If your story is strong enough, and it sounds like it, don't rely on crutches, it will stand on its own.
I'm sure she had plenty of time to build a lot of notes when she was homeless and high! Maybe she was just high, idk . . . it's hard to come up with misinformation sometimes.
I understand what your a saying but the 2012 idea goes along with a whole different story, not the one based off dementia. It was just another idea I had. And thanks alot for all the suggestions and help and everything.
Although helpful this is not the only way to write - if it were Naked Lunch would not exist. All I can say is this - write what you know, and if you want to write about something you don't know fully, study up.
So... this man with dementia starts seeing disfigured people/animals/monsters and the book is basically a struggle between him realizing whether he is seeing real life or just his brain projecting images onto real life?
I've never quite understood that old saw, "write what you know." This is fine for non-fiction, or for fiction based on actual (or possible) events which contains descriptive passages that are supposed to be based on reality. (Descriptions of scientific concepts, physical objects that exist in reality like tanks, planes, weapons, and whatnot, descriptions of real places, etc.) But if everyone just wrote what they knew there would be no sci-fi/fantasy section of the book store. In this particular case, which is ostensibly a realistic dramatization of possible events, certainly it would help to know about the subjects you present in the book. But if you're going to write a futuristic piece or a fantasy piece, not so much. It's helpful to know a little about current technology or medieval history respectively, as you could extrapolate some of what you write about from that, but most of what you'll end up writing about would be fabricated from whole cloth. I would argue that, depending on your genre of preference, it isn't so much "write what you know" as "understand what you write," which isn't necessarily the same thing. Credibility in one's writing comes not only from personal experience and sphere of knowledge, but being able to build characters, places and events with depth and vision. Imagination is as important if not moreso than experience, and one's ability to colourfully describe each is crucial to capturing and maintaining the reader's interest.
you are reading into "know" to literally. Knowing can be an understanding of emotion or intellect in addition to knowing facts or events. As for fantasy I see it as an extension of our emotion and intellect. It is fine to fabricate situations, ideas, technology but you have to make it at the very least resonant with the reader. Which is why it has to work on an intellectual level to make it believable so it has the possibility of working on an emotional level where it may become real. It is not hard to know things which is why I believe in study - but it is good advice to use what you do know, otherwise you'll end up speaking out of your ass - and while that is entertaining, it is very little else. I am also a firm believer in broken logic - I see it in practice everyday during real life. Loose ends, plot holes, mundane settings of little relevance and a large cast of characters not central to the main plot.
-this comment is based soley on reading the 4 word title and nothing else- Good luck! Hope to see it on the best seller list soon
I agree with the not writing the plot first, but I strongly disagree with writing the ending first. Everybody has a differen style of writing that works best for them, and I would say to just start writing (on a computer or easy significant edits) and see where it goes. As you write, you can easily edit, add, and remove things later on. Then, everything should come together in the end for a more complex ending than you may have otherwise. Hope that helps!
Yeah - I know there are a lot of writing techniques. In fact, every author develops it's on unique style after a while. I just stated how I am doing it or would do it. Some agree to me, some not. But I know there are hundreds of other solutions. As I said: hundreds of screwdrivers, all different, but all serving the same purpose. And maybe you'll get some beginners tips here: http://howtowriteastory.wordpress.com/
I guess you'll have to find out. To be honest though it is somewhat like that but with so much more put into it. And no, not exactly monsters or creatures, they are too overdone. I want the story tied in to his childhood as well as the dementia and in the end(which I'm not even sure about yet)I want the reader awe stricken because that is the way I write. But yes there will be many conflicts(struggles) and hopefully a lot of questions so that the reader is never putting down the book and always thinking. And also, you guys should check out the movie: Buried. It is a good movie with a great story. Overall I enjoyed it.
