I haven't read all of this yet just the last few pages but I saw the topic and got interested. I'm currently trying to write a very simple play for my younger sister and her friend, I imagine that I'll end up in it too as there are three main charecters and I can't thinkwho else might play her. I'm also writing my sister a story along the lines of Alex Rider but what I really want to write is a story I've had on hold for a while. It's a post 1st world war murder mystery and I have the most insane writers block. I know what I want to write but I put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard all my senteces come out very stilted. Also I cannot write male charecters, goodness knows why but they just come out either as complete idiots or rather girly. I am currently writing from a female perspective and I've discovered that helps,as I only see what she see's and don't have to think about the intricises of my male charecters thoughts. Does anybody else have any suggestions of how to over come this problem?
On another point I read the firt few pages of Fencers book and I really like it. I can see why it could annoy some people, but it's well writen and it sings with the glory of God. I'd love to read some more at some point.

Well, Jill, as you saw, it's just $15 on Amazon. I don't really care if it annoys people in terms of the content because that's the way Christianity is. The guy that posted the negative comment on Amazon complained about me not even being subtle about my Christain beliefs. As thought I needed to be. He'd prefer I hide my faith so those who don't want to agree with it can read it and not get it. But that's not my intent. My intent is to draw people to God through a fiction story about spiritual warfare. And from comments I've recieved from those who've actually read the whole thing, I've done that. My mom described it to a friend the other day like this, "If you don't see where you're supposed to be in your faith, you've read the book blindly." The glory goes to God and I don't care about the financial profits from the book (where I am at now with sales). Sequel is still in the works and I am trying to make a final push to get my current draft finished in the next week. And I just got some intense inspiration for the final part of the final showdown. I can't wait to get to that part of the scene.

FencerforJesus, I know how it feels when you have to combine your faith with what you write. It is difficult because you want to add in what you believe, but that might put people off. I'm actually inspired by you to not to be so afraid to do this. Thanks!

However I think how open we are in our writings about our faith should also depend on our intended audience. If we are writing for a primarily Christian audience, then we can state things more bluntly.

I suppose there is a difference between including faith elements/setting and themes and simply preaching. The former is more effective in the long run when making people question their own lives,

I agree. There is a fine balance between inserting Christian elements and actually going into the realm of preaching. I did not want to do the latter because I am trying to tell a story, not hammer the morals to the audience. The bulk of the 'preaching' part takes place in every day conversations by Christian characters who are on fire for God. Some people found it rather difficult to believe that teenagers would be like this, but I've found quite a few who are. But one of my primary purposes was to reveal the spiritual side of things to my audience while being as close to Biblically compatible as possible. Not everything is exactly as the Bible says it works but I've not found anything that is contradictory to the Bible yet. My sequel is going to be more of the same type of stuff but much deeper and I might even suggest it might be better in terms of story and such (when it's done with editing).

And Jill, I also understand your plight. I'm a guy and I have a hard time writing from the feminine perspective. I have few female characters in my story, not because I'm sexist, but because I really don't know how to write a good female character. I'm trying a bit with my sequel and I've got some stuff that's I think is pretty good but we'll see when the feedback starts to come in.

I am currently writing from a female perspective and I've discovered that helps,as I only see what she see's and don't have to think about the intricises of my male charecters thoughts. Does anybody else have any suggestions of how to over come this problem?

I completely understand you Jill, I usually write from female perspective too cause it's a lot easier. To write about males you generally have to communicate a lot with them and try to understand what they do and why they do. That is the only way I could do it, and since my new work the two main characters are both guys it was quite a challenge for me. I just started commnunicating a lot with my brother, talking to him, asking him why he does what he does, what his thoughts and opinions are on certain matters and stuff life that, then I 'interviewed' my brother-in-law and my other sister's boyfriend, it really helped me in writing from a man's perspective, I also will give my work to my brother and ask him to correct anything that may seem to 'girlish' about my male characters I hope that was a little help

