UPDATED! New section for "Bad Planning!"

Hello! I started out writing many years ago, and every day my writing improved by just a little, but it still kept improving! Currently, in the past few days, my writing has taken an incredible leap forwards. I have no clue how it happened, but that's why many of you may notice the sudden boom in my writing as you read the story "Hiding From You." The 'boom' begins at chapter two and will continue through the entire story!

Here's some advice for beginning writers. Now before you read this, don't think for a minute that I'm arrogant, spoiled, or think I'm better than everybody else, because that's not what I'm trying to prove. Here's the advice.

1) Don't look down on yourself.

Beginning writers, and many experts too, tend to look down on their writing and criticize themselves so much that they can hardly put out a word on the paper! Even amateurs like me tend to do it a lot. (By the way, in my mind, there are four levels of writing: Beginner, Amateur, Moderately Good, and Professional). What you have to do is to believe in yourself. You can't be a good writer if even yourself hates you! Like many say, "You are your own worst critic." Trust in the words that come to your mind, but don't just put anything down on the paper! As you grow more mature in the art of writing, you will begin to discover some of these things yourself.

2) Writing takes time!

Many people do this as well: they see a good piece of literature, judge their own work by the literature's standards, and think their work is horrible! That is not true! Don't you realize that it takes time to write? You can't just sit down at a computer when you're ten, start writing a story, and expect to write a masterpiece in the time it takes to clean your room! (In fact, that's exactly what I thought. Sadly, no one would tell me the truth about my horrible writing in their reviews and I ended up being arrogant and selfishly putting my work over others when, in fact, I was just harming myself).

It takes time to become a doctor. It takes time to become a chef. It takes time to become a professional football player! It takes years of work. How can you expect to become a great writer in any less time that it takes someone to go through college? (It takes about four years). Writing isn't just an art...it's also a skill and a job. But don't take this the wrong way: it's fun too! But just like everyone else, you must gradually grow in your writing. If you try hard enough, I believe that in about four years or so, you'll be much better! Have confidence in yourself. That's the key.

3) About dialogue and character...

Whoo...here's the problem for many writers... Dialog/character is one of the main most important things in a story. It creates the character, besides the author's possible descriptions of him or her. When writing fan fiction, it's very important to keep characters from being out-of-character...But! There are exceptions. For example, in my story, "Hiding From You," Gary - usually arrogant and somewhat sneering - completely lost his usual emotions. I had, in fact, replaced them with anger and sexual frustration.

Some out-of-character things can be good, while others can be not convincing at all. For example, if I had given Ash (who is usually kind, a bit stubborn, and loves his Pokemon) a venomous attitude and a hatred towards everyone, without reason, then it would be hard to believe, not many would like my story, and I would have had to just scrap the whole thing anyways. With Gary it's a little more believable. Why? I'm not exactly sure myself - and I'm not afraid to admit it; I'm not a professional either - but I do think it has to do with the fact that his attitude before was already somewhat similar...

This is the point I am trying to make, and dialog has a lot to do with it. For instance, with Gary being so angry now, if I had ever made his dialog something that a nice person would say, then it would turn off the readers. The problem with writing dialog is that sometimes you want to put your own feelings into a character because you love them so much, but what you really do, then, is make a totally new character. For instance, if I was ever mad, I would never cuss (out loud at least. XD) but I would say something smart-alecky while at the same time trying to sound like I was just being kind, which I have a knack for doing. I'm sort of sly that way...

The one thing I was worried about was, "If I put this dialog into Gary's mouth, won't my readers think that I'm that sort of person?" Chances are, they won't, but I was too worried at the time to know that. Thankfully, I did it anyways. Make your character say something that they really would say in that time or place. Don't just make them say something that you yourself would say. Try to imagine yourself in that situation, with that certain character's feelings and/or emotions. Imagine that you were Gary (my version of him) and that you were just hit in the face. Would you have him say, "Ouch. That hurt," or "You fucking asswipe!"? If you didn't pick the latter sentence, try again.

Dialog and character development can be very hard to achieve. Don't give up. Never give in, no matter what anyone says, whether it be your family, friends, your own parents...just keep trying hard! That's all you need. Without determination, achieving your goal will become yesterday's dream.

4) Details, details, details!

Details! Can I not say it any clearer? You have to use details if you want to get readers to your story. This means that - le gasp - you will have to sometimes look at what you're describing in real life, if you're confused. When I first started writing, I didn't put enough details into my story and it sort of went something like this: "Ash went to the bathroom. When he came back he went to bed." Yawn. Lets try adding details to that, just for effect:

"Ash dragged himself into the bathroom, stopping just short of the toilet. His pale reflection had caught him, yet again. Delicately, intricately, he moved a hand over the scars beneath his eyes. They were paling in time with his face, flesh eating away at their embeds so that they would - in time - totally disappear. He sighed, equally pale mahogany eyes clouded with thought.

"After a quick bathroom break and wash of his hands, he trudged to his room tiredly. The bed was already layed out for him, the covers stiff and ironed, and the pillows fluffed. A grin escaped to his lips. Gary had been here. Exhaustedly, he carried himself to the bed and - with a bit of struggling - drew the covers on top of him to settle down to sleep."