From what I understand, there are many ways to go about the writing process, but the one thing that's universal is you need to write. In order to write well, you need to write often. I guess just like any craft you hope to master. So to relate this to your situation, I'd say just write it. Unless you're like some type of genius savant, it'll probably need revision anyway. So you'll write again. And if it's your first book, I doubt it'll be as tightly written as your 5th book. I'm almost certain J.K. Rowling didn't start off with Harry Potter. There was probably: Harry Spellsworth, Lil Wizard DoGoody, That Boy Who Does Magic, and thennnn maybe the accumulation of a skill-set that resulted into the Harry Potter series after lots of practice developing a literary style.
To be honest, I thought the first three Harry Potter books were amateurish to the extreme. I think writing the series is what improved it, reading the first book to the seventh you can see massive development as a writer. I'm not much of a writer, but I'd start with short stories. Writing a book is VERY, VERY tough and it is easy to lose motivation. If you've accomplished some smaller personal achievements, it can help your idea be fulfilled into reality.
Honestly, I just wing it. I have a vague idea at best where the heck I'm going when I start. I don't even bother hammering out the plot beyond the bare essentials that are neccessary to start. Just keep writing. The characters will do whatever it is they are meant to do and, in doing so, will write the book for you. Keep in mind, I've written seven of these things. Seven and half, actually. If you sweat the details, the details will bog you down to the point in which nothing will ever get done. The hardest thing for any writer to do is to just start writing. Trust me too. All writers will say the same thing. We stall and procrastinate and do just about anything to keep us from starting. Once you start, you can't stop. But until you start, you'd rather not. It's a love/hate relationship. The best advice I can give is, just write. Forget all the stupid little details that might stall you out from actually doing anything; like, say, wasting ridiculous amounts of time mapping out an entire detailed outline. screw that. And I never wrote short stories. I suppose I never had it in me. I wrote my first novel when I was 17. Technically, in terms of sentence structure and whatnot, it was bad, sure. Conceptually, however, it was pretty awesome. And the characters were pretty good too. I'd never try to publish that book, but we learn from doing it, my friend. I went to college, took a creative writing class, and the head of the creative writing division was near retirement, probably in his sixties, and never in his life had he written a full novel. Short stories only. What a waste. Don't set yourself up to live with that sort of regret. Life is short. Just do it. And check out 48hrbooks.com. A true godsend if you are a serious writer. Believe me on that.
Just a quick note on how I write stories: Let the characters decide what is going to happen. This will however, only really work if you have fleshed out their personalities properly. Make a very vague outline of what is going to happen where and when, but not how. This way, you can set up some very interesting confrontations such as this: ---- The lead buried into his hands like a dagger, a jagged spear. How long could he hold it for? There was naught but a second to lose before the nuclear bomb was to detonate. If it did, all of the USA would be lost and his wife, family, friends.... all his world would be lost. His past, the future and the present would no longer exist. But did he have the strength to save them? Sighing deeply, he looked around himself with a brisk eye. Behind him stood the man he loathed deeply, the murderer of his brother, Alfonse. He stood with a reverence, his dark and torn cloak tattered in the wind. He bore his fangs like a wolf and his face was twisted like one closing in on its prey. In front of him was the mechanism which he had managed to pause with his bare hands. It was a cylinder with a rusted handle and had gears going all around the structure. It was clear to his trained mind that if he could somehow jam these gears, he could stop the catastrophe. "If you knew something about me, you wouldn't be standing here." a small smile crept over Simon's lips as he knelt on the ground, one hand cradling the other bleeding one. "And what is this other thing that I should know?" Asked the murderer as he stepped backward cautiously. Even though he was a fearless man, he was still cautious. He did not like to call other people's bluffs and even less so when they were in a position of... "I'm right behind you." The man's eyes opened with a shocked gaze and he turned around to face.... nothing. But it was by this time that... ----- (Ok this is not very good as it stands but it was a quick 5-10 minute demo. Personally, I don't write the ending last as I want to keep it as a secret to myself what the ending will be. I however make something vague such as "Bad guy dies by being thrown into lava in volcano" but not who does it or how or anything like that. That way, I have something to aim for with my writing!)
