An Aspiring Writer

[jriley1]

Hello people of the Somnova Studios board. Today I would like to ask some questions pertaining to writing in general. I am an aspiring writer myself, so I thought coming here would be a good idea. So, onto the questions.
1.I have problems with describing setting. How do I make it more believable?
2.How do I avoid cliches and such when forming characters?
3.I feel like my dialouge isn't believable either. How can I fix this?
Thank you for your co-operation!

[Hamadyne]

1. Do your research. Where is your setting? What is happening in said setting? Look at other works and see if you can pull something from there. Here are some authors I highly recommend for making great self-contained settings:

Sci-Fi: Issac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Eoin Colfer, Kenneth Oppel
Fantasy: Roald Dahl, Garth Nix, Rick Riordan, Susan Cooper, Brian Jacques
Fiction: Mark Haddon, Michael Hoeye

These authors make great little worlds that seem very believable, and have some great characters inhabiting them. As an additional bit of advice: READ BOOKS. Go to your library/Amazon and pick out a dozen titles that you really want to read. Many writers before you have done the same when brainstorming. Do NOT watch a movie or anime: the written word gives you much-needed vocabulary, narrative structure, and, most importantly, a character that forces you to imagine him/her into existence. The goal here is to get you, the writer, creating the world with your own hands.

2. Use what you know as a base. Try to flesh out your character beyond just a basic description. Get inside their heads and get into character when you write scenes involving them. Above all else, your characters should drive the story. While you may have an overarching plot lined up for them, don't railroad your characters -- place them into the setting, and let them work it out in-character.

3. Draft. Seriously. Your first attempt isn't always gonna be ideal, so improve upon it over time. Get feedback from other writers you know and get some pointers! Use sentence variety (but not "opening a thesaurus" levels of sentence variety) in order to make your narrative feel more natural. Speaking of, there's a common trope that is mentioned regarding dialogue: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... nrealistic

Try introducing some of those elements into your dialogue to get something more realistic. Don't forget about #2, though. Character trumps dialogue. Make sure they're saying something in-character, as opposed to spewing out emotion/exposition.


Hope this helps!

[raithfyre]

I agree with everything Hamadyne said. Additionally, with regards to setting, the number one thing I can say is: use all the senses when describing it. A lot of amateur writers tend to talk about how everything looks, and leave it at that. But when you go to a new location in real life, you're getting all sorts of data. What's the air taste like? Is there a chill in the wind? What kind of sound are going on? If there are people talking, how? Excited conversations that are easy to overhear? Hushed whispers that are easy to miss? There's so much more to the world than just how it looks.

For character creation, just to reiterate, basing off of people you know can be really useful. There are a few other things you can try, as well. When I'm doing character creation, I usually start with a very general idea or theme or something, and then work my way down to individual details. For instance, saying that a character is a lanky guy with broken glasses, bad knees and a scar on his forehead tells you something about him, but it's not as interesting as knowing that he thinks the number three is unlucky. That said, don't get too weighed down with insignificant details and such. Everything you say about a character should be important in some way, at least in my opinion. Your results may vary. Finally, don't be afraid to use other tools or resources when you're making a character. I used to act as if outlines and character profiles were beneath me, but I quickly realized how wrong that was. For starters, here's a profile thing that I use a lot. Helps me flesh out characters and make them more complex. Warning though: it sometimes glitches out when you try to save/submit the form, so I recommend just answering the questions in a word document or something.

Also, since you're here on a forum for a visual novel, I assume that you're at least somewhat interested in anime, and I think this is a topic where it could be very helpful. Some shows that I felt had really strong, believable characters were Ano Hana, Kokoro Connect, and Hyouka.

Finally, dialogue. This is a tough one. Dialogue's usually the hardest part to make interesting. Like the link Hama included says, real-life dialogue is very different from fictional stuff. That said, I think the best thing to do is just listen to people talk, and really pay attention to it. Notice their intonation, word choice, etc. Watch the news, watch interviews, watch movies. Hell, I used to take a pocket recorder with me and sometimes I'd just save conversations that I had with friends, then go back and break it down. Also, the number one pet peeve of mine that I see in dialogue is awkward info-dumping. A casual breakfast in which the main character's sister remarks that the magical kingdom of Lindwall has been under attack from a dragon lately, and they're looking for a hero to slay it also could you please pass the butter? is not subtle. There are more smooth ways to introduce things to the reader instead of having your characters name-drop current events. Maybe I'm just picky, though.

[Al Capwned]

Yes! Listen to Hama and Raith for they are more reliable sources than I (they're writters you know).

World building I something I actually enjoy doing or at least it comes better to me than some of the other parts. To create a believable world/setting you got to make yourself believe it. Think about it about it as if you were there. You should make your setting an experience. I agree 100% with raithfyre about bout using all the senses. Something also to think about is the history of world. This can help with coming up with settings and to an extent characters or plot as well.

I'll probably be berated and crucified for telling you this but, cliches aren't always a bad thing. Cliches only become a problem when they replace characterization. If you do use them don't rely heavily on them, use it as a sort of amorphous cloud that hangs around you as create your character. Again take Hama's and raithfyre's advise on characterization, because my methods of it are a bit "non-standard".

Dialogue is something that, for me at least, is to do but is hard to control. When I do a dialogue I'll typically say parts out loud to listen to what it sounds like. This helps me filter for awkward wording or reactions, plus it helps you get into the minds of your characters which makes continuing the dialogue easier. My problem is that when I do this dialogue will sometimes take on a mind of it's own and go in a direction that is different than what I wanted it to. I haven't really figured out how to completely control dialogue. I've stopped strictly defining what needs to happen in each major piece, and started giving myself more general what should have been accomplished by the end.

[raithfyre]

Ah, yeah, I'm glad Al mentioned reading your dialogue out loud. That's something I'd planned to include but then forgot. It's probably the most practical way to find out if what you're doing sounds natural. Use the same inflection you imagine your characters using, and see if the whole thing sounds natural to you when spoken out loud. If it doesn't, then you should probably go back and rewrite.

Another thing Al said that I agree with: don't be afraid to be cliche sometimes. Cliches are overused because they work well, but you see so many characters embodying them that they lose their effect. It's like eating the same meal every day. Even if you like it at first, you'll get sick of it eventually. But yeah, so long as you're "not allowing [cliches] to replace characterization," it's not too bad.