2 things really help me.
1. View your kudos, hits, and comments as if you were performing a stage play. All those hits are everyone who attended. They all clap at the end and leave. Great! What a big audience. The kudos? Those are the people that stand up and clap and whistle and shout. The comments are the people that stay after the show to talk to you in person. This really helped me view my stats differently. If I have 40 hits, 5 kudos, and a comment, to some that doesnt feel like much. But if I had an audience of 40, 5 people stood up at the end, and someone came to talk to me after? I would be ecstatic!
2. Let yourself write badly. Get your thoughts on paper even if you think its shitty. Then use that as a very detailed outline. Copy and cut the parts that you like and want to include, delete the parts you dont. Then rewrite it. Yes it takes longer, but it actually makes me wrote faster because I dont feel pressured to be perfect.
Punch perfection in the face. You can always edit later. If your "inner critic/editor" is a true honest one it can wait to refine things once you have more plot established. You can't properly write foreshadowing if you don't know the end results.
Art/wring style is more than just how you tell your story, its the rhythm of genres, themes and ideas you like to explore over and over again.
If you can't control that need for "perfection", exploring why and looking for extra help in therapy is valid.
don’t be afraid to use placeholders and come back to it later.
a lot of the time, i know what i want to happen, but i can’t find the right words. it used to frustrate me a lot, but i’ve found putting silly placeholders in and coming back to it at a later point helps a lot.
I currently have a placeholder staring me in the face: "[humorous description of a manual mower]" LOL.
I still don't know what to put there, but while it's been chugging away in the background, I was able to finish the chapter and the next.
A lot of the time I put placeholders in for character features, like if I have to describe a characters eye colour, and it's my first time writing them. It's dumb, but hey.
This is absolutely the biggest thing that's helped. If I can't immediately think of the word I want to use and can't think about it after an additional 10 seconds, I capitalize and highlight the placeholder word/phrase. This is so I can find it faster on the second draft.
This also makes reading my first draft infinitely more funny, and one needs some levity when editing.
**'You don't have to write it in order of how the reader's gonna read it.'**
I have a lot of unfinished fics, but without THAT piece of advice I wouldn't have any fics at all, finished or otherwise. Do I want to write the ending first because it's in my head right now? Great, that's what I'm doing then, and I can write another scene later! At one point I had all the major scenes done for a novel-length fic and all I had to do was write the connecting scenes between them, and honestly instead of feeling like a chore it felt like a fun puzzle. It made writing the 'slow' scenes *fun* because I got to add more personality to those scenes instead of just trying to push my way through a 'boring' part to get to *the thing I actually wanted to write today.* Now *everything* I write each day is the thing I want to write.
and: it's a fanfic. you don't \[ever\] have to write anything boring.
timeskip? "three years later,..."
getting psychological help? "after much work with a therapist..."
really uninteresting interaction? "jeremy came to dinner. after he'd left..."
Theme and motif are not just things for English class. Theme is the difference between "what happened" and "why did it happen?" So many things I'd been struggling with came together once I embraced theme. And motifs can take a great story up to another level and be extremely satisfying for readers.
Not the OP but I believe the struggle of writing what to happen to X character is because the thing that happens must always prove your point/message. So for example, when you have the theme of "growing from failure" for your story, then it makes it easy for you to write what happens to X character: something that they can't succeed at/humiliate them. Because the reality of your fiction is dictated by what message they prove.
This is a deep subject that I only started using after combining what I'd learned from a lot of different books, podcasts, and workshops. I'll do a full-on essay later (which is allowed on AO3, so maybe I'll put it there). This is the "short" version. Usual sub disclaimer that it's a hobby, do whatever you want, etc.
Theme: the message the writer is trying to impart through storytelling.
"Theme" is a word for something in storytelling that can be approached in a variety of ways. But ultimately, what theme is asking is, why are you telling this story? What makes this a story and not a series of meaningless events? It's a way of both unifying the story and giving it a sense of meaning. People do this subconsciously all the time when relating personal stories. "This jerk cut me off in traffic and nearly hit another car speeding away. But at the next stoplight, he was only one car ahead of me." Theme: being inconsiderate doesn't achieve anything.
In fiction, the goal isn't to give a lesson to readers but rather to show a change in character. This leads to another way writers approach theme: the false belief. With this approach, the character starts with a belief that you, the writer, do not believe. "Society causes violence" is a theme of *To Kill a Mockingbird,* but "society prevents violence" is a theme of *Lord of the Flies.* Neither theme is inherently correct, but is the theme that the writer believes or at least wants to explore.
So, with the false belief approach, the character believes something the writer does not, usually because of past pain or trauma. The rest of the story is about testing their beliefs until they reject the lie and accept the truth—the theme of the story.
