Guided Writing Exercises? Or jump right into writing stories?

[X Equestris]

I'll take a look at it, but I'd really like something focused on short story, novella, and novel style writing.

If you’re looking for courses, Writers of the Future has an online workshop that takes you through the process of developing and drafting a short story. Even as a fairly experienced author at the time I did the workshop, it had some useful insights, so I’m sure it would be especially helpful for someone just starting out.

 

[Tallyfire]

Writers of the Future has an online workshop

Do you mean this one? Looks pretty interesting.

I am looking either for A. a self guided course (book or online) on fiction writing or B. people to tell me "that's a bad idea, just start writing that project you have in mind".

I think you've already heard enough about B, so for A I'd recommend Ursula K. Le Guin's Steering the Craft. She doesn't talk much about overarching story planning, but she has a lot of good advice on what makes a good piece of writing, and she has exercises that are specifically tailored to get you both writing and to make you think about your choice of things like POV, sentence length/structure, and wording. You can apply all of those concepts to a current writing project (which is what I did). It's short and immediately hands-on.

 

[twiget]

If you’re looking for courses, Writers of the Future has an online workshop that takes you through the process of developing and drafting a short story. Even as a fairly experienced author at the time I did the workshop, it had some useful insights, so I’m sure it would be especially helpful for someone just starting out.

I didn't even know the Writers of the Future was still around. I loved L Ron Hubbard's books when I was in high school and I read many of the Writers of the Future anthologies back in the day. I'm gonna have to check out that workshop too.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

You want prompts? The forum's own prompt suggestions.

I learned to write fiction by reading about a zillion novels and maybe half that number of short stories. When my own work didn't measure up to my ambitions, I started paying more attention to how other writers structured their work, how they used words to evoke emotions, what they did that worked for me, and what they did that didn't work for me. About 30 years ago, I did a lot of research preparatory to teaching creative writing for adult continuing education at the local college. Even if you're not going to teach writing, preparing that kind of leasson plan using a couple dozen resources is a great way to educate yourself.

In no particular order (except Strunk and White which ALWAYS comes first), some of my favorite books on writing:

The Elements of Style. William Strunk and E.B. White

Getting the Words Right: How to Revise, Edit, and Rewrite. Theodore A. Rees Cheney

How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertanining Guide to Understanding Literature, from The Great Gatsby to The Hate You Give. Thomas C. Foster (This is soooo readable)

Writing Down the Bones. Natalie Goldberg

The Artist's Way. Julia Cameron. (You want prompts?)

 

[X Equestris]

Do you mean this one? Looks pretty interesting.

Yeah, that’s the one. I did it back in 2020, so the exact curriculum might’ve changed, but it was definitely interesting.

 

[Catrin Lewis]

Let me make sure I understand. Just start writing the current story I'm thinking about. Write it until it's done, in the format I see it being in (novel.) Then get feedback on it? And the practice loop is just "write shitty novels (or whatever format) until you write a not shitty novel." Or should I be workshopping passages here as I go?

Or write till you get stuck. Then drop in here, start a thread, and see what you get.

 

[Catrin Lewis]

Ye could both check out even the voting pages or the winner announcement pages of past contests. My experience is that the sentiments expressed are genuine and reflect the good natured tone. While, clearly, effort is put in to make the stories the best the writer can, the overall is about participation and not proving superiority. I've won a few and done more than one Norway in the Eurovision (0 points) amd, to be honest, will sometimes defend more resolutely those that fared miserably as things I'm glad I wrote. I can say it gave me a focus to get writing, get stories finished, get on to the next thing. It can also be interesting to see the widely divergent takes on whatever the prompt might be.

I thought it was always "Luxembourg, null point."

 

[FFBurwick]

Something to guide writing may be really good. But I still think spending time writing and writing more is the most helpful, which I reasonably assume is preceded with reading enough. I seem to have really stunk at writing when I was picking it up with seriousness well over a decade ago. But I didn't stop. It shows I was not doing as well with it long ago with what I was showing of it recently with not altering any of that to start with, from that long ago, and would have let the development of my writing ability be shown as I continued with it over a long time. I had better responses to writing I have shown in some writing competitions since. Continuing with writing with good frequency does help in itself.

 

[sierraromeobravo]

It might be a little unorthodox but sometimes I just write a scene. No real background, no real character development, just a scene. It's kind of a practice in writing. Some of those "prompt" books are good where they tell you to write a short story about ____. I have had a few really great short stories originate from a scene I created. Ultimately, the best advice is to start writing. I only really started writing about 15 years ago. I can claim I've been doing it for almost 20, but I didn't really start until later. I even though I was pretty good about 15 years ago. Now I think I'm finally at the level I believed I was at back then. BUT, if you're searching for support of structure, plot development, worldbuilding, etc. There is countless videos and support on YouTube, TikTok, etc. that can get you moving in the right direction.

