A Guide to Writing Stories (Credit to Ccpenguin8)

This is something transferred over from the original CPCPF. Credit to Ccpenguin8

Note: This is not my own work.(except no 13.) I just want to help make sure people write good stories, that's all

A Guide to Writing Stories

Hello everyone,

Although the Club Penguin and other stories posted on these forums are great, there is plenty of room for improvement. So, I decided to write these tips on writing stories to help improve things even more. Hope this helps

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1. As is true with many posts, there are problems with spelling. Now, some people are better than others at spelling but, if your browser has a spell check feature or you have a dictionary lying around, then use it! Spelling does make a difference to the clarity of the post/story.

2. Another problem is transition of location. Now, I must admit this is only a problem in a minority of stories posted here, but I still want to cover it. Instead of saying 'The group got into a large car. Soon, they arrived at Rockhopper's Ship.', talk about how they got there (the transition of location).

3. Write in paragraphs, some people write one line then leave a gap then the next line etc. or write stores in chunks with no real space. In both instances, it is generally not good grammar. So, try instead to write in paragraphs.

4. Don't make it too short, if it's too short, people will just get through it instantly. If you don't have many ideas, do what I (and most people) do, write in short chapters and then do the next chapter when you've thought of more ideas.

5. Use the best grammar possible, if you need to, ask someone to check your grammar. It really makes a difference.

6. Make it exciting! If you know of some clever words or phrases that have people on the edges of their seats use them!

7. Correct punctuation is as important as spelling or grammar. If you have a section full of dialogue for example, without the correct use of speech marks, it would be unclear who is saying what. Oh, and, while I'm saying about dialogue, new speaker new line.

8. Every story should have an imaginative plot line with a beginning, middle and end.

9. Ok, this one is a bit obvious, every story should have at least one good character and one enemy. Ok, that is not true of all stories, but it is of most.

10. If you're writing a Club Penguin story, try not to use Herbert as the enemy EVERY time.

11. If you ever mention somebody's penguin name/username, then leave out the numbers. For example, write 'Ccpenguin' instead of 'Ccpenguin8'. I can tell you from past experiences that it looks an awful lot better.

12. Thanks to Music47jazz for pointing out that you should be careful when using spellcheck because it usually can't pick up small typo mistakes such as Venous and Venus, silver and sliver etc. etc.

13. (Credit to Nicktang10) Create suspense, with an unexpected bang (twist) at the end. This will also make you story better.

14. After dialogue be sure to put a comma, full stop or whatever punctuation you deem appropriate INSIDE the speech/quotation marks.

15. When writing numbers, write it in words. E.g: ten, rather than 10. It depends how you were taught, but I've always done it like that.

16. Ignore No. 4. A lot of things that I've seen posted, have about THREE SENTENCES and then they finish the chapter. I always aim to make a chapter at least a paragraph, maybe two. If you're running out of ideas, try and put in some more detailed descriptions and character personalities, and add some long, fancy words. This will all bulk it out slightly.

17. About six times, a certain friend of mine has asked me why his story gets low interest. I admit that I regularly fall into this enormous trap: if you don't update the story quickly, people get bored and stop checking the thread. It is essential that you set yourself deadlines, and publish your completed chapters within a few days. A week is really the maximum.

18. Hmm...do I write a CP story, or an off-topic story? Good question! The answer is to do both. If any of you remember my 'Penguins Travel in Time' story from CPCP (if you wish to read it, it's available as an archive story in the Finished CP Stories section here at TNCPCP), it was about a group of penguins escaping from Club Penguin in a rocket when the EPF gets destroyed, meeting an alien (well, part alien, part penguin) on the Moon, and travelling back in time to the Beta Test Party. Now, time travel, rockets and meeting aliens on the Moon are hardly CP-related, which is why I added CP elements: the heroes were penguins, the alien was part penguin, they went in a rocket built by Gary the Gadget Guy, the time travel machine was a trap from Herbert, and the place they time travelled to was the Beta Test Party on Club Penguin. So, you CAN write an off-topic story and a CP-related story, at the same time.

19. Just before I wrote this, I saw a story by Austin4606 called The Immortal God. Now, he made quite a big error in that story: he switched from narrative to playscript in his style of writing in the middle of the story. If you decide to write in playscript halfway through the writing process, then I recommend that you change the previous sections into playscript, too. If you don't, it really doesn't look good.

20. [b style="font-weight: bold; "]PLEASE, PLEASE add some backstory![/b] I have seen stories where characters are thrown in randomly and then suddenly you're straight into the action and things are drawn in inexplicably and events happen so quickly etc that I get so confused. Although stories should be lively, it is important to take the time to describe everything and give a bit of explanation so that the reader knows precisely what is going on and can follow the pace of the story.

