holiday planning: how to tuesday 3

heyy, yesterday was tuesday, but I didn't have time to post it so I'll post it now. I love writing stories, so I thought I could give you some tips to start writing a story yourself. Here it is:


1. Choose your genre, subjects and style
2. Choose your characters
3. Choose your storyline
4. Begin to write
5. When you don’t have any inspiration
1. Try to find it
2. Wait a few hours
3. Wait a long time
6. Let others read it

1. Choose your genre, subjects and style
When you want to write a story, you have to choose where it is about. You can write a romantic story, a thriller, a comedy, a fanfiction, a fantasy story, there are many genres to choose. You can also combine the genres: a romantic fanfiction, a fantasy thriller…

You also have to choose subjects. I think the most common subject in stories is love, but there are other popular subjects: war, family, crime, magic, monsters…

Try to choose a few, so that your story has some content. Also try to find a writing style you like. Your style makes your story unique. A writing style depends on the choice of words, use of metaphors, figures of speech and dialogues. You can also add your style by the choice of point of view. You can write from the I-perspective (as if you are the main character), the he/she-perspective (describing someone else’s live) or from the all-known person (like you see a movie and comment what you see). Most of the time, I use the I-perspective, but I use multiple points of view (one chapter from person 1, the next chapter from person 2…).

The last thing you have to choose before you can start is how you are going to begin your story. At school I learned the Latin terms for them, so I’ll use them with explanation. You have ab ovo (from the beginning of the story, chronological written), in medias res (from the middle of the story, later a rewind to the beginning and then the whole story) or post rem (written after the whole story happened). This is your base for writing a story.

2. Choose your characters
If you are writing a fanfiction, (most of) the characters already exist. You know how they act, so you can apply that to your story. If you are writing another kind of story, you have to make the characters yourself. You don’t have to write a complete biography about each, but it could be useful to form them a little. Describe their looks, age and behavior in a document, and when you write something new about them, add it in the document.

You have different kinds of characters: round characters, flat characters and types. Round characters develop through the story and you get to know (almost) everything about them. Flat characters do not develop through the story and you get to know some things about them. Types do not develop through the story and you barely get to know them. Most of the time, types are minor characters. Your main characters are round, the others are flat or types.

3. Choose your storyline
When I write a story, I first write a short summary of all the important things that I want to happen. I think this is useful, because if you don’t have any inspiration, you can look through your summary to get ideas. Also if you decide to stop writing a specific time, you can look where to continue when you start writing again. I like to write every idea, because I’m afraid I will forget them. I sometimes change my storyline, because when you are writing, you get new ideas.

A story must have some things in it.
First, you must have a good beginning. If the first chapter is boring, people stop reading, because they think the rest will be the same.
Second, you must have some exciting things in your story, a shock, something unexpected. You can build it up, slowly prepare them for the shock, or you can write it at an unexpected thing, so it will be a real shock. When you have written a storyline, you can start writing your story.

4. Begin to write
Write your first chapter, than write your second…
Try to write every day at the same time. I write almost every night at 11:00PM till midnight, unless I’m tired. Some people like to write in the morning, some at noon, some at night. Later at the day, I get more creative. I get most of my ideas when I want to sleep, so it takes some time to fall asleep for me.

5. When you don’t have any inspiration:
1. Try to find it
If you want to write, sometimes you can’t find inspiration. What you can do is try to find it. Search online for other stories, for pictures, songs, anything that can give you inspiration.

2. Wait a few hours
If you really can’t find any inspiration, take a break. Have a snack, go on a walk, do something else besides writing. When you think you’re ready, try writing again.

3. Wait a long time
Sometimes it helps to take a long break and just forget about it. A few days/weeks later, you read what you have written so far and you can continue better than before. I once waited two weeks, went on vacation, and when I got back, the chapter was finished with just one sentence.

6. Let others read it
I post my story on Wattpad, an international website where you can post and read stories. You can follow other people, so when they add a new chapter, you get a message. People can post comments on your stories, and likes. Some comments say they love it, some give tips, or ideas…

I sometimes ask a question at the end of my chapter, example: when I end my chapter with a cliffhanger (an open end), I ask: what do you think will happen? And sometimes people react. I like to get the opinions of my readers, because I write for other people, not for myself.

