Do you like to write? If you do, then the best way to learn or develop your skill is to read everything in your chosen field of interest. If you like to write poetry then read your local library’s poetry suggestions. If you like to write short stories, subscribe to Reader's Digest, or go to second-hand bookstores and look up some anthologies. Do an online search for magazines in your favorite genre. If you'd like to write a good mystery novel, then read as many others as you can. If you want to write the next great fantasy epic, then read some great fantasy epics.

There is an endless supply of published work to learn from, both good and bad. It’s important for your own clarity that in order to learn from both, you read not just the latest mainstream work but the older classic stories as well.

My point here is, if you want to succeed at writing, it won't happen if you're not learning how it's all been done before. If you believe that your story is worth seeing on the shelves of your favorite hobby shop, then read, read, read. Reading into the field that you want to write in gives you an idea of what's gone before, how to properly craft a story of that type, and gives every writer an invaluable understanding of the market they're entering. It's not enough to just write what you want to write. If you have never read anything like it before, how will you know if it even fits properly into that genre?

Take Notes

“I want to suggest that to write to your best abilities, it behooves you to construct your own toolbox and then build up enough muscle so you can carry it with you. Then, instead of looking at a hard job and getting discouraged, you will perhaps seize the correct tool and get immediately to work.” - Stephen King

This may seem like a foolhardy or tedious idea, taking notes, but it works. When you read with an objective eye, you realize there is more going on underneath the surface than is readily seen. When you can see the underpinnings of a story, you begin to realize what structure and plot are and how they can be used with good effect. Also, understanding how these things cohere to the storyline and characters gives the writer a deeper appreciation for the act of writing. And, in this case, appreciation leads to a more careful writer.

Now, don't misunderstand the request here. No one needs to write a complete synopsis of another's work in order to acquire a feel for how it 'should' or 'should have' worked. Keep a note pad and pocket dictionary handy for two reasons:

1. Words are the writer's most important tools, so learn how they're used and what they mean. Increase your vocabulary.
2. More importantly, pay attention to shifts in storyline or structure. Pay attention to who knows what first and how that knowledge affects the rest of the story. Keep your eyes keen for how these mysteries and subtleties are revealed, whether by design or by accident. Last, but not least, look for changes in character definition, those 'aah' moments when the people in the story decide what they're going to do with their circumstances and time.

When it comes to poetry, look for material that was published at least twenty years ago. Back then, poetry was published on its own merit, so, it HAD to be good in order to make it into the 'published' realm. Back then, the waters of poetry were clearer and cleaner because everyone that wanted to write it had to prove their skill and diversify. Nowadays, laziness has diluted the freshness and power of poetry. Poetry is supposed to be sitting on the pinnacles of the writing endeavor, but the sluggishness of heart-felt free verse has eroded the bedrock of those pedestals to the point that it looks like poetic justice is teetering on the edge of the chasm. Go back in time and look for poetry that actually interests you. When you take notes on poetry, concern yourself mainly with what grabbed your attention and why, and how it affects you personally. Make notes on particular phrases and how different forms work. It takes time, but immersing yourself in a genre does that.

See the difference between poetry, free verse, and free form.

Dare To Compare

Haven't you ever wondered what some popular author would be doing if they hadn't made it? What would Stephen King be doing now if he hadn't finished Carrie? What would J. K. Rowling be at if she hadn't set out to complete the Philosopher's Stone? Oh, and hey, what will you be doing five or ten years from now?

Stephen King reads hundreds of books a year. J. K. Rowling researched every creature from mythology and folklore and learned how these fantastical beings came about before she used them or delved into creating her own.

There's no shame in reaching for the stars, or dreaming big. That's how we start out anyway. Keep that dream of yours held high, and dare yourself to go for it by doing what you want to do. Write, write, write. Oh, and while you're at it: read, read, read.

Here are some quotes for inspiration.

     However, is it possible that you will be able to improve your odds? Maybe it depends on what you hope to glean from the contest. Usually there are two classes of prizes:  Publication or cash. The one that is more important to you dictates which contests you would prefer to enter.

     Do not enter blindly. Go to the contest website and look at their track record. If there isn’t one, you may want to stay away from it. Your best chance may be in entering a local contest, since the judges will no doubt favor a local entry. Check out the previous winners, where they are from, and what sort of stories they wrote.

