This guide will not, actually, detail how to write. There's no wrong way to do that. It will give you some general tips and things to remember, however. This is purely based on personal experience. Take this to heart and find the way that works best for you. Please refrain from groaning in boredom, and let's get this show on the road.
BEFORE YOU START
Before you start writing, you should probably read quite a bit. If you don't read, then you probably are going to crash and burn when you try writing. Try to read books that sound like things you'd like. Then write what you like. Nothing's really in your way besides just getting the thoughts out and down on paper!
Seeing as this is writing, some basic knowledge about grammar is basically required. You have to know how to capitalize, when to space, hyphenate, etc... I don't want to turn this into a grammar guide, so I'm going to go ahead and link you to a nice little website dedicated to the stuff.
Next, I should point out that if you want to get published, you're probably not going to be writing a novel right away. You're going to need to write a few short stories before you can tackle the big one (unless you're really good at not procrastinating, but still the practice doesn't hurt), to get a feel for your style and focus on things like hooking the reader, and "show, don't tell". Keep this in mind.
Actually, "show don't tell" is what your teachers would probably tell you. It's more of a factor of knowing when to show and when to tell. For example, you should probably try to show what your characters are doing within the story or show an explaination, instead of telling. To describe your characters, you should probably use a mix of showing and telling to integrate the description better into the writing of the story. The over all writing of a story will come off way better if you know how to balance showing and telling.
Last but not least, before you start, you should forget everything your English teacher has told you about paragraphs having to be five to seven sentences or any variation thereof. This is completely false – paragraphs can be any length, even one sentence. Even one word. As long as it gets what it was meant to do done.
Creative Writing
Creative writing is actually a subset of both Narrative and Descriptive writing, I believe. It combines the two and is usually of fictional nature. This is what I do about ninety percent of the time.
GETTING STARTED
Before you begin, you need a general idea of what you're going to be writing (otherwise, what are you writing?). It doesn't matter if you outline or not. I, personally, don't most of the time. For this guide, however, I'll be offering help and graphic organizers for outlining because I know that a lot of people do do it, and really, how far has not outlining gotten me (protip: I haven't finished anything since 2008, and it was a bad psuedo-fanfiction)? You should outline. Definately.
First, let's choose a topic. Think back to the books you read earlier. Now, what genre were they? Which ones did you like best? Were they thrillers, or maybe mystery or romance? Either way, now that you have your genre (or at least a general idea), you probably have a rough idea of what you want your story to be like.
But wait! Read this before you go on. You should know something really important. Don't worry about your idea being "original". If you can think of a topic, others can think of the same topic and probably have. What makes your idea original is how you write it. So don't stop writing, write now and worry later, and after you're done worrying, you can always go back and edit it.
So, let's say you're writing a romance (if it's inspired by Twilight, I have even more bad news...). How are you going to work the relationship with the two main characters? Is there going to be a love triangle? If so, who's the third wheel? Ask yourself a lot of questions, and leave nothing to chance. If you don't think something makes sense, ask yourself again (alternately, you could ask someone you know or even post in this forum!) and change it as you see fit.
ACTUALLY OUTLINING
Now we can actually outline your story! This is called prewriting, and it's something I always neglect to do.
Outlining can be done in any number of ways. In school (or at least mine), we use the Flow Map graphic organizer, a version of which (one we haven't used, and probably never will; this one actually looks better than ours, though) can be found here. A simpler one, if you prefer those, can be found here.
Actually, the only way I know how to outline is using various versions of flowmaps. The following one is a bit different, however. It is, instead of being an image (inside a PDF), is in text format. Want it?
Introduction:
Rising Action:
Crisis:
Climax:
Falling Action:
Ending:
Rising Action:
Crisis:
Climax:
Falling Action:
Ending:
Simple and clean.
Actually, I just thought of that one on the fly because I couldn't remember what it actually looked like. Still, useful, right? You can keep all of your story outlines in one document, and keep your actual writing seperate! It's not like having a different document for every outline is going to do much, and what if you lose it or forget the file name? Ha ha.
CHARACTERS AND YOU
Good, dynamic characters aren't the easiest things to make, the little buggers! You get a good idea and then turn it into a flat character. Well, let me tell you something. There's a trusty little invention out on the market right now called character sheets.
Before you go off and say, "Oh, I don't need character sheets", keep this in mind. In the long run, they help a lot, even if some of their details are just window dressings and will never be mentioned in the story. If they don't help you, that's fine. As for others, leave them to do what they want. Some good character sheets can be found here, here, here, here, and here. I, personally, use the last one. The first one also has a sheet for creating a country/world/culture. Check it out if you're not using the real world as your setting and are just creating your own 'verse. The last one is also a 'mary-sue analysis' which I plan on ripping off bringing over here.
