#but i don't want to be a pantser anymore either | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

voxofthevoid · 10 months

Note

3. Describe the creative process of writingna chapter/fic.

7. How do you choose which POV to write from?

13. What's a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

65. Tell us about what you're most looking forward to writing - in your current project of a future project.

72. What order do you write in? From of book to back? Chronological? Favorite scenes first? Something else?

i would request for more but five alr seems too much. : ' D

Haha ask away 💜 It's fun answering these, and I'd do it more if free time wasn't so scant.

3. Describe the creative process of writing a chapter/fic

First, the madness takes me.

No, really, that's what it feels like. The number of times I lie down to nap and wake up with pages of an outline...

There tends to be a stretch of time between getting an idea and writing it, usually because I'd be working on something else at the time and I don't WIP hop anymore, so I fill out the outline with scenes, dialogue, bits of research, plot details, etc. I didn't use to do this, but goyuu has turned me into more of a planner than a pantser. By the time I start writing, I have a decent framework. The major plot points typically remain the same, but the details will vary, and a lot will need to be fleshed out.

13. What's a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

The basics, mostly. Like starting a new paragraph each time a new character starts speaking. Basic dialogue punctuation rules. Either avoiding epithets or saving them for narrative-specific reasons (in-verse ones, like someone not knowing a character's name, or meta ones, like when I want to emphasize a specific aspect of the characters' relationship).

65. Tell us about what you're most looking forward to writing - in your current project or a future project.

So many of them 😭

I tend to get rather deranged in a fun (for me) way about darkfic in particular, so most of the ideas I'm hyped to get to are pretty fucked up. Without going into details, they're labeled things like "domain rape," "alpha/alpha dark AU," "the rapebaiting fic," etc.

72. What order do you write in? Front of book to back? Chronological? Favorite scenes first? Something else?

The narrative order! Except in a few cases, most of which were accidental, I write exactly as you'd read the final story.

7 here!

List of questions here

#calamitouskings #tag game

11 notes · View notes

emiliosandozsequence · 11 months

Text

i stole this lol but it seemed fun so <3

What was your first ever story idea? What happened to it? it was a fantasy novel about an elf girl. i've never read a book where the main character is an elf, so i decided to write one myself. i did actually end up writing it; it was the first novel i ever wrote and i was 14 when i did it (still proud of that; it was 230 pgs in a word document btw). anyway, i ended up losing access to the manuscript, so rip, but i'm fully intending to rewrite it someday and make it a lot better than it was when i was writing it at 14.

What’s your writing routine? usually i'll put on music and just start writing whatever comes to mind for whatever scene i'm trying to write at the time. whenever i can't figure out what to do next, i'll go on tumblr and scroll for a bit until it comes to me. it's pretty effective, though my editor literally thinks i'm doing nothing all day bc of this even tho i Promise him i'm Working On It 😭😭😭

Are you a plotter, a pantser, or something in between? in between for sure. i plan things as i go. i start with an overall idea and then just...start writing and plan for the next chapters as they come to me. with the novel i'm currently writing, i've only planned up through chapter 8 and i'm currently writing chapter 4. i used to plan everything, but for some reason that made it so much harder for me to actually write the novels, so i don't do that anymore.

Do you try to tell moral stories throughout your work, or any other life lessons? What are they? there was a time where i did that, but the older i've gotten, the more i've realized a solid plot is a lot more important than telling any moral story. whether you like it or not, people are going to remember your book for the story you tell, not the reason you're telling it, and as a reader, i tend to go for stories with more solid plots than morals anyway.

What do you prefer, character development or worldbuilding? Why? both?? idk they both come very easily to me. to the point that there's been times where i think i haven't done enough of either and people have read my work and told me the opposite. i guess worldbuilding is more fun, but it's harder, which i think is probably why i like it more than character development bc that comes even easier to me than worldbuilding.

Do you have any tips for budding writers? i'll tell you exactly what my editor told me in the first class of his i took when i was 12: write like a shark. whatever you're writing, write it until it's done. go back and edit later. i've learned you can do a little bit of editing as you go once you've finished a few novels because then you know you can do it (speaking from experience; i've finished 7 and self-published 2 and am working on my 8th), but if you're new to writing and you haven't finished a book yet, don't do it. you will get caught up in it otherwise. especially if you have adhd (like i do).

