Kids for the love of god stop putting depreciating little notes in your summaries on ao3.
- if u tell someone something is,bad nine times out of ten, they’re going to believe you without looking at it
- not to say “do as i say not as i do” but if you wouldn’t put up with behavior like what you’re doing to yourself if someone did it to your friend THINK REAL HARD ABOUT IT
- YOU LISTEN TO ME. ITS NOT “AN AU NOBODY ASKED FOR”, ITS “I HAD A GREAT IDEA FOR AN ORIGINAL AU (or take on an AU lmao Shakespeare wasn’t original either) SO I WROTE IT.” HAPPY UNBIRTHDAY SOMEONE WHO IS HAVING A SHITTY DAY AND LOVES DOG GROOMER AUs. YOU JUST MADE THEIR DAY.
Vodka Auntie out OH PS if your mom is shitty or otherwise unavailable on Sunday for mothers day come hang out in my ask box
- “I couldn’t think of a summary” JUST COPY THE FIRST COUPLE LINES OF YOUR FIC INTO THE SUMMARY BOX AND YOU’RE DONE. IT’S MAGIC.
- “Don’t read this” keep it on your harddrive until you’re brave enough to own your work, or post it anon.
- “Just another ___ AU” look, it’s fanfic, everything is variations on a theme. Your variation is as legitimate as anyone else’s.
- “Please don’t hate me!!” just repeat six important words to yourself when this insecurity pops up: fuck you if you don’t like me.
Tag: writing tips
The best advice I can give on this is, once it’s done, to put it away until you can read it with new eyes. Finish the short story, print it out, then put it in a drawer and write other things. When you’re ready, pick it up and read it, as if you’ve never read it before. If there are things you aren’t satisfied with as a reader, go in and fix them as a writer: that’s revision. Neil Gaiman
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things people do in real world dialogue:
• laugh at their own jokes
• don’t finish/say complete sentences
• interrupt a line of thought with a sudden new one
• say ‘uh’ between words when unsure
• accidentally blend multiple words together, and may start the sentence over again
• repeat filler words such as ‘like’ ‘literally’ ‘really’ ‘anyways’ and ‘i think’
• begin and/or end sentences with phrases such as ‘eh’ and ‘you know’, and may make those phrases into question form to get another’s input
• repeat words/phrases when in an excited state
• words fizzle out upon realizing no one is listening
• repeat themselves when others don’t understand what they’re saying, as well as to get their point across
• reply nonverbally such as hand gestures, facial expressions, random noises, movement, and even silence
I’ve been in a crippling depression for nearly 7 years. I used to be able to write and I really want to get back to it, and have been getting flooded with ideas. But every time I sit down to write, my mind wanders off to anywhere but my writing. Mostly to Pinterest where I re-examine the story 100000x. Or I create 30+ characters with no intention of doing anything with them. I don’t want to give up, but I don’t know how to fix the problem. I’m tired of being an utter failure. Any ideas?
oh hi! are you me?? this sounds like me exactly. i’m still learning how to deal with this, so i don’t know how helpful i’ll be!
first of all: you’re not a failure. you’re NOT a failure! you’re making it through. you’re creative. you think of characters, which is a beautiful and wonderful talent.
here’s what has helped me:
1) nanowrimo. it forces me to write every day, even if it is terrible. a horrible first draft is better than no first draft, right? it also forces me to get out an outline and basic plot, which is always the hardest for me.
2) reading writing forums or blogs. talking to people who are also working on stories. looking through other people’s inspiration tags/pinterest boards.
this is a sub note- if you ever want to talk to someone about your story, i am ALWAYS here. i have a little obsession with hearing about other people’s stories.
3) writing collections of scenes that i WANT to write. i have some characters that i don’t think i can fit into a Real Novel, so i just write random scenes i want to write with them. they’re not for anyone else but me, but it’s fun.
4) similarly, making edits with small stories that i want to tell inspire me to make more or to tell more of the story.
the two above are really the same thing: write for ME. write what i want to read. write what you want.
5) getting help for my mental illness. getting medication for my anxiety has made things manageable enough for me to at least want to write. medication may not be right for you, but i hope you are getting some sort of help- talk therapy, emotional support, anything!
Rewrite Your First Draft, Revise Your Last
I’m currently rewriting my first (or, as I think of it, my
1.5) draft of one of my novels. It is long. It is arduous. It is taking me
forever, and I have spent a lot of time opening it, staring at it, and then
going to do something else.It is also necessary.
While all forms of revision are necessary, different ones
should be used at different times. At the start of the process—after you have
completed a full draft of your story—you should rewrite. At the end of your
process, you should revise.Here’s why:
Rewriting, in this case, means starting a new document—or a
new notebook, if you like writing by hand—and writing every word of a new draft.
(Small amounts of copy-paste are okay, I guess, if necessary.) Usually this is
done with the old draft open next to the next draft, but depending on the
amount of work that needs to be done, there can be significant changes made.Revising means taking an existing document and going through
line by line to find awkward passages, grammatical mistakes, and typos.The reason that rewriting should be the first thing that you
do is that it allows you a lot more freedom—logistically and mentally—to make
major changes to your story. Need to add a scene? Just write it in. Need to cut
a character? That’s much easier to decide beforehand and rewrite the scenes
around them rather than trying to cut them out line by line. You can see your
old work and refer to it, but you’re not constrained by the way it’s written.On the other hand, by the time you get to your last draft—which
might be draft three, or draft ten, you shouldn’t be changing entire scenes.
Your entire story should be written, and you should just be polishing it.I know rewriting is miserable. I know you don’t want to
rewrite. I know it would be easier to just do a pass-through, fix grammatical
mistakes, and call it a day. But for 99% of writers, your first draft isn’t
good enough to do that. So take the time. Rewrite. You’ll thank me later.
I have a bad habit of saying things like “A sigh escaped _” in my writing a lot. Is there any other ways to phrase things like “I sighed”, “I screamed”, etc while not making it repetitive?
I think this is something many of us fall into–I know I certainly did. My biggest piece of advice:
think whole body
Human beings have an enormous range of body language to convey our emotions, so use it! When you sigh, or do your shoulders slump? Does your head tilt down? Do you maybe rub your hands together? Do you slouch in your chair, roll your eyes, or perhaps twist your foot a little bit?
Same thing for anger: fists clench, teeth grit, nostrils flare, shoulders tighten.
Google body language and “insert emotion here” for more ideas. Or, watch some tv and movies, and pay attention to what the actors are doing, and not what they’re saying.
Also, for the love of all that is good in the world, don’t write tags like …”he sighed” or “she screamed”. If you’ve used body language and action to convey nuance, you won’t need those boring, unimaginative tags.
Tip for writers who struggle with writing fluff: think of the five languages of love (physical touch, acts of service, gifts, quality time, words of affirmation) and imagine what your character is most likely to use when showing love, is most likely to be receptive to (those two don’t have to be the same!). Imagine a situation where the two or more characters would use it, how they would perform it.
starry-eyed 