One Sentence writing advice

[Idlewilder]

finish what you started.

No! Not that!    Please, oh gods, not that...
[falls weeping into a puddle on the writing room floor]

"Especially that!" he says, his voice holier than thou.

<steps in puddle>

"Crap."

[J9AC9K]

"“Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.” - W.H. Auden

When I was in my teens and early twenties I really cared about having an *original* hook to be the basis of a story. Often I'd be dismayed to find an idea I thought was unique had already been done - in some manner - by another writer. The above quote by Auden got me to stop caring about originality, and to care instead more about how authentic I made my characters and how true their actions were.

[JMack]

"“Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.” - W.H. Auden

When I was in my teens and early twenties I really cared about having an *original* hook to be the basis of a story. Often I'd be dismayed to find an idea I thought was unique had already been done - in some manner - by another writer. The above quote by Auden got me to stop caring about originality, and to care instead more about how authentic I made my characters and how true their actions were.

This ^.
Love it.

[Yora]

Yeah, telling a story that has never been told is super hard.

Much more sense in trying to tell an old story the way it should have been told, but nobody did yet.

[J9AC9K]

Yeah, telling a story that has never been told is super hard.

Much more sense in trying to tell an old story the way it should have been told, but nobody did yet.

For me, it's not even necessarily about trying to adapt an old story in a new way, but about not letting the fact that there's been a story told that has some common features with the one you want to tell stopping you.

For example, when I was twenty I started writing a comic book about a werewolf detective in a town full of fantasy creatures who were hiding in America. I stopped working on that after I heard about Fables - which is a comic book series about a group of fairy tale people existing in NYC, and the Big Bad Wolf is their sheriff. My story would have had very little in common with Fables beyond the superficial. But I let the quest for "originality" stop me.

[Yora]

Good conflicts are not started because someone wants to do something evil, but because someone had a bad idea for doing something good.

All too often villains want to destroy, kill, and enslave, but that's not how real conflict works and it also does not force the protagonists to question their actions or provide room in which multiple solutions need to be considered.
Great conflicts start when both sides want the same, but feel that there's not enough to share between them.

[Lanko]

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things. - Ray Bradbury

[Nora]

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

That's 5 sentences Lanko, you're disqualified.

[Lanko]

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

That's 5 sentences Lanko, you're disqualified.

“The hell with the rules. If it sounds right, then it is.”   - Eddie Van Halen

 

[ClintACK]

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

That's 5 sentences Lanko, you're disqualified.

Quick, replace all the periods with commas -- it totally counts.

[Yora]

Let the personalty and motivations of the main character direct the plot, instead of creating the plot filling the role of the protagonist later. The protagonist will seem much more proactive and the plot less generic.

[Yora]

Some wise words I just came across:

"It's better to provide no explanation than an obviously stupid explanation."

[Raptori]

Some wise words I just came across:

"It's better to provide no explanation than an obviously stupid explanation."

But... But... Midichlorians... 

[Lanko]

Some wise words I just came across:

"It's better to provide no explanation than an obviously stupid explanation."

But... But... Midichlorians... 

You just ruined my day 

[Raptori]

Some wise words I just came across:

"It's better to provide no explanation than an obviously stupid explanation."

But... But... Midichlorians... 

You just ruined my day