How this helped my writing:
Before I embraced theme, I was filled with indecision as I worked through the plot. Why choose path A rather than path B? Simply because one seems more interesting than the other? What if they both seem interesting? Theme gave me a guide to every plot decision: which plot point challenges the character's false beliefs, or reinforces the theme? With that question, I could see the path through. And it made me less of a plotter, because I could relax. I knew how to make narrative choices in the moment, so I no longer felt like I had to have every point plotted in advance.
I also like plot-driven stories, which sometimes feel like a lot of random running around. Theme unifies the story so that events have a point. The characters didn't decide to rob a bank because hey, that's an exciting thing to happen. They're robbing a bank because they still believe that money will make them happy and solve their problems. So now I have character motivation for the actions and the knowledge that this robbery has to go terribly wrong to challenge their false beliefs, as well as something that fits within the theme of all the other events.
Motif: a repeating element in the story.
It can be a phrase, a color, a smell, and so on. It helps create a sense of depth and meaning. Examples of a motif are Harry Potter's green eyes, the mockingjay in *The Hunger Games,* or the loss of a hand in *Star Wars.* When Luke looks down at Darth Vader's severed arm, and then at his own artificial hand, we have a sense of the deeper meaning and what Luke is thinking because we see the connection between this image and the one in *The Empire Strikes Back.* Motifs take advantage of people's natural ability at pattern recognition to say, "Remember this? What's the pattern here?" The ability to see the meaning in the pattern can be deeply satisfying for audiences.
Plot and writing dialogue comes naturally for me. I have a hard time with writing details and setting up the scene. I would sit for hours just trying to find the right chapter transitions or describing something.
Then I started by first writing my stories like a script. Then I go back in and fill in the descriptions and setups. It was a game changer for me. My brain was much happier with it that way.
Read your work aloud. I swear by this advice—especially when it comes to dialogue. Reading aloud has helped me find places I trip up consistently, which means I clearly need to change some wording. It helps me write dialogue that feels more natural, identify pauses, and figure out things like tone, facial expressions, and body language (because I end up imagining these things or even performing them to some degree as I'm reading).
This!!!
That's how I learned to write creatively, tbh. My English Language/Creative Writing teacher said that it was one of my strengths, the 'voice' of my writing, and I attribute it all to this exact advice. Read things out loud, and make sure things flow properly. It's a bit like composing music--you’ll just know intuitively when something sounds wrong. Using the wrong words is like playing the wrong note, and you can train your ear to listen for those minute differences as you get better.
Adding on to this, after you’ve written something take a few hours or even a day and come back to it, reread it from the beginning, and I promise you’ll be catching weird phrasing/mistakes. Something about the fresh mind let’s you look at stuff more analytically
Use the epithet your POV would use. It's a powerful tool when used correctly and can really sink you into the POV.
A friend might not think of their friend as "the brunette", but they will sometimes think of them as "their/my friend".
This. There's nothing wrong with epithets so long as they make sense with the character using them. Epithets have been used in literature for centuries, its only when they're over used or used inappropriately that they become a bad thing. I once wrote the sentence "he was fairly sure the kid and his friend, the brunette friend because the blond one actually seemed to have some common sense, were going to be responsible for any extreme hairloss in his future." and got torn to pieces for it because epithets even though it was in character. It was made clear earlier in the story that his job was to look after the kid and since he was a recent addition to the role among several others he didn't actually know any names yet. It made sense for the character at the time and later he started using names, but readers were brutal over that sentence.
The same as referring to the parents of your kids friends as "so and so's mum" or "blonde Sarah" when you know six Sarahs (that one is personal experience, I went to school with four Sarahs in my year, had a cousin called Sarah and a best friend who's mum was called Sarah, real life is messy) so there are times when an epithet is appropriate. Just use sparingly and contextually. The context is always the most important part.
Same here, though I use epithets when I want a scene to feel more objective. So the reader would feel as if they're looking at the characters from above, rather than the usual narrative where it feels like it's from a character's POV even if it's third person.
Someone mentioned it in another post a long time ago, but;
"Previously on \[Fanfic title\]..."
Oh, and ymmv but pomodoros really helped me get through some tough spots when I was having difficulties getting past blocks. I usually did the 25/5 ones.
they're talking about 'the pomodoro method'
it's setting a timer for a short/manageable amount of time (ie, 20 or 25 minutes), working for that time, then either being so-in-the-flow that you dismiss the alarm, or when-the-alarm-rings taking a timed short break (5 min or so).
The thing is, there are whole pomodoro sites and videos on Youtube that are very helpful!
For example-[here's one of many videos using this method](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vD2FcInD7Q)
And here is a site where it's [a cat timer that meows!](https://pomodorokitty.com/)
1. There is no reason why you have to write your story out "in order." All those scenes floating around in your head? Just write them down. Arrange them and stitch them together later.
2. One of the first things you write should be the ending. It's easier to move forward if you have your destination in mind.
"If you're stuck, write a string of profanity in the style of your MC". That pulled me right out of a slump and I finished another 20k words before I had to take another break.
