Planning On Writing: Tips & Advice Welcome

[Embracer Of Darkness]

Hey guys, it happened... I've been bitten by the writing bug.

I've been playing around with some very small and basic sci-fi ideas in my head for a couple of weeks, and I've decided that I should get them into writing. This is going to be my first peice of fiction, and I'm not overly confident in my writing skills yet. I was just wondering if there's anything I should really know, or any advice you guys think I'd find useful, before I get started.

Basically, I'm looking for a few do/don't pointers in general writing and pure sci-fi writing. Thanks in advice for any help.

[Shroom Man 777]

Don't be overdescriptive and when you describe things, don't be too descripted in one part while be too underdescriptive in one part. Don't wind the story up. Don't be too repetitive with words. When taking a shit or trying to sleep, think about your story. Um.... watch lots of movies and think alot. You need all the inspiration you can get. Hmm... that's all I can offer for now.

[Embracer Of Darkness]

Don't be overdescriptive and when you describe things, don't be too descripted in one part while be too underdescriptive in one part. Don't wind the story up. Don't be too repetitive with words. When taking a shit or trying to sleep, think about your story. Um.... watch lots of movies and think alot. You need all the inspiration you can get. Hmm... that's all I can offer for now.

That's quite helpful actually, thanks alot.

I also just thought of a writing problem I may come across. I have the feeling that I'll be pretty bad at writing out dialogue between characters, and I might have some problems in actually laying out dialogue between action. Any pointers here?

[El Moose Monstero]

Don't give up... unlike me...

[Embracer Of Darkness]

Don't give up... unlike me...

Awww. I don't think I'll be giving up, I'm mainly using this as a break from writing music, while still keeping my mind creative.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

For dialogue: Keep in mind how people talk in real life.

Remember that readers really don't care much about how things work.

[Embracer Of Darkness]

For dialogue: Keep in mind how people talk in real life.

Remember that readers really don't care much about how things work.

Good advice. I already decided against technobabble, I hate that stuff myself.

[Embracer Of Darkness]

Is there any advice, regarding dialogue, anyone can give me in regard to layout? For example; people are running around a chaotic control center mid-battle and the characters are interacting with eachother. Is there any particular way I could describe a character checking consoles, running around and barking orders at the crew etc. without it looking sloppy?

I've tried writing minor peices of dialogue before, but it ended up looking like a nonsensical comma-fest.

[Shroom Man 777]

Is there any advice, regarding dialogue, anyone can give me in regard to layout? For example; people are running around a chaotic control center mid-battle and the characters are interacting with eachother. Is there any particular way I could describe a character checking consoles, running around and barking orders at the crew etc. without it looking sloppy?

I've tried writing minor peices of dialogue before, but it ended up looking like a nonsensical comma-fest.

You could give descriptions like tense/intense or chaotic or whatnot. But you should also show it in their dialogue. Add punctuation marks, cussing and swearing, yelling and hollering. Plus add some details on the surrounding.

Checking consoles... running around... barking orders?

Hmm...

I'll try to write something. But it's one in the morning in my place... so it might not be as good.

BTW, maybe you can check my Soldiers of the Sovereignty fic! I'd really appreciate it.

John Doe frantically tapped his console. There was a hull breech and Level 16 lost its life support. Level 10 was now a vacuum. Dock 5 was a blazing inferno. People were being cooked alive in Dock 4. Dock 3 lost its life support systems The power grids were critically damaged. The redundant systems and auxilliary batteries were in a critical state.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!" hollered the captain. He was pacing around the bridge, he was tense, but then again everybody was tense and the lack of lights, the klaxons and the dim red emergency lights didn't do anything to help at all. The captain was about to yell another curse, but the ship shook again as the shield grids finally failed. The enemy's mass drivers probably had enough kinetic energy to tear the shield generators from their foundations. "Shit! I want damage reports! I WANT DAMAGE REPORTS NOW!"

The computer died. Doe gasped, he became silent and enormous beads of sweat trickled down his face. The computer went back online. Doe sighed in relief.

"Doe, what the hell is going on?" shouted the captain as the ship shook again. This time it was more violent.

