Advice for writer

 Hunter Sage Taylor 

Often newbies ask what they should do when they first start out. There's probably a million answers to this question, most of them very technical. So let's talk about where the rubber meets the road, when you have to sit in front of a blank screen or a fresh piece of paper and create something, something worth reading.

Start with short stories. Write a few hundred. You should be able to write a short story every week. Write in different genres. Write from different points of view. Write like you're the opposite sex.

When you first start out, concentrate on writing interesting, funny or profound dialogue. I hate to break it to you, but beyond a certain point, nobody cares how well you describe the meadow.

All the sudden it's up to you to be funny, or threatening, or interesting, suddenly you realize the burden is on you to carry the conversation.

Virtually anybody can write grammatically correct sentences, but can you write a perfect sentence again and again? And again.

Can you make your character funny? Cuz if you can't make him or her funny by making the character say funny things you're in trouble.

Suppose your character is a low-level genius who was drafted into the military and never got near a college of any kind. Maybe he wasn't a very good student in high school because his alcoholic father was always beating his mother up and he had to protect her, so he barely made it. What would he sound like? Would he use big words? Would he swear a lot? Can you make him sound interesting? Entertaining?

Many people when they first start out. Think this is easy. But here's a challenge. Put two people in a restaurant. Describe their backgrounds shortly and a little bit about who they are and then start having them talk to each other. You need to make it interesting -like "My Dinner with Andre".

You think that's easy? I think you're going to find that it is really hard. What? You spent 4 years learning all about writing and the history of writing and so on and so on and they never told you you had to be funny or mean or deceptive.

If you're a rather boring person yourself, it's going to be even harder. Think about it. Nobody's going to read your wonderful story regardless of how well you write descriptions

Or describe the beautiful landscape. Boring.

The first thing you have to do after you create a basket full of characters is put them in an interesting environment and make them talk and not sound like the same person. Even more important. Make them not sound like you, especially if you're a boring person.

Let's face it, if you're an introvert and that doesn't mean you aren't a smart and a wonderful person, but it probably means you're going to have trouble making your characters funny or interesting or threatening or any number of things.

Ask yourself, if I'm going to create a sympathetic character isn't his or her dialogue going to going to follow along those line

Create two people. Put them at a table in a restaurant. It's their first date and have them talk to each other and make each other's dialogue sound completely different. Even more, reveal who they are through their dialogue. It's harder than you think.

If you're the kind of person that has difficulty coming up with interesting and funny things to say, you could be in trouble. It's better you know this before you go any further.

To paraphrase Clint Eastwood particularly The Outlaw Josey Wales, " When the going gets tough, and it looks like you're not going to make it, then you got to get mean, I mean plum mad dog mean. Cuz if you lose your head, you'll neither live nor win."

You stand there, trembling, unsure of what to say. You can smell that Josey has been on a horse all day, but it's not a rank odor. It speaks of well-worn leather and sweat and gunpowder.

Josey Wales hands you your writing pencil. He stares at you with those steely eyes squinting so hard you can barely see his pupils, and ends with, " That's just the way it is." Then he walks away.

Gird your loins (Don't say that around the kids it'll make them sick), suck in your gut, and at least pretend that you know what to do with that pencil Josey shoved in your hand.

You're going to create an incredible world, a new world and you have to do it all by yourself. Let's go!

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