 

[Pyroglyphian]

I don’t see A and B as mutually exclusive, @bulwark_of_the_week, though I think the dilemma is common. A similar debate occurs in the martial arts, where one view is that you can learn everything you need to about karate by ‘just practising’ karate. This is true. But it’s also true that a karate-ka can develop their strength in the gym, or their stamina through cycling, or flexibility through yoga, etc. – these being akin to the ‘projects that improve your skills in a particular way’ you mentioned. As Naomasa notes, though, whatever you pick up through peripheral learning needs to be assimilated before it can surface maturely in your creative output.

I don’t believe programming is the opposite of writing fiction; rather, I don’t accept the dichotomy, just as practising medicine or anthropology isn't the opposite of writing fiction. As a programmer, you’ve developed faculties, ideas, thinking habits, and perspectives that are perhaps less common among writers. This isn’t something to discard; it’s part of the unique experience you bring to your writing. Michael Crichton took up writing fiction to fund his study in medicine and anthropology. These academic pursuits, arguably requiring no less of a structured mindset than programming, inform his work: in subject, theme, metaphor, language, structure, how he organised writing projects, and so on. He ended up being the only writer ever to have a number one book, movie, and TV show all in the same year. Who knows where your unique perspective will take you? Don’t let anyone tell you you’re doing it wrong; it’s your jigsaw puzzle.

 

[Naomasa298]

One thing to be very careful of.

"Just writing", without any genuine and constructive feedback, can be dangerous. It can lock you into bad habits, and the more that happens, the harder it will be to break those habits. That's why any feedback you get can't come from those with a vested interest in sparing you emotional or social friction - in other words, friends and family.

And - "getting better" does not (did I emphasise that enough?) mean getting wordier. I have seen several writers who think that, because they're getting more verbose, it means they've improved. It doesn't, if the same underlying issues remain. In fact, it often worse, because it's saying, in twenty words, what could have been said in five. Adding fifteen words should be done with weight, not just to make the sentence longer.

He went to town and the road was twisty and full of rocks. Then he met Bob and they went out for a tasty steak dinner together. It felt great.
is not better than:
He went to town and had dinner with Bob.

 

[SilverBear]

If you think you might be a plotter rather than a pantser, you can take a look at Marshall Plan for Novel Writing by Evan Marshall (on Amazon). It worked for me 21 novels ago, but is designed for someone who wants to plot the story. Some information would still be useful for a panster relative to pacing, tension, reader surprises, and other ideas for novels. Also, as others have said, write and put it here in one of worksops for feedback. One last thing: make sure you read a lot of books yourself. Examine how different authors structure their books and handle multiple point of view characters. Best of luck.

 

[Tallyfire]

And - "getting better" does not (did I emphasise that enough?) mean getting wordier. I have seen several writers who think that, because they're getting more verbose, it means they've improved.

On the constructive side of things:

An interesting writing exercise (taken from Le Guin, "Crowding and leaping") involves taking a piece you've written (400-1000 words) and cutting it down until you've halved the word count. The story you're telling should remain the same.

 

[Richach]

I take notes between chapters of the books I read. Just five or so bullet points. If you are reading high quality books you are not likely to find many if any issues. You should however find many things that are done well. That is how I learn. YouTube and how to books are not required imo. They are literally sitting between me and the author. In other words they are pointless and get in the way. Why do I need someone else to interpret what an author can teach me?

 

[Richach]

Sorry my last does not sound helpful. I would suggest planning is vital. Plan everything. Place, character names, plot, sub plot. Character journeys. See Tony Robbins - push motivation vs pull motivation; you can't write a story just based on intuition because you will run out of energy. Planning tells you where you are headed and will pull you through. Then you can be as intuitive as you like.

I use an A5 Jotta to do this. It is a very high level first draft. So a chapter that has an intended 4,000 words is described by 50 to 100? All the above elemnts are there. Once I have planned out all the chapters I write my actual first draft on PC. The intended 4,000 words are kept purposfully light so might be 2,500 to 3,000 words (75%)

There are other factors that have to be added in to give the story dynamics (its a whole other subject!) that is why I leave room. If a chapter is flat then I can add some spicy dyanmic to give it a lift, increase pace, slow or calm it down etc. That gets me much closer to the right word count for the chapter. Then I edit. I do not go crazy editing just enough for beta readers to tolerate.

Just a tip, if you cannot sum up your story or a chapter, or a character in a few sentances, it is usually a sign something is missing. Either from your description of that element or a structural issue that needs attention.

Please take or leave this advise. I am just another random person on the internet!