Don't get me wrong. You can definatly write a decent book even at a young age. It's been done before. But you will find as you grow older, you will be able to find a special characteristic for a special character, or an idea that you won't think about as a kid. The age and experience issue helps you write better characters. But many times a story can only be told by a person who is in a certain context. If your story's protagonist is a 15-year old girl in today's society, it may take a 15-year old girl to write it. A much more 'experienced' author may not be able to do that as well due to growing up in an essentially different culture when that person was at that age.

If you don't have that many experiences, that's fine. Read. Observe the world around you. Observe the people around you. Unless you are a hermit, you already know enough people with enough different characteristics to make a quality story cast. How you put it all together is up to you. I'm only 27, having started to write this book at 23. By the 'age standards' for experience, I am very young to have a quality list of experiences and characters as well. But I have used my experiences, used stories from friends, and seen characters from people I know and used that to make my story. Do the same. You have stories that people want to hear. The heart of writing is to tell a story, or to share your heart (like for poetry). You don't need to be an aging adult with years and years of experiences. Even a 15-year old should have enough stories to do something. I've got enough personal stories from my early childhood, several novels couldn't cover them. If you look, you do too. Don't let your age be the reason to say you can't do it. Do it and if nothing else, consider it practice until you develop it.

Excellent advice, Fencer! Keep reading, and writing. It'll get better...I cringe when I read some of the stuff I wrote a long time ago - yet at the same time there are some fond memories there (usually associated with the times, like high school).

Regarding the Molly Sue character, it can be hard, at least for 'amateur' writers like us, to not to have one, given that we often invest something of ourselves in our characters, especially ones we've 'known' for a long time. But the distinction may be how extensively those characters reflect us.

I stumbled upon a Youtube channel today that includes numerous brief tutorials on writing and editing. (While the guy is trying to sell editing software, just watching some of the videos gave me plenty of helpful advice without inspiring a purchase.

Topics include weak or incorrect use of adverbs, overusing prepositional phrases or the passive voice rather than more-engaging possessives and active voice (for example, "manager of their money" can be shortened to "money manager").

The example I linked begins a fascinating discussion about the oft-quoted "show, don't tell" - exactly what does it mean, and how do we do it?

It's worth watching, at least part 1, for the explanation and example he offers. A quick summary, though, might be that "telling" involves stating a fact that can't be easily portrayed on, say, a TV screen (for example, "He was confident"). When showing, that intangible can be replaced by appropriate descriptors that paint a picture, either on the screen or in the mind's eye ("He strutted down the sidewalk, his chin held high and his shoulders pulled back").

Some things to consider once it's time to edit those NaNo efforts!

That brings me to an interesting question - how does everything imagine their writing? I mean, I always "see" my scenes played out in my head like a movie. But I have a friend who see" everything in comic-book form. Or maybe they're just words to you?

I see my story just like a movie! The fight scenes, the landscapes, the characters. its all in my head as if I were watching a movie.
I think that is the challenge for me, to describe what I see so clearly in my head and get it on the page as strongly as I see it, especially the scenes where it is all visual and no dialogue.

Back on page 11 I asked what you didn’t want to see in a Fantasy, but I was wondering, when reading, what do you want to see in a Fantasy story?
What is it you like about a good fantasy story?
What would make you want to read it again?
I appreciate you guys answering all of my questions, it helps me out so much!

It may sound strange, but I'd like to see research. Its not enough for your people to just be swinging swords around. You actually have to go into how they work. And I'd also like to see coherent worldbuilding. Maps that actually make sense, stuff like that.
And one other thing I would like to see is more ordinary heroes. Don't pile every conceivable advantage on your special and chosen hero. Let them be an ordinary person who makes mistakes and can't rely on magic to get them out of a situation.

Excellent points indeed. Simply in regards to the sword fighting, I have read several stories with interesting depictions of sword actions. Some authors I can tell right off hardly know the difference from one side of a sword to the other. It doesn't matter if you have experience any sword action outside kid sword fighting, but you do need to know some basics.

An example of poorly done sword fighting is Chuck Black's Kingdom Series. He basically takes Biblical history and puts it to a medieval setting. He has a few sword battles and it is clear he simply doesn't know what he's talking about in his descriptions. The rest of the story is decent, especially for a direct allegory.

An example of well researched sword fighting is Brian Jacques' Redwall series. The final duel between characters Martin and Ublaz in Pearls of Lutra is one of the best depicted sword fights I have read. It gives the reader the full image of the intensity of the battle and he has the right terminology for the actions, like 'parry' (blocking an attack), 'riposte' (returning the attack after a parry), 'lunge' (foot action to maximize attacking distance while keeping back enough to recover) and some others.

Just having the terms down is one thing, it is something else to understand the strategy behind a sword fight. What you see in the movies is not realistic. The fights are designed not to hit, actions are bigger, and about 1/2 to 3/4 speed of usual so audiences can pick up on the actions. There is a chess-like mentality where the duelists have to know what they are going to do in advance and recognize what thier opponents are going to do in advance. There are frequent breaks in the action where the duelists step back, study thier opponent, and prepare thier action.

All this is very tough to do if you have not experienced it. Now I am not saying you can't write a sword battle without having some experience. But you need to understand the mentality of what goes on in a sword fight and mix it with the mentality of the character. In my book, I have a character that is absolutely fearless and will throw himself into any action he can find. His style is adventurous and somewhat reckless, but he knows exactly what his blade is doing. I have another character that is so good and somewhat arrogant, that he often toys with his opponents before unleashing a lightning fast attack that takes him out in an instant. It can get very complicated very quickly, but these are things that need to be considered.

