I might sound stupid

[Guest Kate]

At the risk of sounding absurd\foolish I have a question. How do you actually get to the part where you write a story? Loving reading up but would love to write too, you kno? Please and thank you

Edited April 3, 2016 by Melrick
Moved to more appropriate forum.

[CL Mustafic]

You open a blank document and start typing. You type and type and type and... well you get the picture. You can always revise or delete but if you never start, well nothing will ever get written, right?

It's a bit cliche but JUST DO IT!

[BronxWench]

CL's right.

I started with a fan fiction because the game I was playing had plot holes that could be mistaken for the Chunnel. I decided I would write my own version and fill those in, since nothing I wrote could possibly be worse than what the developers had done. I'd been reading fan fiction for my games, and for things like LotR. So...

I sat at the pool while my kids swam, and I wrote. I went home and input what I'd written on the computer after they went to bed. I rewrote, and rewrote, and rewrote, and then I decided to take the plunge and publish my little work to a site. I was petrified about what people would think, and I read the first reviews expecting to be told to never do that again. One said, to paraphrase, "What happens next?"

It's fun, actually, to let the things in your head come out to play.

[DirtyAngel]

you can outline it first, just something really loose to give you an idea how you want the story to go, but I think most everyone just starts writing, leaving the story to go where it will, its more fun that way you get to be just as surprised as the readers

[JayDee]

Here is the best guide to writing I have ever seen, and in less than 140 characters:

https://twitter.com/_cingraham/status/716673993261125632

[julpups]

Ha ha, it's basically what I'm currently doing.

Seriously, I'm attempting it for the first time too. For now I've just wrote down what's supposed to happen. A simple sequence of sentences. More like a list. Next comes the editing, formulating tolerable and varying sentences, embedding dialogues and stuff I suppose. It certainly feels relieving to have finally something written down, even if it looks more like a shopping list than a story at first.

[CL Mustafic]

Here is the best guide to writing I have ever seen, and in less than 140 characters:

https://twitter.com/_cingraham/status/716673993261125632

This guy has totally stolen my formula for writing! *looks out window to check for stalkers*

[pippychick]

Stop reading what you're reading. Find the worst badfic you can in a fandom you know well. Where your favourite is acting so incredibly out of character that it makes you cringe.

In my experience, that will wake up the muse. And you'll be stuck with it on and off forever. In fact, you'll never feel completely right again unless it's talking to you, loudly, in a number of different guises.

[julpups]

That's an unusual advice that I have to try for myself. A stimulation through torture. Normally I cringe after two sentences and abandon those kind of fics immediately. Thanks. Now, how do I find a badfic when I'm deliberately searching for them...

[CloverReef]

For me, there was never a time when I wasn't telling stories. It was a natural progression from making up stories with my dad, to playing make believe with barbies and stuff, to writing screenplays and fan fiction.

That being said, some people need a push, I think. A lot of people want so badly to write, but are held back by something. It's like standing on a diving board for the first time. It's kinda scary and you don't know what to expect and you're anxious about feedback and flames and trolls. But then when you finally dive in, you find out it wasn't nearly as scary/demanding as you thought it was going to be. If you want to start with baby steps, you could always try prompts. There's some good ones on this site, there's prompt communities on pretty much any social media site out there too, and all sorts of e-books.

Sorry if I didn't make sense - getting over a brain breaking flu. Whatever you end up doing, have fun with it!

[GeorgeGlass]

Stop reading what you're reading. Find the worst badfic you can in a fandom you know well. Where your favourite is acting so incredibly out of character that it makes you cringe.

In my experience, that will wake up the muse. And you'll be stuck with it on and off forever. In fact, you'll never feel completely right again unless it's talking to you, loudly, in a number of different guises.

To put a less masochistic spin on it: If you're interested in writing fanfiction, then think about the stories told in the fandom you're interested in and then consider what might be missing. Is there a conversation that you think two characters should have had but didn't? Is there a plot hole you've thought of a way to fill? Is there something that you always hoped would happen but didn't? Remember that what you write doesn't need to be a twenty-chapter epic: Readers like a good vignette, too.

[SirGeneralSir]

one way to also do it is to write what you think or feel should have happened instead, like an alternate episode of ......... where ........... does or does not die and ........ happens.

or something like that