to get her to fit the vision I had of Cinderella in my head. Well that’s because my character isn’t weak and I should stop writing her as if she needs to be “strong” or tomboyish in order to be strong when she can just be the way she naturally comes to be…

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Alright, @Bloggers, it’s February, nearly March. To be ready for your 2021 writing year, how about a few little tips.

Remember that if you really enjoyed this blog, feel free to recommend it (it’s similar to liking it). This will help with it being higher in the results of search engines too.

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Thank you!!

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I can’t write like that. It’s way over analyzing, IMO. But, to each his/her own.

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i’m gonna keep this short bc i’m very sleepy rn kbhvf (tho if anyone wants my opinion on a specific part or something, i’d be more than willing to give them… later… when i’m more awake lmao)
these are all interesting points, and i don’t doubt taking them into account at some point or other would be immensely valuable
however, i’m with Jayda on this, it seems a bit too much
of course, i’m speaking from my perspective as a big fan of short stories, but it seems to me most of these points are aimed mostly at long stories
also, a couple points would somewhat clash with my personal style, since i’m a big fan of streams of consciousness, and what Shannii proposes is… a bit more dynamic than that, i think

so well, as usual, i gotta remind people that… there is not one way to write “well”
writing is an art and every artist has different processes and thought, so find what you vibe best with and go with it

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I agree on some aspects as well! For example, in one of my stories only the main character has a motivation, everyone else doesn’t. May seem odd but that’s kinda the point. You don’t know why the characters do what they do and that’s weird.
I need to read the blog post again, but my most recent story probably doesn’t fit into the 8 tips.

The thing with my story is that the only real character in it is the main character. There are other characters but they don’t really have personalities. It’s intentionally supposed to be odd and off-putting. Idk if I actually did that, though.
And specifically the part about making the characters seem like real people… yeah um with this specific story I want to achieve the opposite.

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If you want, you can do archetypes. For both unintended humor and your own reasons

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