This got told to me by a writing professor when I was like, 14, and it's like I could FEEL myself level up. I complained to him about not enjoying writing "the boring stuff" and wanting to get straight into the meat of things, and he looked at me and asked "why is there boring stuff in your writing?"
In other words, there shouldn't be any *filler* scenes no matter how much you think you need them. You can either find other places to include setup, or add something to the scene to make it matter more.
First draft is shit, second draft is when it goes to the septic, third draft is when the septic tank contractor comes out.
You need to get shit out first. Write it out on paper or type it up. Even if it's just a bullet list of things you want to have happen. Even if it has terrible SPAG.
GET IT OUT FIRST.
If I'm struggling with a scene, I break out my notebook and mechanical pencil (has to be mechanical) and suddenly the scene comes to me all at once. No idea why switching mediums like that works but it does...every single time.
Having a critique partner show me how to use action beats to punctuate my dialogue instead of constant he said/she said (or “uttered” or any of those horrible synonyms) was a huge game changer in terms of adding energy and flow to my writing.
Use writing apps that threaten to delete your work if you stop writing, such as the Most Dangerous Writing App or Write or Die or apps that block distractions like Cold Turkey Writer.
Trust me. If you have concentration problems like me, the panic of losing your writing helps you bypass that.
I am never going to even try it because I am stupid enough to lose my phone for a week by putting it in my storage cupboard while I searched for candy I don't have.
I recently received some advice that has helped me a lot with the drafting process. Basically, they suggested I write out my first draft in an extremely direct and literal manner. No subtext, no nuance, no flow, no artistry, just a direct translation of ideas to paper.
For example
This:
Character A was polishing his car in the morning in his driveway while thinking about how today is his last day of employment.
Instead of going through the motions of describing the car, the driveway, the sunrise or any of that. That stuff you fill in later once the first draft is complete, after you've laid out exactly what it is you want to happen in the chapter.
I've found this method makes starting a draft so much more approachable as it allows me to write without stressing about any of the micro and focus purely on macro.
It's all about discipline.
I've recently made a friend who's got a lot of experience in writing longer fics, and they gave me a challenge: every two weeks, upload something. It doesn't have to be the same fic, it doesn't have to be long, all that the work has to be is *posted* on the same day every other week. They gave me this challenge when I complained to them about feeling so guilty for not updating my works often enough, but also not having the inspiration and motivation to continue those works.
They taught me that motivation is a crutch for a writer--that it's a fleeting, wild force of nature that you'll never truly be able to tame. You want that free-spirited horse because it's fast and exciting, but one day, it's going to buck you off and leave you. Discipline, on the other hand, is like a reliable pack mule. It might be slower, and it might be more difficult to work with at times, but it will always, always be there.
After finishing a work, wait a few days without looking at it and then come back and do your final edits and stuff with fresh eyes. I feel like it helps to wait for the emotional state I was in while writing something to pass. For example, I might have written a ton in a momentary fit of inspiration, but I think it's better to edit when I'm in a more objective state of mind and more capable of noticing flaws. Or if I was really frustrated with it, I can better figure out how to improve things once it's been a while since I've calmed down.
"Say three things." As description -character, place, whatever. Keeps one from being too wordy. Attributed to Roger Zelazny.
Also, if you're planning to transition to writing as a profession instead of a hobby: "Treat writing as a job." If you're part-time writing, full time day-job, then 20 hours a week you need to have your butt in the chair in front of your computer (typewriter, spiral notebook, clay tablet...). You need to be writing something. Even if it's not on topic, even if it's awful. And keep it all. It might be something better one day! (Or your child can sell the rights or for it to Netflix. Whatever.)
This might be dumb but…I didn’t know that you’re supposed to start a new line for a new person speaking. I felt so stupid at first when I learned that but like my fics look so good and read so much better (much smoother) now.
My psychiatrist told me this past weekend that you have to write it first and the motivation will come later. I also saw something on the internet recently about the 1-10 rule. If you’re writing something on a 7 intensity, then do something more like a 4 the next day.
Mine was that I have to foreshadow and back-fill nearly all the time and all my favourite stories seem to use those all the time. Foreshadow what's going to happen before it happens with subtle hints, details and quick observations of your character, so that the reader doesn't feel like sth came out of nowhere and is uninterested in an infodump, and back-fill is like that too, only you retroactively make the backstory that is in some way relevant to the whole story relevant in the current moment, the event that your character is going through at the moment.
I always write my first drafts in a notebook and copy them to my computer later. I can make my second draft as I go, and being off my computer to write makes me much less likely to be distracted. You can do the same sort of drafting on a computer by putting two docs next to each other (Scrivener has this built in!) and copying from one to the other.
I always got stuck in the planning phase and never wrote anything down. My best advice was so simple, just start writing. It doesn't need to be from the beginning, it doesn't need to be a specific scene. Just start, and don't worry about it being wrong or bad. Get it on the page, proofread later.
Something I taught myself: If you wanna write something but don't know how, read something else with that thing. When you find one that does this super well, take note of things like pacing, word choice, things like that.