"The shields are out and so are the generators! Docks 5, 4, 3 and 2 are fucked and Levels 9 to 18 are all gone!" Doe said. He was scared and his hands were shaking. The captain was cursing and swearing, but all that stopped when the ship shook again. This time it was very violent and accompanied by an enormous bang. All over the bridge, people were falling, the lights failed, the consoles shorted out, the captain who was pacing around was now on the ground, his head was bleeding from a nasty hit with a sharp edged table. "Sir! Are you alright?!"

The captain was unconscious. There was another loud bang.

"We've lost the engines, some magazines on the ship's belly have exploded!" yelled another ensign.

"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" yelled someone monitoring the sensors. This time there was no bang. The bridge grew silent and the ship shook like it was in a tornado. The ceiling of the bridge grew red and it exploded, exposing the crew men to the vacuum. They were sucked into the coldness of space. All dead.

[Embracer Of Darkness]

Wow, thanks Shroom, that's really really helpful. I I think I can easily see where my problem was now, it was my punctuation and (especially) my use of paragraphs.

I have time to kill, by the way, so I'm going to check out your fanfic right now.

Thanks again Shroom, and everyone else, you're a great help. Don't forget, if anyone else has any tips that they think will stop me screwing up too badly, it's appreciated.

[Shroom Man 777]

Wow, thanks Shroom, that's really really helpful. I I think I can easily see where my problem was now, it was my punctuation and (especially) my use of paragraphs.

Punctuation and paragraphs? Oh my! Well, thank goodness I showed you how to use paragraphs before it was too late!

I have time to kill, by the way, so I'm going to check out your fanfic right now.

Thanks! I really appreciate it.

Thanks again Shroom, and everyone else, you're a great help. Don't forget, if anyone else has any tips that they think will stop me screwing up too badly, it's appreciated.

Hm... are you already starting your story? Maybe you could post a bit here and we'd have a better idea on what to advise you with.

[Embracer Of Darkness]

Wow, thanks Shroom, that's really really helpful. I I think I can easily see where my problem was now, it was my punctuation and (especially) my use of paragraphs.

Punctuation and paragraphs? Oh my! Well, thank goodness I showed you how to use paragraphs before it was too late!

Yeah man, I've not written anything except music since high school. I'm totally out of my element now, and I'm making the stupidest mistakes.

I have time to kill, by the way, so I'm going to check out your fanfic right now.

Thanks! I really appreciate it.

I checked it out, left my comment in the thread. I thought it was great.

Thanks again Shroom, and everyone else, you're a great help. Don't forget, if anyone else has any tips that they think will stop me screwing up too badly, it's appreciated.

Hm... are you already starting your story? Maybe you could post a bit here and we'd have a better idea on what to advise you with.

I'm not planning to start it yet, I've not thought about it anywhere near enough to start. I'm going to wrap my head around more ideas and stuff first then I'll see what I come up with. I'll be sure to post something when I do, I'll need someone to point out the millions of horrid holes and mistakes.

[Major Diarrhia]

Over all, the flow of the writing is very important. Stops in between sentances and thoughts within sentences should flow from one to the other, without a reader having to be aware of them reading. One thing that helps is cutting out extranious words. For example "Time was getting short, so Bob had to think quickly." This could be cut to "Time was getting short, Bob had to think quickly." I got rid of the word "so" after the comma, the flow is much better without it and gave greater urgency to the writing.

Another important aspect is simily and metaphore. Don't make copout metephores such as "He ran like something that runs really fast". Do "He ran like a jack rabbit ODing on speed with a fire cracker up his ass". Or even better use similly, "Thoughts of his dead lover were a train crashing through a school bus, tragic and unstoppable." Or I can make that a metaphore, "His thoughts were tragic and unstoppable, like a train crashing though a school bus." I prefer simily, I think it's more powerfull and evocative but you have to be carefull using it because you can make things a little confusing sometimes.

With depiction, don't waste time with little explosions and don't make characters that are supposed to be smart take stupid actions simply to move a story along.

Personaly I like technical details. I like knowing how a tool works, vaguely, I like knowing the over all political or social situation. The way you do it though is not to get ahead of your self. Don't describe things that aren't emediatly important. Don't describe things from the past unless they are absolutly neccasary. We don't need to know the entire political career of the current head of whatever unless the main character is directly part of that personal history and that history is going to come up later.