Would another C.S. Lewis please step forward?

I recently finished and self-published a series of fantasy books, and although they wouldn't exactly be considered children's books (they're more for a 12+ audience), I still got a lot of inspiration from the Chronicles of Narnia. You can check it out through my sig pic/link if you want '^^

I do like wrinting stories but i just get a starting idea then get lost on were its going or dont like it anymore i dont know how to begin

Any tips??
Click to expand...

Ah, the dreaded Writer's Block. I know how you feel XD
One tip I would give is that one ideas come to you, just jot some notes down of your thoughts. This way when you go to write a story, you can pick which ideas you want and don't want to use. Another piece of advice I would give is that if you're having a hard time writing longer stories, you can write short stories to improve writing skills and such. I started writing a book recently, and what I did before actually writing it is that I wrote tons of background information about the world, characters, main ideas of the story, etc. However, I didn't write a strict plotline, as that can decrease idea flexibility.

Gee I just keep babbling on about writing; I just love doing it! Hope I helped.
 
One of the problems with writers who've tried to follow in Lewis' path (and there have been many) is just that: they were trying to follow in Lewis' path. Rather than being their own writers and telling their own stories, they tried to emulate him. Worst of all, many tried to write "messages" into their stories, reasoning that that was what Lewis had done. The results have typically been wooden, one-dimensional, and artificial.

Lewis simply wrote the stories that he saw in his imagination, and let the lessons fall where they might (or not). Those of us who follow would be well advised to follow his example. Being classically trained, he was good at the technical aspects of writing, since he'd had to write to standards that modern schooling doesn't even get within shouting distance of. Having a fertile imagination, and hanging around others who did as well, broadened his scope. He told good stories with a quality writing style. Most efforts I've seen to emulate him have been knock-off stories told clumsily.
 
Ack, Grandpa Prince, I hope you don't mean that, after all the time I spent writing my tiger story and shamelessly plugging it, it's wooden and clumsy!
 
PrinceOfTheWest said:
Lewis simply wrote the stories that he saw in his imagination, and let the lessons fall where they might (or not). Those of us who follow would be well advised to follow his example. Being classically trained, he was good at the technical aspects of writing, since he'd had to write to standards that modern schooling doesn't even get within shouting distance of. Having a fertile imagination, and hanging around others who did as well, broadened his scope. He told good stories with a quality writing style. Most efforts I've seen to emulate him have been knock-off stories told clumsily.
Click to expand...

i will take this mind. he definitly was a very accomplished writer!
 
Copperfox said:
Stephen Lawhead has tried hard to fill Mr. Lewis' shoes. In a series about King Arthur, he picked up on Mr. Lewis' idea of connecting Merlin with legendary Atlantis.
Click to expand...

It's true that Lawhead's works could be related to Lewis' in this way, but I think that's about where the similarities end. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading Lawhead, but I think his works are heavy, long, and ponderous compared to Lewis' clever and fast-moving storytelling. Besides (and please correct me if I'm wrong), I don't think Lawhead has attempted to write anything for children, and Lewis' children's books are still the ones with the largest following.

PrinceOfTheWest said:
Being classically trained, he was good at the technical aspects of writing, since he'd had to write to standards that modern schooling doesn't even get within shouting distance of. Having a fertile imagination, and hanging around others who did as well, broadened his scope. He told good stories with a quality writing style. Most efforts I've seen to emulate him have been knock-off stories told clumsily.
Click to expand...

I completely agree! In fact, I was about to say something very similar myself when I read your post. :) The truth is, Lewis had a level of education and experience that most (if not all) people today can only dream of. And even if there are people out there with the same level of expertise that he had, can you imagine any of them writing children's fantasy novels? Or any fantasy novels at all? Today's scholastic society clearly looks down on such things (as did many of the scholars in Lewis' day... he was scorned by at least a few of his contemporaries for lowering himself to such work). We need to recognize that the writings we have from Lewis and some of his friends are a gift and a miracle, something that does not happen often. I hope and pray that more such people will rise up to impact our culture, but it's not something that will happen overnight. We need more people with a heart for the imaginary and for children to work hard to improve themselves the way Lewis did.
 
Copperfox said:
Ack, Grandpa Prince, I hope you don't mean that, after all the time I spent writing my tiger story and shamelessly plugging it, it's wooden and clumsy!
Click to expand...
Oooh, not like anyone's touchy or anything here, are they? ;)

I would include my own works in that category, and I've actually been published! Actually, faeriechylde said it beautifully - Lewis' works (and Tolkien's) were pure gift, and (in my opinion) the hand of their Lord in history through their pens to work His will in the generations lost in darkness. Most of us who have benefited from their work can just look on in awe, and if we pick up our pens, it is in tribute, not competition.

The day I've translated the Elder and Younger Eddas from the Norse, and can read Virgil in the original Latin and Homer in Attic Greek, and can critique translations of Dante - well, then I'll consider myself close to where Lewis began his work.
 
PrinceOfTheWest said:
I would include my own works in that category, and I've actually been published! Actually, faeriechylde said it beautifully - Lewis' works (and Tolkien's) were pure gift, and (in my opinion) the hand of their Lord in history through their pens to work His will in the generations lost in darkness. Most of us who have benefited from their work can just look on in awe, and if we pick up our pens, it is in tribute, not competition.