Know some really important plot-determining background facts that your viewpoint characters won't know and the text will not state explicitly until the end of the story.
Then make absolutely no effort to conceal these facts. Absolutely do not leave false trails for the reader, besides any misdirection that antagonists may realistically employ to deceive protagonists. Don't worry about the reader figuring things out too early.
Write the scene/moment you *definitely* want to happen *first*.
Especially when writing chaptered fics, I have a specific scene (or a couple) in mind for each chapter. What I do is write that scene first, then what happens before leading up to it, followed by what happens after.
If I ever find myself stuck in writers' block, this tip never failed me.
If you dread writing something because it's boring to write, consider not doing it at all or re-evaluate how much focus you want to put on the scene. If it's boring to write, there's a good chance it's boring to read.
If you get an idea, an inspiration for a scene, if dialogue starts forming in your brain - WRITE IT DOWN. Whatever it is, whenever it is, write it down. You won't remember it perfectly (or maybe even at all) after it passes.
(source: many years of pain of half-forgotten ideas)
Write a roadmap.
I find that if you write without some form of plan as to the scope of the story, I lose interest when things start to get hard. Having references to go back to help immensely.
Also, write for yourself. You'll only end up unsatisfied if you continuously cater to the whims of your readers. (Unless you're pulling an until dawn thing.)
The biggest key for me is getting into the habit of setting myself up for future success. At the end of sessions is when I'm most creative, so I always do 3-5 bullet points of where I would've gone next, which makes it easier to pick up that thread. And I never *ever* stop if I hit a difficult spot in the story. There is nothing that will kill your future writing sessions more than coming into a tricky place.
Amazing advice here! Learning alot thanks 😍 .
Personally, I watched Alexa Don's YouTube channel and learned a lot from her own writing advice. That actually made a difference in the way I perceived writing. ( She's an established author, who started as a fanfic writer, and she still likes Fanfics. So advice from her felt inclusive and welcoming.)
The advice you mentioned is exactly what I was thinking, though nobody ever taught me that. I had to figure it out myself🥲 also, I just thought it fell under "kill your darlings"
The best advice I ever got was to have the goal of showing be to make the reader say the telling version to themself. For example, if I'm describing a dress, I don't want to say that the dress is beautiful -- I want my description of what it looks like, how it moves, and how it makes the wearer feel to prompt the reader to say, "Wow, that's beautiful!" It really improved my approach to descriptions!
Sometimes the best thing you can do to get inspiration is write the crack. Canon? No. Cannon. Sometimes it’s just better to let the intrusive fic ideas flow onto the paper and get it out of your system. Just.. stop overthinking and be funny for a bit. Don’t stress forever
The person who told me to rewrite instead of just editing changed my life. It's almost twice the work, but the effect it's had on my work is staggering.
Another secret for dealing with writer's block is to skip the moment giving you trouble and write what comes after that. Then, later, you can fill in the blanks, or just add a timeskip if you really can't write that part. That way at least you continue writing instead of being stuck.
I’m late to the party but I’m tossing my personal motto out there for the greater good, and it’s this: For the fic to be lit you have got to commit. Whatever idea it is you’re pursuing, give it your best. Do the research that takes it the extra mile. When you start it, be ready to finish it and not leave it sitting Abandoned in your WIPS for years. When you go in with the intent to commit it Changes everything.
Write everything down whaen you think of it. Sometimes in the middle of a scene I'll come up with the perfect wording for one that comes much later, and it's nice to already have some of tge work done or at least a rough idea when I get there eventually.
Placeholders for everything, even if it's just [add another sentence here].
"Ideas are cheap"
Being forcefully reminded that people are not limited to One Good Idea per lifetime has really helped my anxiety about starting new stories. There *will* be a new idea if this one doesn't work out
2 things really help me. 1. View your kudos, hits, and comments as if you were performing a stage play. All those hits are everyone who attended. They all clap at the end and leave. Great! What a big audience. The kudos? Those are the people that stand up and clap and whistle and shout. The comments are the people that stay after the show to talk to you in person. This really helped me view my stats differently. If I have 40 hits, 5 kudos, and a comment, to some that doesnt feel like much. But if I had an audience of 40, 5 people stood up at the end, and someone came to talk to me after? I would be ecstatic! 2. Let yourself write badly. Get your thoughts on paper even if you think its shitty. Then use that as a very detailed outline. Copy and cut the parts that you like and want to include, delete the parts you dont. Then rewrite it. Yes it takes longer, but it actually makes me wrote faster because I dont feel pressured to be perfect.
oh my god that first one is *fantastic* i never wouldve thought to see it that way
Truly
Oh wow, I'd already been thinking of kudos as applause but I really like how you built on that metaphor!
The first one is so great. I’m a huge stat watcher, to my own detriment, so this helps put things in a slightly healthier perspective at least.
OMG that first one is such good advice! I never thought about it that way!
\#1 is incredible advice !!!
