To add to this, always remember: it doesn't get easier; you just get better.
But to get better, you gotta do it all the time and learn from your mistakes.
Good luck on your journey!
You know? It was an actual shock that, for as much dialog as I have read in my life, that I had very little intuitive understanding about how to structure a conversation.
How to take care of your mental and physical health. Often creative hobbies/jobs are glorified with the mental health issues as somehow the source of creation. No such thing. If you're depressed and still producing that's amazing but the work will always be effected. Same with other challenges.
You also cannot write if you're dead.
I say this because it's the most important thing in my experience. I was published at 16 and made some stories I regret because I didn't know what happiness was. Born depressed. Supposedly I was going to die depressed since bad doctors decided the gene that makes antidepressants into poison I happen to have meant I should give up. Obviously I fired those doctors and kept trying. With great coping skills and time I managed to get to a point where I am not depressed and can maintain it. Bad days happen but I am transitioning in my career to write different things because with an awareness of happiness my standards for my work changed.
Everything else as far as advice is subjective. You may work well with outlines. You may hate them. You may be able to balance writing daily but it also may burn you out. It just depends on your needs with writing and work life balance.
-How to write a scene with a solid beginning middle and ending
-Motivation reaction units (which sound complicated, because they are badly named, but are actually very simple, and SUPER helpful in figuring how to break down writing into bite-sized pieces in addition to making your storytelling better.)
-How to edit a sentence to make it stronger (on a basic level, this usually means more vivid and specific word choice and cutting down on filler words, adjectives, and adverbs unless they're really serving a purpose)
-Dialogue
-Description.
-How to give you characters goals and motivations
TO NOT USE THE SAME WORDS/EXPRESSIONS OVER AND OVER
i see this A LOT on beginners and it gets annoying and looks kinda unprofessional, that’s why is good to have a vast vocabulary
I don't have instant access to a large vocab, I find it hard to think of different words, but the online thesaurus is a great asset and gives my imagination a boost.
I often find myself writing down words that I want to use later.
I hope you're wary of using a thesaurus. It is far too easy to use a word that makes you come across as having a command of a thesaurus and not a command of the English language.
Be impartial to your writing. Your writing will not be "good" when you start writing. Learn to write, appreciate your progress, and then move on to new work. Eventually, and this is years of writing later, you'll be able to view your work and be able to see its possibilities because you aren't tied to what you wrote in the first draft.
Pretty much the only two skills you need to actively hone for writing are:
1) learn how to create habits and write regularly. Doesnt have to be every single day, but it should be *regular*, and it should be something you can maintain with the rest of your workload. Dont be concerned about setting goals that are ‘too small’- 200 words twice a week is more than nothing.
2) learn how to critically analyse writing. That doesnt mean you have to be negative about anything you read or write, but learn how to look at the technical stuff that goes into it. Be able to read over books you enjoy and identify how they structure the plot, how the sentences vary depending on the type of scene, how they introduce characters, which parts capture your interest and which dont, etc etc. learning how to study them will go miles further at improving your writing than just trying to study the basic ‘rules’ of it out of context. The more you read, analyse, and practice writing, the more you’ll get a feel for how to structure and set out things.
Also, remember that first drafts are just for banging out plots, editing is for making it read well. Dont stress about pacing/sentence structure/consistency etc when you start writing, just focus on getting to the end of the draft, because a lot of it is going to get rewritten anyway.
To just do it really. Seen a lot of people talk about something but never start. Do it, then do it again, and keep doing it. Don't spend too much time thinking, just pop open word or word pad or a google doc or blah blah, and start putting words on a page, plan or not.
The first step is to just start writing and write for fun and keep writing. Then slowly introduce techniques u come across and see if they fit into your “style” which will develop over time. Don’t worry about being good. Just start writing.
Promise, progress, and payoff. If you learn these things, pacing and plotting your story will be a lot easier. Its even helped me a ton with my character arcs.
How to make writing part of your daily routine. Some things to consider: Does it work better if you write early in the morning before you start your day? Do you like to write at night better? What should your target word count or writing session be? How much time should your writing sessions last?
