Tips and Tricks

Welcome to the tips and tricks page! On here, I'm going to give you guys some tips and tricks, obviously, that I've found have helped me throughout the years and hopefully, you'll find helpful as well.

Finding Inspiration

When you first start out, you need to come up with a plot. Something to build a story around, before the characters, before the setting, before anything else. And sometimes with all the different shows, movies, and novels out, it's hard to come up with something genuinely "origianl". So don't. Look at your favorite show, your favorite genre, and go off of that. You want to have a connection, a vested interest, in the plot so you don't want to just write about anything willy nilly and expect yourseldf to keep going back to it. Pictured to the right, I have a Teen Wolf poster. That's one of my favorite TV shows and one of the shows that has been giving me some inspiration and ideas lately in my original works. So, here's some tips on finding that inspiration that you need.

Don't rip plots directly from your inspiration: When I say find inspiration, I'm not saying watch a movie and take that plot and copy it to a T in your story. That's not original, that's called copying and pasting and plagiarizing. No good.
Listen to music. God knows the amount of times I've listened to a song or an album and started to form an idea around the emotions or tone of the songs and then continually listened to it, near obsessively, until I fully formed a plot with characters and a setting and everything else needed before you even start writing the actual story.
Don't be afraid to borrow ideas. Now, this is not the same as plagiarizing. Everyone borrows ideas from other people, there's no real "original" anymore, especially in the realms of storytelling. So don't be afraid to look to your favorites and see what they've done and make your own twist on it. Just be careful of exactly replicating, because that never works out well and makes your story lackluster and an annoyance to read.

Teen Wolf Season 2 Poster

Now that you've got some inspiration, you've gotta come up with a plot with characters and a setting!
Base Level

It's alright, you've got a general idea of what kind of story you want to do now. At least you should if you've moved onto this stage of writing. But now you're stuck, you have a vague idea of the plot, no real clue about the characters, and you don't have a location. You're staring at your computer screen, the little blinking line glaring at you. Maybe you've got music on. Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and breath. You've got this and I'm here to help.

Borrowing from real life is okay. You wanna use the name of one of your friends, take a couple traits of theirs to build your character, that's totally fine. These are your characters, you're going to mold them how you will and sometimes you need that little bit of information from a real person to make the character into someone who is believable and real.
Find a location. Location is everything with a story. It's your setting. It can even be a character in and of itself, a living breathing world that these people inhabit. So look around your town, wherever you live. Look into different places around the world, look at other cities. Make a decision and stick with it and start building the setting. Write down descriptors of it. Is it a big city or a small town? Is it in the hot South or the chilling North? Is it normal or does it hold dark secrets? Is it a real town or one that you've created with a fake name but holds properities from other places? These are the questions that you need to ask yourself before you dive into it. Picture it in your mind, put yourself there and then write down whatever you see. You can go back and edit once you have a baseline down for it, this is all about the imagination stage of the writing process.
Making your characters real people. The greatest novels and tv shows and video games and movies make us believe the characters are real people. That they have emotions, that they have their good and bad qualities and for some, either of these will outweigh the other. Make moral grey areas, give each character a quirk or trait that's unique to them that makes them feel real to you and will make them feel real to the audience. Picture them in your head just like the setting. What do they look like? What do they wear? How do they walk and talk? Do they have a nervous habit, like playing with their hair or gnawing on their lip? Take a bit of time for each of your characters, especially focusing on your protagnonist, antagonist, and other main characters, and find out all of this about them and jot it down. Just like with setting, this can all be editted later during the process.

You've got your characters, setting, and plot, now what?
Drafting Time

Every story has a draft. They have several drafts, maybe hundreds, before the actual final product becomes an actual thing.

Take drafts seriously. Kinda obvious but take it seriously. Write this as if it is your final product. Sure the first copy isn't going to be the greatest but it still needs everything that a final copy would.
Don't be scared of writer's block. Everyone gets it, just take a step back and read through it once again. Play a game that might kick you in the butt and give you some inspiration. Watch a movie or show that might push you to write as well as they have. Read a novel and remember how much you love the craft. Anything that you think will help knock down the block, do it and watch the juices start coming once again.
If you get on a roll, roll with it. You're engrossed in your story and can't seem to stop writing, even though you feel like you should. Don't. Let the words flow out and the ideas come onto the page. It's healthy and will help get the crap out before the gold comes.

