I am writing a book

[theblackalchemist]

hey guys
i am writing a book about a boy and his travels whose parents die in an arthquake. i have akready written 3 chapters and i need help so will you help me out?

[theblackalchemist]

P.S all i need are ideas and editors

[hallenrm]

In my opinion books are generally personal ventures, one looks for help or support only when one has finished writing and wants to get it published. If you really want reactions from a wide variety of people, you could upload it to a site like scibd.com

[IMAMONKEY!]

I would be glad to throw out suggestions and ideas.. Ive thought about writing a book myself but most of my "great novels" flopped within the first 2 or 3 chapters. good to see someone finnally had a good one.

[jackson33]

since i have tried a few times and only succeeded in a few shorts, maybe I'm not a good source. but;

you seem to indicate you run out of ideas after a short period. i have been told and have practiced, having the conclusion before i start. this is a preset
destination for where my characters end and to leave the reader in the mood i intend.

in your brief post, i would conclude this boy is you or one you know. his travels you want exciting to readers and the end some form of personal success leaving the reader to thinking, any one can regardless of a start or possibly end it with a not again and give the idea an earth quake is happening leaving the reader guessing the end.

since its a young boy, i can see the conclusion as a young man, just married and off to a honeymoon with a nice looking bride. his trials and tribulations from the quake to this, then the story. there are just to many variables to suggest during this period and untold chapters.

i would also suggest you make your characters as real as you can, keeping the number to those that help or hinder the progress to the end. the average youth has very few life moments, so this may be difficult to accomplish unless you do some research on some that have gone through the trauma.

[KickAssClown]

I won't give you a fish, but I will teach you how to use a fishing pole.

Writing, particularly of the speculative fiction kind (IE Sci-fi, Fantasy, etc), is a narrative art. The recent (past century or so) paradigm of writing has been formalism, the study of form and it's influence of the delivery of content (experience) to the audience.

As such I will ask, have you thought about what form your writing is going to take? Obviously you have chosen as a piece of literature. However have you thought of the idiom (genre) of your writing, and structure implicit in that choice? Are you writing to get a message across or are you writing to expose ways in which writing maybe conducted. That is are you exploring/expressing the message/experience/content, or are you exploring/expressing the messanger/form?

I would be willing to bet that you are simply trying to a get the message across. In which case your focus would be on the content, which would imply placing the form into the background. Making the form of your work nearly invisible but still influential in the way your message is recieved.

If you are going for a classical dramatic style, I would ask whether you have explored clasical dramatic structure? Many people know that a story is composed of three major parts, the beginning, middle and end. However do you know what Exposition, Rising action, Climax, Falling action, Denouement (or catastrophe for tragedy) and Epilogue are?

Shakesperean plays were structured in this manner.

I would highly suggest reviewing Scott McCloud's Six Steps as outlined in chapter seven of Understanding Comics. A book well worth owning, I have a copy the cost me 22 dollars at Barnes and Nobles. I would also suggest taking a look at your local book store at both the books on writing, and the other books themselves. I would suggest researching the books you like and the styles, structures and techniques of the authors you enjoy.

Keep keen attention on what it is that you like so much; what methodologies you like and then see if you can apply those to your own paradigm of expression.