     As with agency or publisher submissions, follow the guidelines explicitly, proofread your grammar and spelling, and be sure your manuscript is neat and legible.

     When planning your manuscript, choose a brief, intriguing title that evokes nostalgia, happiness, humor, or satisfaction. Choose one that the judges can remember easily. When you start your contest novel or short story, drop your character down into the middle of the action. You want to hook the reader. If you do these things, you may make it past the first tier of judges and the first 100 pages and on to the next.

     Make the story easy to follow with a point of view that is clear to the reader and does not switch back and forth between characters. Make sure you have a plot that is clear, interesting, and believable. Keep the secondary characters and subplots to a minimum, so that the storyline is easy to follow. Make sure to keep the pacing even and balanced, except when the pacing is purposely varied, slow for important events, or fast for less important ones.

     You want your character to be three dimensional, believable, real, and imperfectly human with weaknesses and flaws. Do not forget the conflict and the resolution. Those must be credible as well. Tie up all loose ends. Do not leave any dangling plot points.

    Finally, consider when to enter the contest. The majority of the submissions usually arrive in the last ten days. That leaves an inordinate amount of reading for the judges to attempt in only a little over a week. You may have a better chance if you submit early.

     It is not a definite, but if you follow all these criteria, you may become a winner. Good luck!

     Jax

What is a sequel? The sequel is the development that glues the scenes together. In a sequel the hero reacts to the previous scene, evaluates his position, commiserates with his sidekick and plans for the next scene. A sequel can (and in most cases, should) include action, but the action in the sequel doesn't directly move the plot.

Example: Suppose we are writing a novel about Fred the Corporate Man. Fred's goal is to be promoted (story question), but a nasty boss stands in the way (conflict). His storyline could look like this:

[SCENE] - Fred has a meeting with Mr. Scrooge. Scrooge assigns Fred the worst project in the company in the hopes that he will fail and be fired.

[SEQUEL] - Fred discusses this setback with Tom, his co-worker sidekick. Through his conversation with Tom, he plans to turn the disastrous project into a winner, leapfrogging his reputation over and past Mr. Scrooge and obtaining his goal of a promotion.

[SCENE] - The next day, Fred begins to assemble his project team. Mr. Scrooge interferes again by making Fred accept the worst performers in the company into his new project group.

[SEQUEL] - Fred goes home to his wife after a grueling 12 hour day. She comforts him and assures him that he can succeed.

In this way, each scene changes the status of the story goal, causing the hero to adjust his game plan and attitude toward the story situation. Scene and sequel work together to keep the story flowing toward a satisfying conclusion.

How does scene and sequel affect story? The length and frequency of scenes and sequels have a direct impact on both the speed and the tone of the story. Action and adventure stories tend to have long scenes and short sequels, making a fast plot. Romance and mainstream novels may have short scenes and long sequels, making the story more introspective and emotional. For example, in a romance novel the heroine may have a luncheon with her lover that lasts for only two or three pages, and then have a ten page sequel in which she reviews and analyzes everything that her lover said and did during the meal.

Should I plan scenes and sequels beforehand? If you are a plotter type of writer, scenes and sequels can be outlined beforehand, but it is not necessary. What is important is that you are able to recognize the scenes and sequels after you have produced your first full draft. By lengthening or shortening the scenes and sequels you can produce the desired effect and keep the plot moving smoothly.

Should scenes and sequels always be in order? Often you can juggle scenes and sequels to add mystery and suspense to your plot. Often you can open your story with a scene that leaves a lot of mystery, providing the accompanying sequel later. A prime example would be a murder mystery. Here we show the aftermath of the murder, deliberately leaving out the murder commission scene and the sequel that shows the motive and premeditation of the crime. The mystery writer gives the reader the story out of order to hide facts and add the mystery component. Here is another example:

Chronological Order

Scene 1: Bob has an affair with his secretary.

Sequel 1: He starts planning to leave his wife.

Scene 2: Bob's wife June finds out about his infidelity through a mutual friend.

Sequel 2: Unwilling to let Bob get away with this, June plans to leave Bob.

Scene 3: Bob decides to buy two tickets to Hawaii for his lover and himself.

