Dreame Writing Guides

Part 16 How to Write A Long Story

I. Long Story vs. Short Story

A short story is characterized by its short length, concise plot, concentrated characters, and exquisite structure. It often selects and depicts typical life fragments, focuses on the characteristics of the main characters, and reflects certain aspects of life. Typically, a short story is compact and only involves one or two characters. A short story, like a long story, has a plot and characters. However, compared with a long story, its scope is limited. There are fewer characters, and there are almost no subplots. Actions or events in a short story occur over a short period of time. Therefore, it may contain only a single setting and a few scenes.

In Love With My Cheating BF's Best friend (Completed) on Dreame is an example of a short story. This book tells the story of the female protagonist's boyfriend's infidelity. Upon learning of his unfaithfulness, she gets revenge by seducing his friends. In it, there are only three main characters.

A long story is characterized by its extensity. It is suitable for expressing a full social life and the growth course of characters. A long story is lengthy, so it can contain many characters, themes, and subplots, making the content more various than other literary genres. For example, Bad s*x: His uncle's mistress on Dreame, involves more than 30 characters. In the main story, the female protagonist is given to her fiancé's uncle by her fiancé as a gift. After a one-night stand, she becomes pregnant. After that, she suffers a lot, and it takes a long time for her to achieve the happy ending she deserves. In it, there are more than six main characters and more than two plotlines through the whole story.

Tips:

a. Short stories generally use a first-person narrative perspective, which can give them a feeling of authenticity. Short stories have limitations, though. The readers can only see things through the narrator's eyes.

b. Long stories often uses a third-person narrative perspective. The advantage of writing in the third-person is that the narrative is not limited by time and space. It can reflect objective content more freely and flexibly, master a wide range of real-life scenes, and narrate complex stories clues land unfold the plot methodically. A third-person narrative allows the writer to portray a more significant number of characters, and allow for a more vivid background. This viewpoint is attractive to readers, and using it makes them more likely to want to continue reading. On the base of readership, writers could gain more loyal followers who might stay and looking forward to your next stories.

II. How to write a good long story?

1. Smart use of character settings

Creating a character's setting is a very important step in the creation of a long story. The more detailed it is, the better.

The previous chapters have described in detail how to write character settings, so we won't go into the details. Here we mainly explain the application of the character's setting in a long story:

a. Add descriptive words. Descriptive words allow readers to see people, places, and things more clearly. In the next paragraph, you will see examples of descriptive words being used correctly. The paragraph is taken from Coming back as a bad girl on Dreame.

Frank Carter walked his daughter, Laura, down the aisle. A bunch of lovely lilies in hand, dressed in a glorious wedding dress tailored by a renowned French designer, the fishtail skirt and low neckline design revealing her curves and silky skin, as well as her elegance and delicacy, Laura balletically walked to her husband-to-be.

This scene vividly describes the female protagonist's clothing, expression, skin, and walking style, at the time of her wedding, which could leave readers deep impression in mind about this character, even get to know her background or social status.

b. Extend the timeline of the long story. You can write according to the protagonist's childhood-juvenile-adult growth trajectory, or you can use flashbacks to reveal the past. For example, the story Dangerous Love With Mr. President on Dreame, takes place in the here and now, and the protagonist has flashbacks that reveal her history.

c. Add characters. The stories of everyone around the protagonist can be written into the story. You may want to introduce the protagonist's parents, friends, or pets. For example, the story Sleeping With Demon (Completed) on Dreame, not only does the book tell the story of the main characters; a gangster and his adoptive daughter, but also that of another gangster and an upright policewoman.

2. Increase plots

The storyline is the backbone of the long story, and multiple plots will give you more space to develop your characters. Our empathy for a character grows as they experience new things.

a. A good story could have more than one storyline. A love story should be more than a love story, and it is the same with a suspense, thriller, fantasy or any other genre of story. A romance story, for example, may combine elements of girl power and fantasy. For instance, in the story Coming back as a bad girl, the narrator talks about getting revenge on the antagonists. In her past life, she was killed by her fiancé and younger sister. Then, after her rebirth, she becomes strong and gets revenge on those that have wronged her.