I got a lot of writing done yesterday but then suddenly we had a power cut and all my hard work was lost....forver *sighs* now I shall have to start all over again
I'm doing something rather radical for me, I'm writing my story in English and Russian at the same time.....I don't know how wise it is, but I couldn't decide what language to write it in so I decided to write it in both I guess I'll see as it comes along which language it will sound best in

Thanks for the advise and understanding, it's wonderful to be able to talk to people who understand what I'm talking about. My family mostly look at me blankly when I try and ask for their advise! Not having any brothers I may need to borrow one, my best friends older brother writes too so I might ask him for some help with my male charecters.
Wild Rose writing a book in too languges at once, that is completely incredible! I hope it's working out well for you. I may have thought of a way to start the next bit of my story. Talking to you guys has certainally got the creative part, rather than the revise like crazy, part of my brain going!

Can't talk a lot right now, but I wanted to stop in and let you know I haven't given up on writing. I'm still plugging away at this ever growing, ever evolving, massive in-depth series of mine.

Have I mentioned lately, that I absolutely love writing about several (the current total is four) generations of five families in this made up, small, Nebraska farm town?!

It's so much fun seeing what traits pass down, and which don't. And seeing how unique, yet similar each group is! SUCH a fun character study, if ever there was one!

I guess that gives away my answer to the "multiple books at once" question. I know some people might balk at doing what I do... but it helps me.

1) Mine are all sort of linked anyway... being the life stories of those families. We see each generation grow up! And they all tie in to each other. Sure each generation has their own "series-within-the-series", to make them easier for readers to swallow. But they all smoothly flow to the next, because characters connect them together.

2) Whenever I'm stuck on one of them, but not on another, I just go to the one that's working. And when the other gets unstuck, back I go!

Besides, they skip around when telling me things anyway.
This is the best way for me to keep up with them! Strange, but true.

If you ever want to learn more, or keep up with my progress, click the bottom link in my sig. That leads to my "writing blog" aka the one where I give updates on the books, and tell what I'm learning about writing.

I'll try to poke my head in here again soon! Keep up the good work, guys!

It's been awhile since I've stopped by here I've been so busy lately...I missed a whole ton of amazing discussions...going back over the pages now and reading everything...

FencerforJesus I remember seeing that comment on Amazon...I nearly boiled over!! It's really amazing how well you're taking it, and how positive you are about the book, knowing that it may generate negative reviews, but still pushing ahead with it. God bless you!!

Jill I had that same problem. I'm a girl, and I had trouble making male characters because they were just to unrealistic - either they were almost feminine or they were too high and mighty and almost other-worldly. wild rose gave some really cool tips!!
My best advice to you would be - Get To Know Guys. If you have any friends who are guys, hang out with them, watch them, observe them, talk to them. See what interests them, what makes them angry or happy. That's what helped me. I started attending trainings where there were only guys, and I learned a lot about their character and behavior. Be calm and casual and show a genuine interest in them, and retain everything you observe. You could even pattern or base one of your characters on someone you know. Hope that helps a bit.

wild rose awwww!! I'm so sorry!!!! I know how that feels!!!

Princess Anna Wow!! That sounds a lot like my sister wild rose!!! I am amazed at how you can do that!!!

I've been stuck on my newest story (I wrote about it in a faraway, ancient post in the archives of the Writer's World) for a long time. I wrote the first chapter, and I loved it, but I couldn't figure out how to go on. I was starting with my main character, a girl living in a mountain village who hears a strange call from the mountain. The first chapter described her and the village from her perspective and ended with her hearing the strange call and returning to the village in wonder. Then I got stuck. If I lapsed into a more detailed description of the village or the mountains or even the girl, it got too boring. But if I went on with the action, things went too fast and the story got confusing. I made up so many versions and then I decided to just leave it alone for awhile. Recently I had an injury that put me to bed for a few days (I'll be bedridden till the end of the week, probably), and as I was lying in boredom, I got the inspiration to write it all as a flashback! I thought to start the story with the girl already on the mountain fighting for the Warrior Lord with her companions, and making her lapse into memories of how it all happened. It's tricky, but it's answered my problem!!

Glad to see the thread is so active and there are so many writers, new and old, about! Good luck writing!!!

