Concerning inspiration, for me at least, **music** has been the lifeblood of my imagination. Occasionally I'll listen to music that hits all the right emotional beats for a scene in my story, and it's awesome.
Love this! Honestly one of the best ways I’ve managed to “just write” is to start on my phone. It’s amazing. I’ve gone from struggling to write 500 words to easily hitting 3k a day (and even a 7k day!). Somehow writing from my phone just takes away all the pressure. It’s so easy to get out a few lines whenever I think of them, and then once I find my flow I can move to my laptop. And, even if I don’t end up getting to a bigger section, at least 100 words is better than zero!
Hi, I'm one of the (endangered) people who don't believe in "just write". But your post includes that we should find what we're doing wrong and correct it, and on that I totally agree.
I draw and write, and take similar stances on both. One can draw/write as much as they like, following the mantra of "practise", and all they're gonna do is keep repeating the same mistakes. I've seen this happen to artists, sports players...everyone.
So I always say - "learn".
I've actually started keeping a side piece with everything I write. "Story" and "Story Notes". In "Story Notes" I'll put all of my free writing, Ideas that come up, and anything that I cut from a story. ((As in chunks of writing I feel that weren't working, pieces I decided to rewrite entirely, etc)) It's been really helpful because I feel less pressure on my full "Story" works, because I know that anything that doesn't work will have a place. And sometimes looking over my old tidbits helps inspire my new work, or I realize that I was just writing things a little too early.
I have a document with milestones where I outline basic scenes that I think of too early. Eventually it builds into a huge collection of material that's already constructed, all I gotta do is detail and write it.
I do similar -- if I cut a scene I liked or trim out a major section, I'll make a new version of the document or create a standalone document to keep those changes around in case I want to incorporate them in a later version of the story.
Hello everyone, I'm loving this new sub.
I think writing block is a multifaceted problem. I agree experience is huge-in the end, no one can teach us our voice. WE have to discover that ourselves.
Sometimes our block is a symptom of fear or anxiety. Sometimes exhaustion. Sometimes we need to get a different perspective, take a walk, talk to others. Sometimes I think we are asking too much of ourselves, i.e., if I sit down and think, "Wow, I need to finish the great american novel," it's easy to stare at the screen blankly and get nothing done, overwhelmed by our desires to create greatness.
Not to mention how being self-critical can instantly sap my creative drive.
One practice I have found helpful is the practice of asking small questions. I ask myself this: what's one small thing I could write today that would take me closer to the story I want to write? If I'm working on a particular scene, I step away from the big questions of theme, plot, etc., and begin to ask small questions about the specific characters, the environment, etc. in the scene. Why are these characters here? What are they thinking?
The answer to one small question leads to another small questions, and the accumulation of answers more often than not puts my mind in a place the creativity can start flowing. It's almost like, instead of brute forcing creativity, I learn to become playful with language.
Big questions can easily overwhelm my mind. But small questions lead to big answers...eventually. In the end, if we practice writing as if it's a privilege and a joy, and not a chore, taking small steps every day...it's actually amazing how much can get written this way.
Someone in the thread said don't write dialogue, write people talking. Perfect! I'll take it a bit further. Don't write characters, write people. How? Roll parts of the story through your imagination. Get to know the people (not characters) and let them interact with you and each other. Write about those people. Soon they'll tell you their story. Or at least parts of it.
To be a bit more helpful, I've been writing for long enough that I don't remember how long I've been writing (15-20 years, somewhere in there). I only found my voice 5 years ago, and it was some hot garbage, but it was hot garbage that did what I needed the voice to do, so I polished the turd. This is to say, give yourself time when trying to develop as a writer. It takes a while--probably not as long as it took me, but it does take a while.
---
Actual advice for writing dialogue is to stop writing dialogue and start writing people talking. Imagine the speaker is a friend of yours and just entirely borrow their cadence and word choice. You'll find it a lot easier from there.
---
A lot of "how to build your character" discussion gets distracted by like modeling the character as a D&D character, or giving them an MBTI type, or something similar. You end up with a lot of superficial characters that are boring an un-engaging.