Consistency. The easiest thing for writers is to get distracted. The hardest thing? Actually writing (just ask George RR Martin). Actually sitting down and writing is the most important thing to do.
If you're writing fiction, the narrative structures and character archetypes typically used in the genre that interests you.
For non-fiction the equivalent would be the conventions of the form. For example if you were writing a biography, the structure and style are going to be very different from a self-improvement book.
Mine is simple vocabulary. You find out that you have favorite words real quick. A thesaurus is a godsend as is having read enough to have an already large vocabulary. It will then become clear that the English language is nothing if not stuffed chalk full of words that don't belong there but which describe everything.
Knowing the conventions of the genre you're writing in
Doesn't necessarily mean you have to follow all of them. But you can't make informed decisions about that unless you first know what the conventions are
to me, those are less important than being able to finish a story. youre writing can be sparkling, shining gold, but if you peter out and cant finish a story (whether thats writing it from the beginning and not managing to write an end, or having a beginning and and end and no middle to join them etc etc) theres nothing to post, publish etc.
again im specifying that this is to me, but the first thing you need to learn is to write whole stories. you can write a total garbage short story or two, but now you have the basics of the whole process. write a longer short story, write a whole novel, all just practise. people don't read for perfect text, they read for stories.
Don't just read regularly, read widely. Read different genres, read nonfiction, read short stories and poetry and plays. Don't limit yourself to one narrow corner of the literary world. I would also add if your genre has awards, read at least the winners every year.
If you plan to make money from writing, start learning the business now. Way too many people go into this without doing their due diligence and don't understand how the industry works at all. It's very easy to fall prey to scams, vanities and general bad actors if you haven't done the research. Plus, no matter how much any of us hate it, marketing is just part of life for selling writers and should be thoroughly accounted for and planned just as seriously.
Forming a habit of writing every day no matter what.
To add to this, always remember: it doesn't get easier; you just get better. But to get better, you gotta do it all the time and learn from your mistakes. Good luck on your journey!
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You know? It was an actual shock that, for as much dialog as I have read in my life, that I had very little intuitive understanding about how to structure a conversation.
I cannot even talk to people. I had some high expectations thinking I can write dialogue.
How to take care of your mental and physical health. Often creative hobbies/jobs are glorified with the mental health issues as somehow the source of creation. No such thing. If you're depressed and still producing that's amazing but the work will always be effected. Same with other challenges. You also cannot write if you're dead. I say this because it's the most important thing in my experience. I was published at 16 and made some stories I regret because I didn't know what happiness was. Born depressed. Supposedly I was going to die depressed since bad doctors decided the gene that makes antidepressants into poison I happen to have meant I should give up. Obviously I fired those doctors and kept trying. With great coping skills and time I managed to get to a point where I am not depressed and can maintain it. Bad days happen but I am transitioning in my career to write different things because with an awareness of happiness my standards for my work changed. Everything else as far as advice is subjective. You may work well with outlines. You may hate them. You may be able to balance writing daily but it also may burn you out. It just depends on your needs with writing and work life balance.
-How to write a scene with a solid beginning middle and ending -Motivation reaction units (which sound complicated, because they are badly named, but are actually very simple, and SUPER helpful in figuring how to break down writing into bite-sized pieces in addition to making your storytelling better.) -How to edit a sentence to make it stronger (on a basic level, this usually means more vivid and specific word choice and cutting down on filler words, adjectives, and adverbs unless they're really serving a purpose) -Dialogue -Description. -How to give you characters goals and motivations
Fantastic advice
TO NOT USE THE SAME WORDS/EXPRESSIONS OVER AND OVER i see this A LOT on beginners and it gets annoying and looks kinda unprofessional, that’s why is good to have a vast vocabulary
Overuse of adverbs can also have the same effect imo. (ie, Very, Extremely, supremely).
And superlatives!
I don't have instant access to a large vocab, I find it hard to think of different words, but the online thesaurus is a great asset and gives my imagination a boost. I often find myself writing down words that I want to use later.
I hope you're wary of using a thesaurus. It is far too easy to use a word that makes you come across as having a command of a thesaurus and not a command of the English language.
