The Writers' Guild, a Chat for Writers (Part 4)

[shadowsown88]

Come here, all you writers! If you write anything for fun, whether it be stories or poetry, this is the place for you! You can share bits of your work in this club, seek advice on writing techniques, or just plain chat about anything to do with writing. Everyone is welcome - simply introduce yourself in the following way, and have fun.

Hi, I'm Shadow. My favorite books are the Eragon and Maximum Ride series. I'm mainly working on editing Dragon Soul and its sequel, which are each around ninety thousand words - nearly as long as The Hunger Games. I'm also working on several other stories, most of which I don't plan on publishing.

(Basically you'd say your preferred (nick)name, favorite books, and what stories you've written and/or are working on.)

~Writing Tips and Stuff to Help~

Having trouble with your grammar? Then visit Merry's or Obby's awesome Grammar Guides for some help!!
Merry's Grand Grammer Guide
The Biggest English Source! Need help with your English? Stop here!

Looking for a perfect name for your story? Well, try Miafire's thread to see if you can find it!!
How to find the PERFECT title for a book - WebkinzInsider.Com Webkinz Forum

Wondering if your story is long enough for a novel? Or is it just a short story? Well here is a helpful guide so you can tell!

There are many different classifications of stories, according to their length. Here is how you can tell, based on how many words they have:

• Microfiction: Up to 100 words
• Flash Fiction: 100-1000 words
• Short Short: 1000-2000 words
• Short Story: 2000-7500
• Novelette: 7500-15000
• Novella: 15000-40000
• Novel: 40000 and up (although generally at least 60k.)

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Character and Plot Development
Having trouble moving along? Just answer these questions, to help get your story up and running again! Also check out the following thread, made by Merry.
Merry's Character Development Guide - WebkinzInsider.Com Webkinz Forum

Merry's Questions:
1. In what ways is the character like you and how is the character not?

2. What does your character love to do?

3. What does your character look like? Write a full description.

4. What are your characters habits?

5. What is her favorite weather? Season?

BONUS: Where is her secret hiding place she goes to when she wants to be alone?

Pugs's Questions:
(Just answer these as if you were the character.)

1. What are your abilities or limitations?

2. What was growing up like for you?What was growing up like for you?

3. If you could go to a store anywhere and buy anything you
wanted, when price didn't matter, where would you go and what
would you buy?

4. Is there anything you did that you regret?

5. What are your life goals?

Night's Questions:
1. Why do I love my main character?

2. What does my main character want? (They have to want something, or else there is no story.)

3. Why can’t my main character have what he/she wants?

4. What will happen if my main character doesn’t get what he/she wants?

5. How does the main character struggle to get what he/she wants? (try and fail three times before solution.)

6. When is it hopeless?

7. How does it end?

8. What is surprising about the end?

9. How does the main character change?

More from Pugs:

Character Development 2

I
ALL CHARACTERS

Name:
Age:
Location:
Description of Location:
Height:
Eye Color:
Physical Appearance:
Strange or Unique Physical Appearance:
Hobbies/Interests:
Special Skills/Abilities:
Family (describe):
Description of Home:
Description of Bedroom:
Favorite bands/songs/types of music:
Favorite Books:
Favorite sports/sport teams:
Pet Peeves:

II
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

Relationship to protagonist:
Favorite thing about protagonist:
Similarities to protagonist:
Differences from protagonist:


III
ANTAGONIST

Why is he/she facing off against the protaganist?
Likeable traits:
Weaknesses:


IIII
BONUS

Favorite Outfit:
Clothing Style:
Special Gestures/Movements
Things about his/her apperance he/she would like to change:
Speaking style (ex: fast, loud, monotone):
Fondest Memory:
Insecurities:
Quirks:
Temperment:
Negative Traits:
Things that upset him/her:
Things that embarrases him/her:
Things that him/her really cares about:
Things that make him/her happy:
Deepest, Darkest Secret:
Peoples Opinions of Character:
Dream Vacation:
Pets:
Best Thing Ever:
Worst Thing Ever:
Three Words to Describe Character:
Song that Describes Character:

Need help with your characters' last names? Try Pugs's guide, then!

1. Use real life words, and change the spelling.
For my story, Pieces of Me, I needed a ton of last names. I couldn't think of any, but I just looked at a WI thread about trains, so I thought, Train!
But that is a big easy, so instead, my character was Casey Trayn.
Also, instead of Mrs. Cane, Mrs. Cain or Kain!

2. Use school to help!
Social Studies can help you with your stories. If you've learned about the Barbary Pirates, name your character Barbary, or Phell (just change Philadeliphia around).

3. Rearrange the vowels, Take out letters
I'm using the example of Barbary again. You can make it Berbary or for something like... writing, Wrig. For that, I used the first 3 letters and the last one.

And now it's my turn - I wanna say that the best way I can think of to come up with last names is the phonebook. Just flip through randomly until you find a good last name!
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Writing Prompts:
Just write to answer the question, and a whole story could spout from these! (Or at least the inspiration for one.) Time for some new ones!

• Oh my gosh—you were scientifically fiddling around, and accidentally brought a dinosaur to life. What happens?!
• What if you were granted three wishes?
• What if you became what you dressed up as?
• What if you discovered a ghost giving out candy?
• You've just invented a time machine—what sort of adventures do you have?

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Story Starters:

Similar to writing prompts, just continue writing on from these story starters!

