Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-44861696-20200114175040/@comment-28266772-20200116105550

Hi, so a quick overview of our Quality Standards comes down to two important things:

First, the story must have something original. It can be presentation, plot, style, anything. But it must try to do something remotely new and original.

Second, it must be literate. It must show signs of having been proofread and checked for errors and preferably having gone through multiple drafts. Another caveat of being literate is that it must function as a story. It must be an actual narrative.

So:

Mechanical issues: “showed many reality’s”/ “It do did what it was” / “to a end” / “It live in a dark forest” / “by a unknown being” / “as on must return” / “being that goals are to keep in mind” – lots and lots of mechanical issues which culminate in most of your sentences being unintelligible:

A "Nightmare" [nightmare - capitalisation] Is [is – capitalisation] a dream governed or made [governed or made are redundant they mean very similar things] by another [?] unknown council '[why council? Why not a cabal? Or a team? Or a jaunty band?] or being that [whose] goals are to keep the human in mind [in mind? Oh you mean the human in question] out of the dreaming [double space] state and in normal reality [what!?] 'for unknown reasons.

Style issues – If you want your story to come as intellectual, then you really need to proof read it.

Plot issues – None. There is, literally, no plot. It’s not a story. I don’t really like shitting on new authors but my honest opinion is that a few hundred words just won’t cut it. If writing is something you’d like to do, you’re not even pointing in the right direction, so I’ll try my best to tell you the first steps you need to take:

First off, keep it simple. You need one or two named characters at most. Characters are often defined by presentation, dialogue, and flaws. In short stories they tend to be simple. Use clichés, use them a lot. Make colourful characters who the audience can easily read.

Then one of those characters needs to make a decision. That decision needs to lead them to suffering. That suffering needs to be the basis of horror. That decision could be offending a supernatural entity, it could be trusting someone untrustworthy, it could be breaking the rules. It doesn’t matter what the choice is, but they absolutely need to make a choice. Otherwise the story will be passive, and people will get the feeling it’s just a guy that stuff happens to.

Second, use descriptive language to create mood and atmosphere. Describe things. Not all the things, just some of the things. Focus on what people can see, hear, smell, touch, taste. Re-read your favourite stories and pause at the parts you enjoyed: ask why you enjoyed them. What words did they use? What combination? How do those words sound? What do they make you feel? Don’t be afraid to lift words and phrases from authors you like. Just don’t lift whole sentences. Build up a descriptive vocabulary and use it (somewhat sparingly) to describe scenes, people, places, and things from the plot.

Your first short story should be somewhere in the 1500-4000 words range. You need to write it, read it, edit it, give it to a friend, let them read it and then make changes based on what they say. Then you need to re-read it again, edit it. Then you need to read it aloud, then edit it again. Then you need to post it to a workshop. Get feedback, edit it. Now re-read it again, then make any necessary changes.

But, and this is the most important part of all, ''you need to come up with stories to write, then you need to write them. ''

It helps if you enjoy it.