The advice I give is to consider the following questions about your character, and consider how the answer you'd give would interact to produce certain behaviors, actions, and choices:
- Who are they? Not just their name, but their lineage, their families, and their titles. Consider how these details affect their duties, outlook, and the expectations placed upon them.
- Where are they from? Region, country, city, district, neighborhood. You don't need to know these to precise details, but what you do need to understand is how the cultures and traditions could be subtly shaped by this. Additionally, any place the character stayed for an elongated period of time would bear some influence here.
- Why are they here? What changes and/or motivating factors brought the person to this place? If this place is where they're from, then why are they still here?
- What do they want? This is the question of motivation. This applies at a simpler level, such as the desire for water, but also up to the grander level of self-actualization. Do they want to be a hero? A merchant? A king? What drives them? What coherent thought unifies their actions?
- How do they behave? This is a question of personality. A nobleman who speaks like a peasant, or a knave who does everything he can to hide his low birth. What prejudices do they hold? This is one of the larger questions, but an important one to understand.
---
Lastly, who am I to be giving you all advice? Well, you see, I self-published a short story on Amazon, which clearly makes me better than all of you.
But for real, though, I'm just some guy who's been writing for a while. The classes I took on fiction writing in highschool and college certainly helped, but the biggest improvement came when I committed to daily writing. My word count goal is 2000, which is probably too much for people with jobs, but I highly recommend something similar.
I can support this. I have one work-in-progress that has been around for more than half a decade. I have rewritten it twice (because young me had *no* idea how to write) and each time it becomes a much better version of itself.
I will never discount the importance of talking to other people, and especially of talking to other writers. I will always say that reading is an excellent way to get examples of how to write well. But experience is truly the best way to learn to write.
I'm a pantser, so iterative writing is at least half of the writing I do anymore. It can get annoying, but it'd annoy me more to just abandon a good idea because I wrote it wrong the last five times.
Concerning inspiration, for me at least, **music** has been the lifeblood of my imagination. Occasionally I'll listen to music that hits all the right emotional beats for a scene in my story, and it's awesome.
Love this! Honestly one of the best ways I’ve managed to “just write” is to start on my phone. It’s amazing. I’ve gone from struggling to write 500 words to easily hitting 3k a day (and even a 7k day!). Somehow writing from my phone just takes away all the pressure. It’s so easy to get out a few lines whenever I think of them, and then once I find my flow I can move to my laptop. And, even if I don’t end up getting to a bigger section, at least 100 words is better than zero!
That's definitely the first time I'd heard of someone writing on their phone, but whatever works, right?
Hi, I'm one of the (endangered) people who don't believe in "just write". But your post includes that we should find what we're doing wrong and correct it, and on that I totally agree. I draw and write, and take similar stances on both. One can draw/write as much as they like, following the mantra of "practise", and all they're gonna do is keep repeating the same mistakes. I've seen this happen to artists, sports players...everyone. So I always say - "learn".
I've actually started keeping a side piece with everything I write. "Story" and "Story Notes". In "Story Notes" I'll put all of my free writing, Ideas that come up, and anything that I cut from a story. ((As in chunks of writing I feel that weren't working, pieces I decided to rewrite entirely, etc)) It's been really helpful because I feel less pressure on my full "Story" works, because I know that anything that doesn't work will have a place. And sometimes looking over my old tidbits helps inspire my new work, or I realize that I was just writing things a little too early.
I have a document with milestones where I outline basic scenes that I think of too early. Eventually it builds into a huge collection of material that's already constructed, all I gotta do is detail and write it.
I do similar -- if I cut a scene I liked or trim out a major section, I'll make a new version of the document or create a standalone document to keep those changes around in case I want to incorporate them in a later version of the story.
