Writing Tip: A Writing Method

by: Ronovan

 

Try the way Stephen King writes. No, do it the Nicholas Sparks way! Nope, James Patterson does it best.

 

 

Writers want to be successful and often times they will copy another person’s method of writing because they want to have that person’s success. Let me tell you a secret; the reason their method works for them is because it’s THEIR method.

 

“But others use it too.”

 

Others may use a similar method but they tweak it to make it their own at some point. Today I want to share a method I developed.

 

I slipped my VW Beetle onto the onramp to the express way and headed toward the city. The lights in the distance always took my breath as I thought of big city lights and movie stars. My phone rang.

 

“Hello,” I said.

 

“Phil, I need you to head over to the Peachtree office as quick as you can,” said Mike.

 

I rested my elbow on the door and sagged. “I’m headed home, Mike. This traffic is awful. It would take an hour at least.”

 

“Has to be done. We have a shipment of cable coming in and I need you there to make sure they do it right this time.”

 

“You owe me for this,” I said and hung up.

 

This is a very basic scene any of us could write from experience either our own or someone we know, but now it’s time to twist it.

 

I slipped my single capacity transporter into the draft tube for the express lanes and headed toward the metro center. The lights in the distance lit up the sky and I thought of just how big the metro area was, and how much a vid screen show set it looked like. The comm screen blinked at me.

 

“Yeah,” I said.

 

“Phil, I need you over at the Peachtree loading station as quick as you can,” said Mike, his face smiling at me.

 

I rested my elbow on the frame of the transport, hand covering my mouth, my body visibly sagging. “Mike, I’m headed home and you know it. The traffic is crazy out and the haulers are backing us up. I don’t know why they choose this time of the day to move those big transports through the most packed part of the metro. It would take me at least an hour to get there.”

 

“You know if it could be done by anyone else it would be,” he said. He leaned forward, his face closer to the screen. “I need to make sure this gets done right. There is a shipment of Dipthonian Lining coming in and it cannot be messed up like before.” There was begging in his eyes.

 

“Fine, you owe me big. Off.” The screen went blank.

 

With practice it gets better. But I use the reality based scene to create a believable SciFi or Fantasy based scene. The only differences in the genres really are a few words and the descriptions of the settings and props. People still have conversations and have emotions. You’re not trying to reinvent those things, so don’t try.

 

If you really think about it you can take the scene in Star Wars where Han Solo is in the cantina and shoots the other character at the table. It was much like you would see in a western. Everything about it could be translated over to an old western or even a Casablanca type scene with very few changes.

 

I just thought I would share my writing method. It’s not perfect for everyone. It won’t work for everyone. And if you use it you will tweak it to work for you.

 

What methods do you use?

 

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