• One day, I decided to take a trip to the zoo. As I pulled into the parking lot, however, a chaotic scene met my eyes. Everywhere I saw, people were running around and screaming—something to the extent of, "IT'S LOOSE!!" And then, a humongous creature padded outside, bigger than I'd ever seen before, and let loose a roar.
• The whole family sat down for the picnic, and the bear sat down with them.
• The airplane sputtered and sank low into the jungle.
• One dark night I decided to stay up late to do my homework. Suddenly I noticed a big bump on my bedroom wall. I looked closer and saw a rounded lump about a foot across and about eight inches thick that appeared out of nowhere. I rubbed my eyes, looked again, but the lump had disappeared. I figured I must have stayed up too late, so I went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, I was convinced that the mysterious lump was just a dream. But . . . two nights later when I was studying, the lump appeared again. This time I examined it more closely and found...
• Maria stepped up the granite steps. Her cape flew out behind her. "Good morning" She said to the cat. The cat...

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Reading Recommendations
These are books suggested by our members and I to read. Feel free to suggest your own, but to do so, please make sure you have the title of the book/series, the author's name, and whether it's teen or all ages.

For all ages:
Kidnapped Series (Gordon Korman)
On the Run Series (Gordon Korman)
Island Series (Gordon Korman)
Dive Series (Gordon Korman)
Nancy Drew Series (Carolyn Keene)
Lady Grace Mysteries (??)
Narnia Series (C.S.Lewis)
All Ronald Dahl books (BFG, Matilda, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, ect.)
Ramona Series (Beverly Cleary)
Dear Mr. Henshaw (Beverly Cleary)
Fudge Series (Judy Blume)
Pinkey Pye (Eleanor Estes)
Ginger Pye (Eleanor Estes)
The Star of Kazan (Eva Ibbotson)
Maniac Magee (Jerry Spinelli)
The Doll People (Ann M. Martin)
The Meanest Doll in the World (Ann M. Martin)
A Dog's Life (Ann M. Martin)
The Penderwicks (Jeanne Birdsall)
East, (Edith Pattou)
The Qlique series (Lisi Harrison)
Spiderwick Chronicles (Holly Black)
Pokemon (Tracey West)
Wishbone (Brad Strickland)
Magic Tree House series (Mary Ausborne)
Goosebumps series (R.L. Stine)
Main Street series (Ann M. Martin)
A Series of Unfortunate Events series (Lemony Snicket)
Shadow Children series (Margaret Haddix)
Swordbird (Nancy Fan)
Swordquest (Nancy Fan)
Animorphs series (K.A. Applegate)
The Runaway Dolls (Ann Martin and Laura Godwin)
Hope was Here (??)
Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Patricia Werde)
A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett)

For older audiences:
Twilight series (Stephenie Meyer)
Inheritance series (Christopher Paolini)
Warriors books (Erin Hunter)
A Coyote's in the House (Elmore Leonard)
Stone Heart (Charles Fletcher)
Cronus Chronicles (Ann Ursu)
Smiles to Go (Jerry Spinelli)
Reincarnation (Suzanne Weyn)
Seekers (Erin Hunter)
Harry Potter series (J. K. Rowling)
Mole Wars series (J. FitzGerald Mcurdy)
The Serpent's Egg (J. FitzGerald Mcurdy)
The Burning Crown (J. FitzGerald Mcurdy)
The Twisted Blade (J. FitzGerald Mcurdy)
A Song for Summer (Eva Ibbotson)
Hope was Here (Joan Bauer)
Gathering Blue (Lois Lowery)
Messenger (Lois Lowery)
The Giver (Lois Lowery)
Shakespeare's Secret (Elise Broach)
Fever 1793 (Laurie Anderson)
Things Not Seen (Andrew Clements)
The Host (Stephenie Meyer)
Goddess of Yesterday (Caroline Cooney)
Dragonhaven (Robin McKinley)
Schooled (Gordan Korman)
Call Me Hope (Gretchen Olsen)
Jodi Picoult's books
The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
Isle of Swords and Isle of Fire (Wayne Batrson)
Inkworld trilogy (Cornelia Funke)
Loser (Jerry Spinelli)
Eggs (Jerry Spinelli)
Guardians of Ga'Hoole series (Kathryn Lasky)
Lord of the Rings trilogy (J. R. R. Tolkien)

Our member's stories
Diary of a Spy - triplet 1
Protector - triplet 1

[kirsten1995]

Coolioness! 'Sup peeps? Haven't been here in a while! XD

[shadowsown88]

Hey Kirsten! I'm happy, cus I have a website for writing now, and so I can finally post my romancey stories somewhere! XD

[kirsten1995]

Ohhh, coolioness!! I'm really excited about BSDp! XD Blue Sky Dragons Prequel!

[shadowsown88]

Cool! What's the prequel about? (I forget, if you've ever told. XD)

[Lynsee]

Yay! New thread
My writers block is back once more...I had a short break from it yesterday...

[kirsten1995]

Lol! Well, in the first part of BSD, the dragons and humans are seperated, and they go on a quest thing, (A boy and girl and some dragons) to make piece. The prequel is about how that happened. part 1 of it is from Ann-Marie's view, a princess who likes dragons, and part 2 is from some of the older dragon's in BSD's view when they're young.

[Googlesboogles]

new thread!

[030789]

Yay! New thread!

[merry312]

Yay! New Thread!