Planning on writing a book but...

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I've got some great ideas I'd like to put into a book form(as well as a game I'm making, but thats a different story) but my I've tried my hand at short stories in the past and they came across as rather flat sounding. The content was there, but the way I presented it wasn't very epic. Throughout the years I've read more books then I can keep track of(my dad has had me reading adult level books since 2nd grade). However, for some reason, I have been unable to absorb any sort of style out of my favorite authors as far as telling stories go. Does anyone know of any sites that have tips for people like me or that discuss various forms of writing style? I'm primarily interested in telling fantasy stories and I intend to make a rather large series out of my ideas if I can overcome this barrier.

You need practice and feedback.

Have you taken a creative writing course?
In the course I took in college, we read and critiqued each other's short works.
Would any part of your stuff work as a very short story?
Could you give to others the same amount of attention that your stories deserve?

Much like my guitar...I have a lot of trouble feeling comfortable sharing incomplete works with people unless I am very close to them. I'm currently not very close to anyone in my life. And it really doesn't seem to be a creativity issue. The ideas are there and continuously flowing. Its just putting them on paper where I have trouble. For example... have you ever watched a documentary about something that was really really interesting, but you quickly lost interest because the narrator was boring to listen to? I'm like that narrator.

i'm actually trying to write a book too!! !! !! !! !! !

a site for tips on writing? i can't think of any...sorry. i can give you a couple i use though!! !

1. don't let your discriptions get too long. if you go into too much detail, it gets boring and takes too long to read.
2. if you can't come up with good characters, take pieces of personalities of real people you know. half of my own characters are based off of my family and friends(and sometimes, my enemies). my 2 main characters are a combination of my sister's stubbornness, my best friend's "let's go get 'em" attitude and my own i-don't-give-a-crap-about-what-you-think-i-am-doing-this-my-way-ness.
3. don't forget dialouge. once you have characters, you can't have them go around silent all the time!(unless they're deaf and can't speak, of course) keep it short, but not so short that it is only a few words at a time.
4. read. find a few authors you like and read some of their work...and not neccesarily the big stuff, check out some more obscure works. part of JRR Tolkien's Lays of Beriland and The Silmarillion inspired an idea in my book. CS Lewis's Screwtape Letters got me to write letters in my book and narrate part of it that way.
5. just write. if you get an idea, no matter how silly or dumb it seems, write it down! there is not a single thing in my book that i haven't changed at least 5 times.
6. proof-read. go back over what you wrote and check it. if you don't like a few lines, scrap them! love the way a character speaks? add more dialouge!
7. one of the most important things is LET OTHERS SEE YOUR WORK and EXPECT CRITICISM!! !! ! if you don't let someone read your stories, you'll never get the feedback you need to grow as a writer, and sometimes, that feedback isn't positive. i gave separate copies of the first chapter of my story to 3 of my friends. they covered the paper in notes, in one case my friend scratched out nearly an entire paragraph and wrote "REWRITE THIS!! !" in bright red ink over it.

i hope some of these work for you! good luck and happy writing!

even if it's great, an editor is going to read it sooner or later. You find all sorts of things about apostrophes, possessives, split infinitives, etc.

And it's always possible to be rejected. Even famous authors get rejected, even after publishing things. (My favorite was [chemists correct me if wrong] was a short criticism of a famous sci-fi author. COOCH - supposed to be butyl mercaptan, the active ingredient in skunk 'funk'...which the author would know..

a writer writes - Throw Mama from the train (btw - the 'slut' in that was Kate Mulgrew, also known as Capt. Janeway...but enough digression...

My biggest problem lies in the dialogue. Not lack of it... just that it never quite comes out right. I've always had a problem translating my own thoughts into words that people can understand... And so far its just as difficult for me to do this with dialogue in my stories. Also, smooth transitions between the thoughts of a character and dialogue are a problem for me as well.


Actually... i'm not going to try to have it published. In fact, I don't plan on it ending up on actual paper. It'll be freely available online in .txt format. If people really seem to like it then maybe Ill send it to an editor... but otherwise nah..

Anyways, thanks for the advice you guys