I’ve been writing down ideas, thoughts, and possible ideas for new articles on how to write for weeks. I also keep questions that readers have been asking me, I even have a good list of comments that I want to transform into articles.
But this week I wanted to think differently, so instead of techniques or advice, I’m going to tell you a lot of nonsense, basic nonsense that may or may not help you.
Ah! By the way, it will be a list, because I like lists. Do you like the lists?
• A simple formula for writing: Make your story fluctuate, from moments of high tension (action, plot, scares, drama), to moments of calm (dialogue, character introduction). Remember that at no time do you have to lose sight of the conflict, that it must be present even when there is no tension.
The Die Hard does this very well — a tense moment, a calm moment, tension, calm, tension, calm. It is your duty to decide how long each moment will last.
Requiem for a dream , he also plays with this dynamic: fast, slow, fast, slow… Although, towards the end of the film the moments of calm become shorter, until they disappear in that spiral of drugs and human depravity.
• Another simple formula: a character wants something, something, or someone stands in their way. Testing begins to see how far you are willing to go (and what you are willing to do) to get there.
• Yet another formula: Something bad happens. That bad thing that happened is getting worse. That bad gets complicated. That bad thing takes an unexpected turn, and maybe (only maybe) that bad thing ends up being solved.
• After writing ask yourself: What was the conflict? How did it stay?
• Keep a journal. When you finish ghost writing, open a new document and write a couple of lines about what happened. Do not tell yourself your existential problems, write only about your story. When you’re done, you’ll see that you have a pretty good summary of what you’ve done.
• After writing ask yourself: Does my character have balls? Are you moving the plot forward or are you being taken here and there? Is it passing from hand to hand like a hot potato? Does he / she go with the flow or is he / she the flow?
• Rate your story: Give a score (from 1 to 100, from 1 to 10, from cool to shit) to each aspect of your story: plot, characters, tension, conflict, narration, quality of the pornographic scenes … Use, if you want , a spreadsheet, do it every time you finish writing.
• After writing ask yourself: Why should I care? Is the story hooking me? Will you hook the others? Don’t underestimate the I-don’t-give-a-shit factor .
• Do not give them similar names to your characters, you should not even give names that start with the same letter. Let’s see, your readers are smart enough not to mistake Valentina for Valeria, but it’s annoying anyway. Avoid similar names in your stories, calling the main trio Saúl, Raúl and Paul is not a good idea.
• After writing, ask yourself: What will happen tomorrow? I don’t mean you ask yourself personally. Think about the direction you want your story to take tomorrow when you write again, think about that and write a couple of lines.
• You are blocked? Can’t move forward? Do you suffer from writer’s block? Well, skip that boring part you’re writing! Nobody has told you that you have to write your story in order, the important thing is that the pieces fit together, the order is the least of it.
Maybe you got a bit out of hand in the last scene; There is something holding you back and you know it won’t work Leave the keyboard alone, disconnect the writer, and turn on the editor. Check, cut, paste, section, destroy, annihilate, devastate. Do whatever.
• After writing ask yourself: What if? Americans love what ifs, me too. After writing ask yourself that question, sometimes what your story needs is a radical change, a total turnaround. Turn it around, do something no one expects, attack your reader from behind, stab yourself in the back. Do the unexpected.
• Answer this question: What is your work about? Answer big, but keep it simple, in a single sentence. What are you trying to tell with that story? And I don’t mean the plot or the theme, I mean that internal question, the one that corroded your head the first the idea came to your head. Write that phrase on a post-it and paste it next to your computer screen. Then draw a penis or nice boobs on another post-it and stick it next to it… Why not?
• After writing ask yourself: Why now? What has happened to make this story happen right now? What is special about this moment that it has started there?
• After writing ask yourself: Have I got bored writing? If your answer is: yes, then find what is wrong and change it.
• Find time to think about your story. It can be in the shower, while you go for a run, while you do the shopping, while you have a beer with your friends, while you dismember your enemies with the strap of a leather thong … Think about the story you are telling when you are not working in her.
• Read the story out loud. Have someone else read it aloud later, I always advise reading things aloud to find errors or inconsistencies, but if it is someone else who reads your story, you will be able to “see” it with different eyes, you will see nuances that you could not before see. Remember that you write for others to read.
• After writing, ask yourself: What are male nipples for?
• Before you sit down to write, read the last page you wrote yesterday. Just the last one.
• After writing ask yourself: Am I writing for my audience? Who is my audience? If you are not very clear, remember that your audience is you. Write for yourself, then for others.
• Write for 45 minutes, rest 15 minutes. Repeat.
• Always record when you finish writing. Record as you type. Always record twice.
• If a sentence or part of the story gives you trouble, leave it alone. DON’T focus on it right now, mark that whole section with big red letters and forget about it. Keep writing, you will solve it when you edit the draft.
• Cut the first chapter, the first paragraph, the first sentence of a paragraph. Embrace the religion of cutting and amputation. The story must be told as soon as possible. Enter as late as possible and count as little as possible.
By now you will have realized that I am a person who asks many questions. One of them is… What was this article about? The truth is that I am not very clear about it.
I’m embarking on a project with the guys from Pulpture , things started very well, but as I’ve progressed through the story I think I’ve stagnated; sometimes it flows very well, other times it sticks to me like chewed gum. By asking myself these questions I have managed to unlock a couple of scenes that were causing me a lot of problems, drawing some boobs has also helped me advance in the story, but that is another matter.
These are my nonsense, the ones I think about as I write, and the ones that help me write. Now it’s your turn, go write, ask yourself questions and then tell me.
PS: You may have noticed that last Friday there was no post and on Monday there was no book list. I’m making some changes to the blog, so please be patient as I finish my spiritual quest. A hug to all!