Sequel 3: Bob discusses his plans with his lover.

Scene 4: June goes to the bank and empties out the bank accounts. She packs everything into a U-Haul truck and leaves town.

Scene 5: Bob tries to buy the plane tickets. His debit card is denied.

Scene 6: Bob finds out that June has taken all of the money and left.

Now, if we want to make this fairly straightforward plot a bit more interesting, we can move a few scenes and sequels out of order. Perhaps we will show Scene 1 and Sequel 1, skip to Scene 3 and Sequel 3, then move on to Scene 5. Like Bob, the reader won't see the surprise of the empty bank accounts coming. After Bob has had his shock, we the writer can go back and reveal Scene 2, Sequel 2 and Scene 4, allowing the reader to see exactly how Bob ended up in this unfortunate situation.

The Bottom Line: Understanding scene and sequel gives you an added amount of control over your story's pace and timing!

A synopsis is just a summary. It simply tells the editor/agent/publisher exactly what your book is all about.   The problem with summarising your own work is that it’s hard to know which bits to include and which to leave out.

My advice is simple. Practice on somebody else’s book first. For example, if I chose Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens,  I might write down the basic plot like this.

Set in Victorian times, this book tells the story of Pip. As a boy, he meets a convict and steals food for him. Years later, Pip is sent to play with Estella who is the ward of Miss Haversham, a wealthy, but strange woman who was jilted on her wedding day, and still wears her wedding gown years later. Pip falls in love with Estella, but she refuses him. Later Pip comes into money. He thinks Miss Haversham is his benefactor, but it turns out to be the convict he helped when he was a boy. In the end, Pip and Estella get together and it all ends happily.

As you can see, this really is the bare bones of the plot, but it does tell you what happens, including the ending.

Now try doing this with your own book. You will be end up with the kind of short, sharp synopsis that agents and publishers so often ask for. You will even have room left over for brief descriptions of the main characters.

Remember, publisher want to know is what kind of book you are offering them, and whether they find the subject or plot sufficiently interesting.

There are also other 'features' of these novel-writing programs, of course, but they generally fall into two categories:questionnaires about your characters and questionnaires about your locations; with the occasional database built in to store your answers. Once again, you can get something like this for free by reading on - and unlike many of these expensive programs, you can print out your answers and store them however you like.  It's important to remember that the exact questions you ask, and answer, are to some extent irrelevant.  What is important is that you know everything you need to be comfortable with your characters and settings.  If you know them, if you can see them in your imagination, then your writing will show that and your readers will have a better chance of seeing and feeling your characters in their own imaginations.

Let's begin.

Character Questionnaire

Complete one of these for every main character, be it your hero, villain or a main supporting character.  Answer all the questions you need to know your character a little better than you think you'll need to.

1. Have they changed their name since birth? If so, what were they originally called and why did they change it?
2. What gender are they?
3. Have they changed gender? If so, when?
4. Where were they born?
5. When were they born?
6. Where did they grow up? If it's different to where they were born, why did they move?
7. Where do they live now? If it's different to where they grew up, why did they move?
8. What is their mother's name (including maiden name)?
9. What is their father's name?
10. Are they adopted?
11. If they are, do they know?
12. If they are adopted, what are the names of their birth parents
13. If they are adopted, what are the circumstances behind their adoption?
14. How tall is your character?
15. What colour is their skin?
16. What colour are their eyes?
17. What colour is their hair?
18. What do they sound like (accent, tone of voice, pitch, etc)?
19. What sort of personality do they have?
20. What level of education do they have?
21. When did they leave education and why?
22. What sort of job do they have?
23. Do they like their job?
24. What would they ideally be doing?
25. What is their life's ambition?
26. Are they in touch with their family?
27. If so, are they close?
28. Are they in a relationship at the moment?
29. If yes, what is the relationship like?
30. If yes, who are they in a relationship with?
31. If yes, are they faithful?
32. If they aren't in a relationship, why not?
33. If they aren't in a relationship, have they been in one in the past?
34. If there anything else we should know about the character?

Location Questionnaire

Locations are important, both for providing an interesting and imaginative environment that propels the story along at a fast pace but they also provide the atmosphere that makes your readers suspend disbelief and really feel like they are there, inside your story, watching what is going on.  They are as important as the characters who walk through them.

