I need some writing advice.

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Hi Iwaku.

I'm not exactly sure if this would be the right spot to put this thread. But worst case scenario a moderator moves it.

As the title says, I need some advice with writing. Specifically with the mindset. There are two problems with my way of thinking that I believe are roadblcoking me from my real potential as a writer. I'm hoping by making this thread I could get some advice to get around these problems.

I tend to day dream more about the story than actually writing it.

This is probably the most frustrating problem. I tend to think more and more on the story inside my head and not get any work done as a result.

I got ideas to write about, plenty of them! But when i start I can't help but to "plan ahead" on each story. Eventually I get so lost in my imagination a hour had passed and all I have is two sentences done.

I can never write just to write

Allow me to elaborate further. What I mean by this is that I have some sub conscious fear about how my story would look to others.

Even in my own privacy with no one around and no gun to the back of my head saying I have to share it (You can tell I never liked presentations at school) I can't just write for myself. I'm always concerned about what it would look like to the reader.

The appeal of writing to me is being able to (cheaply) tell the reader a story. I like storytelling and like in the previous section. I gots plenty of ideas I want to not down and share. But I can never progress once I got the roadblock of "Is this sentence too cringy?" Or "Will the reader think I'm illiterate with this narrative?" Yeah those can be considered exaggeration of reality. Most everyone here I know are kind enough peeps and you want to help. Hell that's why I'm making a thread here.

But never can I shut off my citiscm and tear apart the first sentence I put down. Sure I can push though it sometimes but that's a rare occuaasion.


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Not sure if there exactly is any advice to offer on my situation. But guess I won't know unless I just come out and ask.
 
Hello (*・ω・)ノ

So I have a question first off. When you say you can't get in the mood to write, but planning is easy... Do you mean it's tough to write the actual story, as in making genuine posts (or what have you) designed to be the product of your imagination?

If that's the case, I'd suggest a writer's bible. Its where I (that is, the writer) put all my ideas, literally writing them down in whatever format they come to me, to be used for later. And when I'm gearing for a specific project, I'll just take a folder (usually paper, cuz I like paper) and horribly write summarizations , et. all, so I can remember stuff for later, and eventually refine (attempt to refine) it into working order.

What it sounds like, to me, is that you usually transition from the mind's conception, straight to proper actualization, and have a hard time producing anything because you're worried it isn't perfect? Is that close...? If so, I recommend a writer's journal so you won't have to worry about perfecting anything when you're writing initially.
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Or maybe I'm completely wrong, and your on the topic of prose. Somethin' I suck at... ┐(‘~` )┌


P.S. I'm still an Iwaku noob, but I think the Roleplay Help area would've been your best bet? No idea, but I don't see many threads like this in General. Who knows.
 
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Try to postpone the criticism, I guess, is what I can offer.

Write your passage how you think it should be written and try not to stress over every individual sentence. Then when you're done writing for the day, the next day you go over what you already wrote, edit it, tear it apart, re-write it, start over, etc. The main roadblock is just getting something down to work with in the first place.

When I was writing my book, I rewrote the beginning entirely like 5 times.

Another thing that may help is turning it into something clerical (if it isn't that way for you already).

You daydream about how you want the story to go? Start making lists of bullet points from your daydreams.
- hero is 6ft tall
- hero has green hair
- book is 200 pages long
- etc., etc.

Give all your characters super detailed character sheets and/or character bibles. Make a bible for your world.
90% of it will never end up in your stories, but having a list of rules, more or less, helps you write. "Ah, I really want Bob to turn into a wolf. But... According to my world bible, only people named Mike can turn into wolves... crap" etc.

Hope that makes sense.
 
I have alot of the same issues as you! I can spend lots of time plotting and day dreaming about a story line and the characters and their relationships, little snippets of scenes I want to have. But it's hard to actually get it all out in a cohesive manner. I think that like what everyone else has said, just jotting down those thoughts (whether they're incomplete or not) really helps to have something to go back to for reference.

