alt title(s): So You Want To; So You Want To; See The Index
This index holds the various pages of the
So You Want To namespace. Go to
Write A Story for basic advice that transcends genre boundaries.
To Suggest a Page: Add a bulleted title (not a link) to the end of the list of suggested pages.
To Write Up a Suggested Page: Make the title into a link (get rid of the spaces, and stick a slash between the
So You Want To and the name of the page). Either leave it where it is, or move it onto its own line somewhere in the appropriate section.
To Start a New (Unsuggested) Page: Just create a bulleted link at the end of the appropriate section, then click on it, click the
Edit Page button, and start editing.
To Get the Template: Head over to
See A Template, open it for editing, and copy the template at the bottom of the page. Then come back here, click on the link for the page you want to create, open it for editing, paste in the template, and start filling in the sections. There you go!
If you have trouble picking a title for your story, refer to
Genre Title Grab Bag.
Compare
TV Tropes How To Guides.
The Basics
This article covers advice for all writers, regardless of genre or medium; it's the stuff that would go on every page, but instead we put it on this one page and just point you over here:
Also see
Story Structure Architect.
Genres
The tropes that make the genre:
Suggested pages (which no one has yet written up) should not be made into links. Redlinks put extra strain on the server and interrupt the indexing. If you want to create one of the suggested pages, go ahead and make it into a link; otherwise, leave it alone.
- So You Want To Write An Adventure Story
- So You Want To Write An Animated Comedy (The Simpsons, Family Guy, King Of The Hill, etc.)
- So You Want To Write An Animated Movie (Disney, Don Bluth, etc.)
- So You Want To Write A Bestseller
- So You Want To Write A Choose Your Own Adventure
- So You Want To Write A Christmas Story
- So You Want To Write A Dark Fantasy
- So You Want To Write An Educational Cartoon
- So You Want To Write A Hentai OVA
- So You Want To Write A Heroic Bloodshed Movie
- So You Want To Write A High School Sitcom
- So You Want To Write A Hispanic Style Soap Opera
- So You Want To Write A Horror Game
- So You Want To Write An Interactive Fiction
- So You Want To Write A Pirate Story
- So You Want To Write A Police Procedural
- So You Want To Write A Rock Opera
- So You Want To Write A Satire
- So You Want To Write A Short Story
- So You Want To Write A Side-Scrolling Platformer (Mario)
- So You Want To Write A Space Fighters Series
- So You Want To Write A Space Western
- So You Want To Write A Sprite Comic
- So You Want To Write A Space Opera
- So You Want To Write A Shoujo Series
- So You Want To Write A Steampunk Story
- So You Want To Write A Thriller
- So You Want To Write A Spy Thriller
- So You Want To Write A Time Travelogue
- So You Want To Write A Trailer
- So You Want To Write An Urban Legend
- So You Want To Write A Visual Novel
- So You Want To Write A Webtoon
- So You Want To Write a Plot-ful Shonen-ai/Yaoi Story
- So You Want To Write A War Movie
Groundbreaking Works
An overview of how these works rose to the top of the food chain, and how you might duplicate their success:
- So You Want To Write The Next The Simpsons
- So You Want To Write The Next Star Wars
- So You Want To Write The Next Stargate
- So You Want To Write The Next Red Dwarf
- So You Want To Write The Next MASH
- So You Want To Write The Next Discworld
- So You Want To Write The Next Law And Order
Major Authors
These are for advice on what to study to improve your craft, given your target genres, demographics, and mediums:
- So You Want To Be The Next Stephen King
- So You Want To Be The Next Charles Dickens
- So You Want To Be The Next C S Lewis
- So You Want To Be The Next Osamu Tezuka
- So You Want To Be The Next Brothers Grimm
- So You Want To Be The Next Louis L Amour
- So You Want To Be The Next Terry Pratchett
- So You Want To Be The Next Joss Whedon
- So You Want To Be The Next Tom Clancy
- So You Want To Be The Guy
Individual Characters
Writing a story is hard but writing believable characters, the core of any good story, is even harder at times.
Right now these links just go back to the trope pages. We need tropers to make them into actual links to new pages (just take out all the spaces) and start giving advice on how to craft these tropes! In the meantime, you can visit Master Characters and Heroes And Heroines articles for some basic character templates.
And a honorable mention goes to
Avoid Writing A Mary Sue, which actually
belongs to the next section.
Troublesome Tropes
We all know that
Tropes Are Tools. But some of them tend to be useful only in the hands of a Master Craftsman. So here are some pages to help you avoid those tropes... at least until you know what the heck you're doing.