Here are the links to my wattpad stories:

http://www.wattpad.com/story/5863442-safe-a-spencer-reid-criminal-minds-fanfiction
Safe (a Spencer Reid/Criminal Minds fanfiction)

http://www.wattpad.com/story/6434606-pretty-boy-fell-for-more
Pretty boy fell for more (a Moreid/Criminal Minds fanfiction)

http://www.wattpad.com/story/7095996-pretty-boy-can%27t-get-more-moreid-fanfiction
Pretty boy can't get more (sequel to Pretty boy fell for more)

http://www.wattpad.com/story/6586591-it%27s-not-about-winning-a-hunger-games-story-by
It's not about winning (a Hunger Games fanfiction)

I hope that this was useful.

bye xxx

holiday planning: how to tuesday 1

heyy, today is how to Tuesday, so I'm going to teach you something. And I thought since it is holiday, so some of you must have a lot of time. I don't know how long vacation is in other countries, but in the Netherlands, we have 7 weeks. So I thought, I can teach you something that will take time, so you'll be busy. In 5th grade, my best friend and I used to make comics. They were very simple, a little childish, and we didn't make them as we should have, but they were short and just for fun. She wrote the texts and I drew the pictures. We made three comics, one about bees, one about fish and one about butterflies. They aren't very interesting, but I still have them. They bring back memories of that friendship, because one year later, we weren't best friends anymore.

But now I'm going to teach you how to make a real comic. Sorry I don't have matching pictures to make things more clear, but today I went to the swimming pool from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM, so I didn't had any time to draw.

How to make a comic:

1. Choose your genre, subjects, and style
2. Choose your characters
3. Choose the places
4. Choose your storyline
5. Choose the texts
6. Make a sketch comic
7. And… Begin

1. Choose your genre, subjects, and style
Before you can make a comic, you have to know what kind of comic you want to make. You have to choose a genre (like action, romantic, comedy, horror), subjects (like love, war, family, friendships) and a style. With a style you can make it personal. With style I mean how you draw your comic. You can draw very simple without many details, or very detailed. You can draw manga or chibi, or your own style of drawing. When you have decided your genre, subjects and style, you can continue.

2. Choose your characters
Every story has characters, so for a comic, you need to choose yours. The main character(s), the other important characters, less important characters. You need to give them a recognizable look, something only that character has (different eyes, skin tone, a special haircut). Also, you need to make a personality for each of them (age, connection to the others, talent, abilities, fears) which makes them unique.

3. Choose the places
In a comic, you have to draw everything. If they’re in the woods, you have to draw the trees, leaves, a brown ground, so that your readers know where they are. Every picture has to have a background. It sounds obvious, but some forget it.

4. Choose your storyline
A storyline is very important. You need to write down every action in the right order, decide if you want flash forwards or flashbacks, decide how many conversations, a climax or anti-climax. It’s like making a screenplay for a movie. This will help you to plan how many pictures you need for every action, so that you can fit everything in.

5. Choose the texts
Every comic has conversations, thoughts and texts. Sometimes a picture has a text bloc above it, to introduce a person, place or situation. You don’t have to write whole conversations, only the important sentences, because than it will be more natural when you make the whole comic. Also think of some quotes, some cool reactions or thoughts. If you can’t think of anything, it’s alright, because you don’t need them that hard. But they make a story cooler.

6. Make a sketch comic
If you have your characters, places, storyline and some texts, you can make a sketch version. When you think of the happenings in your story, find some scenes that you think will be the hardest to draw. And sketch them. Try a font for the texts and see if they match your drawing style. Try colors, try different ways of coloring (pencils, ink, markers, digital). Try to find the things that match. If you have a cute drawing style, don’t choose a non-curved font. Use soft and bright colors, but not neon. Use pencils to make it look softer. But for the scary scenes you can use black pencils. When you have tested, you can go to the last step.

7. And… Begin
If you have everything you need, you can start making your comic. Try to work someplace quiet, so you can concentrate. It will take some time to finish it, but the end result will be worth it.


I hope this was useful and I like to see the end results if some of you try this.

I hope you like it!

bye xxx