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What’s something you always thought was necessary in writing, but actually wasn’t?
For the longest time I thought if you weren’t writing a romance, you had to have a main villain/ antagonist.
Because without a antagonist your story would be boring and have zero conflict right? Boy was I wrong.
Antagonists are great and most stories are better with them, but after watching and reading lots stories without antagonists and reading my past writing that was better before the villain entered the scene, I realized that they are actually optional.
You, probably have already known that, but it was kinda mind blowing for me. And it opened up so many possibilities for the stories I was writing. I don’t have to force in some antagonist all the time, I just let them in when it makes sense.
What about you? What’s something that you used to think your stories had to have that actually wasn’t necessary?
Adverbs. Like happily, cheerfully, sarcastically — especially on dialogue tags. I thought this made my writing more beautiful and descriptive, but then I learnt that you should use string verbs and nouns instead of adverb and adjectives, where you can.
Like, for example: “I can’t believe you betrayed me!” Tom said
angrily.If he’s saying those words with an exclamation mark, we know he’s angry. Or better yet — “I can’t believe you betrayed me!” Tom’s fists tightened at his sides, as his body became stiff. His eyes flashed as he stared at his best friend …His best friend.
This basically comes down to show, don’t tell, but I learnt from Jerry Jenkins at jerryjenkins.com (he has a great writer’s blog) that when it comes to adverbs, cut them where you can, and when it comes to adjectives, 1 + 1 = 1/2. In other words, pick just one, succinct adjective if you need one.Example: His lips parted. She was a bouncy, feisty girl, that’s for sure.
Only you can know which adjective is better. In this example, depending on her personality, I’d probably go feisty. Anyways, that’s all I have for now😊
The end of a story, a beautiful picture; a feeling of longing yet hope~
That’s my wish to create.@trahia-the-minstrel That’s a good tip! And @Kathleenramm I’ve written stories without villains before, but most of them have had some sort of antagonist. Even if it was the heroine’s overprotective older brother who wasn’t really trying to harm his sister.
Where'd I get ya this time? The liver? The kidney? I'm runnin' outta places to put holes in ya.
Hahaha, that’s funny you should mention that about the antagonist thing cuz my sister and I were just talking recently about how villains are actually not something you have to put in your writing and how even things like nature can be an “antagonist” in stories, like survival fiction!
Anyway, for me, it was long, thorough descriptive scenes. I always thought I had to take paragraphs to describe the scene or else my readers wouldn’t be able to picture the moment, but I’ve learned how description is actually something that needs to be sprinkled throughout the story and doesn’t have to be excessive if you don’t want to. 🙂
God gives His hardest battles to His strongest soldiers.
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Oh my, I totally agree with you on the antagonist thing! Antagonists can come in SO many forms. A character’s guilty past (my personal favorite), a natural disaster, a harmful belief integrated into society (as in Victor Hugo’s novels), etc.
In my case, it was crying while writing tragic scenes. I had always heard that if the writer doesn’t cry, the reader won’t cry, and I believed that so firmly. As a result, I was extremely anxious that I never cried even while writing the most tragic scenes, and I thought it meant I was doing something wrong as a writer. But then I learned that not all writers are of the type that will sob while writing, and that’s totally okay. It doesn’t mean your scene is powerless. Although I’ve never yet shed tears while writing a scene, I’ve had people tell me that they cried while reading. That advice “no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader” is simply ridiculous and completely untrue. I wish I had realized that long, long ago, but I’m glad I know it now!
@kathleenramm Oh, almost everything. That you had to follow prose conventions taught in school or plot outlines that followed a specific formula, that your character had to go through a very specific and obvious development, that you had to write something that followed all of these things with a reasonable and expected ending…
None of those were necessary or true. It’s more liberating to do what I want, ha…
Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into daysTrue, villains and antagonists don’t always need to be in a story. I’m usually writing some kind of story where they’re like, far away, so they don’t always show up in the main story (you know, like a Sauron kinda thing), so I always feel like I have to find ways to have them interact with the protagonist. But…I don’t always need to do that.
I always thought stories needed to be written according to a strict act structure. So all the important events are written according to some kind of structure/plot, and going beyond, say, the Three Act structure was a no-no, since that would result in a ruined story. But then I took a MasterClass by one of my favorite filmmakers and he was explaining how some of his movies are in a four- or five-act structure just because that’s what they needed, and that blew my mind. So now I’ve been writing my first drafts without considering a strict act structure, and it has actually improved my writing and creativity in those drafts.
@joy-caroline I THOUGHT THAT TOO! It is so frustrating because I almost never cry while reading or watching movies/TV, either. Sometimes I cry when writing, sometimes I don’t. My writing still makes people cry at the right points in the story, so I don’t bother worrying about my own tears anymore XD
Echoing what Trahia said, I thought you were supposed to use alternatives for ‘said’ whenever you could. School really screws us over telling us we can’t use ‘said’!
Other than that, I can’t really think of anything else. When I first started writing, I had never seen books that had explicit multiple perspectives (like the kind where the POV character’s name is at the beginning of the chapter) and thought that if you were writing first person, you could only write from one person’s POV. I’m still not a huge fan of that style, but I have read some books where it’s done well.
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RIGHT??? And same here – I don’t often cry while reading or watching movies, either. The only books I’ve cried over are Les Misérables, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Book Thief, and Marjorie Holmes’ The Messiah – I believe that’s it. I’m just not the type to cry very easily, I guess. Glad to hear there’s another writer like me in that respect!
For me it was that as in real life, the antagonist does not have to be a corrupt human or evil demon kind of thing; it could be anything.
Everyone has something in their life that is their ‘antagonist’, it may be a literal person being a pain in the butt, but it could be anything from financial problems to chronic pain to health struggles or family problems or insecurity.
In my life, my antagonist is my social awkwardness especially because I talk when I’m nervous and awkward, but mostly my several illnesses and my chronic pain. I have been dealing with them for several years now. But, thanks to God, it has been less since I moved to a different climate, and I’m making new friends who love me for who I am. so i guess you could say my antagonists are less painful right now haha.
I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title
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