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Show, don't tell.
Francine Prose put it better than I can in her analysis of Dulse, by Alice Munro.
>Finally, the passage contradicts a form of bad advice often given young writers—namely, that the job of the author is to show, not tell. Needless to say, many great novelists combine "dramatic" showing with long sections of the flat-out authorial narration that is, I guess, what is meant by telling. And the warning against telling leads to a confusion that causes novice writers to think that everything should be acted out—don't tell us a character is happy, show us how she screams "yay" and jumps up and down for joy—when in fact the responsibility of showing should be assumed by the energetic and specific use of language. There are many occasions in literature in which telling is far more effective than showing.
Try some kind of system for building outlines. Here is one, and really the article details the whole thing. His book on Amazon is just an expaned treatmetn including a worked example. And ther are others like Take of Your Pants.
Reading Like A Writer is a good place to start. If your goal is to improve your academic writing and you're in the US, look at English 1302 textbooks. These focus on composition and argumentation, which will be important in college essay writing.
Romance is actually very simple. All romance novels follow a similar formula. To write effective romance, you need to understand two things: romantic story arc, and how to write emotion and conflict.
I’m going to point you to two resources I recommend to all my romance writer clients:
First is a book called Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes (a fellow romance editor). It costs less than $6 on Amazon and you can read it cover to cover in less than an hour. RTB will explain the formula for romantic story arc. Once you understand that, you can just plug your chosen setting, characters, etc. into the formula.
The second is Writing With Emotion, Tension, and Conflict: by Cheryl St. John (a romance writer). This book will teach you how to take your emotional conflict to the next level to really gut-punch your readers right in the feels.
Now go wrench some hearts, little fledgling romance writer. You got this. 👊🏼
I don't know nearly as much about it as I'd like but was also decently interested in game writing/narrative a short while back and picked up this book . It taught me a lot about work in the field and includes a lot of tips and info that I found pretty valuable and interesting. There's even some sample scripts to show format and short exercises throughout the chapters. I misplaced my copy otherwise I'd go into more detail but you can take a look on Amazon anyway.
I'm sure there are better books out there and doubtlessly info online but something like that could be a good starting point.
But hell, if you figure out how to work RPG maker, definitely go for it, having something to present to display your work/writing is always a great idea if you do want to seek out a team.
Good luck with your ventures, bud !
To add to other posts, I found that this book builds a bit of a bridge between game design and writing for games, just to get a bit into that topic:
My experience working with writers is:
Unless we're talking about rather linear sequences of "cutscenes" throughout a game (Naugthy Dog's "Uncharted" or "The Last Of Us" as examples) in a lot of RPG and Action Games the lines writers effectively write are sometimes at best a few "minutes of dialogues for cutscenes".
Where I'm getting at: Writers that focus on "lines of dialogue" mostly have a focus on very short lines of dialogue for enemy/NPC reactions or other feedback you hear in the middle of the action (so-called "barks", lines during combat we hear from enemies or lines we here in God Of War from the character Atreus to show character and/or companionship/support), lines used to interact with NPCs like shop keepers and quest givers, and possibly pieces we write for so-called audio logs or books you find in the game to cover a single NPC, faction or lore/history/culture to give the player more (optional) context.
So my impression as a developer on Batman Arkham City, Batman: Arkham City and an unshipped title I worked on recently was that there are writers working on more traditional story arcs that tie the whole story together, still a lot of work has to go into hours of lines of dialogue you hear as part of the NPC interactions in the game which inevitably means that those lines have to be very short and possibly there's a large set of lines you hear over and over again (generic greetings by shop keepers with some variation; combat "barks"; etc.)
I think there is something to be said for reading a book as a reader before you pick it apart as a writer.
Read the book once and if you enjoy it and think there's something to be learned from it, read it again (or read sections) and take notes or pay attention to the things you can use.
I tend to take notes in books using pencil. I underline and write directly on the pages. I also use sticky notes to flag pages for reference or when I have a lot I need to write. If I want to do an in-depth analysis of a section, I might photocopy or print out the passage.
I also recommend Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose which I haven't actually read yet, but god damn it, I swear I am going to.
Rachel Aaron/Rachel Bach. She writes several thousand words per day and, since 2010, has written thirteen novels and other various works.
There were girls that wrote like this back in HS and I always found it so obnoxious.
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Everyone that want's to get into clear and concise writing should give this book a perusal.
I have trouble with both identifying and expressing emotions, bought this book and it has helped me: https://www.amazon.com/Emotion-Thesaurus-Writers-Character-Expression/dp/0999296345 I'm sure there are some other resources (maybe even free) online.
I found The Ultimate Guide to Video Writing and Design quite good.
Before I knew a bit about writing and was very experienced in game programming.
This book brings some aspects together, for example working with design, a narrative stretching over many levels (and along with the levels) and thus the connection between story/characters and world/levels (one can come before the other, they inform each other), and license/publisher concerns.
I’m new to writing, so I purchased On Writing Well by William Zinsser. It’s very insightful for my writing itself, and the advice translates well to blogging.
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-Classic-Guide-Nonfiction/dp/0060891548
On Writing Well by William Zissner is easy to follow, informative, and succinct, and I'd recommend it to just about anyone.
Yes. All of this. Write cut scenes, incidental dialogue, supporting mythologies, high-level design documents, etc. Flint and I wrote a book on this: https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Video-Writing-Design/dp/158065066X/
How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them—A Misstep-by-Misstep Guide
Fun and educational at the same time!
