Sky Warden's Epic Writing Guide Lines

 

Forgive my tardiness. My life is getting busier and busier. Even, I got a week of exam after a week of exam, and just got another week of exam last week. I was working on a project when I got another one, and there were more things I need to learn before I graduate. I'm planning to work in a gaming company as a programmer, so I have to learn many things.

 

I apologize that I rarely post writing tips here, not like @Kolth. He's an active writer. I have to say that I'm proud to know that Lad. I was focused in proof-read requests and forgot to post writing tips. You know that I have a bad memory don't you?

 

Well, to redeem my stupidity, I decided to write an epic post, full of writing tips. I will throw my codes away for the next hours. You may read how to write like a pro. I warn you that it will be a huge wall of text, but read it if you have the time. Let's begin with the most basic, yet fatal one. The essences of fan fiction writing.

 

Understanding Art

 

What is art? What is drawing? Music? Writing? Is music just a set of funky sound that makes your feet shuffling? Is drawing just a bunch of objects to describe things? Is writing just a wall of text which tells you something? Is art just how we call music, drawing, and writing as?

 

Art is a way to express our mind. (Pro) People draw to express the scenery in their mind. People make music to express their feeling with magnificent tones (I'm not talking about Justin Bieber). People write to express the story in their mind. People do martial art to express the beauty of their movement and defense system.

 

Why is it important to know what does 'art' means? Because you can't talk if you don't understand the language. You have to know what you're making. You need to have a direction. What am I doing here in front of this blank paper?

 

We're not here to draw unique cartoon character with weird nose, or play an instrument like a mad man. We're not here to write how cool our OC is neither. Even, we're not here to arrange a set of brutal fighting moves which is similar to the movements of an animal.

 

I'm here, to make a sad ballad of two lovers. I'm here, to write a heroic saga of a poor but righteous beggar. I'm here, to paint the space and freedom in the sky during the sunset. I'm here, to make a new defensive system and counter to attack his Yin and Yang Wei Mai meridian.

 

You know what you're going to do. A new beauty of human mind. You're going to spit that beauty out of your mind onto a piece of paper, or wooden dummy.

 

If now you can see your target, it's easy to launch the arrow. The matter now, is just knowing how to draw your bow.

 

Knowing your role

 

You've known your target. We've known what are you going to do. You may want to write the struggle of a poor innocent boy who's stuck between an epic war of two factions. The matter is, how do I do that? I don't know what's my role in making an art.

 

It's important to know what are you doing, as well as how do you do that. I want to tell this awesome egg I ate this morning. How do I tell it to my friend? Ah yes. It's yellow, greasy, soft, warm, and served above a well-cooked fried noodle. Say it in your language. English, Chinese, Indonesian, Germany, whatever, and your friend may understand (if they know your language of course). Ah yes, language is also an art.

 

I'm not a master of drawing nor music, so I will just give examples in writing. I want the reader to understand the character's struggle, his fears and hopes. How can I do that? Shall I beg to the reader to give sympathy to the character?

 

"Please. This stallion is very sad. He knows nothing about this war, and he lost a mare he loved so much, even before he could say his love to the mare. Please give him some sympathy and love him."

 

Or maybe you want to have a friendly chat with the reader, telling them how sad the stallion's life is?

 

"The stallion sat alone there. He was very sad. No doubt. What would you feel if your beloved one died? He mourned for the rest of that afternoon."

 

Or how about telling what happened as objective as possible?

 

"The stallion received two boxes of donuts. After hoofing some bits to the shop keeper, he dragged his legs to the table near the window they used to sit on. He sat heavily on that familiar wooden chair, and pushed one box to another side of the table as he stared to his own. The afternoon sun showered the box with heavy and serene light. Slightly he opened his box, peeking to his donuts through the space, but stopped immediately as he remembered what would she say if she caught him doing such thing. He completely opened his box and saw some chocolate donuts inside. A weak smile formed on his face. He put his hoof in the circle in the center of a donut as if he was wearing a ring. He sticked his tongue out, trying to make the silliest face he could, and lifted that donut ringed hoof to nothing... but an empty chair."

 

See? Your task is to tell the reader what happened in the past. Not begging to the reader nor chatting with them. Your task is to tell the story as objective as possible. That way, they will believe every single word of yours. That's why we're called narrators. Also note that there are some cases where you can be considered as an unreliable narrator because you don't do your job well.

 

Simply, your job is : To bring the readers to your the world of your story.

 

This is why I say writing is (probably) the strongest art ever existed in the history of human kind.

