Tag: writing

america-wakiewakie:

If you love to write, just keep doing it. Keep writing. If you feel skeptical about your ability, keep writing. If you get stuck, take a little break, read, get to know yourself, collaborate with others, then keep writing.

Keep writing.

Eventually you’ll look back at some of the first things you wrote, then to what you can write now, and you’ll be astounded by your growth. Be in awe that you grew, because growing is so rarely easy, then write and grow some more. 

Rewrite Your First Draft, Revise Your Last

elumish:

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.

hamiltonandfluff:

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.

hi! recently I’ve been wanting to get back into writing as a hobby but it’s been YEARS since I’ve done that (cause of depression and school and other reasons) and I don’t feel all that confident in myself….. do you have any tips for finding my passion again?

fixyourwritinghabits:

I was riding the subway home the other night, and suddenly this popped into my head.

The rise and fall, higher and lower, the rhythm between the opposites that makes your stomach flutter and your knuckles turn white. The sensation of weightlessness. Slipping the bonds of gravity and flipping the laws of nature off. Nietzsche once said something about women making the highs more high and the lows more frequent, but that may have been the bitter resentment of syphilis talking. That queasy feeling of a first taste-a first kiss-a first kill-all blurred together. Indistinguishable. Like a child smearing paint with her fingers, but in this case, it was someone’s blood.
Details.
Art waits for no one, and inspiration is a bitch of a muse.

I want you to pay close attention to the last sentence. 

I can’t tell you how to find your passion, no more than I can tell you what you should write about. The one thing I can tell you is that if you wait for the inspiration to find you before you write again, you will be waiting a long time.

The truth is consistency beats passion all day, every day.

So my best advice to you is to set aside 10 minutes and write. Make peace with the fact it won’t be good. It’s not supposed to be. It’s pure myth that a writer sits down and has literary gold drip from their fingers each time. You will write a lot of garbage, but as you continue, and you build consistency, you will discover some gems that you can work. 

What will happen is that you will slowly get better, and that moment when inspiration hits, you will be able to make the most of it.

-Graphei

P.S. Yes, that’s going in Sirens. I just don’t know where yet. 

Some Tips I Made For Arists

damianmcgintleman:

  • Admit you have talent

No, seriously, do it. Say it right now, aloud, in front of your computer. “I am a good writer/artist/musician/singer/whatever.” Just admit it to yourself. Because I swear when you do, your work will become better. You’d be amazed at what you can produce when you feel confident in your abilities.

  • Stop comparing yourself to other people

“I’ll never be as good of a writer as Hemmingway/Bronte/Rawling!”, “I’ll never sing like Adele/Florence Welch/Joan Jett!”, “I’ll never paint like Picasso/van Goh/O’Keefe!”, “I’ll never draw like Davis/McCracken/MacFarlane!”, “I’ll never play like Hendrix/King/Cooder!”

No. You won’t. You will never, ever be as good as them. And they will never be as good as you. Every artist is unique. You have your own voice just like they had their own voice. Don’t try to be someone else; be you.

  • Be proud of your work

Wrote a shitty poem? Song? Manuscript? Paint something you didn’t like? Drew something wrong? Who. The hell. Cares? At least you DID something! That’s more than most people can say! You finished a piece of work. Be proud of that accomplishment.

  • Realize that not everything you do will be great

This ties in with the previous tip. You’re going to do shitty things. It’s part of being an artist. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself to create something great every time. Strive for it, sure, it SHOULD be your goal. But realize that sometimes you’re just going to do something that sucks, and then get over it and try to do better the next time.

  • Be proud of your talent and enjoy it

I’m a writer and my best friend is a singer. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve told each other that we wished we had the others’ talent. This is a typical “grass is always greener” thing. Be proud of what you’re good at and enjoy it, because someone out there is wishing they were as good as you, I guarantee it.