1. Where is this location?
2. Is it significant to any of the characters in the story? Why?
3. Describe the sounds in this location.
4. Describe the smells in this location.
5. Describe the appearance of this location.
6. Is there anything in this location (e.g. furniture, trees, sewer entrances, burned out cars, etc.)? Describe these things.
7. Why is this location in your story?
8. Is there anything else we should know about this location?

Story Questionnaire

Story is important.  We've all come across a novel where there appears to be no story whatsoever, or if there is it's a simple excuse for an action sequence or set of jokes.  Books of this sort rarely, if ever, top the bestseller lists and are often forgotten soon after they pass out of the 'new releases' section of the local bookshop.  The story is what propels the novel.  It's what grabs a reader as hard as any captivating character, so you need to have a firm grasp on where your novel is going.

1. Who is your main protagonist (the person on which the story will focus, and usually through whose eyes we will view the story unfold)?
2. Why is this person the protagonist?
3. Who is the main antagonist (the person causing problems and conflict for your protagonist to overcome)?
4. Why is this person the antagonist?
5. What is the problem the protagonist must solve?
6. Why is it important that they solve it?
7. How will this problem be solved?
8. How is the protagonist introduced to the story?
9. How do they come across the problem around which this story will revolve?
10. Is there anyone who will help them solve this problem? Why?
11. Is there anyone who will hinder them in solving this problem (other than the main antagonist)? Why?

These questionnaires are by no means the be-all and end-all of storytelling but if you can answer them fully and to the best of your ability, expanding on them where you feel you need to, then you should have a very good grip on your story.

Once you know what you're writing and you have a good picture of your characters, locations and so forth in your head you will find that you don't need expensive software to help you write. You can write by hand, with a typewriter, with something like WordPad or even with fully-functional word processing software like Word or OpenOffice.org. You have the tools at your fingertips because the tools of the storytelling trade are in your head. Everything else is simply an aid to writing, nothing more.

Finally, don't worry if what you write doesn't seem top-notch - it may even seem like the worst thing ever written. That's not a problem. The thing to remember is that you need to get your story down on paper or on the screen. Once your story is finished and you have it there at your fingertips, you can go over it again, refine it and develop any areas you feel are lacking. This editorial stage is where stories become good, readable tales that you might find people actually enjoy but you have to remember that in order to get to the editorial stage, you must push on through the first draft.  To get to the truffles, you have to wade through dirt.

So you've woken up in the morning, had your coffee and it's time to write. You go over to your computer, or writing pad and sit down to write. You open up to a fresh, blank sheet of paper and then nothing. Nada. Absolute failure. You can't even start, let alone write anything good.

Problem number one - you want to write.

Problem number two - you should be compelled to write. You probably have a deadline or a target, or you'll feel bad if you don't even begin. What you shouldn't do is give up and stop, certainly don't give way to procrastination or you'll find a couple of days worth of ways to entertain yourself that will in the end lead to a worse situation.

Each person is different, so not everybody experiences writer's block for the same reason, but the solutions are most often the same. Specifically it's starting that causes the most issues. The ideas just won't come, the sentences come out terrible and the frustration just makes you want to go to work on smashing things. Don't worry, you aren't alone. Nearly everybody suffers from the dreadful affliction of writer's block, not everybody recognises it.

The easiest thing to do on Earth is not write  -William Goldman

It might be the easiest thing to do, but it isn't the best. Sometimes all we need is a break from writing. We've been writing for a week solid, dawn till dusk and frankly we are exhausted. In this case we should leave the house and do something. This something will relax us, maybe it will stir us up into a writing machine whereby we defeat that writers block without even realising it. When our minds are fresh, we write best.

So getting started. Sometimes all you can do to break writers block is to write, something random if need be. It doesn't have to be perfect or original. You can borrow a sentence from anywhere, nobody will mind. Take that sentence and write something from it. Create anything - don't linger over that misplaced comma or that spelling mistake. Infact make sure you let your computer know that you don't want squiggly red and green lines all over the place. You'll check it later thank you very much.

