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5 STRANGE STORY WRITING TIPS
Disclaimer: PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE PROCEEDING FURTHER!
I have no formal education in creative writing or literature whatsoever. I learned everything by myself through youtube, reading, research, understanding, and writing away as much as I can. I make a lot of mistakes whether it be grammatical or any other kind. I hope you can point them out and help me correct it so I can learn more. I will try my best to provide you errorless guidance though. I am not going to pretend to know everything because I really don't. I have a lot to discover yet.
Whatever I am going to tell you here is through my own understanding and experience.
Enjoy.
🔷STRANGE STORY WRITING TIPS🔷
I am enlisting five strange things that have helped me to grow more in writing and these tips might help you too.
🏵1) Dialogue writing for Indians story writers who prefer to write in English:
Watch Asian movies distinct from your language with subtitles.
Why Asian? You see, the Western part of the world is very different from Eastern in many ways. The culture, values, norms, festivals, societal rules are somewhat similar in the Eastern side of the globe. I have found that the way we talk in India and express ourselves with various sounds is slightly similar to how South Koreans talk. So when I was watching Korean movies/Drama, their translated subtitles helps me to see how a character is reacting to a situation and what dialogues do they use. When you get used to them, writing dialogues will come naturally to you. It really helps!
Some suggestions: Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Indian regional, Pakistani, Turkish dramas/ movies, etc.
🏵2) Watch anything related to the thing you want to write about.
If you want to explore unique kinds of plots, indulge in popular series. You will be surprised by how genius the writers are.
I love psychological thrillers because the plot is usually unpredictable. If you want to watch Hindi thrillers, watch Anurag Kashyap's work. On OTT platforms like Amazon Prime, Voot, ZEE5, Netflix, Hotstar, there are gems hidden in there. One of them was the movie 'Barot House'. Not perfect, but better than most Bollywood crap. South Indian movies are on the other league too.
Bengali novels will welcome you with the beauty of India, especially during British Rule. My personal favorite is Parineeta.
South Indian movies are rich in unique plots too.
🏵3) Never delete/ throw away your work: Recycling is a way to go!
I personally do not delete any of my work even though 90% of it is shit and it will never see the light of the day but I still keep it. Why? Because I recycle it. How? I sometimes go through my old writeups and aside from cringing out of my skin, I find something which has potential. Try to use it somewhere in my current writing and 8/10 times they come into use. You never know which idea might help you in the future. So never delete.
Most of the stuff that I upload is 3-4 yrs old. I just recycle, recreate, and add new thoughts.
When you mature as time goes by, a new perspective takes birth that possesses the power to revive old scenarios.
🏵4) Write a scene from your point of view from a movie:
I tried to practice this thing when I didn't have much knowledge about story writing but I wanted to write anyway. So I was watching this Chinese drama and decided to create the scene from the episode in the Indian settings. I made the characters Indian and began writing the scene in my tone. Of course not in one go. It took me several attempts but I learned a lot.
I do not claim it as my work since it is illegal and could be called plagiarism. It just helped me to write. I posted one of them here on Writco but most are in my notes and I would not publish them anywhere out of respect for the original writers and since I do not consider that my work. It was just an exercise and it helped me a lot.
I will pin the story I wrote as a project, it's called 'Ghost of Villa 13'.
🏵5)Write. Write. Write.
Read. Read. Read.
Writing anything that comes into your mind in simple words is important to begin as a writer. You will see that many popular writers do not use words that would require readers to open a dictionary every minute.
Yes, having vast vocabulary is required because it paints an exact picture without many words in readers' heads but worrying about it, in the beginning, is useless.
Keep writing, you will improve eventually.
Reading books from different writers will not only help you to grow but will teach you way more than any lesson can. Practical work is always more effective than theoretical. I never thought I would like novels about soul searching or tragic stories since in my opinion, the world is already dreadful enough. Why cry more over fictional stuff? But when I read 'Since I don't have you' by Louise Candlish, my opinions have changed. It's sweet, beautiful, and tragic. Makes you more grateful towards life. I got it free with another book and it was the most beautiful gift in disguise.