Now I mostly roleplay or write fanfiction, but I finally finished my first chaptered fan fiction. And I was able to do it by: outlining the overall story, then outlining the individual chapters with things I wanted to see happen (even clumps of dialogue), and then I just tried to write without stopping to nitpick at the prose. Something else that really helps me that I don't see mentioned alot is to have a co-writer or at least a beta type person to look at the story along with you and help you when you get stuck. I co-write alot of my fics and it's really nice to have someone say "hey, so I don't think this dialogue really fits" or "let's change up how this scene flows". It does take a lot to let someone else see your writing but that has probably been the most helpful thing to me. :)
 
You know those random bits of "planning ahead" that you have in your mind?

WRITE THOSE DOWN.

AND THEN START AT THAT PART.

START ANYWHERE.

It's easy to get lost in the good stuff that comes later and to not actually start the story. But the thing is, there's no reason why you have to start at the beginning. And there's no reason why all the planning in your head has to stay in your head, either. Jotting it all down in the form of bullet points can help keep it all organized, and make it easier for you to actually get full sentences down when you're ready, because you have all those bullet points to look back on.

I know you said you "don't write for yourself" and always write with an audience in mind, but, just remember, the audience doesn't have to see anything except the final result. Your writing will look weird when it's still in-progress, yes. But, would you show anyone a story that only has half a paragraph written? Do you feel weird about showing a story that you're in the middle of writing? If not, then, just think of this as being the same way. It's ok if your notes look weird, because you're the only one who'll see them. It's ok if your writing looks weird when it's half-finished and you started in the middle of it, because only you will see it when it's in that state. Just focus on getting it all down. And then you can polish it, and put the pieces together, and make it look acceptable to your audience.
 
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But the thing is, there's no reason why you have to start at the beginning.
Oh man, this CANNOT be understated!

You can absolutely start ANYWHERE you want!

Especially if, as others said, you create an outline. If you know where the story is SUPPOSED to go, what beats you're supposed to hit at roughly the approximate time, then you can write anything, anywhere, with absolutely no regard to story chronology.

Did you day dream about one scene in particular that doesn't have a proper "place" in the story? Write it down. Save it for later. Find a suitable place for it in the future. You can fit it in somewhere at a later time.

Something else I like to do is write things like a summary. I don't have time to write it "proper" but I do have a really good image in my head that I want to get down. It's more fleshed out than notes but it's not good enough to be inserted as-is. That's 100% fine. Write it down as a summary, save it, flesh it out properly later.

Have you ever taken an english composition / college essay course? Where the professor tells you to write down key paragraphs on index cards then re-arrange them to better support your essay to make sure you're not veering away from the point you're trying to make?

You can absolutely do the same thing with fiction.
 
Yo! Before I give any advice, let me first say I'm not a professional and these are just things that work for me, so it may be completely useless for your situation. Nevertheless...

There are two ways of learning to play music: some people are taught to practice a certain piece on a certain instrument so many times that it is impossible for them to make mistakes any longer. They are forced to start all over at the very first wrong note and they'll keep doing it until they get it perfect, regardless of how long it takes. That's usually way that all those Asian child-virtuosos that you can see a billion of on YouTube learned to play so well.

The other way is kind of a cheat. Students are encouraged to keep going, regardless of how many wrong notes they play. Then mistakes are pointed out and the child goes at it again. It makes a few mistakes less, but the piece is still generally quite shitty. As they change pieces and generally improve, they get better and better and make less and less mistakes. Nevertheless, that remains unchanging, is that the teacher encourages the student to keep going, even if they make some mistakes in the tunes. This way the student actually develops his love for the craft and they are sort of "taught to fly without the fear of falling". The people who are taught in this way play music out of their love for it and aren't at all afraid to try new things out. This is how most people who casually play an instrument rather well were taught. That's also how most of the truly good professional musicians were taught. And I'm not just talking classical here, I've done zero research to support this, but I'm pretty sure most of the pop/rock etc. bands also taught themselves in such a way.

So... how does that help you. Well, this kind of approach can be applied to almost anything: languages, studying, even writing. If it's not clear from my examples, the fundamental difference between these two approaches originates in the core drive of the individual, one is based on fear and the other one is based on love. I'm obviously biased towards the latter here, but generally speaking both can yield great results. It's just that in my own opinion the journey matters as much as the destination and the latter approach -presents to the person who takes it a most joyous and wonderful journey.