The secret to getting started is to stop worrying. Break that large task into something more manageable. You want to write a novel plan it, stop thinking about the whole thing as a word count, and concentrate by chapter or paragraph. One thing at a time. Word count doesn't matter, you want to write a story then write it. Worry about length later on. You'll probably surprise yourself and write a lot, and you'll need to cut down on that stuff you don't need.

Sometimes it's the idea that puts a halt to writing. You've got none, and you're struggling to come up with one. Because of this you can't write. If that's the problem the first thing to do is make sure you carry a notebook everywhere with you. Lots of writers do this because in experience ideas pop up at the most unexpected (normally inconvenient) times possible and you've no paper to jot it down. Don't rely on memory to remember that idea, be prepared. It's almost a rule that if you can't write it down you'll have that flash of inspiration.

If you have the idea, and you've stopped half way through, it's probably because of something else. Unless you're trying to put in something that just doesn't fit. One of the best ways to overcome block if this happens and you're lacking of inspiration is to read what you've already got, maybe tidy it up. We unconsciously add things in that might help us in the future. Look over that plot if you have one, or ask yourself - what would my character do? What would *name here* want me to write? What is the subject? Things like that.

Another cause of writer's block is being unimpressed with what we write. I've said this up above several times, don't worry about your work being  bad, you can make it better later. Practice makes perfect and it is much more important to finish what you've started than worry about grammar or a slightly ill written sentence. If you try to keep everything good and perfect at the beginning you'll get agitated and spend too long over the beginning stuff. You'll probably give up because things still aren't going right and you should have finished ages ago. Even published authors hate what they write sometimes, but they only way they will finish their books is if they come back later. There is nothing like being unconfident to hinder that imaginative streak or still your hand.

Okay so it isn't the beginning and it isn't the idea (or maybe it is.) We've covered some of the major issues for writers so let's move onto how other writers tackle it and methods you might find useful yourself.

Finding Inspiration

Take a walk, read other people's writing or look at art work. Find something that stirs an emotion in you and use it to push forward that writing.

Writing Challenges

Find a challenge, whether this is a long one like NaNoWriMo, or a small one such as a word prompt or a new style of writing. Find an old dare on NaNoWriMo or find an object and write something around that. Join a writing site and integrate with people who are having problems like yourself.

Physical Exercise

Bike around town, or do something physical. This can stimulate ideas and get the brain and body working. It isn't everybodies cup of tea but for some people it stirs one into activity.

Listen to Music

Yes music. It doesn't matter what sort, as long as it pumps you up to write. Alternatively use it to set the mood of that piece. Sad music usually brings on writing that gives the essence of sadness.

Have you ever heard someone saying that someday he or she might write a book with some story they have in the head for years. Well… those will hardly ever write a novel. The most important rule to write a novel is the simplest of them. It is “Write”. You must write as much as you can so you can put 100.000 words in the paper, and it won't happen only producing positive thoughts in your mind. You must defy yourself to sit in front of a computer screen or a blank sheet of paper to write for at least two or three hours a day if you want to start in a slow pace.

That first rule, “Write”, is the most important one, and I think with only that you could have your novel written in a while, but there are other sub-rules and techniques that may become handy.

The second rule, that is primordially a sub-category of the first one, is to develop a writing schedule. That rule I took from Dean Koontz in “Writing Popular Fiction” and Dick Perry in “One Way to Write your Novel”, and when I worked that rule, I realized, amazed, that it works. Most wannabe writers will say that they work in their own time, and when inspiration comes they write ruled their own rhythm. Those are the ones that maybe, and just maybe, will have a novel written in three or four years. Writing is like everything else in life. It takes discipline. Believe-me; if you force yourself to write for a specific time everyday (not procrastinate, surfing the web), it will be hard in the beginning, but your mind will get used to it and will start to help. Inspiration will come much easier if you have a writing schedule. You just need to develop your inspirations muscles, and that won't happen if you don't force the Muse to get outside and workout.

Some will ask: What about writer's block? Then I will say that in 99,9% of the times, people call writer's block what some other person could easily name as laziness. That's right and true. Don't hate me if you have used that excuse hundreds of times; it is still true, and the earlier you face your laziness, the faster you will overcome it.