Hope you found this helpful.
© Samiksha Kemwal
I have no formal education in creative writing or literature whatsoever. I learned everything by myself through youtube, reading, research, understanding, and writing away as much as I can. I make a lot of mistakes whether it be grammatical or any other kind. I hope you can point them out and help me correct it so I can learn more. I will try my best to provide you errorless guidance though. I am not going to pretend to know everything because I really don't. I have a lot to discover yet.
Whatever I am going to tell you here is through my own understanding and experience.
Enjoy.
🔷STRANGE STORY WRITING TIPS🔷
I am enlisting five strange things that have helped me to grow more in writing and these tips might help you too.
🏵1) Dialogue writing for Indians story writers who prefer to write in English:
Watch Asian movies distinct from your language with subtitles.
Why Asian? You see, the Western part of the world is very different from Eastern in many ways. The culture, values, norms, festivals, societal rules are somewhat similar in the Eastern side of the globe. I have found that the way we talk in India and express ourselves with various sounds is slightly similar to how South Koreans talk. So when I was watching Korean movies/Drama, their translated subtitles helps me to see how a character is reacting to a situation and what dialogues do they use. When you get used to them, writing dialogues will come naturally to you. It really helps!
Some suggestions: Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Indian regional, Pakistani, Turkish dramas/ movies, etc.
🏵2) Watch anything related to the thing you want to write about.
If you want to explore unique kinds of plots, indulge in popular series. You will be surprised by how genius the writers are.
I love psychological thrillers because the plot is usually unpredictable. If you want to watch Hindi thrillers, watch Anurag Kashyap's work. On OTT platforms like Amazon Prime, Voot, ZEE5, Netflix, Hotstar, there are gems hidden in there. One of them was the movie 'Barot House'. Not perfect, but better than most Bollywood crap. South Indian movies are on the other league too.
Bengali novels will welcome you with the beauty of India, especially during British Rule. My personal favorite is Parineeta.
South Indian movies are rich in unique plots too.
🏵3) Never delete/ throw away your work: Recycling is a way to go!
I personally do not delete any of my work even though 90% of it is shit and it will never see the light of the day but I still keep it. Why? Because I recycle it. How? I sometimes go through my old writeups and aside from cringing out of my skin, I find something which has potential. Try to use it somewhere in my current writing and 8/10 times they come into use. You never know which idea might help you in the future. So never delete.
Most of the stuff that I upload is 3-4 yrs old. I just recycle, recreate, and add new thoughts.
When you mature as time goes by, a new perspective takes birth that possesses the power to revive old scenarios.
🏵4) Write a scene from your point of view from a movie:
I tried to practice this thing when I didn't have much knowledge about story writing but I wanted to write anyway. So I was watching this Chinese drama and decided to create the scene from the episode in the Indian settings. I made the characters Indian and began writing the scene in my tone. Of course not in one go. It took me several attempts but I learned a lot.
I do not claim it as my work since it is illegal and could be called plagiarism. It just helped me to write. I posted one of them here on Writco but most are in my notes and I would not publish them anywhere out of respect for the original writers and since I do not consider that my work. It was just an exercise and it helped me a lot.
I will pin the story I wrote as a project, it's called 'Ghost of Villa 13'.
🏵5)Write. Write. Write.
Read. Read. Read.
Writing anything that comes into your mind in simple words is important to begin as a writer. You will see that many popular writers do not use words that would require readers to open a dictionary every minute.
Yes, having vast vocabulary is required because it paints an exact picture without many words in readers' heads but worrying about it, in the beginning, is useless.
Keep writing, you will improve eventually.
Reading books from different writers will not only help you to grow but will teach you way more than any lesson can. Practical work is always more effective than theoretical. I never thought I would like novels about soul searching or tragic stories since in my opinion, the world is already dreadful enough. Why cry more over fictional stuff? But when I read 'Since I don't have you' by Louise Candlish, my opinions have changed. It's sweet, beautiful, and tragic. Makes you more grateful towards life. I got it free with another book and it was the most beautiful gift in disguise.
Hope you found this helpful.
© Samiksha Kemwal
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