So, onwards towards the specifics of your predicament. Well, basically, don't sweat it. Chances are, unless you're somehow an innate literature genius, your first draft of anything will be pretty crappy. Especially if you're writing in a language that is not your mother tongue. The good thing is, nobody except from you will see it! That means that you don't need to worry about the quality, at that particular moment. Just focus on telling your story. I could go on further and tell you that the contents of any piece of writing, let alone the information it brings, are completely meaningless. The only reason why we choose to read certain things is because they unlock something within us that was already there. And they do that by getting ignited by the spark of the author's drive and inspiration. It's what is called a "muse" in our Western tradition. But that may be too far-fetched or too metaphor-drenched for where you're standing right now, so I'll stick to the more tangible advice :)

I said already that it doesn't matter how crappy the first draft is, cuz nobody will read it, right? But your problem is that you're always writing for somebody else, not for yourself. I also have the same to a degree. The way you solve it is the same way you solve the quality issue: worry about it later. The beauty of this approach is it kills to birds with one stone. Yes, that's one of those times where being a professional procrastinator actually helps! Just silence all of those "How would that seem to X" and "This sentence is totally crappy" thoughts by saying to yourself "I'll go thought it later with a treasonous to correct it." and "Maybe I won't keep that part if it seems too weird to others, I'll just write it now to see how it looks, it costs me nothing to cut it out later". Of course, that's all beleivable and true. After all, the secret to tricking the Devil is to either not think or to believe your own lie, cuz, after all, who the heck do you think the Devil is? :D Basically write, write your heart out, write completely unburdened by any sort of worries and constraints. Let the story flow and write with as much passion as you have about it. Just fly and don't look at the ground below!

As for your first concern, the one that you daydreamed more than you wrote... I'd say don't worry about it. Keep it on exactly the same way. Daydreaming a story is something very, very different from actually writing it. When you start writing the flow is completely on another level, you can come up with stuff and connections, even entire subplots that you never thought of before, hell you can end up writing something completely different from what you imagined. Keep using both things, don't force yourself onto one when you don't feel like it.

P.S.: The best time to actually edit your work is at those moments, where you have the time to get writing, but somehow you just don't really feel like it. You know the ones. Just tell yourself "Well, since I'm not getting any new writing done, might as well just edit my last chapter". It might also actually inspire you and get you into the story so much that you actually feel like continuing it. It's like recycling!

Well, that's about it, I hope some of this helps.
 
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Hey! I used to have this issue, and still do sometimes when I get too wrapped up in wanting to impress.

There comes a point for me when I have go stop and just say to myself that I'm getting nowhere from my current approach.

I try new approaches, I change my background color, and I talk to my partners, but the difficulty remains. It gets like this for writing novels as well, and most anything—hang-ups on quality get in my way more than anything, and I like to think I'm a very good writer.

I've got a decent grasp on grammar, spelling, and diction. My vocabulary is decently expansive, as is my imagination.

However, the human mind has this thing where it can either be technical or it can be productive. I'm using these terms loosely, because they're the best I can think of at the moment, and I don't want to pour hours into searching for just the right words at this moment.

Essentially, this means you can either be in 'writing mode' or 'editing mode'. Editing mode is when you're hung up on making it good. Writing mode is what lets your ideas flow out your fingers.

A challenge like NaNoWriMo might help to align your head into writing mode—and you can increase your goal to something moderately exhausting to you, if 50,000 words in thirty days is too few. Regardless, the best way to succeed at NaNo is by locking up your inner editor.

Try to envision another version of yourself that lives in your head. He or she walks around, drinks coffee, and tells you what you're doing wrong. They're not trying to be cruel, but they aren't always constructive about it. I want you to imagine locking that annoying editor in a cage and putting a cloth over it. Put a stash of donuts in so that they don't starve (you'll need them later).

Your editor will object and get noisy, but if you ignore them, they'll quiet down and behave in their cage until you're ready to let them out when you're done writing.
 
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