I want to start writing books from a story concept that I have but I have never written anything serious in my life.
I have a fear that the book I write will be bad as is the case for a lot of first written content but the problem is that I have no other story ideas nor any interest at the moment to write any other stories to gain experience.
How do I deal with this? Do I just go write some stories that I have no interest in to gain some experience?
pic unrelated
Write erotica first.
Surprisingly good advice, given you're motivated to do so. Erotic writing is generally not going to be serious, but you still learn a lot about how to write, and specifically write fiction, from attempting it, and if you want to do it effectively you'll find out how to approach creating a coherent sense of what you want to portray in words though this, and how you personally approach "getting things onto a page" vs editing after the fact (which is something you'll see the importance of if you try to write this kind of thing, doing so while horny, and going over things later).
Like in 'serious' writing you'll want to learn to maximize what you get out of your words, and you can learn how your state of mind affects this and how "mental flow" can result in much better first drafts (even if that might require some editing) compared to trying to meticulously and laboriously figure out how to craft some effect.
this homie's ancestors died of gangrene after getting their shoulders hacked by sandBlack folk and he's scared of a piece of paper
>I have never written anything serious in my life.
And you think you have a serious story to tell? Have you read novels before? They're all ridiculous.
just write the idea you have in mind. you'll improve as you work on your draft, and you can always rewrite it if it sucks.
it will suck. the first draft will absolutely suck in any number of ways. but that's normal. writing is an iterative process and your first draft will not be your final one
Just do it dude. Get it down on paper (or a screen), have some people read it, listen to what they think about it and keep writing until you're satisfied.
If you're still insecure and want some practice get out of your house, turn right and walk in that direction for 20 minutes, return and write something about it, even if nothing interesting happended
Why the frick not, right? I get up from my shit-stained throne of undone laundry and half-scribbled notes, perked up by Anon's challenge. Turn right outside my haven of sin and literary masturbation, and magic awaits—or so the fairytale goes.
Precisely 20 minutes later, it's just me and a rusted old fire hydrant that seems to give about as many fricks as I do. There's a scent of piss du jour from the alley cat gifting its liquid gold to the concrete. My muse, ladies and gentlemen—cue the sarcastic applause.
I'm about to traipse back when a neon sign winks at me through a grimy window. "breasts! Ass! Booty Galore!" it screams silently into the void. A strip club—an epitome of the human condition.
Here's your goddamn inspiration, Anon: Life's a fricking strip club. We're all strutting around, shaking our moneymakers, hoping someone's drunk enough to throw a buck our way. I want to tell these girls they're the unsung Sapphos of our era, but really, they're just hoping the sweaty bills sticking to their skin will cover rent.
My 20-minute odyssey ends with this gem: an epiphany served with a side of sleaze and the understanding that everyone's got their hustle. Mine? Churning words into a cacophony of breasts and existential despair.
I head home, ready to give my keyboard hell, stinking of alleyway urine and secondhand smoke. My story won't write itself, but at least now it's got some character—neon-lit and as dirty as it comes.
Just start writing. First with one sentence, then second. It'll probably turn out shit. Maybe even will never get any good. But you'll still get something out of it, what, will only depend on you
90% of writing a book is attempting to turn the pile of shit you wrote into something more than a pile of shit through editing, revising, rewriting and alcoholism.
how many rewrites until it would be edible for the public release?
I have similar problem and I abandon the progress after one page which I still don't like
>how many rewrites
>I abandon the progress after one page
you're not even to the point where you can ask that question. sometimes sections turn out great the first go around and when you're editing you barely change anything. sometimes you reread another part of it and you're like, holy frick this is hot garbage, and it needs a lot more work.
So I'll throw out a middlish number: 5. But each revision should go quicker than the last, and some parts will only need 1 or 2 revisions, and others will need like 10+
>I have a fear that the book I write will be bad as is the case for a lot of first written content
yeah, it will be bad. you have to practice like you would anything else
Picture this: I'm the keyboard-clacking, caffeine-addicted hopeful author with a vision that could make Joyce weep and Bukowski drink even more—if that's humanly possible. So, I'm sitting there, my single literary nugget of gold, scared shitless it's gonna turn out to be pyrite. Write other stories? Frick that. My muse doesn't get out of bed for anything less than groundbreaking.
But hey, everyone's saying you gotta warm up before you sprint, right? So I churn out these half-baked shorts like a literary sweatshop—no heart in it, just plot vomit on paper. It was like having a hard-on for the most unattainable person at the bar when there's a perfectly willing and equally attractive individual giving you the come-hither next to you.
