The troubles of writing your first story + advice please

So. You have a lot of incredible ideas. Possibly hundreds. But you have no experience. Since you have no experience, you are confident that your first story will not be very good. You don't want to waste any particularly awesome ideas on a bad story, do you? So now what? Is there a professional way to go about making mistakes?

Basically...the best way to find improvement, in my experience, is being that annoying prat that most other people are annoyed by.

Make mistakes frequently. Show your work to people frequently. Argue the mistakes frequently so you are sure you are getting the best possible advice. And no matter what, don't stop writing.

There is no professional way to make mistakes, but luckily for you, you don't have to be professional yet.

Actually, it shouldn't be too hard to get all the noviceness out. It's not like you have to publish what you write. You have the Tropers to help you. If you wanted, you could have them review each chapter at a time, and it is doubtful they would be bothered... Well, at least for the first twenty chapters. Beyond that, someone might say something.

Also, excuse me for talking in the second person. It seems so natural.

After receiving a welcome message for the Writers' Block forum, it has been made apparent that there's more than you thought you could do on this website to help you write your first story, and many more.

Why not? If you keep up with writing, you'll end up with loads of awesome ideas, most of them way better than whatever you have before you have any experience writing; and besides, it's not like the originality police will come and arrest you if you recycle ideas that you've used before. Hell, several well-regarded authors have made careers out of reusing the same few ideas over and over again.

I've found that self-discipline is one matter there: "mission creep" is a real danger, and trying to stuff too many half-baked ideas into a story can irretrievably bog you down. Try anyway. It may feel rather painful to excise entire themes with fire and sword as you realize that there's just no way they'll work in the story length you have in mind, or else realize you have to expand the story immensely to cover them, but it'll give you a feel for what ideas you can keep in and what you may have to set aside for later.

Tropers/imadinosaur What if it goes horribly right and I generate a huge fanbase that likes the work that I don't? I'll want to fix the problems I see, but it could upset the audience, you know?

The more awesome your ideas are the more likely they are to be beyond your ability. As your first story is in effect an exorcism of the urges you need to get out of the way, why not?

That's like saying "this my first time at a rifle, but what if I hit the bullseye five times straight and end up being investigated by the FBI?" While it might make for a comedy scenario, rest assured it's less likely than you think.

Write for yourself, not for your (as of yet nonexistent) fanbase.

Yeah, that's true, it does sound kinda insane. Nvm, I guess. I'll just work in cooperation with the T Vtropes community and I should be critically secure.

That sounds like the kind of problem it'd be nice to have, really. Even if that did happen, all you'd have to do would be to change the names of the characters (if you're going to do something that could alienate existing fans) and some other unimportant details of the setting. Very, very few people will care if you reuse concepts or recycle characters.

Also, once you're writing regularly and get a feel of what works for you, you'll end up having much better ideas than whatever you have now.

Most importantly, though, is the problem that thinking about all this external stuff ('what if I accidentally copy another story?' 'What if I offend someone on tumblr?' 'Will publishers or magazines like this story?') is the best way to stop yourself from writing in the first place. Write your stuff and then worry about anything else (and even then, don't worry about it too much. The best way to improve on a bad story is to write more stories).

I can tell ya that, as cheesy as it sounds, experience really can be your best teacher when it comes to these sort of things.

I had the same thoughts too, especially (or only) when it came to those really ambitious projects - the ones that are closer to my heart. You kinda don't want to mess up because, well, in your head this is your perfect story. Not only is it probably the best idea you've had, populated with your favourite characters, but it also happens to have all (or at least most if you haven't identified them) of the things you want to see in a real manga, film or what have you. So I can understand that plight. Very often you tend to compare it to professional works because of this, instead of, you know, what it is. An amateur story in the works.

I ain't saying you can't dream big. I saying that, and I know this from painful, painful experience, you gotta know your strengths, and your limits. Of course, the thing about it is you have to actually start writing (or drawing, whatever it is to realise your idea) it to really know what your strengths and limits are. Better is, by keeping at it, your strengths are improved and your limits are downplayed hopefully eventually to non-existence.

That said though, just let the story out. I believe that a mediocre story on paper is better than a perfect one in your head. I had this big idea I wanted to realise, and I started and restarted it twice. The characters and basic concept were there, but details and plot differed. Still, it allowed me to compare the two renditions of my idea. One was laughable, art-wise, pacing-wise and most-other-thing-wise, and the second, only about a year or two later... was actually pretty good! Both of them didn't last many pages (as Sabre's Edge said, you need self-discipline - diligence, too), but it feels good to hold it in your hands just to read it out. It's an accomplishment you don't have to imagine - you're holding it right in your hands (or displayed on your screen. You know).

To give you a perspective, the second attempt of me trying that idea still looks good to me on all fronts - art, pacing, story, composition (it was a comic), leaps and bounds over the last attempt. But I made that when I was in high school, like... three-four years ago? I literally put the best of my abilities into that thing, and because of that it still holds up to my standards even now, after having improved more since then.

IMO, I don't think you should just do it just because it's a good idea. Good ideas are good ideas, but if it doesn't have that special place in your little storyteller's heart, you may lose steam (at least, if you're like how I was :p) and, dare I say, the idea may not be realised to its full potential you may have wanted. Still, even so, it's worth a shot if you really can't hold it in.

Just don't seal it in the vault of your mind, is what I'm saying. If you have hundreds of unfertilised ideas, they can stay there, they're not ready yet. But that one idea or two, almost ready to hatch, yelling at you to make it come true? That one has gone from being a "good idea", to "a story". It may not be good professionally, but you think it's awesome. That's enough reason.

edited 28th Mar '14 2:48:21 AM by Nadir

I really appreciate the wisdom shared by all posters above. Thanks!