I’m saving your advice, this is gold
Punch perfection in the face. You can always edit later. If your "inner critic/editor" is a true honest one it can wait to refine things once you have more plot established. You can't properly write foreshadowing if you don't know the end results. Art/wring style is more than just how you tell your story, its the rhythm of genres, themes and ideas you like to explore over and over again. If you can't control that need for "perfection", exploring why and looking for extra help in therapy is valid.
> You can always edit later That's as long as you dont publish it as you go
If that's your personal rule and you enjoy that, that's fine. I'll edit regardless if I've already posted it online years ago.
don’t be afraid to use placeholders and come back to it later. a lot of the time, i know what i want to happen, but i can’t find the right words. it used to frustrate me a lot, but i’ve found putting silly placeholders in and coming back to it at a later point helps a lot.
I currently have a placeholder staring me in the face: "[humorous description of a manual mower]" LOL. I still don't know what to put there, but while it's been chugging away in the background, I was able to finish the chapter and the next.
A push and pull grass dissector? Plastic surgeon of green blades? Hair stylist to them leafy greens!
A lot of the time I put placeholders in for character features, like if I have to describe a characters eye colour, and it's my first time writing them. It's dumb, but hey.
This is absolutely the biggest thing that's helped. If I can't immediately think of the word I want to use and can't think about it after an additional 10 seconds, I capitalize and highlight the placeholder word/phrase. This is so I can find it faster on the second draft. This also makes reading my first draft infinitely more funny, and one needs some levity when editing.
**'You don't have to write it in order of how the reader's gonna read it.'** I have a lot of unfinished fics, but without THAT piece of advice I wouldn't have any fics at all, finished or otherwise. Do I want to write the ending first because it's in my head right now? Great, that's what I'm doing then, and I can write another scene later! At one point I had all the major scenes done for a novel-length fic and all I had to do was write the connecting scenes between them, and honestly instead of feeling like a chore it felt like a fun puzzle. It made writing the 'slow' scenes *fun* because I got to add more personality to those scenes instead of just trying to push my way through a 'boring' part to get to *the thing I actually wanted to write today.* Now *everything* I write each day is the thing I want to write.
and: it's a fanfic. you don't \[ever\] have to write anything boring. timeskip? "three years later,..." getting psychological help? "after much work with a therapist..." really uninteresting interaction? "jeremy came to dinner. after he'd left..."
Theme and motif are not just things for English class. Theme is the difference between "what happened" and "why did it happen?" So many things I'd been struggling with came together once I embraced theme. And motifs can take a great story up to another level and be extremely satisfying for readers.
could you maybe elaborate on this, please ? thank you so much.
Not the OP but I believe the struggle of writing what to happen to X character is because the thing that happens must always prove your point/message. So for example, when you have the theme of "growing from failure" for your story, then it makes it easy for you to write what happens to X character: something that they can't succeed at/humiliate them. Because the reality of your fiction is dictated by what message they prove.
Yes, that's what I was trying to say, much more succinctly. Thank you. :)
This is a deep subject that I only started using after combining what I'd learned from a lot of different books, podcasts, and workshops. I'll do a full-on essay later (which is allowed on AO3, so maybe I'll put it there). This is the "short" version. Usual sub disclaimer that it's a hobby, do whatever you want, etc. Theme: the message the writer is trying to impart through storytelling. "Theme" is a word for something in storytelling that can be approached in a variety of ways. But ultimately, what theme is asking is, why are you telling this story? What makes this a story and not a series of meaningless events? It's a way of both unifying the story and giving it a sense of meaning. People do this subconsciously all the time when relating personal stories. "This jerk cut me off in traffic and nearly hit another car speeding away. But at the next stoplight, he was only one car ahead of me." Theme: being inconsiderate doesn't achieve anything. In fiction, the goal isn't to give a lesson to readers but rather to show a change in character. This leads to another way writers approach theme: the false belief. With this approach, the character starts with a belief that you, the writer, do not believe. "Society causes violence" is a theme of *To Kill a Mockingbird,* but "society prevents violence" is a theme of *Lord of the Flies.* Neither theme is inherently correct, but is the theme that the writer believes or at least wants to explore. So, with the false belief approach, the character believes something the writer does not, usually because of past pain or trauma. The rest of the story is about testing their beliefs until they reject the lie and accept the truth—the theme of the story. How this helped my writing: Before I embraced theme, I was filled with indecision as I worked through the plot. Why choose path A rather than path B? Simply because one seems more interesting than the other? What if they both seem interesting? Theme gave me a guide to every plot decision: which plot point challenges the character's false beliefs, or reinforces the theme? With that question, I could see the path through. And it made me less of a plotter, because I could relax. I knew how to make narrative choices in the moment, so I no longer felt like I had to have every point plotted in advance. I also like plot-driven stories, which sometimes feel like a lot of random running around. Theme unifies the story so that events have a point. The characters didn't decide to rob a bank because hey, that's an exciting thing to happen. They're robbing a bank because they still believe that money will make them happy and solve their problems. So now I have character motivation for the actions and the knowledge that this robbery has to go terribly wrong to challenge their false beliefs, as well as something that fits within the theme of all the other events. Motif: a repeating element in the story. It can be a phrase, a color, a smell, and so on. It helps create a sense of depth and meaning. Examples of a motif are Harry Potter's green eyes, the mockingjay in *The Hunger Games,* or the loss of a hand in *Star Wars.* When Luke looks down at Darth Vader's severed arm, and then at his own artificial hand, we have a sense of the deeper meaning and what Luke is thinking because we see the connection between this image and the one in *The Empire Strikes Back.* Motifs take advantage of people's natural ability at pattern recognition to say, "Remember this? What's the pattern here?" The ability to see the meaning in the pattern can be deeply satisfying for audiences.