Patience worn thinner than the plot of a porno, I go for the jugular—The Final Boss. My magnum opus, my Leiris' bullfight—and who's the Cold Lack of Public? The icy b***h date who checks her watch more than your words.
I throw myself at the feet of every Tom, Dick, and Harry with the faint hope they'll crack the cover. "Cool bro, yeah sure, I have a match, catch ya later!" they say. Motherfrickers wouldn't recognize true art if it slapped them with a Dostoevsky novel.
An there I stood, my ego deflated like a saggy balloon post-birthday party, alone with my unsung literary baby. And in that moment, I contemplated whether my name might as well have been "Anonymous" on every goddamn IQfy board ever.
I like the idea of writing. But every time I try, it becomes painfully clear that I have nothing to say. I just stare at a blank page and learn to hate myself a little more each time.
>I have nothing to say
then you're thinking about it like an essay. fiction is character driven, characters with like and dislikes and flaws and, most importantly, goals. it can also be used to spread a message, but that's background noise. to start a story create a skeleton of a character and give him or her a goal, and have them pursue that goal. in doing so you'll flesh the character out and their choices will get whatever message you want across
>create a skeleton of a character and give him or her a goal, and have them pursue that goal.
How? I'm still staring at a blank page with no ideas.
If you don't even have a shadow of an idea then yeah maybe you shouldn't write
keep it simple. maybe the goal is forced on the character due to their profession.
ex. the scene is a traffic accident and the character is a paramedic. you have the two (or more) vehicles. you have wounded passengers and maybe a dead body. you have the location, perhaps an intersection. you also have the season, maybe it happened in winter and they skidded on ice, maybe it happened in the summer and it was a drunk driver. you also have a ticking clock element because one of the passengers may be very hurt and needs triage.
so that's the scene and you have your paramedic deal with it. maybe he's done this for years and he's clinically detatched, maybe this is particularly gruesome or there's a wounded child and he's trying to stay under control
First write assuming nobody will ever see it besides yourself
There was a great article in The Stranger (a Seattle newspaper?) that explained that sometimes authors have to create a novel, one that will likely go unpublished and unread, as a learning experience. I have gotten all manner of advice on writing, throughout my life--from professors, from friends, from popular author's books on their take on how-to-write, from classes, etc. The point is this. You must lose your fear of failure. You must give yourself permission to fail. Merely because you write something does not make it forever. This is why drafting/writing-as-a-process is everything. Writing is not merely a product, like an alternator on an assembly line or a candy bar shimming down the conveyor belt. You can always edit, always proofread, always change something.
I wrote a letter to someone that took a year to write. It does not have to be all done at once. As you write, (and as you read widely, informing yourself--ideally you are reading too), your story will come more clearly into focus.
I am suffering from the same thing. I have a few ideas, and I have piddled around, but have yet to produce anything meaningful or, more particularly, sizeable. However, it is largely because I am distracted.
Anyway, write the story you want to tell. That's it. Then, draft it, and again if need be. If you take away two things, follow a reading program and a writing program. Try reading and writing 4-6 hours a day. Optimal output would be 10 pages a day for three months of written material. Otherwise, you should be reading a lot...sorry to overemphasize this. Write like you're writing to one particular person, the ideal reader. When you write for the first time, you are telling yourself the story. When you draft your story, offer it to a few friends or people you trust to get a sense of how it lands. Story>Plot. There's an expression that you ought to kill your darlings. Invariably, you will fail creatively, but you must try to make it work.
Spenglerites are mentally incapable of producing anything worth reading.
Yes your story will be bad, that's why they call it a first draft. But you can edit and rewrite it for decades until it's good.
>I have a fear that the book I write will be bad as is the case for a lot of first written content but the problem is that I have no other story ideas nor any interest at the moment to write any other stories to gain experience.
Write it. Then scrap it and rewrite it.
Start with short stories
Dude, why are you using the picture of an Anime girl? Are you probably trans or something? Seek help.
Also, you're first story is probably not going to be good. But if you have friends, ask then for some constructive criticism and what you didnwr9ng in writing you short story.
just frickin write dude. Sit down for an hour and do nothing but write. You can go back and edit later. If it sucks, throw it out and try again tomorrow. If it's good, keep it. Do this every single day.
Just turn your inner self-critic off and write it and don't overthink it too much. Just focus on having fun. If you think it's crappy, don't share it with anyone. Ask yourself why you think it's crappy and rewrite it until it's less crappy. That's how you learn.