Before I continue, I want to say this: I might use this in my story... I might! So if you copy these paragraphs or a phrase or anything from it, you are committing a crime. It's called plagerism. In fact, now that I have it down in words, it doesn't matter if I put it in my story or not. Copying it will be committing a crime, and you can go to jail for it. I don't want to sound selfish, but it takes time to write, so I don't want any of my pieces to be copied. I bet all authors can say that. Of course I won't waste time trying to get you into jail, but I can always have your fanfiction.net account taken away from you. I have witnesses! Those who are reading this right now are my witnesses!

Now...to continue...

That was an example of detail. Yes, it was not professional. Yes, I'm not the best writer in the world, but I still managed to write something that didn't contain too much or too little detail. Some writers overuse their right of putting details into a story, so they overwrite. Here's an example of that same passage with too MUCH detail:

"Ash Ketchum, a boy of ten years old and deep black hair that spread around the sides of his head looking like the sweeping end of a mop, was heading to the bathroom where he could use the toilet and wash his hands. He got inside the bathroom, closed the door, and locked it. Then he went to the toilet and pulled his pants down, sitting on the toilet seat. He then proceeded to making tiny farts from his rear end, also called the anus, and the fart's vibrations bounced around the toilet with an echo, eventually fading away.

"Then he proceeded to the actual pooping. The poop started out as a brown head that peeked through the hole in his butt cheeks. Then it slid downwards, a stench eminating from it that made Ash's nose cringe. The poop slid into the toilet with a splash, throwing cool water upon Ash's buttocks. Ash reached for the toilet paper, put his hand on it, and got some. Then he rubbed his butt with it and threw it into the toilet.

"He got up from the toilet, zipped up his pants, and flushed the toilet. He walked over to the sink and reached for the faucet. Then he turned the handle and watched as the cool water poured out. Putting his hands under the water, he grabbed a bar of soap and began lathering it against his hands. The soap smelled nice. He put his hands under the water and rinsed off the soap. Then he reached for the towel behind him on the towel rack, touched it, brought it closer, and dried his hands off.

"He walked out of the bathroom. Then he walked towards his room. He saw that the bed sheets were nicely folded and that they had a cute white design on them that looked like a swirl mixed with tiny pokemon that looked like they were having fun. The swirls on the sheets were thick and almost to the point of being the color gray. The pillows were fluffed too. He looked at the ground and saw no feathers.

"He walked towards the bed, stood by it, and jumped into it. When he had settled in, he reached for the covers, pulled them close, and then snuggled against the warmth. He fell asleep in an average of seven minutes, but many people would say that - in fact - it had been eight."

Not only is this so detailed to the point that it's ridiculous, but it's filled with holes in grammar and not-quite-tied-together sentences. Not all the sentences fit one another, or flow together. That's also something you acquire in writing as you begin to mature. I don't need to say much now, because you can read these passages yourselves and realize what the difference is between them. Also, as you saw in the ridiculous passage, there was nothing more than details, details, details! Of course that's what this topic is about, but if you look closely at the first passage, you will see - mixed in - there are various mental images.

In order to enhance your detail, please keep reading stories. Reading stories is an essential way to become a better writer. I don't necessarily think that reading bad stories will help, but if you read at all, it's better than nothing.

5) Bad Planning...

Recently, I've fallen into a bit of a trap. For stories, you should know the ending before you begin. You should never, and I repeat NEVER, start a story without an idea of how it's going to end. For me, I've done it. It's called "bad planning" and it's usually the reason for story failures.

Some people say that you should draw up an entire outline of the story; draw up a "map" of every chapter and what will be in the chapter so you won't be stuck. Here's the problem with that: not only is it tedius work, but it's also very very - excuse my language, but - STUPID. If you know exactly how your story will turn out in each and every chapter, writing it would be a craptastic load of "boring" wouldn't it? Isn't the whole point of writing to use your imagination and expand on your thoughts as you write? If you plan out every single chapter, not only will you be bored as heck with your writing and not want to continue, but you'll put yourself down and think your story is bad, even when it might not be! By the way, the people who read can tell if the author is bored. It's very simple to figure out based on the writing style/dialog.

To plan out your story, make it simple: for doing fanfiction, you might want to skip the "Character Map" part. For those of you who want to write an actual story, read on.

- Character Map

A character map isn't exactly a "map." For instance, my character maps are usually just a page with my character's name at the top and the age, appearance, background info, and summary of the character on the same page. That's all you have to do. If you do one for each of your characters, you'll find that you can embed more emotion into the story (especially if the background info is particularly saddening).

- Story Summary

This is simple enough. Simply write out a story summary, with the end result. Don't put a ton of detail into it because - like I said before - that will make writing a tedius and boring task. Instead, write a few paragraphs (one to three) about your story. The beginning paragraph can be the beginning of the story, the second paragraph can be the middle, the last paragraph the end. This is very simple and anyone can do it.

That's really all you have to do to plan your story. You don't have to plan out your story to the edge with details. Just make a summary of it. And - rarely though - some people don't even need character maps or story summaries. But please don't try to make a story on your first time without those things. It's very difficult for the average person to do (including me). And don't think that showing off will do your story any good. It's better to slowly make a good story with a character map than to rush a sucky story to be able to say, "I finished quicker than anyone! Go me!"

I will be adding more to this page. Please visit back soon!