by Dark Spider on Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:47 pm
Here are some writing tips. I'm sorry if it sounds vague or unfocused. I'm sorting and condensing like several books of knowledge into a post.
1. Make sure your characters have 3 dimensions.
-The first dimension is physiology which has to do with the character's bodily characteristics (race, height, weight, hair, etc).
-The second dimension is sociology which has to do with the character's history (like how the character grew up in his hometown, or with his family or friends).
-The third dimension is psychology which has to do with how the character views and deals with his life based on the first two dimensions. For instance, let's say your character is fat (a physiological trait) and his parents made fun of him for it (a sociological trait). Then your character will be very self conscious and defensive about his fatness (a psychological trait).
2. Remember this quote: "Characters are at their best when they're doing something...but they're only memorable when they're striving for their something."
What the first part of the quote means is that since you only what your characters at their best, you should always try to have your character do SOME kind of action, even when they're talking. It makes them look interesting.
What the second part of the quote means is that if you want truly memorable characters, you have to give them a goal of some sort and you have have them struggle to achieve that goal. That way the character will always be "doing" something (and thus interesting) and the audience will have something concrete to follow about the character. This allows the audience to connect with the character too.
3. As much of everything you write should be "in conflict". What this means is that if you have 2 people talking to each other, they should be having a conflict of some sort. If a character has just entered a brand new setting, he should have a conflict with it of some sort. When I say conflict, I mean a disagreement. Conflict doesn't have to mean a big fight or anything.
We humans LOVE conflict, so having everything "in conflict" always keeps reader interest.
4. Stimulus, Thought, Reaction. Something happens, your character thinks about it, then your character reacts to it. Rinse and Repeat. This is the VERY BASICS of scene structure. In fact, this is all plot writing is really. Just writing a bunch of stimuli and reactions, causes and effects.
-For example: Natalie tells Stephanie that she hates her. That is a stimulus for Stephanie. Stephanie now thinks about this statement, thinking that she hates Natalie too. Stephanie reacts to Natalie's statement by telling Natalie that she hates HER. Stimulus, Thought, Reaction.
5. The key to writing a good story is to have a well rounded character, and give her a goal that she will spend the whole story trying to obtain. The more obstacles and conflict that she wades through and overcomes in pursuit of her goal, the better the story will be. But make sure the obstacles and conflicts are plausible to the story, and rise in intensity from the beginning to the end of the story.
6. If it doesn't sound right to you, then it probably isn't.
7. This one is VERY important: Creating and Revising are two seperate activities, so don't EVER mix them together. Use your creativity and imagination to create the story first. Then once you get everything on paper, THEN you start revising. When you revise WHILE you're in the creative process, it's very VERY damaging to your story and your personal psyche. DON'T DO IT!!!
Those tips I gave you are only the "TIP" of the iceberg on writing. I didn't really dive into dialogue, premise, plot, conflict, characterization, and other fancy writing terms (for the most part, I didn't want to go into a long post and bore you). I really suggest reading up on creative or fiction writing, or taking a creative writing class. The information they provide is invaluable. There's a whole world of knowledge out there on writing that can really help a cartoonist out. It helped me out, that's for sure.
BTW, the advice in this thread is awesome! Every last bit of it.
This has been the Dark Spider...
My webcomic on Comic Genesis, check it out!