Have you read Romancing the Beat? It's very helpful and shows the different stages of the romance. Usually both the hero and the heroine have a problem with love that has kept them from finding anyone. The first 0-15% of the book is set-up for the normal world and everything changes at the inciting incident. You can still have the meet-cute in the set-up but you are showing their normal world. Does that make sense? Here is the book. https://www.amazon.com/Romancing-Beat-Structure-Romance-Kissing-ebook/dp/B01DSJSURY
Learn proper punctuation. You use way too many commas, and that makes your sentences sound scattered all over the place. It's hard to read when there are five pauses in every sentence.
Cut down almost all the unnecessary metaphors. They're nice when they're used sparingly and in a clever way.
Use shorter paragraphs. Every instance of dialogue must have its own paragraph or it's really hard to read.
Lastly, embrace brevity. Keep it short. Get to the point. Don't draw out how long it takes to get up, for example. We get it. We all wake up every day. The entire post could easily be cut down to a single easy-to-read page.
There is potential here, so keep at it! I strongly recommend reading <u>On Writing Well</u> by William Zinsser. While it is predominantly for writing nonfiction, I find it's an excellent resource for all writers. You can easily obtain a pirated ebook copy on LibGen. Good luck!
If you're having issues with getting the story together, I highly recommend Take Off Your Pants! Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing by Libbie Hawker. I've struggled with getting cohesive, engaging stories out for ages, and I really think this is the book that made things click for me. If you're finding yourself staring at your drafts feeling like something's missing, or it's dragging, or there's a problem you just can't put your finger on, this book might help with it. I bought a physical copy to highlight in, but a digital copy does just ad well.
I am not affiliated with Ms Hawker in any way, I'm just really hype. This book has noticably improved my writing just in the like, week that I've had it. Even just my short fanfics have increased in quality now that I have some frames to show me wtf to do.
Also, hmu when you finally publish! I would fucking LOVE to read your story— or stories if it becomes a series!
In addition to the excellent advice of using the motivation and social support from National Novel Writing Month, I would strongly recommend you read Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain -- a must-read book on the mechanics of writing scenes and structuring your book to hook the reader. This was a book that SFF author Janny Wurts recommended to me when I wrote to her when I was around your age. There are, of course, lots of great writing books and writing classes and workshops out there, but this is one of the ones that breaks down things to a level that I found very helpful.
I would also encourage you to find a writing group to work with. Writing need not be such a solitary activity and when you write, your improvement will be much faster when you get critical, helpful feedback from those who read what you write.
>I also noticed the show scripts are written by an all-woman team.
The showrunner responsible for the first two seasons of the Netflix adaptation (Chris Van Dusen) is male. He is the creator and primary writer for the first two seasons of the show. Jess Brownell will be leading the next two seasons.
Men can write about, and for, women just fine -- there are a lot of male romance authors out there writing under female or genderless pseudonyms because doing so is part of their marketing approach (they sell better). The reverse is also true, women can write men in a way that is completely believable.
Writing is a business as much as it is a craft. It's important for writers to know who they are marketing to, and to write for expectations of that audience. That means market research. That means writing in the correct voice. Hitting the correct beats (romance readers can be ruthless if this particular need isn't met, hence popular primers like this).
If skilled writing feels gendered, then there's a decent chance that it's meant to -- because that's what sells the best to the audience it is intended for.
Rachel Aaron wrote a book on writing 2k-10k words a day. Her books are pretty well-liked according to her GoodReads reviews as well, so... not automatically crap like others here are suggesting.
You might find this craft book a helpful starter for weaving in external and internal symptoms of various emotions.
Write long and prosper. :)
How do your favorite stories deal with it? You could do worse than type out some of those scenes.
Then deconstruct the typed scene into the four scene layers -- action beats, description, dialogue, and internalities. I use highlighters and mark each layer (orange, green, clear, yellow). Where and how are the layers used?
Understand the difference between telling and showing. A good starting point for describing emotion is the emotions thesaurus. It's a great starting point for what goes in each of those scene layers.
Write long and prosper. :)
Right? omg. I just finished reading "Take Off Your Pants" and I have to say, I highly recommend it. It has helped my approach to structure and made my manuscripts much tighter from the first draft, and writing is much faster with her approach. It's not revolutionary advice, and probably similar to stuff you've seen before but for some reason they way she lays it out really works for my hardcore pantser self.
https://www.amazon.com/Take-Off-Your-Pants-Outline-ebook/dp/B00UKC0GHA
Give this craft book a whirl.
Your difficulty might be that you are less an emotional person, and more that writing it is difficult.
Write long and prosper. :)
I found this book very helpful: https://www.amazon.com/Romancing-Beat-Structure-Romance-Kissing-ebook/dp/B01DSJSURY
Writing advice.
https://www.amazon.com/Techniques-Selling-Writer-Dwight-Swain/dp/0806111917/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=techniques+of+the+selling&qid=1631293627&sr=8-4 specifically, is gold. Some of it doesn't apply to games, of course, but there's a ton of incredibly valuable stuff there.
Also, think of stories less about "events" and more about people that have different goals that are in conflict with each other. A great way to come up with villains is to take a hero, and then twist them - have them go too far, or cross too many boundaries, or be willing to use methods that are terrible. Remember that most villains are heroes in their own minds.
The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression (Second Edition) https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0999296345/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_VQG8FXHQNB1RHFRHPE02
The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0999296310/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_9JP5YY0WSQ5HAWQN1SZC
Read books and study structure too so you can know what to look for. There are free resources on story structure but I recommend buying this book: https://www.amazon.com/Story-Engineering-Larry-Brooks/dp/1582979987