All Started With A Forced Marriage is another example. It is a work of fantasy, but it also involves instances of romance. The male protagonist is the King of the Sea, and the female protagonist has a unique gene that protects the marine civilians against the bad guys.

b. Along with these elements, you can add different sub plotlines, such as love lines, career lines, conspiracy lines, family lines, and friendship lines. For example, the story Her billionaire assistant on Dreame, in addition to the protagonists' love line, there is a conspiracy line to find the cause of the female protagonist's previous death.

c. Besides the main plot, you can add a variety of subplots, such as commercial warfare, entertainment circle, fashion circle, royal life, political war, and campus life. For example, the story Once Upon a One-night-stand on Dreame, in addition to the love problems between the male protagonist and female protagonist, there is also a commercial battle between the male protagonist and his opponents, and the battle between the female protagonist and supporting female's role in the entertainment circle.

3. Preparations for writing a long story

a. Write an outline

The outline will not only help you clarify the structure of your story and the relationship between the characters, but it will also help you stay focused on your basic idea. In this way, you won't lose your sense of direction in the second half of the story. When you write an outline, it is better to collect the information from the get-go and set goals. It is an excellent idea to have a detailed outline before you get too far into your story. When you make an outline, it can improve your writing speed. Later on, it can also give you room to think up alternate routes to your destination that you might not have considered when you first drafted your outline. In this way, you may discover more and, perhaps better, choices for your characters to make.

b. Arrange the framework of story so that you can formulate the critical points of your plots

Generally, stories are written like this: Beginning-Development-Climax-End. If you are planning to write a long story, though, a single plot may not be as lengthy as you'd like. Therefore, while writing, you should add more small key points and arcs to the plot. One was to expand your story is to write it like this: Small key plot-Small key plot-Big plot climax-Small key plot-Small key plot. One way to divide the small key plots is to add subtitles between chapters. Doing this will give a reader a sense of completion while adding a touch of expectation.

c. Develop a writing plan, combining work and rest

If you are not a full-time writer, you may be disrupted by many things that come up in your life. Therefore, when writing a long story, you must set a timetable and be self-disciplined. Try to give yourself a little time every day to write at least 1000-2000 words, so as to maintain the quality of the content. As you get into your groove, you can set goals to increase the amount of work you complete daily. The process of writing a long story may be tedious, so don't forget to have fun. Create characters you would like to be around and enjoy spending time with. As you write, try to relax. You will do better work if you are comfortable and in a good headspace.

III. Extension

A special writing technique --- Single drama

Most of you may have seen the program, Sherlock. If you have, you were likely captivated by the friendship between him and Dr. Watson. The original novel, Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, was written in the form of a single drama. The adventure continues, case by case, and as long as a new case is found, the story never ends.

This form mainly applies to detective suspense novels, and it is necessary to connect all of the cases in the series. Thus, this type of story can be difficult for new writers. That being said, some lessons can be learned from this type of account. For example, every time the protagonist goes to a new place, the new person he/she encounters will be regarded as a unit. Some plots will occur in this unit, one place after another, one person after another, and one unit after another. New things happen. Therefore, new plots can be added.

Another example is to write the contradiction points between the protagonists as a unit, you can write one contradiction point after another, and the plots will naturally increase.

A detective suspense novel like Sherlock Holmes is an example of a serialized story. While these are difficult to write, other types of serializations are much more manageable. Many famous writers became famous writing books for young adults (J.K. Rowling), or supernatural horror (Anne Rice).

Thanks for reading. I hope these tips will help you. If you have any experience with writing a long story, you are welcome to share your comments!

                                                                                                                                                                         BY Rosemary