EDITED BY CCPENGUIN8 WITH ADDITIONS TO THE GUIDE. LAST UPDATED: 2nd July 2013.
WRITTEN BY SOMEONE WHO HAS WRITTEN MANY STORIES SINCE 2010 AND IS THE PUBLISHED AUTHOR OF A 5-STAR EBOOK SERIES ON THE KINDLE STORE.

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CONCLUSION

I'm just trying to help and these are merely tips. I'm not saying anyone here is actually BAD, I just want to help those that are struggling a bit  This will be updated whenever I think of something else to add to it. Feel free to post with any contributions you may have. Special thanks to Nicktang10 for posting the guide here on CPF.

-Ccpenguin8

Very helpful, I'm stickying (not a word ) this.

Well, even though I wrote it, great thread! I'll add No. 13 to the CPCPF version (if that's ok) and if you don't mind, I'll update this thread with any additions to the original for you. Thanks a lot for giving credit, by the way.

Please excuse the double post.

THE GUIDE HAS NOW BEEN UPDATED WITH EVEN MORE TIPS! I hope that this thread will continue to help you all write stories.

Hang on a minute, how come YOU get edit and update SOMEONE ELSE's guide!? Everyone can clearly see that Nicktang made it.

No, this is not Nicktang's guide. The guide is completely mine. I wrote every tip, except the ones where I specifically give credit to the people who contribute them. Nicktang was just kind enough to rescue the guide from old CPCP, and post it here.

POST CONTENT REMOVED BY CCPENGUIN8.

CONSTRUCTIVE critiscm would be appreciated next time, please. I spent literally hours writing this guide, and every single point is based upon what, in my opinion, would be helpful to everyone here. I found what you said extremely hurtful and upsetting to me personally, especially the parts calling the tips "rubbish", that "don't deserve to be stickied". If any of these tips were indeed rubbish, then somebody else would've complained before you. This guide was, and is, a quality post, and I doubt an ADMINISTRATOR would've stickied it if it was not. If I were you, I'd be very careful. In my opinion, what you said would come under flaming and disrespecting moderators, and many people will tell you that they have been warned, infracted or even banned for this.

Ccpenguin8
TNCPCP Super Moderator

Also, have you ever considered about limiting the number of run-on sentences AND limiting the number of prepositional phrases, for example, "in the immediate vicinity of" to "near"?

music47jazz wrote:Also, have you ever considered about limiting the number of run-on sentences AND limiting the number of prepositional phrases, for example, "in the immediate vicinity of" to "near"?

Please try to explain this more clearly, with less complicated vocabulary so that everyone can understand.

Thank you,

Ccpenguin8

Ccpenguin8 wrote:

music47jazz wrote:Also, have you ever considered about limiting the number of run-on sentences AND limiting the number of prepositional phrases, for example, "in the immediate vicinity of" to "near"?

Please try to explain this more clearly, with less complicated vocabulary so that everyone can understand.

Thank you,

Ccpenguin8

Oh, well, um, what I mean is that to limit lengthy prepositional phrases that some young writers think make their writing "sophisticated" while it only clutters it up?

Okay, I'll try to explain this better. What I mean is that replacing long phrases such as "in reference to" with something shorter. An example: I wrote a message to him (where "him" is ambiguous) in reference to the trouble. That can be shortened slightly by I wrote a message to him referring to the trouble. That's basically what I mean. Just shortening all these sentences slightly can clear out a whole bunch of unnecessary words. Or maybe I should just say eliminate unnecessary words as a whole.

I'm not very good at explaining, so... yeah.

Updated the guide with extra tips and corrected typos! Enjoy!

Keep writing,
Ccpenguin8

(WHAT! CCP BUMPED! Bumping is AGAINST THE RULES!! MODS!! Lol Jk)

Anyway, yeah! Nice tips!! (But the last one was directed towards me just because Genghis Khan is unknown to you!)

King Kane wrote:(WHAT! CCP BUMPED! Bumping is AGAINST THE RULES!! MODS!! Lol Jk)

Anyway, yeah! Nice tips!! (But the last one was directed towards me just because Genghis Khan is unknown to you!)

It's not against the rules if it's a sticky thread. Bumping is where you move an old thread to 'the top of the list' so to speak. If it's a sticky it's always at the top, regardless of how old it is.

And, it wasn't directed towards JUST you. I've read several stories like that, but I thought I may as well mention it because it reminded me of them. Anyway, I'm just giving my honest opinion.