Well, I have finished my draft of my sequel. Perfect timing too as it is right on my birthday (today). I am now going through and adding 'comments' to specific sections both for me and for people I am about to send it to for content feedback. These comments express what I intended and ideas I have for that particular scene. After I get the feedback, I will edit and edit. And when the plot is finalized, I'm going go through with a fine-tooth comb for the nitpicking spelling/grammar before passing it on to a few more people (who have not seen it before) for that fine-tuning. Hopefully that will be done by Dec or Jan. From there, see what doors God is opening up for publication.

FencerforJesus, congrats! It's also nice to get the first draft done! I'm still working on mine, but hope to get it done this month. Then on to the fun of editing! Congrats again!

~Arya

Has anyone had they experience of having an idea which you think is original, writing it out, and then finding a book with a very similar concept/plot and/or characters. Yeah, well that just happened to me. I quite liked the book that I found was similar to my story, but I'm a little worried. I mean I know that there is nothing orginal, but I just hope that if my story does reach a wider audience (Ha! in my dreams...) its not considered a rip-off.

I guess its ok because my story has a different perspective on the same concept. As well, it does have a few different themes. Hopefully I'm good. If I'm not, I guess it could be considered a homage to the book I read (since its a classic.)

I have also just figured out a few points about two of my characters. I am so happy and excited! Do you ever have that feeling when the light bulb goes of in your head while writing. It makes me so happy.

One of those characters is actually the anatgonist. Now, I love the antagonist in my current novel. I've gotten to know him as I have the protagonist. I just think he is going to make an awsome contribution to the story. How do you feel about the "bad guys" in your stories?

Fencer, Congrats!!!

Valiant, Hmmm, I've never really had that happen. I have gotten ideas for my stories from a movie or book I read...but never the other way around. I don't think it'ss be considered a rip-off, though. Similar stories always exist, just like bands who play similar styles of music exist.

I do too!!!! I always love the bad guys in my stories. I don't delve into them like I do my protagonists, but I realy invest into them, and I love them so much. Strange, though, I'm never sorry to kill them off when it's time...

Valiant Absolutely. Happens all the time. In my opinion don't worry about it a bit. Everyone (even the most popular authors) is always doing unorigional ideas that are soemtimes incredibly similar to other works and if you didn't directly copy of of soemthing it's perfectly acceptable and respectable.

I have a moment on my vacation here in Colorado. I agree. Very rarely will you find a truly original story. It's how the similar story differs that makes it unique. You can take the same story and approach it from a different angle, from a different perspective, and it will be a different story. I know stories like LOTR and Star Wars are very popular and any attempt to do a similar plot would be considered by many to be plagarism. I've seen many comments about the story of Eragon being virtually identical to the original Star Wars, just set in a medieval/fantasy setting. But if someone were to take that story and do it from the perspective of Darth Vader, or Chewy, it might make for an intesting thing.

As for villains, I've written some villians I love and other villians I love to hate. In my novel, I have a villian that you aren't really sure is a viilain until the very end, and in my sequel I have a villain you know is a villian but you don't get the real intent of what he's trying to do until the very end. Sometimes the best villians are the ones where you are left wondering, 'what could have happened if he turned to the good side?'. Sometimes the best villains aren't the 'what he does is bad', but 'what could he do?' is so freaky. The Joker in The Dark Knight is a fine example of the latter. You know he is very evil from the opening shot, but the movie never really shows what he really does. It is shot in such a way that you truly dread what he could do instead of merely hating what he does do. It's intense but it's cool for a lot of people.

@Valiant: I'd say, if you know that your story is not just a remake of another story, to fly with it and see where it goes. Who knows? In subsequent drafts it may even take a completely different direction than the story you recently read!

I'm on the tenth draft of a script that I'm writing for a short film this summer. I'm naming every revision after a different color. This one is called the Indigo Revision (I ran out of rainbow colors, so I'm being inventive). It's becoming much stronger as I change the story and fix lines to be more believable and speakable, and solidify my characters. I'll be going over character arcs today so that I know what they are and to solidify the lines to support the characters. I've done this once before, but that was before a major revision of mine. This is pretty exciting, I've got to say.