I suck at writing.

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ThePenguinLover

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  1. Adult Baby
  2. Diaper Lover
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I've been trying to write a good story about a girl who gets eventually regressed into diapers, but I find my drafts so bad I delete them. Does anyone have any ideas on how I may write a better story?
 
The two biggest things a writer can do to improve is to:

1) Just keep writing. Practice helps a lot here. If you can get feedback, that can help as well.

2) Read as much as you can. Reading helps you learn how the language flows and goes together.

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Don't trash those drafts either. Keep them, put them away for awhile, and then go back and revise or rewrite them. A lot of great literature only became great after multiple rewrites and revisions.

A good book to read would be Stephen King's "On Writing". It has a lot of good advice and it's not a dry, boring read.
 
PaddedDeist said:
The two biggest things a writer can do to improve is to:

1) Just keep writing. Practice helps a lot here. If you can get feedback, that can help as well.

2) Read as much as you can. Reading helps you learn how the language flows and goes together.

- - - Updated - - -

Don't trash those drafts either. Keep them, put them away for awhile, and then go back and revise or rewrite them. A lot of great literature only became great after multiple rewrites and revisions.

A good book to read would be Stephen King's "On Writing". It has a lot of good advice and it's not a dry, boring read.

Wait, doesn't someone always die in King's books? I hope it isn't the main character.

And seconded on the never delete. Always revise instead.
 
Well, King does discuss his real-life near death when he was run over at the end of the book--the accident happened while he was writing this book. It was weird to later read the fictionalized version of this accident in the Dark Tower series.

"On Writing" was one of the text books for one of my writing classes I had in college. There is a lot of good advice for writers in there and it's actually my favorite King book. I wish he visited the college and I was able to get him to sign it. However, I did meet Tobias Wolff and he signed my copy of "The Night in Question", an excellent collection of some of his short stories. That guy was really nice.
 
I don't claim to know particularly - but the basics are that you learn some techniques like developing a character and a place and gradually build up to your story.

Writing regularly and not deleting your old writing is also important.

Could you do a writing course - or go to a writers' circle? I appreciate you can't take your diaper story - but you could learn some techniques and practice writing.

It also sounds like you have some good ideas - so try writing the raw ideas down - and try later to make them into a story.
 
Another great book is the Simon Schuster Handbook for Writers. It can be expensive but it is more of a grammar encyclopedia as well as a reference on proper punctuation and the like. If you are uncertain on how you are supposed to use a comma, you can look it up and get all of the "rules". Most of the updates are for the different citation systems like APA and MLA. If you don't need that part you could find an older edition at a lower price.

http://a.co/cYmGAZ0
 
I read and re-read King's book, "On Writing" while I was writing my novel. One thing he talks about is how a writer handles dialogue. I've noticed that many diaper stories are nothing but dialogue with little narrative and little development. Remember from Junior High English, a good story deals with Plot, Conflict, Character, Setting and Theme.

When I was writing my story, I had to make my characters have conflict because I hate dealing with conflict in real life. But a story without conflict is no story at all. Another concept is Rising Action. Most stories get more intense as the story progresses with one event adding to another until one reaches the action which should climax at a point. I think that every story I've ever written, I knew how it would end before I began writing. Usually my stories have a degree of irony in the ending, or at least they make a point. My novel has both.

My story "Werewolf" is on this site. Read it and you'll see what I mean. It probably has more narrative than dialogue and you can see the tension increase as the story moves forward.
 
It has been awhile since I read On Writing but it is due for another reading.
 
PaddedDeist said:
The two biggest things a writer can do to improve is to:

1) Just keep writing. Practice helps a lot here. If you can get feedback, that can help as well.

2) Read as much as you can. Reading helps you learn how the language flows and goes together.

- - - Updated - - -

Don't trash those drafts either. Keep them, put them away for awhile, and then go back and revise or rewrite them. A lot of great literature only became great after multiple rewrites and revisions.

A good book to read would be Stephen King's "On Writing". It has a lot of good advice and it's not a dry, boring read.

This. Honestly, read as much as possible. Personally for me, reading profusely, coupled with continuous writing has helped me immensely. If I had any semblance of time I'd write something for the story forum. But seeing as I'm currently busier than a one-legged guy in a butt kicking contest, that's probably going to have to wait.

Don't get discouraged. We all had to start out somewhere.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, EB White "The Elements of Style" is worth picking up. Usually can be had dirt cheap.
 
PaddedDeist said:
Well, King does discuss his real-life near death when he was run over at the end of the book--the accident happened while he was writing this book. It was weird to later read the fictionalized version of this accident in the Dark Tower series.

"On Writing" was one of the text books for one of my writing classes I had in college. There is a lot of good advice for writers in there and it's actually my favorite King book. I wish he visited the college and I was able to get him to sign it. However, I did meet Tobias Wolff and he signed my copy of "The Night in Question", an excellent collection of some of his short stories. That guy was really nice.

Yes he is. My parents live in Venice Fl, near his summer home. They bump into him quite often.
 
back to the original question: practice, practice, practice.
 
Really cool. He was at OSU a few years ago to get an award from the college. I actually asked the first question in the Q&A session he had with the students.

@OaktownBaby, I have one of those too. Tiny book and usually super cheap. But those rules are made to be broken under the right circumstances.
 
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