As a writer with dozens of WiPs, I have had plenty of strengths at different points in my life; dialogue, creating OCs, worldbuilding and whatnot. While I remember enough about several of these topics to write a tutorial about one or the other, I realise my expertise lies in a different area, particularly: creating the baseline for stories. And fast.
So that’s what I will teach you today:
How To Get Writing Fast 101
Here are some of the strategies I have used over the course of my endless wips:
★ create a map, a couple of cultures depending on regions and climate, countries and some conflicts, then follow the history a few countries up to the “present”, think of what political climate this would create and make your story exploring it
make sure that your countries aren’t defined by only one culture; in real life, countries that are close together influence each other regardless of their relations or intention, so even if your 2+ countries are at war, part of their culture (foods, architecture, etc.) will be similar due to the geography in which they are situated
it’s also possible, especially if you have a bigger country, that there will be regions of it whose cultures will be more similar to that of other countries than their own - this can be because of geography, shared history, conquering, and so on
if you have multiple species, don’t shy away from giving each of them multiple races too C:
★ make a list of your favorite tropes and combine them
works best if you have no idea where to start; you can also include anything you’ve ever liked about a story (or get inspired by the things you hate)
if you know what genre you want to write in, you can use the Tv Tropes site, they include tutorials for writing within a specific genre
★ watch shows that inspire you
if you want to write in a particular genre watch or read those shows and keep a list of which inspired you most; if, during your writing, you lose your excitement for this particular story, you can come back and watch those shows
★ look at art (fanart, movie posters, album covers, songs, etc.) and try to come up with a story for it
as someone who has lots of crazy dreams, I’m not afraid to admit that some of my stories were greatly inspired by my dreams
however, if you’re someone who doesn’t dream often, you can always just use other people’s dreams as inspiration (there’s so many pages where people share their dreams! however, make sure the person didn’t already write a story inspired by that dream, or that they aren’t against people using their dreams for inspiration)
★ come up with a central theme
this one is a bit more basic, but helps with giving your story a strong foundation, as well as possibly making it personal (if that’s what you want)
simply look up common themes, or think about the things in your life you consider most important, the Current Events, etc.
for extra spice: you can always add a few several, smaller themes; even better if you can use them to illustrate or back up your central theme - for example, if your central theme is injustice, your smaller themes can be vigilantes, poverty, cover-ups, bribery, and so on
★ keep a list of your ideas
no matter how dumb they seem! you never know when you’re going to look back on them and get inspired
you can always mix and match, reuse, place them in a different genre, world or with different characters
With this, my tutorial ends. I hope it helped! C:
