Introduction to Creative Writing

Hi there!

In this Blog, I hope to answer some crucial questions that amateur writers may have about writing original fiction.  A lot of amateurs think you have to be as good as J.K. Rowling, or Tolkien, Christopher Paolini to come up with amazing, breathtaking, reality warping works of fiction.  Wrong!

All you have to have to be the next (insert your favorite author here) is to understand a few simple things:

1. Setting:  Where does this story take place?
Is it in downtown L.A., or upstate New York, or on a little farm in Kansas?  Or, perhaps it's not even on this planet!  For all we know, your world involves a race of blue people on Alpha Centauri far in the future!  Everything is location, location, location in the world of books.

2. People:  Who are your characters?
What do they do?  Are they human, or otherwise?  Are they good, or evil?  This will help your readers understand WHO your heroes and villains are, why they are who they are/have become, and what they care about.

3. Plot:  What is happening, has happened, and will happen in this story?
Nothing is more grinding on my patience than an amateur story where the writer doesn't seem to know what he wants to happen in his story.  I'm guilty of confusing myself, sometimes, but I go back and rewrite whatever does not makes sense so that my story will be the most likely thing people will read.  Make it interesting... AFTER the rough draft.  That's where the awesomeness of the whole process comes into play.

4. Have the patience of Jesus:  When writing, just relax, and let it come.
A common mistake that a lot of young writers make is expecting to sit down and start writing, and it will magically happen or be perfect.  Sorry to burst your bubble, Mary Sue, but writing takes a lot of planning, so while your waiting, I suggest opening a tablet (made of paper), and start jotting down character notes, world notes, character back stories, and just anything that comes to mind.  You are going to have the patience of Jesus to pull off the world's greatest novel.

At this point, you may wonder: What are the cliches to avoid?

Stephen King once said that there was no such thing as a bad story.  I'm here to say that there is no such thing as a cliche to avoid, despite what a lot of so-called "experts" will tell you.  A cliche is nothing more than an easy way to advance the story, and how you modify that cliche determines how many people drop your book in spite, or how many take it home with them.  Sure, some are still going to roll their eyes at your book, but only because they feel that they can do better, and that's fine--competition is what you need as a writer.
More than cliches, avoid spelling errors.  Those stick out like a drop of blood on a white linen towel.
I will discuss this in detail in my third blog on this subject.

Let's look at cliches like this:  

As with movies, books also have a sort of "Stock Footage" that is available for everyone to use.  That is what cliches are.  They are mental stock footage ripe for use.  HOW you use them is more important than the fact that you used a cliche.  Don't let anyone tell you that cliches are the most hated thing in the world, because I have written the most cliched piece known to man, and people reading it absolutely adored it.  Why?  I did something that fantasy purists tend to not do:  Make the characters easier to identify with.

This is all the information I can come up with at this point, but if you have anything you wish to add, be my guest.