Hello! for Aster and The Cradle

[Sunderlin_30]

I'm looking for help in a few ways; I'm not a professional and don't have any experience outside of 4th-grade assignments. I love writing, but I have no idea how to get it structured before I get into the details. What are the ways I can structure my plan, and then focus as I move through the setup? I have Character Bibles and a World Bible I'm working on. I have an idea of how I'd like to play with the chapters, but I need some guidance on how to get started with building the story. I'm open to Zoom chats if you are? I have a few chapters written, but would appreciate red lines or something to steer me in the "write" direction, sorry, not sorry.

 

[pmmg]

Howdy Sunderlin. Welcome here.

You've come here, so that is a step in the right direction. If you just want feedback on your chapters, a site like Scribophile may get that for you from more people.

All that stuff, character bibles and world building, and getting people to look at what you already have is not as important as the story you are wanting to tell. You need to write everyday, finish it, and dont seek feedback until its finished. What you will find is all that feedback you get on the opening chapters is useless anyway. Until you finish it, you dont even know what the opening will continue to look like. Its very likely you will change it before you are done.

Red lines remind me of the law firms where I used to work. I've not heard that term in a long time. I dont know that we do red lines in creative writing.

 

[CupofJoe]

Hail and well-met Sunderlin_30
Good to have you here.
This is a great place to learn and share.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Hi Sunderlin_30 . There is probably a lifetime worth of studying in that one question

The main thing to keep in mind is that every writer is different. There are as many methods to write as there are writers (actually, probably more, since some writers are bound to have multiple methods...). So the best advice I can give you is to try different things and see what gets you writing and gets you to the end. Don't accept any one way as being the only way you can write. Treat it as Here is one other thing you can try.

In general, there is a spectrum in writers that goes from pantsers on one end to plotters on the other.

Pantsers are those people who write by the seat of their pants. They don't keep to a specific structure to plot their novels. They just sit down and write. In the most extreme version, all they have is one or two interesting sounding characters. And they just have them interact and do stuff and they write that down. In a less extreme version, they have a rough idea of what the story will be and what the end will look like, but the parts in between are a bit murky.

Plotters are those who create a detailed outline. The most extreme version of this is people who write 10k or 20k outlines, where everything is spelled out in detail. Who does what and what happens where. Once they have this down, only then do they sit down to write. The less extreme version is people who have a list of the different chapters and what happens in each of them. Or a written synopsis of one or two pages.

And then you have everything in between. People who know the major events (often referred to as waypoint writing). They know they have to get from Amsterdam to Rome via Paris and Munich, but they have no idea what happens along the way. Or people who know what kind of character journey they want but are unsure of the details. Or something else.

My general advice is to create a simple list of events that you think will happen in your story. Write them in chronological order. See if they make sense. If you're missing stuff, fill in the blanks. Once you have that, sit down and write. As you go along, see if it works for you. For some people this is enough. For some people, they feel that they already wrote the story and they have no interestest in writing it again. And others will find that they are lacking information to write more. See what's the case for you and adjust accordingly.

 

[Sunderlin_30]

Hi Sunderlin_30 . There is probably a lifetime worth of studying in that one question

The main thing to keep in mind is that every writer is different. There are as many methods to write as there are writers (actually, probably more, since some writers are bound to have multiple methods...). So the best advice I can give you is to try different things and see what gets you writing and gets you to the end. Don't accept any one way as being the only way you can write. Treat it as Here is one other thing you can try.

In general, there is a spectrum in writers that goes from pantsers on one end to plotters on the other.

Pantsers are those people who write by the seat of their pants. They don't keep to a specific structure to plot their novels. They just sit down and write. In the most extreme version, all they have is one or two interesting sounding characters. And they just have them interact and do stuff and they write that down. In a less extreme version, they have a rough idea of what the story will be and what the end will look like, but the parts in between are a bit murky.

Plotters are those who create a detailed outline. The most extreme version of this is people who write 10k or 20k outlines, where everything is spelled out in detail. Who does what and what happens where. Once they have this down, only then do they sit down to write. The less extreme version is people who have a list of the different chapters and what happens in each of them. Or a written synopsis of one or two pages.

And then you have everything in between. People who know the major events (often referred to as waypoint writing). They know they have to get from Amsterdam to Rome via Paris and Munich, but they have no idea what happens along the way. Or people who know what kind of character journey they want but are unsure of the details. Or something else.

My general advice is to create a simple list of events that you think will happen in your story. Write them in chronological order. See if they make sense. If you're missing stuff, fill in the blanks. Once you have that, sit down and write. As you go along, see if it works for you. For some people this is enough. For some people, they feel that they already wrote the story and they have no interestest in writing it again. And others will find that they are lacking information to write more. See what's the case for you and adjust accordingly.

I feel very strongly about this. Right now, I am navigating between two approaches. I started by writing the story from the beginning, but after taking a moment to reread the first few chapters, I realized that the conversations and details lacked sufficient history and lore about the timeline, the mythos, and the characters' lives.

Now, I am focusing on outlining everything in detail. At this moment, it feels more exciting to develop these outlines to gain a better understanding of the story. Once I have enough substance to add to the narrative I've created so far, I will likely return to writing the story itself. Thank you for your feedback on this!

 

[xena]

Hey, don't worry. That is exactly where a lot of writers start.

 

[minta]

Start with a simple chapter by chapter outline, then expend gradually. Your character and world bibles are perfect anchors. Focus on progress over perfection.