Mary-Sue Tests and You
If you trust a scripted test to determine whether or not your characters are mary-sues or not, read this. Hell, even if you don't, read it anyway. Okay, we all know about the Mary-Sue tests out there. They're all well and good and all, but just because you got a high score, it doesn't mean that your characters are mary-sues or gary-stus or marty-stus or whatever you want to call them. In fact, characters that score incredibly low can still be mary-sues. Incredibly high scoring characters could be the least dynamic characters in your story. It's all about the context, which no mary-sue test could consider (it's all just a quiz script, after all.).
Although the context of the story determines the definition of mary-sues, there's one quality which I say goes across all contexts. He/She can do no wrong. Or alternatively, if he/she does something wrong, he/she will be able to worm their way out of the situation and won't suffer any consequences. Now, back to the topic at hand. To character types!
Types of Characters
Protagonists
Or, main character(s). The protagonists are the character(s) that the story centers around, it doesn't matter if they're a "hero" or "villain", if they're the center of the story, they're the protagonist. We all know what protagonists are, so why do I have to go into detail? Just think "main character".
Anti-Hero
Anti-heroes are neutral, whether you have a hero protagonist or a villain protagonist. They'll do things usually only when they feel like it and/or the situation calls for it. Well, at least that's my definition, and it seems like it works. But if you want a better one, here's the Wikipedia page and here's the TvTropes page.
Anti-Villain is similar but not the same.
Antagonist
The characters opposing the protagonist! These are personally my favourite. Antagonists are usually the "villains" (If you're writing a Villain protagonist, the opposite is probably true, unless it's villain vs. villain... Or hero vs. hero... Cool.), but they don't have to be. If they're not human, they might be a supernatural being, or just the forces of nature. Which takes us to Conflict!
CONFLICT AND BACK TO PLOT
Conflict is a major part of plot... It's basically the plot itself taken down to its bones. There are many types of conflict, but I'll only cover the ones I remember here, in list format, of course.
-Man vs. Man is the most common form of conflict. It basically pits two characters against each other... Think comic books and most cartoons that have a plot.
-Man vs. Nature is something I haven't seen. It's a character (or characters) pitted against the forces of nature as they are. But note, if someone's behind it, I'm pretty sure that would be Man vs. Supernatural.
-Man vs. Supernatural is like Man vs. Nature, but there's someone behind the nature, pulling the strings (usually a supernatural being). If it's not like that, it may be a character (or characters) against supernatural or paranormal beings, such as ghosts/spirits, demons, sprites, vampires, werewolves, maybe evil elves... You get the idea.
-Man vs. Society. It's basically character(s) going up against 'the man', or generally against how the whole of society works, or something to that nature. It's the basis behind most of my works, really.
-Man vs. Self is an internal struggle. Basically. I think this one is rather self-explanatory, yes?
If I missed any, please say so.
HELPFUL TIPS
If you're suffering from writer's block, or need inspiration in general, taking a walk is a great idea (especially if you're into writing poetry). Take your surroundings and turn them into a story. Write about the bird outside the window. Write about the people walking their dogs. Write about life in a big city. Whatever floats your boat, you can literally write about anything!
Another way to get inspired is listening to music. Music is a major source of inspiration for me (I listen to music all day every day. It works.), and I' m pretty sure with the right background music, you could write anything.
If you don't have any ideas on what to write, or just don't want to write, try drawing, or some form of visual art (we have a subforum for that now too) to give yourself a break, then return to it. Who knows, maybe a picture you draw could inspire a story or something. Or vice-versa, if you're a visual artist, maybe something you write could break your Art Block.
Keep in mind that this "guide" contains only tips on writing, you don't have to follow them (except the grammar and paragraphing... Follow that, I don't think anyone would like to read text walls with broken grammar...).
Break the Block
Sometimes, you just can't think of anything to write. Well, I'm happy to say that these don't last forever, and there are things you can do to break through that nasty thing called Writers' Block.
Listen to music. Personally, I can't write anything without some type of music playing, it just loosens me up, you know? That, and I really don't like silence, so yeah. Listen to your favourite song or something. Alternatively, you could listen to music you don't usually listen to. For example, I might listen to P!nk songs instead of my usual anime theme songs, Breaking Benjamin, video game music, and so on.
Take a walk outside. Especially for you poets out there, there's a lot to do and see (which I personally am not particularly interested in) outside, and maybe it'll kick that block. Take a break and let your mind reset. Then continue writing.
Take a break. Sleep. Stop writing. Sometimes you just need to take a break from writing, and that's okay. Rest, relax, and return to writing later.
Ready? Go and write. Don't let anyone stop you.
(copied almost directly from from my old, dead website.)