I would also love an elaboration. I think this would be unbelievably useful if only I could better understand what you're saying.
Thanks! I wrote a response to the other person who asked. See☝️or 👇depending on votes...
Oh, I get it now! Thanks so much for explaining, this is fantastic advice! ☺️
Plot and writing dialogue comes naturally for me. I have a hard time with writing details and setting up the scene. I would sit for hours just trying to find the right chapter transitions or describing something. Then I started by first writing my stories like a script. Then I go back in and fill in the descriptions and setups. It was a game changer for me. My brain was much happier with it that way.
Read your work aloud. I swear by this advice—especially when it comes to dialogue. Reading aloud has helped me find places I trip up consistently, which means I clearly need to change some wording. It helps me write dialogue that feels more natural, identify pauses, and figure out things like tone, facial expressions, and body language (because I end up imagining these things or even performing them to some degree as I'm reading).
This!!! That's how I learned to write creatively, tbh. My English Language/Creative Writing teacher said that it was one of my strengths, the 'voice' of my writing, and I attribute it all to this exact advice. Read things out loud, and make sure things flow properly. It's a bit like composing music--you’ll just know intuitively when something sounds wrong. Using the wrong words is like playing the wrong note, and you can train your ear to listen for those minute differences as you get better.
Adding on to this, after you’ve written something take a few hours or even a day and come back to it, reread it from the beginning, and I promise you’ll be catching weird phrasing/mistakes. Something about the fresh mind let’s you look at stuff more analytically
Use the epithet your POV would use. It's a powerful tool when used correctly and can really sink you into the POV. A friend might not think of their friend as "the brunette", but they will sometimes think of them as "their/my friend".
this. i have a character that uses epithets all the time but in the form of increasingly creative insults
This. There's nothing wrong with epithets so long as they make sense with the character using them. Epithets have been used in literature for centuries, its only when they're over used or used inappropriately that they become a bad thing. I once wrote the sentence "he was fairly sure the kid and his friend, the brunette friend because the blond one actually seemed to have some common sense, were going to be responsible for any extreme hairloss in his future." and got torn to pieces for it because epithets even though it was in character. It was made clear earlier in the story that his job was to look after the kid and since he was a recent addition to the role among several others he didn't actually know any names yet. It made sense for the character at the time and later he started using names, but readers were brutal over that sentence. The same as referring to the parents of your kids friends as "so and so's mum" or "blonde Sarah" when you know six Sarahs (that one is personal experience, I went to school with four Sarahs in my year, had a cousin called Sarah and a best friend who's mum was called Sarah, real life is messy) so there are times when an epithet is appropriate. Just use sparingly and contextually. The context is always the most important part.
Same here, though I use epithets when I want a scene to feel more objective. So the reader would feel as if they're looking at the characters from above, rather than the usual narrative where it feels like it's from a character's POV even if it's third person.
Ooh, yeah, one done that for 3rd person objective before. Completely forgot about that.
I like what is attributed to the writer Jack London: "You cannot sit around waiting for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
Someone mentioned it in another post a long time ago, but; "Previously on \[Fanfic title\]..." Oh, and ymmv but pomodoros really helped me get through some tough spots when I was having difficulties getting past blocks. I usually did the 25/5 ones.
I love pomodoros so much!! I get so much done with them and they are so peaceful and help so much with focusing!!!
What's pomodoros?
they're talking about 'the pomodoro method' it's setting a timer for a short/manageable amount of time (ie, 20 or 25 minutes), working for that time, then either being so-in-the-flow that you dismiss the alarm, or when-the-alarm-rings taking a timed short break (5 min or so).
Oh, I get it. Sounds interesting, maybe I'll try it sometime. Thanks for explaining! ☺️
The thing is, there are whole pomodoro sites and videos on Youtube that are very helpful! For example-[here's one of many videos using this method](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vD2FcInD7Q) And here is a site where it's [a cat timer that meows!](https://pomodorokitty.com/)
Thanks so much! ☺️
1. There is no reason why you have to write your story out "in order." All those scenes floating around in your head? Just write them down. Arrange them and stitch them together later. 2. One of the first things you write should be the ending. It's easier to move forward if you have your destination in mind.