 

How does writing work

 

Now you know your target, and your task. Let's move to the system then. This includes a complicated, yet simple, theory on how human's mind works, but don't worry, you don't have to learn it to be a good writer. Then how does art work?

 

Let's start with the flow chart. I will use writing as the example. A reader reads your description. His imagination (by instinct) draws a mental world according to your description. He saves that mental scenery and continues reading. He reads another description (it can be actions, etc) and add another mental scenery in the mental world. Repeat.

 

Simply that's how your mind works. What do you see in your mind when you read or hear the word "Potato" ? Note that the mental image made by the word can be different, depends on the people. If you say "Pony" to a Brony, they may simply think about that pony you see here, but if you say it to a non-Brony who doesn't even know what is MLP, they may think about a tiny horse with freaking mane.

 

How to make your writing works

 

You've known what are you doing here, your target, your task, and how will your art work. This is where things get tricky. How to make things work. You may have experienced talking with people, but they get it wrong. You may say "I love potato." and people may think that either you enjoy eating potato, or you want to marry a potato. Like what I said, language is an art.

 

Here, you want the reader to understand your story, your art. You want them feel that feeling, etc. How? Show them, don't just telling them. Here are some ways to do that :

 

First, use active voice.

 

You may have read this so many times. The simplest reason is that active voices are much more reliable, strong, and brief than passive voices. For example, "He glared at them. His chest moved up and down regularly in his heavy breath. He groaned and stomped out of the room". That scene is written with active voices. The reader will just :

 

Okay. Clear enough. Look at how angry he was. There's nothing needed to be questioned here.

 

Meanwhile, here's an example of passive voices "He was angry. He left the room." The reader will like :

 

What angry? How angry? What do you mean with angry? There are so many things needed to be explained.

 

Also note that using passive voices gives less details to the reader. It's harder to draw the mental scenery by reading passive voices. For a record, I like saying this to any writer I meet. Trust the reader with their intelligence. Savvy?

 

Second, be objective.

 

I've given you an example of an "Unreliable Narrator". Being objective means that you must tell your story as what it is. Don't affect on how you tell the story with your personal (or character) feeling. Even in first person narrative (this is a reason why most writers use third person omniscient). The reader won't believe you if you're not neutral in telling the story. To make the reader believes in the narrator is very important that it can make the reader keeps reading and they will love you. If you want the reader to feel the same, give them a reason. They will be like :

 

"Bah! Stop complaining about your own life dude. Tell me the story".

 

How to bring the feeling then? Drag them to your world and show them.

 

Third, don't give too many information especially at the same time.

 

This breaks the interesting part of the story. If you give too many information, the story won't be interesting again. In a mystery story for example. It won't be fun if you simply tell them that "He's the killer. Here's the proof". The reader will lose their interest. It's always interesting to find out the interesting things by yourself right? Again, I will say "Trust the reader with their intelligence".

 

Fourth, use dialogues, scenes, and character to provide information.

 

I did say that "Don't give too many information" then how to give them information? Use those things I mentioned above. My favourite way to provide a lot of information about the story world is with "A troubadour character". I use a character to tell another character about what he/she knows. Like there's an old man who tells a story to the hero.

 

Fifth, start with a scene.

 

When you watch a movie which starts with a group of men running in a forest, wearing red-blood tunics and blood which drips from the edge of their weapon, what's in your mind? "Whoa. What happen? What's that blood? Are they fighting? Fighting what? Come on! Next scene!" Hook them right when they start reading.
Sixth, don't make the reader thinks too much.

 

There are so many things about this one. Playing with their sense, etc. Here are some ways to do this :

 

1. Use dialogue tags.

 

It's always important to show the reader who says what. That's what the dialogue tags are for. You don't have to put "He said" after every dialogue. Use dialogue tags just to make it clear. It's also needed in scenes. Maybe you use so many 'he' and 'she' in your paragraphs. It's not wrong, but it will be nicer if you make it clear who do what in the scene.

 

My suggestion is to use the character's name every paragraph, so it will be easier to track 'who do what' when you use 'he' or 'she' in the next sentences. Also, use the character's name whenever you change the character. Like when Sky Warden is doing something, you can use 'Sky Warden' in the beginning of the scene and use 'he' for the next sentences. Then, when it turns to Cunning Horn, you can use 'Cunning Horn' to start the scene and use 'he' for the next sentences. Use it like that whenever you change scene to make it clearer. The reader will enjoy it.