Helpful Tips

Don't take criticism to heart. If someone is editting your work, they're doing it for your benefit and taking notes of the good and the bad parts of your story. They are saying the things they are to hurt you, they're saying them to help you become a better writer.
Take each comment into account. This is your story, so in the end you make the final decision on edits. But look at each comment or change that someone has made and consider it before deciding if you want to keep your story the way it is or try out their suggestion.
Be ready for haters. There's always going to be people that aren't going to enjoy your story and some that will speak their mind very very loudly. Be ready adn don't let it affect you. Instead, look for the people that enjoy your story and prove those haters wrong by coming out stronger.

Three games that have been given critical acclaim and are highly regarded for their storytelling, plotlines, and dynamic characters.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Released in 2015 to Xbox One, Playstation 4, and PC platforms)
Life Is Strange (Released in 2015 to Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and PC)
Mass Effect 2 (Released in 2010 to Xbox 360, later released on PC)
Trailers for all three are linked by clicking on each cover image for your enjoyment and interest.

	Now that you've got some inspiration, you've gotta come up with a plot with characters and a setting! Base Level It's alright, you've got a general idea of what kind of story you want to do now. At least you should if you've moved onto this stage of writing. But now you're stuck, you have a vague idea of the plot, no real clue about the characters, and you don't have a location. You're staring at your computer screen, the little blinking line glaring at you. Maybe you've got music on. Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and breath. You've got this and I'm here to help. Borrowing from real life is okay. You wanna use the name of one of your friends, take a couple traits of theirs to build your character, that's totally fine. These are your characters, you're going to mold them how you will and sometimes you need that little bit of information from a real person to make the character into someone who is believable and real. Find a location. Location is everything with a story. It's your setting. It can even be a character in and of itself, a living breathing world that these people inhabit. So look around your town, wherever you live. Look into different places around the world, look at other cities. Make a decision and stick with it and start building the setting. Write down descriptors of it. Is it a big city or a small town? Is it in the hot South or the chilling North? Is it normal or does it hold dark secrets? Is it a real town or one that you've created with a fake name but holds properities from other places? These are the questions that you need to ask yourself before you dive into it. Picture it in your mind, put yourself there and then write down whatever you see. You can go back and edit once you have a baseline down for it, this is all about the imagination stage of the writing process. Making your characters real people. The greatest novels and tv shows and video games and movies make us believe the characters are real people. That they have emotions, that they have their good and bad qualities and for some, either of these will outweigh the other. Make moral grey areas, give each character a quirk or trait that's unique to them that makes them feel real to you and will make them feel real to the audience. Picture them in your head just like the setting. What do they look like? What do they wear? How do they walk and talk? Do they have a nervous habit, like playing with their hair or gnawing on their lip? Take a bit of time for each of your characters, especially focusing on your protagnonist, antagonist, and other main characters, and find out all of this about them and jot it down. Just like with setting, this can all be editted later during the process.
You've got your characters, setting, and plot, now what? Drafting Time Every story has a draft. They have several drafts, maybe hundreds, before the actual final product becomes an actual thing. Take drafts seriously. Kinda obvious but take it seriously. Write this as if it is your final product. Sure the first copy isn't going to be the greatest but it still needs everything that a final copy would. Don't be scared of writer's block. Everyone gets it, just take a step back and read through it once again. Play a game that might kick you in the butt and give you some inspiration. Watch a movie or show that might push you to write as well as they have. Read a novel and remember how much you love the craft. Anything that you think will help knock down the block, do it and watch the juices start coming once again. If you get on a roll, roll with it. You're engrossed in your story and can't seem to stop writing, even though you feel like you should. Don't. Let the words flow out and the ideas come onto the page. It's healthy and will help get the crap out before the gold comes. Helpful Tips Don't take criticism to heart. If someone is editting your work, they're doing it for your benefit and taking notes of the good and the bad parts of your story. They are saying the things they are to hurt you, they're saying them to help you become a better writer. Take each comment into account. This is your story, so in the end you make the final decision on edits. But look at each comment or change that someone has made and consider it before deciding if you want to keep your story the way it is or try out their suggestion. Be ready for haters. There's always going to be people that aren't going to enjoy your story and some that will speak their mind very very loudly. Be ready adn don't let it affect you. Instead, look for the people that enjoy your story and prove those haters wrong by coming out stronger.	Three games that have been given critical acclaim and are highly regarded for their storytelling, plotlines, and dynamic characters. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Released in 2015 to Xbox One, Playstation 4, and PC platforms) Life Is Strange (Released in 2015 to Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and PC) Mass Effect 2 (Released in 2010 to Xbox 360, later released on PC) Trailers for all three are linked by clicking on each cover image for your enjoyment and interest.