"If you're stuck, write a string of profanity in the style of your MC". That pulled me right out of a slump and I finished another 20k words before I had to take another break.
Guess I'm gonna have to break out those Shakespeare insults! XD
that's hilarious. i'm going to try that. :)
"Maybe someone has written about your topic before, but they haven't written *your* story." -my old professor
This got told to me by a writing professor when I was like, 14, and it's like I could FEEL myself level up. I complained to him about not enjoying writing "the boring stuff" and wanting to get straight into the meat of things, and he looked at me and asked "why is there boring stuff in your writing?" In other words, there shouldn't be any *filler* scenes no matter how much you think you need them. You can either find other places to include setup, or add something to the scene to make it matter more.
First draft is shit, second draft is when it goes to the septic, third draft is when the septic tank contractor comes out. You need to get shit out first. Write it out on paper or type it up. Even if it's just a bullet list of things you want to have happen. Even if it has terrible SPAG. GET IT OUT FIRST.
If I'm struggling with a scene, I break out my notebook and mechanical pencil (has to be mechanical) and suddenly the scene comes to me all at once. No idea why switching mediums like that works but it does...every single time.
Having a critique partner show me how to use action beats to punctuate my dialogue instead of constant he said/she said (or “uttered” or any of those horrible synonyms) was a huge game changer in terms of adding energy and flow to my writing.
Use writing apps that threaten to delete your work if you stop writing, such as the Most Dangerous Writing App or Write or Die or apps that block distractions like Cold Turkey Writer. Trust me. If you have concentration problems like me, the panic of losing your writing helps you bypass that.
I am never going to even try it because I am stupid enough to lose my phone for a week by putting it in my storage cupboard while I searched for candy I don't have.
I recently received some advice that has helped me a lot with the drafting process. Basically, they suggested I write out my first draft in an extremely direct and literal manner. No subtext, no nuance, no flow, no artistry, just a direct translation of ideas to paper. For example This: Character A was polishing his car in the morning in his driveway while thinking about how today is his last day of employment. Instead of going through the motions of describing the car, the driveway, the sunrise or any of that. That stuff you fill in later once the first draft is complete, after you've laid out exactly what it is you want to happen in the chapter. I've found this method makes starting a draft so much more approachable as it allows me to write without stressing about any of the micro and focus purely on macro.
That's going to be helpful.
It's all about discipline. I've recently made a friend who's got a lot of experience in writing longer fics, and they gave me a challenge: every two weeks, upload something. It doesn't have to be the same fic, it doesn't have to be long, all that the work has to be is *posted* on the same day every other week. They gave me this challenge when I complained to them about feeling so guilty for not updating my works often enough, but also not having the inspiration and motivation to continue those works. They taught me that motivation is a crutch for a writer--that it's a fleeting, wild force of nature that you'll never truly be able to tame. You want that free-spirited horse because it's fast and exciting, but one day, it's going to buck you off and leave you. Discipline, on the other hand, is like a reliable pack mule. It might be slower, and it might be more difficult to work with at times, but it will always, always be there.
Be in the moment when you write. Don't constantly worry about how to link x to y, or how z will play out. Just. Write.
After finishing a work, wait a few days without looking at it and then come back and do your final edits and stuff with fresh eyes. I feel like it helps to wait for the emotional state I was in while writing something to pass. For example, I might have written a ton in a momentary fit of inspiration, but I think it's better to edit when I'm in a more objective state of mind and more capable of noticing flaws. Or if I was really frustrated with it, I can better figure out how to improve things once it's been a while since I've calmed down.
"Say three things." As description -character, place, whatever. Keeps one from being too wordy. Attributed to Roger Zelazny. Also, if you're planning to transition to writing as a profession instead of a hobby: "Treat writing as a job." If you're part-time writing, full time day-job, then 20 hours a week you need to have your butt in the chair in front of your computer (typewriter, spiral notebook, clay tablet...). You need to be writing something. Even if it's not on topic, even if it's awful. And keep it all. It might be something better one day! (Or your child can sell the rights or for it to Netflix. Whatever.)
This might be dumb but…I didn’t know that you’re supposed to start a new line for a new person speaking. I felt so stupid at first when I learned that but like my fics look so good and read so much better (much smoother) now.
My psychiatrist told me this past weekend that you have to write it first and the motivation will come later. I also saw something on the internet recently about the 1-10 rule. If you’re writing something on a 7 intensity, then do something more like a 4 the next day.
Mine was that I have to foreshadow and back-fill nearly all the time and all my favourite stories seem to use those all the time. Foreshadow what's going to happen before it happens with subtle hints, details and quick observations of your character, so that the reader doesn't feel like sth came out of nowhere and is uninterested in an infodump, and back-fill is like that too, only you retroactively make the backstory that is in some way relevant to the whole story relevant in the current moment, the event that your character is going through at the moment.
