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So you wanna write huh? You got your pen/ keyboard ready? well slow down there because the first rule of writing is to think.

Well screw that the first rule is to have inspiration, you need inspiration? Sit down at your tv watch your favourite tv show/movie or go read your favourite book, try and figure out why you like such and such genre and what parts you like about it. Yes it's copying but that's what writing is about, it's about taking things you like and putting them into your own plot. Ever heard of the book "A hero with a thousand faces?" there are only so many plots out there what's important is to mould it into your own creation. However this doesn't mean you write a book called Mayor of the Bracelets and set it in Higherearth -_- you need to use your imagination! and take this hint, often made up names of places and cities sound stupid, look at an atlas or handy dandy ancient name list and mould it into your own. Always always mould! You can find inspiration in even the smallest thing, Verglas for instance was inspired by a picture of a mermaid on the inlet of a manga book and a scene in Beauty and the Beast.

That leads us onto worlds, there are many writers out there who just take this world and put some odds and ends in it to make it different, but why not be different and explain about your world. Take Star Wars for an example it happens in a galaxy far, far away. People like detail even if it's not essential to the plot and of course that leads us onto the most important factor for me anyway:

USE REALISM!

realism is intently important to me when I write, your character has wings? take a note out of Skellig and wonder how a human can fly with such heavy bones? Don't leave people wondering why your character has blonde hair when one of their parent's had black. How did someone manage to get prism like eyes? it's impossible >_<

This leads us onto the most important part of your book. The characters. However you do have a choice, there are rather two different directions to go in, you can do a character based book or a world based book, Lord of the Rings is a world based book and Jane Eyre is a character based book. I'm a character based book myself so i'll be telling you more about that.
A character is the blood of a character based book, whether you have one or more than one person telling the story it's important to remember that these people are the guides who take the reader through the book. THEY MUST BE INTRESTING!!!
Now i'm a writer who doesn't plan, but that doesn't mean they you don't have to, some people may find that planning is the best way to go, me I have it all up here in mah noggin. I find that the character that I write creates themselves as I write, I often don't have an idea of a character's personality in my head until I start writing but this may not be the case with you. The important thing is to build your character, understand their strengths and weaknesses and when you have the ability to go back in your work to certain stages and say "no... this character wouldn't act that way" you know you've got it. A character should be like a friend and even so you may find that some of your characters take on traits of yourself or people around you. This is ok since you write from experience but remember Mary Sue is a no no. Always a no no.

Remember a character just like you learns from the people around them and here's where I get to one of my pet peeves among writing. Your character doesn't even need to have parents or rely on them also it would even be intresting if they self-pitied themselves for no reason, makes it more realistic ^^ I don't often see the reason to make your character's have such tragic pasts, I often feel bad just letting them get a papercut then have a whole terrible history behind them. Yes it's true I do feel sorry for my characters -_-... Anywho, the description of your character is also important.

Think about how their appearance might affect their personality, i.e. a fat person or a plain person might feel depressed whereas a pretty person would become arrogant. There is no such thing as a purdy person without a bit of arrogance okies? Stop leaving in the world of fairytales and get into realism! Think about where they are in the world, if the world is like our own then it's ok to have red/brown/black haired people all mushed together, but if it's not it's important to think things through. Espically think about skin colours and cultural differences. Also if someone from this world goes into another one, what are the chances of them having the same language? think about that too (I highly recommed the 12 kingdoms if your writing a story about different worlds and travelling between them, it's highly realistic)
Also don't be too optimistic (this is one of my failings) things won't just "go" right for your characters. If they get pulled into another world the chances are very slim that a nice person will just take them in out of nowhere or the dashing hero will appear and save them. Plus what most people forget is finances! the world revolves around money often or not.

Which also leads onto, DO RESEARCH! you're writing a historical novel and you said that they thought that the world was flat, ignorant people may nod their heads but other will probably just laugh at you. A good thought out book with research is probably even good enough to get you published without the inspiration (of course that would be classed as non-fiction ^^) of course trying to pass off a book without research and just going on a bunch of hoaxes and then saying it's highly controversial and true when- eh hem... *coughs* but let's not get into that shall we.

Another thing is people like to be taught when they're not realising it, using science to back up your claims is a good idea. Like Threshold (random program I watch) it's about alien invasion (yea I hear you all groaning) but what makes it good is it's use of science and knowledge to make it seem so real and intresting ^^. It doesn't even show alien space ships, it takes place entirely on earth and without any shots of space anywhere.

