Storytelling for Beginners

a picture means 1000 words, but you can’t write just one. — bloatedloaf

writer's block is painful. you feel like the story in your head is complicated and you can’t finish it. but here are some ways to overcome it.

jotting down your ideas

what does this mean? well, how ‘bout an example:

my story: about being stuck inside

a knight errant that wants to fight a dragon

the first sentence is our prompt/theme: being stuck inside. our second one is about our story: a knight errant that wants to fight a dragon. how will we write this story?

James looked outside his window, wishing the pouring rain would end. he was inside his dorm, cleaning the wounds from his unsuccessful fight with a dragon. he wished he killed it sooner. now it was pouring as if the sky was crying heavily. James’ mind wandered, “if I had killed the accursed worm I would be a hero.” a moment. he got up to go to the armory.

now it's time for the hard part, mediums.

what is a medium?

ooo the hard part

it's a way a story is made. in this case a short story or a comic. it could be a choose your own adventure story or a video game. it could be an ARG (alternate reality game) or a ttrpg. that's a medium.

when he entered the armory it was filled with 2 weeks old shirts scatted about with an assortment of underwear, dented swords, broken shields, and rusty armor. “ugh, can SOMEONE clean this up?” he said. “why don't YOU clean it up, huh?” a voice from behind said. it was timothy, a true knight, not like James. he was a knight errant and timothy knew it.

this part is using a lot of descriptive verbs ie “2 weeks old.” this gives us an approximation of what the room looks and smells like. it gives you a mental landscape of the room, in a nutshell.

part 2 will contain a larger story along with how a thesaurus works and how to find good words to write with. besides those, we’ll start learning how to make a simple blurb from scratch along with so much more.