Since we have been given this opportunity to write and share our own stories, let's try improving our selves by giving each other pointers, advice and some tips! This may help the newbies like myself to improve, but let's try not to copy each others story... that is somewhat, lowkey method so.. let's avoid that.
Original Writters, Let's Support Each Others!
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Tell me how to write a scene where 10+ characters are talking at the same time, without pointing my finger at each of them with 'said xx' 'asked yy' 'moved zz'. Is that even possible?
Symmetroval Please do join the discord server for original authors, we help out each other there ;)
Trako 10 characters is quite hard but if they have found their voice already it would be easier, although you could try to group them up and then write what they want as a group..... Inversely you could drop some lines and then show their actions, such as letting the rest just nod or shake their heads at different points.
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I made it with seven. Should I really do ten?
(Jack, Anna, Jessica, Tobie, Tim, Billy, and Jim.)
"Hey, Anna. How's it going?" asked Jack.
"Great! But I haven't seen Jessica in a while-nyaa~".
"But I'm right here sitting on Tobie's lap."
"Ohh~ yeah she is.. And it feels great!"
"Oh, you're right. There you are! Hello-nyaa~"
"Hello to you too."
"Hey, Jessica. You want to sit on my seat? I can stand," offered Tim.
"That's kind of you. I gladly will."
"Then I will stand."
"Hey! Don't leave my lap! It's cozy!!"
"Sorry, Tobie," she said and stood up.
"Nooooo~~~"
"Haha! She left your lap! Loser!"
"Shut up, Billy!!"
"No, you shut up!"
"Both of you, stop! That's childish."
The duo screamed back, "No. It's. NOT!! Jim!"
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Leylin_Farlier Grouping them is a good idea, otherwise, it turns into a mess where even if you point at each character it still gets hard for the reader to imagine the scene and keep up with the constant changes of who is talking and to whom. Well switching the rest into a 'stand-by-nod-only' mode may work as well, but requires a bit of practice to avoid situations where the rest becomes a background, or readers will forget that this person was even there in the first place.
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NineNeatherBird That's what I want to avoid, it's chaotic and when it's possible to illustrate a 10 people conversation in this way, making a constant use of it would require the reader to lose the 'smoothness' of reading and force him to pay attention to every name and indication of who's talking. It's way to easy to get lost and have to go back to re-read the whole part again.
(That's what I meant by the part that I want to avoid pointing my author's finger at)
Cobyboy not everyone has discord. And not everyone is comfortable with group chat. Some people could be very shy with direct chat and couldn't even say hi. Some people is destined to be lurkers whenever they joined a chat group
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Trako
Here some advice.
https://www.nownovel.com/blog/writing-dialogue-multiple-characters/
Trako
Here more advice
https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/10/04/dialogue-mistakes/
Trako uhm, when they all have the same name it could work. In fact, they could all be ten parts of the same person..
Writing this on cell phone it tough, but here it goes.
โYou and all of I are in troubleโ
โOh no what did we do!โ
โSheโs coming for us we shouldnโt have!โ
โShhh, she might here us!โ
โWait, but we are all inside the main characters head. All nine of us and him which makes ten.โ
โIโm scared guys!,โ screamed Jo Nine
He was right next to 1-8 in an isle.
โHumph, our leader will win against the girl! Apparently they are about to have a fight in the yardโ
โNooo!โ
โSheโs just trying to give him flowersโ Joe 1 said. He was very feminine, and smelled nice.
โHumph, stop talking you fool. We must dodge her fist!!!โ
They all slammed into the side of joes head. The momentum caused him to barely miss the gun shot.
He fell in the bushes....
Wow, I wrote that for some reason... haha.
Also, you can give them easy names so you can introduce them fast...
Uhm, this was attempt 1. Indeed, this is very hard.
LetThereBeMagic True, though, it isn't too bad of a first step when someone is asking for any help. By the end of the day, were all just ordinary people hahaha so go ask away
Hi, hi, hi! Aida Hanabi is here!
Nice to meet u guys!
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Join us on discord. We promise, we don't bite.
anjeeriku well, don't be too sure about that :smirk:
anjeeriku unless you ask us to
Then again more pleasure there
Cobyboy okay... I need opinions about writing synopsis. How much of a spoiler should be in there? For now my synopsis is a little ambigous and you could say not interesting.
My story's a romance fiction. The plot is basically about a guy (mc) who is practically 'damsel in distress' and the girl is the 'prince charming' who will swoop in and save him and lead him back on track.
Should I write the synopsis like this? Is it wise to expose the plot to would-be readers?
Another question, should I post my story in other sites like wattpad or rrl? For now webnovel is the only place I post this story to.
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LetThereBeMagic If this is not a plot twist you're trying to hide and shock readers with then go on and use it. Don't introduce too many characters or events in your synopsis, focus on key elements that are easy to grasp by reading your novel's 1-5 chapters and yet are interesting and may catch someone's attention right away. If you're writing a story with a 'cheat' or 'op system' that are available from the start and interesting them I would focus on introducing them in a funny/intriguing way. If you're writing a love story where the girl plays the part of a prince maybe your synopsis can introduce that character like a guy only to mention at the end something like 'If only she was a boy' etc.
As for posting on watapad ... give up. New stories don't have any exposure over there and drown in millions of others, you will get like one reader per month.
As for RoyalRoad that's a good idea, people over there are active, like to comment, the site gives you many tools that author's like (exact count of views per each chapter etc.) the exposure is fair and it's easy to gather some additional readers, but they tend to be a bit favorizing towards the litRPG genre and similar.
LetThereBeMagic Make your synopsis as clickbaity as possible, you could put a little exaggeration here and there but don't overdo it hahaha
Trako thank you very much!
Actually the plot couldn't be a plot twist but still i want readers to figure it out themselves and be shocked. It's a romance story, there's only one way it could go. I realize the important part is how i write the process and make it interesting....
So what you're saying is it's okay to include a little plot in the synopsis? This is getting complicated .
You're right about wattpad.
I'll post it in rrl.
If you are curious my story is Not Prince Charming. No link coz I'm using app