Ok moving on, one of the hardest parts of your book to write is the beginning but remember you can always come back and change it when you've moulded your character. So you wanna start huh? you got that burning inspiration? well soz you're gonna have to wait, it's all to easy to go and say and there was such and such boring place and such and such... *yawn* Look at the beginnings of other books, books like Rebecca or The Great Gatsby start with the narrator describing something that has already happened, in fact Rebecca starts with a dream, as does twelve kingdoms which I think is a rather good way to start a book. My father once wrote a story where the main narrator was killed off ten pages in, think about orginality don't you go Teresa called down "tea is ready" which is a bit borish. Other books like Howl's moving castle give a short description of the characters history before fully delving into the story, try and learn from the greats! it'll be hard but you'll eventually start creating your own beginnings.

I'll take a line from Hunchback of notre dame here:
'Give her some slack then reel her in then give her some slack and then reel her in!' it's important to creat atmosphere and curiosity among your readers, someone who gets stuck into thinking for themselves will probably think that your book is genius or might... put down the book and read Hary po- did I say that... eh hem... so try and think about how detective mysteries are played out and
then place it to your novel, give em some slack then reel em in and then- man that's catchy.

Songs are also important as inspirational tools or just to plain advance your story. Listening to Broken (Sonata Arctica) when thinking up The Yew Tree gave me a whole backplot to one of the characters and if you listen to songs about your characters personality it will also give you ideas. Romance songs always help me with writing romance parts -_- think moulin rouge sometimes, and create musical montages of your characters.

Draw, draw even if you're not good at it. It's good to get your characters down on paper and try and understand the way they do indeed look.

Plus and here I'm writing for the younger folks, we've got to admit we don't know everything if you start blabbing on about something without the proper knowledge your going to look like a fool or just insert random ignorant thoughts here and there, or use writing to attack someone or something without the right wisdom then your story is going to look a bit... like a laughing stock... always, always add depth! tell people about parts or characters in your story and see what questions they ask you (People who care about writing if you start talking to a random person on a bus they may think you a little strange). If you can answer them all then well done, if not then try and intrigate it into your story but of course there are always things that can be left a mystery so always imply that is it a mystery!

Also avoid cliches whenever possible unless it's a plot device to show it's a cliche. I found a book in Ottakars called Vampirates -_-... please no more pain! Vampires are slightly... clicheish... UNLESS you do it well! and it can be done well, this often also implies to other such magical creatures and remember shape-shifting is often lead to badness >_<

Oh and put a smexy man in it... for me ^^

So that's it for this installement hope you enjoyed ^^

Description
So you wanna write huh? You got your pen/ keyboard ready? well slow down there because the first rule of writing is to think.

Well screw that the first rule is to have inspiration, you need inspiration? Sit down at your tv watch your favourite tv show/movie or go read your favourite book, try and figure out why you like such and such genre and what parts you like about it. Yes it's copying but that's what writing is about, it's about taking things you like and putting them into your own plot. Ever heard of the book "A hero with a thousand faces?" there are only so many plots out there what's important is to mould it into your own creation. However this doesn't mean you write a book called Mayor of the Bracelets and set it in Higherearth -_- you need to use your imagination! and take this hint, often made up names of places and cities sound stupid, look at an atlas or handy dandy ancient name list and mould it into your own. Always always mould! You can find inspiration in even the smallest thing, Verglas for instance was inspired by a picture of a mermaid on the inlet of a manga book and a scene in Beauty and the Beast.

That leads us onto worlds, there are many writers out there who just take this world and put some odds and ends in it to make it different, but why not be different and explain about your world. Take Star Wars for an example it happens in a galaxy far, far away. People like detail even if it's not essential to the plot and of course that leads us onto the most important factor for me anyway:

USE REALISM!

realism is intently important to me when I write, your character has wings? take a note out of Skellig and wonder how a human can fly with such heavy bones? Don't leave people wondering why your character has blonde hair when one of their parent's had black. How did someone manage to get prism like eyes? it's impossible >_<

This leads us onto the most important part of your book. The characters. However you do have a choice, there are rather two different directions to go in, you can do a character based book or a world based book, Lord of the Rings is a world based book and Jane Eyre is a character based book. I'm a character based book myself so i'll be telling you more about that.
A character is the blood of a character based book, whether you have one or more than one person telling the story it's important to remember that these people are the guides who take the reader through the book. THEY MUST BE INTRESTING!!!
Now i'm a writer who doesn't plan, but that doesn't mean they you don't have to, some people may find that planning is the best way to go, me I have it all up here in mah noggin. I find that the character that I write creates themselves as I write, I often don't have an idea of a character's personality in my head until I start writing but this may not be the case with you. The important thing is to build your character, understand their strengths and weaknesses and when you have the ability to go back in your work to certain stages and say "no... this character wouldn't act that way" you know you've got it. A character should be like a friend and even so you may find that some of your characters take on traits of yourself or people around you. This is ok since you write from experience but remember Mary Sue is a no no. Always a no no.