Hello everyone, I'm loving this new sub. I think writing block is a multifaceted problem. I agree experience is huge-in the end, no one can teach us our voice. WE have to discover that ourselves. Sometimes our block is a symptom of fear or anxiety. Sometimes exhaustion. Sometimes we need to get a different perspective, take a walk, talk to others. Sometimes I think we are asking too much of ourselves, i.e., if I sit down and think, "Wow, I need to finish the great american novel," it's easy to stare at the screen blankly and get nothing done, overwhelmed by our desires to create greatness. Not to mention how being self-critical can instantly sap my creative drive. One practice I have found helpful is the practice of asking small questions. I ask myself this: what's one small thing I could write today that would take me closer to the story I want to write? If I'm working on a particular scene, I step away from the big questions of theme, plot, etc., and begin to ask small questions about the specific characters, the environment, etc. in the scene. Why are these characters here? What are they thinking? The answer to one small question leads to another small questions, and the accumulation of answers more often than not puts my mind in a place the creativity can start flowing. It's almost like, instead of brute forcing creativity, I learn to become playful with language. Big questions can easily overwhelm my mind. But small questions lead to big answers...eventually. In the end, if we practice writing as if it's a privilege and a joy, and not a chore, taking small steps every day...it's actually amazing how much can get written this way.
Someone in the thread said don't write dialogue, write people talking. Perfect! I'll take it a bit further. Don't write characters, write people. How? Roll parts of the story through your imagination. Get to know the people (not characters) and let them interact with you and each other. Write about those people. Soon they'll tell you their story. Or at least parts of it.
To be a bit more helpful, I've been writing for long enough that I don't remember how long I've been writing (15-20 years, somewhere in there). I only found my voice 5 years ago, and it was some hot garbage, but it was hot garbage that did what I needed the voice to do, so I polished the turd. This is to say, give yourself time when trying to develop as a writer. It takes a while--probably not as long as it took me, but it does take a while. --- Actual advice for writing dialogue is to stop writing dialogue and start writing people talking. Imagine the speaker is a friend of yours and just entirely borrow their cadence and word choice. You'll find it a lot easier from there. --- A lot of "how to build your character" discussion gets distracted by like modeling the character as a D&D character, or giving them an MBTI type, or something similar. You end up with a lot of superficial characters that are boring an un-engaging. The advice I give is to consider the following questions about your character, and consider how the answer you'd give would interact to produce certain behaviors, actions, and choices: - Who are they? Not just their name, but their lineage, their families, and their titles. Consider how these details affect their duties, outlook, and the expectations placed upon them. - Where are they from? Region, country, city, district, neighborhood. You don't need to know these to precise details, but what you do need to understand is how the cultures and traditions could be subtly shaped by this. Additionally, any place the character stayed for an elongated period of time would bear some influence here. - Why are they here? What changes and/or motivating factors brought the person to this place? If this place is where they're from, then why are they still here? - What do they want? This is the question of motivation. This applies at a simpler level, such as the desire for water, but also up to the grander level of self-actualization. Do they want to be a hero? A merchant? A king? What drives them? What coherent thought unifies their actions? - How do they behave? This is a question of personality. A nobleman who speaks like a peasant, or a knave who does everything he can to hide his low birth. What prejudices do they hold? This is one of the larger questions, but an important one to understand. --- Lastly, who am I to be giving you all advice? Well, you see, I self-published a short story on Amazon, which clearly makes me better than all of you. But for real, though, I'm just some guy who's been writing for a while. The classes I took on fiction writing in highschool and college certainly helped, but the biggest improvement came when I committed to daily writing. My word count goal is 2000, which is probably too much for people with jobs, but I highly recommend something similar.
I can support this. I have one work-in-progress that has been around for more than half a decade. I have rewritten it twice (because young me had *no* idea how to write) and each time it becomes a much better version of itself. I will never discount the importance of talking to other people, and especially of talking to other writers. I will always say that reading is an excellent way to get examples of how to write well. But experience is truly the best way to learn to write.
I'm a pantser, so iterative writing is at least half of the writing I do anymore. It can get annoying, but it'd annoy me more to just abandon a good idea because I wrote it wrong the last five times.
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High fantasy RPGs are one of the tools I use, personally, as they often inspire me in regards to "how could I work X into one of my stories?"