Tips for aspiring writers from someone who needs them (Peter Kapitola).
How it feels
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How nice would it be if we could somehow transfer the story directly from our heads into a computer file? Maybe one day the technology will get there. Who knows...
It's good to remind yourself that the story in your head is actually a lot less complete, developed, and coherent than you think. Your imagination glosses over the gaps without you realizing it. This makes it easier when it comes to writing it, because you don't get as disappointed over how much work is still required to make sense of it all.
This is a chart I created to explain the various tenses, aspects and moods in English. I have seen a large number of these around, but all of them were only subsets of this chart. This one seeks to combine as many as practical. I hope you find it useful. :) (Note - some avid redditors have pointed out a couple of errors related to the subjunctive tense. I will be fixing these shortly). For the PDF, click here .
As someone who loves board games, I don't know why this hasn't occurred to me earlier. But if you're struggling to pull a plot together, it might be helpful to think of your story as a board game. Sure, it might be an unusual board game. The players might start and finish at different times and have wildly different moves, resources, motivations and goals. But as long as those goals are in conflict (which is essential to a story) then your characters are basically all playing a game. Start with Turn 1, Player 1. Become that player. What do you want? What moves are you going to make towards that? Then, become Player 2. What moves will they make? Are they aware of the other players yet? Repeat this for all players. Then move on to Turn 2. Which players are now aware of other players? Which players will have to adapt their moves based on what the other players have done? Which players are working together or against each other? Are any new players joining the game, or ha...
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