Remember a character just like you learns from the people around them and here's where I get to one of my pet peeves among writing. Your character doesn't even need to have parents or rely on them also it would even be intresting if they self-pitied themselves for no reason, makes it more realistic ^^ I don't often see the reason to make your character's have such tragic pasts, I often feel bad just letting them get a papercut then have a whole terrible history behind them. Yes it's true I do feel sorry for my characters -_-... Anywho, the description of your character is also important.

Think about how their appearance might affect their personality, i.e. a fat person or a plain person might feel depressed whereas a pretty person would become arrogant. There is no such thing as a purdy person without a bit of arrogance okies? Stop leaving in the world of fairytales and get into realism! Think about where they are in the world, if the world is like our own then it's ok to have red/brown/black haired people all mushed together, but if it's not it's important to think things through. Espically think about skin colours and cultural differences. Also if someone from this world goes into another one, what are the chances of them having the same language? think about that too (I highly recommed the 12 kingdoms if your writing a story about different worlds and travelling between them, it's highly realistic)
Also don't be too optimistic (this is one of my failings) things won't just "go" right for your characters. If they get pulled into another world the chances are very slim that a nice person will just take them in out of nowhere or the dashing hero will appear and save them. Plus what most people forget is finances! the world revolves around money often or not.

Which also leads onto, DO RESEARCH! you're writing a historical novel and you said that they thought that the world was flat, ignorant people may nod their heads but other will probably just laugh at you. A good thought out book with research is probably even good enough to get you published without the inspiration (of course that would be classed as non-fiction ^^) of course trying to pass off a book without research and just going on a bunch of hoaxes and then saying it's highly controversial and true when- eh hem... *coughs* but let's not get into that shall we.

Another thing is people like to be taught when they're not realising it, using science to back up your claims is a good idea. Like Threshold (random program I watch) it's about alien invasion (yea I hear you all groaning) but what makes it good is it's use of science and knowledge to make it seem so real and intresting ^^. It doesn't even show alien space ships, it takes place entirely on earth and without any shots of space anywhere.

Ok moving on, one of the hardest parts of your book to write is the beginning but remember you can always come back and change it when you've moulded your character. So you wanna start huh? you got that burning inspiration? well soz you're gonna have to wait, it's all to easy to go and say and there was such and such boring place and such and such... *yawn* Look at the beginnings of other books, books like Rebecca or The Great Gatsby start with the narrator describing something that has already happened, in fact Rebecca starts with a dream, as does twelve kingdoms which I think is a rather good way to start a book. My father once wrote a story where the main narrator was killed off ten pages in, think about orginality don't you go Teresa called down "tea is ready" which is a bit borish. Other books like Howl's moving castle give a short description of the characters history before fully delving into the story, try and learn from the greats! it'll be hard but you'll eventually start creating your own beginnings.

I'll take a line from Hunchback of notre dame here:
'Give her some slack then reel her in then give her some slack and then reel her in!' it's important to creat atmosphere and curiosity among your readers, someone who gets stuck into thinking for themselves will probably think that your book is genius or might... put down the book and read Hary po- did I say that... eh hem... so try and think about how detective mysteries are played out and
then place it to your novel, give em some slack then reel em in and then- man that's catchy.

Songs are also important as inspirational tools or just to plain advance your story. Listening to Broken (Sonata Arctica) when thinking up The Yew Tree gave me a whole backplot to one of the characters and if you listen to songs about your characters personality it will also give you ideas. Romance songs always help me with writing romance parts -_- think moulin rouge sometimes, and create musical montages of your characters.

Draw, draw even if you're not good at it. It's good to get your characters down on paper and try and understand the way they do indeed look.

Plus and here I'm writing for the younger folks, we've got to admit we don't know everything if you start blabbing on about something without the proper knowledge your going to look like a fool or just insert random ignorant thoughts here and there, or use writing to attack someone or something without the right wisdom then your story is going to look a bit... like a laughing stock... always, always add depth! tell people about parts or characters in your story and see what questions they ask you (People who care about writing if you start talking to a random person on a bus they may think you a little strange). If you can answer them all then well done, if not then try and intrigate it into your story but of course there are always things that can be left a mystery so always imply that is it a mystery!

Also avoid cliches whenever possible unless it's a plot device to show it's a cliche. I found a book in Ottakars called Vampirates -_-... please no more pain! Vampires are slightly... clicheish... UNLESS you do it well! and it can be done well, this often also implies to other such magical creatures and remember shape-shifting is often lead to badness >_<

Oh and put a smexy man in it... for me ^^

So that's it for this installement hope you enjoyed ^^