The second rule, which I believe I must be borrowing from Lawrence Block's “Writing the novel, from plot to print” (forgive me, Lawrence Block, if I didn't take that from you), is that you must create a daily writing goal. Dick Perry suggests two pages, six days a week, for a hundred says. He believes you will have a novel by then. Back then, I bought the idea, but I was never able to write on Saturdays and Sundays, so it took longer to me. Also, 100 days weren't enough; my novel wasn't ready yet, but I developed some discipline, and that prepared me for the other rules.

The next one is Plot. Plotting before start to write will guide you through the workdays. Know what you are going to write before you actually write it, gives time to your mind subconsciously work that ideas for you. Dean Koontz, and Dick Perry strongly advise you about building a story structure before you write. Dean Koontz believes you must hold that idea in your mind, but Dick Perry goes further than that and teach a way to build the whole plot before you even write the first line of your novel. His technique was the one I enjoyed most.

The plotting technique that I borrowed from Perry and that I strongly recommend, starts with buying a notebook and writing in the top of the thirty first pages “Chapter 1,2,3…30”. After that, you think about how you want your story to begin and write it on chapter 1; then, how you want the novel to end, and place it on chapter 30. Next, think about your climax and place it somewhere around chapter 18 to 22, and voilá, you have the main concept written down. Now, you just have to write down, chapter by chapter, what you think should happen from 1 to 30 for the last chapter to be consequence of the first. I also create Character profiles. One page for each profile that I create with descriptions of the Characters. That will also become handy if you forget at some point how a character looks like.

Before I continue I must advice that Lawrence Block and Stephen King in “On Writing” aren't fond of that kind of plotting. For me… it worked fine. I needed a whole week to work the plot, but it was worthy it. Of course that while I was writing my novels I had to make a lot of alterations in the Plot. Still, this guide helped me a lot.

Well… if you have the plot in your mind or on the paper (and think very carefully about the plot before touching the keyboard), it's time to go back to the first rules. Write a lot and build a schedule. When I started believing in myself, I planned something ambitious. I would write 5 pages a day, 5 days a week, for two months. It worked. I suffered in the first weeks, but in the next ones, I would write 6 or 7 pages in good days, writing during four to five hours a day. On Saturdays I wouldn't even touch the manuscript (all the authors I read are terribly against work-free days), and on Sundays I would revise. That way I wrote the entire “The Seals of Legacy” which I'm posting a chapter for week in fictionpress.com.

Those are, what I believe, the most important guidelines but there are a couple more tips I think are also important. The first one is “read”. Read as much as you can from the gender you want to write. King and Koontz support me on that one. You must find a time in your schedule and read a lot. If you can't find time to read, I doubt that you will find any time to write, so, always read. Reading books from the gender you love will help you to develop the thinking that those books demand in their writing including the vocabulary, and in addition, you will feed your mind with ideas that you can dissect and combine to create new ones.

Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote in her article “Advice to New Writers” that you should also subscribe “Writer's Digest”, but I could never do it. I live in Brazil and that subscription would be too expensive for me. Maybe it's an advice that one of you can take.

One important thing that you should already know is, write well. Spelling and Grammar mistakes scream to the reader's eyes. To write in English I had to study hard. English and Portuguese grammar structures are very different and I never had any support in Brazil that I could use to help me writing my novels. The ones of you reading this Article that are American or British, on the other hand, have no excuse. English is your native language. By now, you should already know how to write well, but if you don't, King and Perry suggest a fantastic book: “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. My years studying English in private schools were little compared to the aid this book gave me. It's fantastic. The words of King on this book are “There is little or no detectable bullshit in that book” and “I'll tell you right now that every aspiring writer should read The Elements of Style”. And that takes me to my last advice, which is named as “rule 17: omit needless words” in “Elements of Style”, but was a tip presented by all the authors I previously mentioned.

The more words you need to tell your reader something, the more boring will sound your story. There are many words that simply don't need to be there, and if you are an avid reader, you will know which ones are just by re-reading the paragraph. Oh… and that also takes us to adverbs. Adverb is the favorite tool of the lazy writer. Instead of describing something, is much easier to put an adverb on the phrase and just forget about it. News to you: Adverbs kill the text. They suck the life away from you sentences, turning them into lame phrases with no power at all. Cut as many adverbs you can and leave only the essential ones, and believe me, there are very few of those.