The day I've translated the Elder and Younger Eddas from the Norse, and can read Virgil in the original Latin and Homer in Attic Greek, and can critique translations of Dante - well, then I'll consider myself close to where Lewis began his work.
Click to expand...

Amen! (and thanks for saying I said it beautifully :D) Do you mind if I ask what work you've had published? (If you feel you can't answer I won't be offended.) It always makes me excited to meet someone (even online) who's actually written and published something! I would love to, myself, someday, but I have to finish writing something first! :D
 
As I am a writer myself, I understand what it feels like to see great works of other authors, and the want to follow in their footsteps. However, I've decided to refrain from doing so, and using some of their styles, I've learned to create my own world, forgetting entirely theirs. I just simply found out quite quickly that many times, Tolkien and Lewis had slight flaws in their writing(Tolkien more than Lewis). For example: the main flaw Tolkien had was he was by far, too descriptive. He would write paragraph upon paragraph describing it, when all that was needed was a short brief paragraph that both catches the readers attention, and conjured an image of it in the imagination. The main flaw Lewis had was he wrote his best books for youth, such as the Chronicles of Narnia, or a few of his other books, which are used in church ministries and elsewhere.

For fellow writers on this forum: I want to encourage you to be yourself, to be different. Combine styles of other authors if you want, but be careful to make it your own work. May God bless what you do and write.
 
Tolkien's writing was a stylistic thing, and reflective of the time in which he grew up and learned to write. Remember, both these men wrote before our current video age, back when the printed or spoken word were the only ways to tell a story. Description mattered, and rich descriptive ability was a mark of good writing (as anyone who's read Dostoevsky, or Dickens, can attest.) Our current impatience with rich descriptive styles says a lot more about the shallowness of our modern literary tastes than it does about the shortcomings of either of those masters.
 
I love C.S. Lewis's style,but couldn't write like him if I tried.
If I write fantasy,it always ends up gothic(read:spooky)..:rolleyes:
I like to write historical fiction best.:D
 
DaydreamBeliever said:
I love C.S. Lewis's style,but couldn't write like him if I tried.
If I write fantasy,it always ends up gothic(read:spooky)..:rolleyes:
I like to write historical fiction best.:D
Click to expand...

/iknow im not to good at keeping to the fanticy and not slipping into a world of vampires and ect!!! their just so dam easy for me to write about but not aporpirate for a childrens book

i need a new angle to come from
 
Lord of Light said:
The main flaw Lewis had was he wrote his best books for youth, such as the Chronicles of Narnia.
Click to expand...

Writing one's best books for youth is a flaw? I'm afraid I must respectfully disagree. Children need quality literature just as much as (if not more than) anyone else. I say "if not more than" because children's minds and tastes are still being formed when they begin to read, far more than those of adults. It is very important for our own cultural and artistic future in society that the books influencing and shaping the ideals of our youth be someone's "best books," and not the paltry, half-hearted efforts at children's literature that one so often sees these days.
 
I agree. Lewis' Interplanetary Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength) are masterpieces, the last one being particularly prophetic. Also, his masterpiece was Till We Have Faces, a parable of stunning strength and depth. All this despite the fact that fiction was a hobby for him - by profession he was a professor of Medieval and Renaissance literature, and by avocation a Christian writer and apologist. Yet in his spare time he found the resources to toss off a set of children's books that will go down in history as classics, which I think will far outlast even the Harry Potter phenomenon.
 
Copperfox said:
Stephen Lawhead has tried hard to fill Mr. Lewis' shoes. In a series about King Arthur, he picked up on Mr. Lewis' idea of connecting Merlin with legendary Atlantis.
Click to expand...

:eek: I love his books,esp. Hood and Scarlet.:D
I'm Robin Hood-obsessed because of it.:D
 
are they about robin hood, oh i should read them

i suppose noone saw the BBC robin hood series cas you dont get BBC but it was amazin and i loved every second so im now robin hood obsessed too.

Mabey i should try to write a medevil fanticy that might work??
 
iminlovewithedwardcullen said:
are they about robin hood, oh i should read them

i suppose noone saw the BBC robin hood series cas you dont get BBC but it was amazin and i loved every second so im now robin hood obsessed too.

Mabey i should try to write a medevil fanticy that might work??
Click to expand...

Yes!They're amazing!They take Robin "Hood" and set him in Wales instead of England.:cool: Will Scarlet(the archer) is my favorite character.:D


Haven't seen it.:( But I wanted to.

You could try!:)
 
Ooooh, I didn't know that Lawhead wrote books about Robin Hood. I need to read those... I have been Robin Hood obsessed since I was a child (my middle name is Marian and I always pretended I was Maid Marian).
I need to see the BBC series, too. I did know about that, I just hadn't had a chance to watch it yet.
 
faeriechylde said:
Ooooh, I didn't know that Lawhead wrote books about Robin Hood. I need to read those... I have been Robin Hood obsessed since I was a child (my middle name is Marian and I always pretended I was Maid Marian).
I need to see the BBC series, too. I did know about that, I just hadn't had a chance to watch it yet.
Click to expand...

It is actually amazin but the endings really sad so be prepered!!!
 
Back
Top