I've only been in these forums for a few days now, reading lots, posting little, and I hope to start posting more frequently. First off, I would just like to thank everyone for being so helpful to me, directly or indirectly, to improve my novel. I've recieved more valuable insight from you all in the last 4 days than from anyone else in the 9 month period I've been working on this novel. A big thanks to fifthwind in particular for inviting me to join the site.


Now, on to business...
I've been making amateur films for several years now, and primarily, that's what I've been writing. Film scripts. I used to write a lot of prose, but when I was 19 or 20, I set out on this quest to win in an amateur film festival, and I dropped writing in "story form" for a few years. I hadn't realized it, but now that I have returned to novel and short story writing, my writing style has suffered greatly. When you write a film script, other than dialogue, you usually write it in a very limited, 1 or 2 dimensional way to save time and to keep from limiting the director. This is okay, of course, because no one but the actors, director, and maybe cameramen will be reading the script, and the director will be there to make sure everything comes to life the way it should before it's seen by the public.

Now that I'm writing in "story form" again, I'm going back over my work and finding it rather monotonous to read. After receiving some helpful review from Mornara and Twoplus (my apologies if I spelled either name incorrectly) I'm realizing that this is because I'm writing a novel in script form. It makes for a very boring read.

Although I want to primarily focus on novel and short story writing in the fantasy genre, I still really enjoy writing film scripts and now I actually have some resources to finally finish the projects that I start. However, I'm finding it quite difficult to straddle the two styles of writing.

Has anyone else ever experienced this or something similar to it?

Hey, first off, I'm going to move this to the "General" forum because I think it will get more discussion and notice there. Generally only the people following specific projects spend much time down here, so this might get missed.

I can't say I have a similar problem, except that switching from first-person to third-person was a struggle for me, first-person is more natural to my style. I also had some trouble moving my focus to a long story instead of the short pieces I was used to writing.

Don't try and "straddle" the lines. I would suggest writing a few very short pieces, taking part in duels, and generally spending time on short bursts that require you to get deep into the story in a hurry. This should help you develop voice and characterization.

And READ READ READ! Everything you can get your hands on! Make notes of style, grammar, cool sentences, concepts that you can borrow and apply. Try writing stories in the style of three of your favorite authors, and try and use their voice for a while, until you develop your own.

It is a hard, long road to writing a novel, and it requires plenty of learning, devotion, and agony. Stay with it, you've got promise.

What she said...

I know what you mean exactly. Writing is my day job and bread and butter - but it's all non-fiction. Swapping over to fiction was hard, and still is. I have to ruthlessly squash the tendency to be precise, accurate and analytical, and I have to do a lot of work in the editing stage because my fiction can read like a catalogue of actions if I'm not careful.

All I can suggest is just to pump out your first draft as fast as you can, without stressing over words. Then go back and do some ruthless reading and editing to fix all of the bad habits.

And post lots. Sometimes we can't see our own errors, and it's good to have another eye over them. I used to have a great writing group to scrutinise my stuff, but they have unfortunately parted ways. Other writers are your best resource.

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