 

2. Use paragraph spaces between character's dialogues.

 

This as well. You may make your reader blind by ignoring this. Human's eyes, by instinct takes spaces as a sort of 'end' and they will start a new set of objects in their mind. If you make a long dialogue of Asnee Hoof, which takes a paragraph, then need to switch to Mind Horizon (my new OC), change the paragraph. Paragraph of Asnee Hoof can be the dialogues and the scenes Asnee did, but keep the point of view at Asnee. You can write "Asnee saw Mind Horizon played with his wings as he cut the apple." but not "Mind Horizon played with his wings as Asnee talked." the point of view moves to Mind Horizon here. You may say that this isn't wrong, but that's not so comfortable, at least for me. When you change the paragraph, the point of view changes to another character.

 

3. No tense switch.

 

What is tense switch? It's a situation where a sentence switches the tense. If your writing is written in past tense, and you write your second sentence in present tense, it's called tense switch. Why is it bad? Because it can make the reader loses their track on the time and the order of the scenes, and gets confused. Our objective here is to keep the reader away from thinking too much, and tense switches will make them re-read your paragraph which will ruin their mental scenery. If you're using past story telling style, use past tense only. Even if it's a flashback, don't make any tense switch.

 

4. Play the correct story stream.

 

This is very important. Some of you may have known that the first step I suggest you in writing is to write our your first garbage for some reasons. That will help you determine what else are needed and which information has to be told first. The biggest mistake writers make, and the most frequent as well, is playing with flashbacks.

 

Note that this is very different with starting with a scene. When readers begin reading, they have no any single idea about the story. They don't know what is Ponyville, Canterlot, Celestia or Luna, or maybe Sky Warden. If you start pointing those things in a flashback in the beginning of your story, the reader will be confused.

 

"What's Ponyville? Where's Canterlot? What do Celestia and Luna do? And who the bucking hay is Sky Warden?"

 

They will lose their patience because it seems like you're insulting their intelligence. They will feel stupid and depressed because they have no idea what are you talking about. No matter how good your story is, if the reader don't want to read it anymore, they won't know how good the story is.

 

Harry Potter is a good example. It starts from Dumbledore bringing Harry to Privet Drive instead of a flashback to You-Know-Me being Voldemort. Some interesting stories have some mysteries, and it won't be fun if you simply tell all the secret in the beginning of the story. "But it doesn't ruin any secret. I want the reader to find out about it later."

 

Think again about it, and you will find how flashbacks are bad in the beginning of a story.

 

As the story goes, reveal things one by one. Slowly, but sure. Climb to the climaxes and anti-climaxes and keep playing the story stream beautifully until your story is finished, and everything is sealed.

 

An advice from this mere writer

 

A lot of things to read isn't it? It's true sometimes writing seems very heavy, and frustrating, especially when you get a critique or you can't fix something in your story, but I want you to remember this : Why do we write at the first place? To be a famous writer? To be a rich from our books selling? No. It's because we love telling stories.

 

People do art because they like it. People draw because they like spitting out their imagination on papers. People make musics because they love how the tones sound in their ears and bring them the feeling. People do martial art because they love the beauty of movement and the energy stream.

 

We love writing because we love telling story.

 

So when your pencil feels heavy, and your keyboard feels too sturdy to type with. When you feel your head wants to drop on a pillow and throw those papers away, remember this:

 

Why I love writing.

 

To think about while you're at the shower

 

To end this ridiculously long post, I will give you a key which is very useful in writing. Sometimes, you may want to tell information obviously, which isn't necessary to be told in details because you trust the reader with their intelligence. Don't blame me because I limit you to do such things. In fact, I don't. There's a smart way to provide obvious yet important information like the character's thought, feeling, etc. It's called interior dialogues.

 

Interior dialogues are dialogues spoken by characters in their mind, and are written in italics. Like this :

 

"That bucking colt again."

 

That's spoken inside the character's mind. Interior dialogues are strong because it can fix your tense switch issue and make your writing more reliable since we can assume that that was what on the character's mind. In this case, you show the reader what was on the character's mind instead of telling them. It's more reliable, even though it's written in first person point of view.

 

Gladly, this "italics means interior dialogue" is already accepted as standard by most readers these days, and even a new people who just start reading may read it as interior dialogue by instinct. Play with interior dialogues. It's strong, useful, and fun.

 

I think that's all for now everypony. I apologize again for my lack of contribution to the writing part of the Bronydom. Hope this can redeem my sin.

 

Your humble writer,

 

Sky Warden a.k.a. Wardy.

Source: MLP Forums Writing Centre