TIPS FROM ERNEST HEMINGWAY... YES, ERNEST HEMINGWAY.

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I've been researching a lot of tips lately about good story writing, because you need a story for a game and I intend on making mine story-heavy. It seemed like I just kept getting stuck in a rut most of the times that I began to work on my story, until I found these tips on openculture.com. Number 2 & 3 have helped me out a ton and the rest are great as well.

Here's the link: 7 Tips from Ernest Hemingway

Anyway, hope this helped you out like it did for me.
Well, I plan to do a kind of book of analysis about presentation of stories in the future, also having writing a full novel first draft and drop it afterwards,I still think I have lots to learn in matter of writing, so I agree with him in many aspects so thanks for the link, I enjoy it :)
Isrieri
"My father told me this would happen."
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1: To get started, write one true sentence.
Well I sure don't know what a "true sentence" is but I think I know what he's getting at. You just want to start with something down to earth rather than try and lavish your reader with all sorts of descriptions and details too early otherwise they may get too overwhelmed with all the information. The thing to do is to start simply and lead in to everything slowly, allowing time for you to take in what you read. At least that's how I interpret it.

2: Always stop for the day while you still know what will happen next.
That's good advice. The last story I was working on I ran into a massive problem where I went away with it after finishing a chapter but when I began on the next I had no clue what was going on or where to open up. Course, that was because there was a bit of a time skip, which I'd never done before, so that might have been part of it. But if you are smart and make a plan for your story, then stopping before you reach a key shift in the narrative seems good: The idea being that when you're writing, the ideas are fresh in your head and you're concentrating on the story exclusively.

3: Never think about the story when you’re not working.
But on the other hand I dunno about this advice. Some of my best ideas come when I'm out working at real-life work or out walking. Or just randomly for no reason. But when I'm actually sitting down to try and write something, I need to have planned it out earlier: Making up the story as I go never really worked out for me because I couldn't come up with what I needed right away and that can get pretty disheartening. On the other hand, maybe I should put in more of an effort with this approach.

4: When it’s time to work again, always start by reading what you’ve written so far.
Duh.

5: Don’t describe an emotion–make it.
Best advice. Some of the old RPG players here probably already know all about this. I know it because you can see it sometimes in bad B-movies that want to narrate the whole thing to you rather than let the actors show you how they feel through the acting. Sometimes you don't need to describe things, when they're easily apparent through dialogue.

6: Use a pencil.
Pencils are obsolete. (His point is a good one though, with the 3rd draft for extra revision power)

7: Be Brief.
Because he's Hemmingway. And because I agree. Only write the words you need and no more. (Unfortunately this is the advice I need the most practice with)
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
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#3 doesn't make much sense to me, like Isrieri said, I get a lot of my inspiration for storyline or even game ideas when I'm not sitting at the computer thinking about it. It just pops in and I start to build on it from there, at work or doing stuff around the house.
I have a good memory too, so that helps, I can pretty much remember word for word what I thought sounded neat or atleast give me a basic idea to build off of when I do sit down and are ready to work.

So I can't really agree on that one, but I don't know, probably helps somebody.
it's almost as if writing isn't an exact science and what works will vary from person to person
slash
APATHY IS FOR COWARDS
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I like his list, especially the last point. He compared his style of writing to an iceberg, where only some details of the plot and story were given to the reader and the rest were left to the reader's imagination, or rather hinted at subtly rather than stated overtly. I think that some games could definitely benefit from the plot not detailing everything exactly to the player, but rather letting the player figure it out for themselves and only providing them just enough.
there are a couple games that I remember did just that. killer7 is a little bit infamous for not explicitly telling the player much, and what it does say outright is laced with misinformation and things that simply have nothing at all to do with other things. what's interesting is that most of the pieces actually are there in allusions and little throwaway lines (with the exception of the whole Jaco Checkbox/Miss Jacob thing).

giving the player the power to investigate further is, I think, one of the most important and most lacking things in most of the indie games I've seen. create a setting that's worth giving a fuck about, and then give people who give a fuck about it a way to learn more.
well have to add that everyone start grabbing different habits in order to write, so tips aren't universal.
I already covered that a little ways up. like a lot of things, there aren't any rules to writing that you can't break every now and then if you have a good idea of why. likewise, there are no hard and fast steps you can follow to get to that point. the only undeniable, absolute rule that I've been able to identify is this:

always write/draw/compose/program/whatever. every day.
author=InfectionFiles
#3 doesn't make much sense to me, like Isrieri said, I get a lot of my inspiration for storyline or even game ideas when I'm not sitting at the computer thinking about it. It just pops in and I start to build on it from there, at work or doing stuff around the house.
I have a good memory too, so that helps, I can pretty much remember word for word what I thought sounded neat or atleast give me a basic idea to build off of when I do sit down and are ready to work.

So I can't really agree on that one, but I don't know, probably helps somebody.


I can understand what you're getting at, a lot of my ideas come randomly to me as well. The key is to write them down then and there and not continue to think about them unless you're serious about working on your novel/ piece. The real problem he's trying to stop is when people obsess over their work all the time, and end up getting writers block.

I used to constantly think about my story whenever I had free time, instead of letting the ideas come to me instead. This has definitely helped me out a lot, but unless you obsess over your story it probably won't make that much of a difference.
rule 8 is that hemingway has only one m in it
author=mawk
rule 8 is that hemingway has only one m in it


You know what this means? It's time to edit the title and pretend I had it right in the first place!
oh, I was just saying that at random. it didn't pertain to anything in this thread, since as anyone can see you've been spelling hemingway correctly this entire time.
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