# I need knowledge



## Kuraggo (Mar 16, 2010)

Hi all. 

I'm not a writer, I have never done a piece of ANYTHING involving words before, much less creating a story. And on top of that my English is pretty much rubbish.

So why am I here? Well, you see for a while I've been wanting to create a flash series, a fantasy/adventure but keeping it somewhat "real". 

Now I know I have no chance of succeeding doing this alone, so I'm trying to get some advice as to what could be the best way to create a plot, interesting characters and scenarios. In other words I just want to see the way all of you approach this scenario and create a draft of it. How do you start? What is better at first, to begin shaping the world in which the story takes place or to begin with main characters and antagonists? 

I will be looking for help in the future to get some real help with it, for the dialogue and all of that but I want to have something comprehensible to show, not just "hey I want a story about some guy that goes on an epic adventure, can you come up with a story and write it for me?"

And that's about it. :V


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## Atrak (Mar 16, 2010)

Whenever I made a flash series, I just made it up as I went :V . A lot of my stories are free-typed, as well. A lot as in all, so far. However, I do have a few tips I can give you, I suppose. They may be helpful, or they may confuse. Either way, I win.



~Plot: Where to start?
            The end, obviously. Figure out how you want it to end, then figure out how it starts, and then add in the filler or series of confrontations that lead from beginning to end. Don't bother with lots of details at this point, you'll hate yourself later for it. Just do a bare outline and make up the superfluous details as you go. It makes it more fun.

~Characters and Scenarios: How to make them interesting.
         For one, don't make them perfect. Perfection is boring. Give them their own little quirks and irks. Add in random things to the setting that aren't really necessary. It's like adding water to acrylic paint. If you don't add enough, you end up with a small painting, and it is caked on there. If you add too much water, it'll streak and ruin the entire story.

~Shaping the World.
        Personally, I just start with the current setting, and build from there. It gives you room to grow and change the world in small ways, without having to alter the entire thing, just for one small detail.


I have to go for now, but might add more later.


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## Xipoid (Mar 16, 2010)

I see people point this method out quite a bit. That most surely isn't the only way to write, but I suppose it is a good way to start if you've never done any sort of creative writing before.


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## Scarborough (Mar 16, 2010)

> How do you start?



It depends on what you write, how you write, and how you write.

What you write, as in, you wanna fit into a genre? You wanna write about characters? Good plot? Intricate worlds? Social commentary? Interesting themes/motifs? Not all good stories have all of these elements, and some good stories may use only one or two of them.

How you write, as in, how do you translate concrete experiences into words, if you're even going to translate concrete experiences at all. Are you meticulous and accurate, describing the precise curvature and hue and texture and flavor and smell of a wine bottle and its contents? Or are you just gonna say it's alcohol and someone's drinking it already?

How you write, as in, what works best for you? You the kind of person who does like seventeen volumes of research before blasting out a fifty page outline? Or you the kind of person who sits under an oak tree with a notepad and a pen? Or you the kind of person who can only write whilst drunk?

It all depends. Me personally? I'll have at most the first six or seven words of a piece before I set down to write it. Any more than that, and I can't write the thing. I never begin with the world, I never even think about the world, so my stories don't have intricate settings to them. The only things I'm concerned about is how the words feel on the page, and if the thing's cohesive enough. Sometimes I'll care about character. Sometimes I won't.

And how I create a draft of it is I put down six or seven words and then I write what naturally follows. Sometimes nothing naturally follows, so I scrap the thing. Sometimes what naturally follows is really tedious and boring, so I scrap the thing. Sometimes what naturally follows is a story about a delusional mother having a false memory of losing her only son to some unnamed war. Or an elephant getting hit by a car. And then I write about it.

So to answer your question,


> What is better at first, to begin shaping the world in which the story takes place or to begin with main characters and antagonists?



No. Or yes. It depends on how you write. And how are the characters different from the world they live in? Don't the two shape each other in some meaningful ways?


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## M. LeRenard (Mar 17, 2010)

You might as well browse this thread.  A lot of it is information you probably wouldn't need or care about, but some of the answers you seek can be found there, if you look for it.

For you, though, I would definitely recommend making an outline.  Flesh out the characters' personalities, the plot, the world, absolutely everything, beforehand.  It's important because you're animating this, so you don't want to run into a time when you realize that episode 2, which you spent a whole month on, created a giant plot-hole, so now you're going to have to delete the whole thing and spend another month redoing it, plus another month fixing large segments of other episodes that make references to the original episode 2 that you just scrapped.  You know?  An outline for animators (or game-programmers, or anything of that nature where it's not just writing you're doing) is your insurance plan against serious mistakes.
So how do you make an outline?  Well, just make a list of important events.  From the beginning all the way to the end.  Sort of like this:
1.) Car chase scene.  Main character is very persistently trying to get her purse back.
2.) Purse retrieval, some violence.  Maybe in a warehouse.
3.) Main character goes home and watches TV.
The End.

Just keep the details to the story, and focus only on the overall plot in the outline.  Then go through it again a few times to make sure everything makes sense, and that one thing always leads to another.  And try to avoid boring scenes.  Like... I would probably cut that part where she goes home and watches TV, because I know writing that scene would be lame.

So if I were you, that's where I would start.  Concerning characters and world-building and what-not... again, see that link above.


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## Kuraggo (Mar 17, 2010)

Thanks for the replies everyone, it's exactly what I wanted to know, different methods and ways to approach the creation of a story.
As I said I intend to create a flash series, but I do want to have practically everything done before I start animating it to avoid plot holes and nonsensical or meaningless stuff and to be able to keep the pace. 

But I guess I'll just need to experiment a bit and try to come up with something interesting. 

Oh and checked that thread before, but I think that the info there is aimed towards people that have had experience in writing before.


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## Atrak (Mar 17, 2010)

M. Le Renard said:


> You might as well browse this thread.


 
That thread was made on my b-day. I'll have to peruse it later.


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