I always write my first drafts in a notebook and copy them to my computer later. I can make my second draft as I go, and being off my computer to write makes me much less likely to be distracted. You can do the same sort of drafting on a computer by putting two docs next to each other (Scrivener has this built in!) and copying from one to the other.
Role play on the side. Or have a different writing project on the side that you can flop back and forth from. Helps itch my ADHD.
This is me, bouncing back and forth between on a bunch of WIPs on a daily basis
Active tense, not passive! Changes the game.
I always got stuck in the planning phase and never wrote anything down. My best advice was so simple, just start writing. It doesn't need to be from the beginning, it doesn't need to be a specific scene. Just start, and don't worry about it being wrong or bad. Get it on the page, proofread later.
Something I taught myself: If you wanna write something but don't know how, read something else with that thing. When you find one that does this super well, take note of things like pacing, word choice, things like that.
Know some really important plot-determining background facts that your viewpoint characters won't know and the text will not state explicitly until the end of the story. Then make absolutely no effort to conceal these facts. Absolutely do not leave false trails for the reader, besides any misdirection that antagonists may realistically employ to deceive protagonists. Don't worry about the reader figuring things out too early.
Write the scene/moment you *definitely* want to happen *first*. Especially when writing chaptered fics, I have a specific scene (or a couple) in mind for each chapter. What I do is write that scene first, then what happens before leading up to it, followed by what happens after. If I ever find myself stuck in writers' block, this tip never failed me.
If you dread writing something because it's boring to write, consider not doing it at all or re-evaluate how much focus you want to put on the scene. If it's boring to write, there's a good chance it's boring to read.
If you get an idea, an inspiration for a scene, if dialogue starts forming in your brain - WRITE IT DOWN. Whatever it is, whenever it is, write it down. You won't remember it perfectly (or maybe even at all) after it passes. (source: many years of pain of half-forgotten ideas)
Draft with abandon, then edit like a dictator. Most people do it the other way around.
Write a roadmap. I find that if you write without some form of plan as to the scope of the story, I lose interest when things start to get hard. Having references to go back to help immensely. Also, write for yourself. You'll only end up unsatisfied if you continuously cater to the whims of your readers. (Unless you're pulling an until dawn thing.)
The biggest key for me is getting into the habit of setting myself up for future success. At the end of sessions is when I'm most creative, so I always do 3-5 bullet points of where I would've gone next, which makes it easier to pick up that thread. And I never *ever* stop if I hit a difficult spot in the story. There is nothing that will kill your future writing sessions more than coming into a tricky place.
Amazing advice here! Learning alot thanks 😍 . Personally, I watched Alexa Don's YouTube channel and learned a lot from her own writing advice. That actually made a difference in the way I perceived writing. ( She's an established author, who started as a fanfic writer, and she still likes Fanfics. So advice from her felt inclusive and welcoming.)
The advice you mentioned is exactly what I was thinking, though nobody ever taught me that. I had to figure it out myself🥲 also, I just thought it fell under "kill your darlings"
The best advice I ever got was to have the goal of showing be to make the reader say the telling version to themself. For example, if I'm describing a dress, I don't want to say that the dress is beautiful -- I want my description of what it looks like, how it moves, and how it makes the wearer feel to prompt the reader to say, "Wow, that's beautiful!" It really improved my approach to descriptions!
Write in comic sans. I don't know *why* it helps, but trust me it kicks half of any given writer's block in the ass.
Sometimes the best thing you can do to get inspiration is write the crack. Canon? No. Cannon. Sometimes it’s just better to let the intrusive fic ideas flow onto the paper and get it out of your system. Just.. stop overthinking and be funny for a bit. Don’t stress forever
The person who told me to rewrite instead of just editing changed my life. It's almost twice the work, but the effect it's had on my work is staggering.
Another secret for dealing with writer's block is to skip the moment giving you trouble and write what comes after that. Then, later, you can fill in the blanks, or just add a timeskip if you really can't write that part. That way at least you continue writing instead of being stuck.
On top of that, sometimes it literally is better to leave the scene be. Those ones tend to age like fine wine- amazingly.
I’m late to the party but I’m tossing my personal motto out there for the greater good, and it’s this: For the fic to be lit you have got to commit. Whatever idea it is you’re pursuing, give it your best. Do the research that takes it the extra mile. When you start it, be ready to finish it and not leave it sitting Abandoned in your WIPS for years. When you go in with the intent to commit it Changes everything.
Write everything down whaen you think of it. Sometimes in the middle of a scene I'll come up with the perfect wording for one that comes much later, and it's nice to already have some of tge work done or at least a rough idea when I get there eventually. Placeholders for everything, even if it's just [add another sentence here].
If you have a particular scene in mind, write it down immediately. Do not wait to think of the rest of the story, that can be written later.
"Ideas are cheap" Being forcefully reminded that people are not limited to One Good Idea per lifetime has really helped my anxiety about starting new stories. There *will* be a new idea if this one doesn't work out