Tips for better writting?

Share your fembot fiction and fantasies here or discuss the craft of writing by asking for or giving suggestions.
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MrPassable
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Tips for better writting?

Post by MrPassable » Sun Oct 28, 2018 8:01 am

Hi Im new here. Kinda wanna post a story Im working on quite awhile, Im already at Chapter 4 or 5, but I feel like it isnt really great. Im not really a good writer and I usually do this for the fun and all but that leaves to some bad writing skills. I know there are people who would proof read or edit it, but I dont want to add more load to them in a way. Im thinking if I should revise again at least, so for anyone reading this, do you have any tips?

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Re: Tips for better writting?

Post by Silkscreen » Sun Oct 28, 2018 11:53 am

Without knowing the piece, how could anyone give advice?

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Re: Tips for better writting?

Post by DZiegler » Sun Oct 28, 2018 1:55 pm

I'd say post the stories you have written! People on the board almost always provide great feedback so you know what's working versus what needs work!

I few tips that I (try) to apply myself are as follows:

1. I like doing two editing passes when finished writing. Helps to catch awkward wording, misspellings, bad grammar etc. without leading to endless re-writing that can really stall progress!

2. I like to put two line breaks between chunks of writing to make it more readable (like I'm doing now). Giant clusters of text without line spaces are super difficult to read and often will make it more difficult for the writer.

3. Read some of your favorite pieces of writing (whether it be fembot related or not) and take notes on what you like about their writing style. Then try to incorporate that into your own writing! I have a spreadsheet of ideas/phrases/wording/writing tips that I've put together from my favorite stories on this site and the wiki. I often have it open up on my other monitor when I'm writing.

4. Write Write Write! Practice makes perfect they say - I think you'll find that the more you write and post (we always love having new content on the site!) you'll find your strengths and weaknesses and become a better writer over time!

Cheers,

DZiegler
Cheers!

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Re: Tips for better writting?

Post by tectile » Sun Oct 28, 2018 2:04 pm

I'm a less than sub par writer at best but one of the most practical pieces of advice I've heard was from Stephen king.
"Omit needless words".
I've heard many successful authors say that his book "On writing" was invaluable to improving their skills.

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Re: Tips for better writting?

Post by NatalieBayer » Sun Oct 28, 2018 6:16 pm

For me, just write.

Ive tried to plan out twists and turns in a story and it always ends in failure. Some of tue stories ive gotten the best feedback on were stories that had a one sentence premise, that i just ran with. You can always go back later and change something to make it fit with future events.

Also, if you want to try and write a story with a twist. Trust me, we know the woman is a robot. Everone here assumes all women in any given story might be a robot.
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The Liar
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Re: Tips for better writting?

Post by The Liar » Tue Oct 30, 2018 7:09 am

Find out what kind of writing style you're good at, and focus on that.

Have a beginning, middle and end planned out to use as guide points to work towards, but don't be afraid to change them as the story develops.
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Re: Tips for better writting?

Post by dieur » Sat Nov 03, 2018 11:08 am

I usually need a scene in mind and an idea. The idea gets me going, and the scene is the destination I'm shooting for. It works fine for very short stories, but I struggle a bit with longer works.

Otherwise, I agree with what others have said. Just write. It might not be great. My lumbering early works are recorded in perfect fidelity on the wiki. But writing lets you start to get better.
Image

One piece of advice I like was that once you start writing, just write. Don't go back and edit, just keep on going. It's better to have 3 pages done badly than 2 lines perfectly. (I don't follow this advice all that well, but I'm working on it). Then once you have a basic story hashed out, go back and start editing. Chop out anything that doesn't advance the story. Does the reader really need to know how carefully Sam brought the spoon of soup to her mouth? No? Chop it. Deciding what's necessary or not is naturally an extremely personal decision, but in general the more you tighten up the story the better it will read.

Another classic piece of advice is "show, don't tell". That is, if Sam is a very careful person, and it's important to the story that we know she is, then don't just say "Sam was a very careful person," but instead come up with a way to show Sam's carefulness. "Joe leapt from rock to rock, and was half way across before Sam found her first foothold. 'You're going to fall!" she called. 'So what?' Joe asked. He picked a larger rock and turned to face his companion. Sam was gingerly testing her next step with a toe. 'I'm not the one who shorts out if I do. Hurry up, slow poke!'"

But again, that's something that comes with experience. It took me awhile to really understand, and by 'took me awhile', I mean I had to write some bad stories and read them before finally realizing what, for example, 'show not tell' actually meant, and I'm still slow at it.

Post away! The worst that happens is you learn doing it.

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Re: Tips for better writting?

Post by D.Olivaw » Sat Nov 03, 2018 5:04 pm

Everyone else has given excellent advice. My own addition would be to wait a week before returning to edit your first draft of a story. Even after several days there's still a tendency to read what you meant to write as opposed to what you did write, but I find that a full week usually allows me to approach the draft more like I'm reading someone else's work (i.e. objectively).
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Re: Tips for better writting?

Post by Saya » Tue Nov 06, 2018 8:42 pm

Best way to learn how to write?

Read.

No, seriously, read some other people's work. Here on the boards and in general, books and other short stories and the like. It's often times how I get inspired to write in new styles, get inspired for story ideas and the like. It helps me tremendously, and it can be a very good way to narrow your narrative focus and refine your style.
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- William Wordsworth

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Re: Tips for better writting?

Post by jolshefsky » Wed Nov 07, 2018 6:21 am

While I'm not prolific by any stretch, I wanted to chime in about fetish writing in particular. If you want to reach a broad audience, refrain from unnecessary specifics. This goes against the idea of copious description, but I think it works for fetish writing. This place is all about robot women, but everybody has their own idea of the "best" robot woman.

So if you're writing a story about a robot secretary, I think it's undesirable to go into specific (human) body characteristics. Talk about the control panels and programming and such. Avoid body type, hair color, ethnicity, etc. The reader will fill in their own fantasy for the human characteristics. Even skin (if it's not pivotal in the story) can be left un-described–I've read some stories where there was no need for the shiny chrome body (not appealing to me) so by omitting that detail, I can fill in my own soft plastic skin, and the chrome aficionados can make a shiny silver body, and the gold fetishists can make a shiny gold body, etc.
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