Well… I hope that my advice helped you in any way. The tips and rules I mentioned are my guides to write and come from writers much more experience than I. Hope you enjoyed, and if you have any question, feel free to message me.

Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition.

The Plot Fosters Societal Values

Remember that an African story is community-based. This is so because of the African social structures. Communal structures are to be found in all African societies. With this structure, compliance with social norms is important. In deed, the traditional artist was maintained by the community to ensure compliance with societal norms.

Story Characters

That means that the main character (or characters as is often the case) of An African story is a person fighting against some social norms. He may, for instance, not like the idea of sharing what he gets. This greed (you may also call it individualism) sets him apart and makes him a story. He goes through a series of failures that make him return to the society a reformed person. In other words, in an African story the main character moves away from communal ideals. And he must return reformed, having learned a new lesson and the need to support the community.

Repeated Verbs Prolong Strenuous Action

This is where an African story teller is at his best. Movements and actions are often repeated to indicate the time taken. So, for example, in a story about a man who walked for a long time in wilderness, we just don't add an adverb, we repeat the verb. Thus we say: “He walked and walked and walked and walked…” and go on for as long as we want.

The purpose of this repetition is to allow for audience participation. The audience participates by repeating the verb, “walked” together with the narrator. The repetition also keeps listeners focused on the story. And finally it creates light moments in the narrative.

A Song Continues the Story

African stories include songs. They are not just songs to sing-they are songs that continue the story. Take an example of a story about two girls who are step sisters (polygamous families are significant part of African life. Because of this, there are many stories calculated to emphasize to women the need to live harmoniously with step children). The children in the story will tell their side of it through songs. Through songs they will talk to each other, explain their relationship with a discriminating mother and their joy when they are together.

The songs also establish the mood and keep audience interested and participative. In most cases, it is the song that is left in the minds of the audience.

Ending is Predictable but Refreshing

The ending is refreshing although often predictable. When the rebel learns his lesson, he returns to the community. His return is a communal affair. Character change is what the community wants. Everyone in the community therefore rejoices. The end is marked by community rejoicing and feasting when the rebel returns home reformed.

Good luck with your craft.

I have done a lot of reading on whether to write a story driven by plot or one driven by character. I personally write plot driven stories. But I have a friend that writes character driven stories. So which way is better? That is one question that I cannot answer. All I can say is that I am not sure how to write character driven stories.

I come up with a plot. A storyline that calls to me to write down. And I dream up characters that will fit the story. I know that doing it this way can leave characters flat and lifeless. The way I get around this is to outline my characters. Give them backgrounds, families, personalities, looks, and the likes. And I put that with the outline of the story.

With both story and character outlines together, I also have a summary of the story. I do all of this to help keep me on track. The summary allows me to see the whole of the story a glance. The story outline lets me see what I want to happen in each chapter and if need be the subplot of each chapter. And the character outlines lets me see who they are and what their motivations are. This allows me to give my characters life.

The novel that I'm currently writing, now that I think about it, is a mix between character and plot driven. I still have everything I mentioned in the previous paragraph. I have been working on this novel for the last two years. I am not the most dilegent of writers.

For a while there, I would write off and on as I got inspired. Then I decided I needed to write more often. But I was able to distract myself at home. So, I would go to Pizza Hut once or twice a week to write. I'd spend an hour or two writing before I'd leave. And then my husband and I moved last year. And my schedule got thrown off. After my son was born and we settled into our new home, I set a date that I wanted to get my novel done by. I tried going to the Pizza Hut here in my new town but I couldn't seem to get into a groove.

So, I was back to an on again, off again writing schedule. Over the christmas holiday break, I decided to that I would write everyday, that I would get at least one handwritten page done. It might not seem like a lot but in the last month, I have managed to go from the middle of chapter nine to the middle of chapter twelve. This is the best progess that I have made. Now, I do have to be honest, I have written everyday but I have stuck very close to this writing schedule. My goal is to have my novel written by the end of June.

Then all I have to do is edit it and get it published. And that's as far as I can is the goal of every writer. To get published so that world can share in the world that we created. Share the story of joy, sadness, wonder, horror, fantasy, romance, or science fiction. I know that I left some genres out and that a few that I mentioned aren't genres. But not matter what genre you write, you want your work to be shared. You want to bring that story for all to see.