RE: ordinary heros. I don't like the invicible hero. It's one of the reasons I don't like Superman. Yes, his weakness is Kryptonite, but he is simply too powerful. Your heros do need to have character weaknesses. Superman has an object weakness in Krypontie, but he has no weakness in his character (perhaps only his love for Lois Lane). Spiderman is a better example for what to look for in a hero. He has powers, but he has characteristic flaws. In Spiderman 3, his weakness was a blind ego followed by the agressive anger that the dark suit exploited.

I have two main heros in my story and both have character flaws. One character is too confident in his skills and then is confronted by true evil. The other tries to be on the good side but on his own deeds. That leads him to get pulled from both sides and forces him to choose one or get crushed in the war.

So an object weakness is fine, but character weaknesses are much better and makes the characters well rounded. Hope that helps.

I probably haven't written a real sword-fight in years. If I ever am called upon to do so, I will probably have a nervous breakdown. Or just go to Fencer for help.

Somehow I've been incredibly productive within the past couple of weeks; I wrote and edited one short story and have since been working on a second. And I have another that I need to seek a home for. Aiyi! If I keep up like this, I won't have to wait for the sword-fight to have my nervous breakdown. Or, barring said breakdown, I might actually finish all of my pending short stories this semester and get on to working on my novel.

I am so annoyed because I have to work on a ten page paper instead of my novel. I plan to go to the library and research weapons.
Yes, Brian Jacques does the research. Like when you read all the books set at sea (a lot of the Redwall ones, and the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series), you can tell that he really researched ships and sailing.

I do think that every one of my characters reflects a facet of me, or of my experience. Their strongest trait might even be a trait that is very weak in me, but it's like I'm looking inside myself for real examples of reactions or something, or character traits, and I magnify them or make their opposites in my characters.

My sister, who is an actress, says that something she has learned about acting is not to try to create a character from scratch based on what you read of them in the script. The thing to do is to see their motivation, desires, and personality, and find where those things are reflected in you. Then, to magnify them tenfold, or even a hundredfold. That makes for a more genuine character, and more real acting, because you're actually taking part of you and applying it to the character.

I think that it applies to writing. One of my college essays (which is more like a short story) explores that subject. So it's been something I've been think about alot.

On another note, that's awesome, Lys! I hope you avoid the breakdown and keep up the productivity-- but don't forget to slow down sometimes! I make the mistake of remaining absorbed in one piece of writing for too long alot, and pretty soon I lose all objectivity.

Making characters is one of my favorite parts of writing a story. To me each character is a special person, and I always give my characters a back ground and biogrophy, even if I won't put it into the actual story.

FencerforJesus wrote:

It is quite often that authors include part of themselves in thier characters. But there are two dangers. One is the Molly Sue character. That is when the author puts too much of themselves in their character.

As of yet I don't have that problem. I tend to make my characters everything that I am not. Like in the story I am writing now, the main heroine is a brave, funny, extremely active, slightly reckless and daring girl. I am none of these . But I agree that there is a certain degree of me in my characters, in some more that others.

FencerforJesus wrote:

Simply in regards to the sword fighting, I have read several stories with interesting depictions of sword actions. Some authors I can tell right off hardly know the difference from one side of a sword to the other. It doesn't matter if you have experience any sword action outside kid sword fighting, but you do need to know some basics.

In the story that I am writing now, I have a battle scene fought in medieval style, and I was glad of the knowledge that I have about it. I don't sword fight myself, but my dad, my brother, my brother-on-law and two of my sisters do sword fighting....so I know a good deal about it (it's one of the main topics at the dinnertable )

Wow it seems a lot of people seem to play out their stories kinda like movies in their mind. I thought I was the only one (Silly me ).

I play out my stories or books as movies too . . I've though of music to play as the scene starts and credits roll in . . lol.

FencerforJesus said,
We see a piece of God in absolutely everything he created. The same is true for us

Yes! exactly! We are like mini gods when we create a story. Its amazing how much we reflect our creator in that respect.

I have always been afraid to add religious aspects to my stories, but I realize that Lewis did them too.I guess one should not be afraid to write about Christian themes. Do any of you face this challenge?

Here is what you need to realize. You don't necesarily have to explicitly put Christian or religious aspects to your story. If you are a Christian, your world view will show up in your writing. My novel is explicity Christian due to the spiritual warfare nature. But I have written a secular, medieval action thriller that has no explicit Christian themes, but my Christian world view does show up in the way my hero's view life and how they act. As CS Lewis said, "We don't need more people writing Christian books. We need more Christians writing good books."

FencerforJesus, I like that quote

I agree that Christian themes don't need to be explicit in one's writing to be in there. I think LotR has a lot of great religious themes that aren't obvious.

This is actually my greatest hurdle right now with my story, the thing that is keeping me from really getting the story written.
As a Christian I want to tell others about the joy I have in Christ and the gift of his Salvation.
My story focus on someone who has struggled with their past, so naturally I want to point others to Jesus, but I want it to be a story that anyone would read. Sort of like Narnia, anyone can read it, but regardless of how you look at it the Truth shines though.
My biggest problem (I’ve been praying) is how to include the story of salvation into my story, I can’t have the story of salvation without God, how do I include him in my story? C.S. Lewis had Aslan and the stone table, but I’m having major trouble trying to figure this part of my story out, or if it’s even a good Idea. I hope I’m explaining this right.

My story is similar. My character struggles with something really wrong he did in the past. He is even not forgiven by his own family. I am considering if I should have him have a personal relationship with Christ and show that relationship develop. 7Chronicles praying about it is a wonderful idea! Good luck with your story.