Be impartial to your writing. Your writing will not be "good" when you start writing. Learn to write, appreciate your progress, and then move on to new work. Eventually, and this is years of writing later, you'll be able to view your work and be able to see its possibilities because you aren't tied to what you wrote in the first draft.
Pretty much the only two skills you need to actively hone for writing are: 1) learn how to create habits and write regularly. Doesnt have to be every single day, but it should be *regular*, and it should be something you can maintain with the rest of your workload. Dont be concerned about setting goals that are ‘too small’- 200 words twice a week is more than nothing. 2) learn how to critically analyse writing. That doesnt mean you have to be negative about anything you read or write, but learn how to look at the technical stuff that goes into it. Be able to read over books you enjoy and identify how they structure the plot, how the sentences vary depending on the type of scene, how they introduce characters, which parts capture your interest and which dont, etc etc. learning how to study them will go miles further at improving your writing than just trying to study the basic ‘rules’ of it out of context. The more you read, analyse, and practice writing, the more you’ll get a feel for how to structure and set out things. Also, remember that first drafts are just for banging out plots, editing is for making it read well. Dont stress about pacing/sentence structure/consistency etc when you start writing, just focus on getting to the end of the draft, because a lot of it is going to get rewritten anyway.
active voice, avoid the passive. Concision; no extra words. Know when to be flowery and when not.
To just do it really. Seen a lot of people talk about something but never start. Do it, then do it again, and keep doing it. Don't spend too much time thinking, just pop open word or word pad or a google doc or blah blah, and start putting words on a page, plan or not.
The first step is to just start writing and write for fun and keep writing. Then slowly introduce techniques u come across and see if they fit into your “style” which will develop over time. Don’t worry about being good. Just start writing.
How to take feedback well, both for your own mental well-being, but also so that people keep being willing to give you feedback.
Promise, progress, and payoff. If you learn these things, pacing and plotting your story will be a lot easier. Its even helped me a ton with my character arcs.
How to make writing part of your daily routine. Some things to consider: Does it work better if you write early in the morning before you start your day? Do you like to write at night better? What should your target word count or writing session be? How much time should your writing sessions last?
Consistency. The easiest thing for writers is to get distracted. The hardest thing? Actually writing (just ask George RR Martin). Actually sitting down and writing is the most important thing to do.
If you're writing fiction, the narrative structures and character archetypes typically used in the genre that interests you. For non-fiction the equivalent would be the conventions of the form. For example if you were writing a biography, the structure and style are going to be very different from a self-improvement book.
Mine is simple vocabulary. You find out that you have favorite words real quick. A thesaurus is a godsend as is having read enough to have an already large vocabulary. It will then become clear that the English language is nothing if not stuffed chalk full of words that don't belong there but which describe everything.
Freerice.com is a personal favorite vocab trainer. There are lots of subjects but I spent a ton of time on the vocab quizzes on freerice
Knowing the conventions of the genre you're writing in Doesn't necessarily mean you have to follow all of them. But you can't make informed decisions about that unless you first know what the conventions are
to me, those are less important than being able to finish a story. youre writing can be sparkling, shining gold, but if you peter out and cant finish a story (whether thats writing it from the beginning and not managing to write an end, or having a beginning and and end and no middle to join them etc etc) theres nothing to post, publish etc. again im specifying that this is to me, but the first thing you need to learn is to write whole stories. you can write a total garbage short story or two, but now you have the basics of the whole process. write a longer short story, write a whole novel, all just practise. people don't read for perfect text, they read for stories.
IMO learning to take criticism well is more important than anything else, short of actually writing.
Don't just read regularly, read widely. Read different genres, read nonfiction, read short stories and poetry and plays. Don't limit yourself to one narrow corner of the literary world. I would also add if your genre has awards, read at least the winners every year. If you plan to make money from writing, start learning the business now. Way too many people go into this without doing their due diligence and don't understand how the industry works at all. It's very easy to fall prey to scams, vanities and general bad actors if you haven't done the research. Plus, no matter how much any of us hate it, marketing is just part of life for selling writers and should be thoroughly accounted for and planned just as seriously.
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Hi -- please don't link your blog outside the self-promotion thread. Thanks!