Who inspires you to write the most? at the moment?? probably tamsyn muir. we have a shocking amount in common (our birthday's are literally a single day apart, though she's older than me by several years) and her books are exactly the kind of books i want to write. but also mary doria russell (duh) because we have very similar writing styles; ellen hopkins because she really was who really taught me (through me reading her books) how to write emotional stuff really well; brandon sanderson bc nothing is ever going to beat how i felt at the ending of the mistborn trilogy; and marie lu because her characters from the legend trilogy live in my mind rent free still and i can't help thinking of day every time i create a new boy.

tagging @thinking-in-broken-scenes @naysaltysalmon @the-lisechen and anyone else that wants to!! i just tagged people i know are also writers <3

#emilio.txt

3 notes · View notes

hellotemporaryuniverse · 1 year

Note

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

❌ What's a trope you will never write?

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

🎉 What leads you to consider a fic a success?

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

I used to? But not so much anymore. I really should more often, I did today and it really seemed to help, but a lot of the time I don't really think about it. For some reason I got it in my head that music is a distraction when that hasn't been the case for me at all 😩 But a song that has been stuck in my head is Evelyn by Kim Tillman. Very good.

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

Hmm. There's a few fics I have that will probably (keyword: probably) never be completed for various reasons - lost interest, don't like where it was going, don't have a plan, etc. I have plenty in other fandoms that I have no intentions of finishing, but my very first fic, started by baby me back when I was, uh, 14? 15? I think, was actually a star wars fic that I have revisited a couple times since then. I rewrote what I had, but I have decided I don't like it anymore and it's probably the only sw fic that I don't want to finish. (The rest glare at me accusingly from the corner waiting for me to stop being distracted by shiny new wips and go back to them.)

I'm going to be nice (or mean depending on how you look at it) and give you a snib.

Skidding to his knees, Qui-Gon took in Obi-Wan’s condition. The young Jedi was curled in a ball, shaking and gasping, silent tears streaming down his face. The Force swirled in distress around him, tainting the air with untamed energy.

“Obi-Wan?” Qui-Gon inquired. His Padawan did not respond. He reached out tentatively with the Force instead, probing along the weakened bond between them. He jerked back when Obi-Wan flinched and cried out. “Force,” he swore softly. The boy’s mental shields were decimated, not even the basic layer instinctive to younglings remained. No wonder he was in pain, the sheer volume of emotion and thought bombarding him must be overwhelming.

❌ What's a trope you will never write?

Soulmates. Not really my thing. I don't really like reading it either, unless there's an interesting spin on it that doesn't make my aroace ass cringe.

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

I'm definitely, 90% a pantser. I write whatever scenes pop into my head and build from there, but if it gets long enough and I start needing to structure it and flesh out the plot, I'll create a vague outline and/or timeline so I can see what scenes I'm missing and plan an ending.

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

You know all my wips! I don't keep (many) secrets from the kafé. But. For the sake of the ask... I am writing an Immortalwan sequel (threequel? the sequel to the sequel). The Chancellor decides that having a Jedi that can't die is useful, and Obi-Wan gets sent on a solo mission that... doesn't turn out so well.

🎉 What leads you to consider a fic a success?

It gets posted lol. Jk(?), I'm usually pretty happy if I get a couple comments and more than 200 hits, but for the most part it's about if I feel good about the fic and how it turned out. If I'm proud of it then it's a success.

#just give me all the questions why don't you #love you bestie ❤️

2 notes · View notes

benjaminhuntjens · 3 years

Text

Writing advice for those that don't do well with writing advice

We’ve all heard about how one cannot write a good first draft without first plotting your novel. So you sit down, you plot and plan with vigor. You create characters, a story, all the beats, emotional moments, and escalations. And when you sit down to write there’s just…

Nothing.

You hate this story now. You no longer want to write it.

Does this sound like something you might do too?

Then this piece of advice is for you.

Forget all of that. Just write.

Just sit down, start writing. Look up a prompt or create a character or two if you have to to get direction. But just write.

Because if you’re anything like me, you are a pantser.

No, that does not mean you like to wear pants, although you might. But what that means is you like to write stories by ‘flying by the seat of your pants’. You like to discover your story as you write it, it keeps things fresh and interesting. And especially in a first draft where you just need to get words on paper? That’s a useful thing, especially if your brain constantly craves that dopamine.

Are there downsides to this method of writing? If you want to publish, then yes. Because writing as a pantser usually means a lot of editing in other drafts. And that does suck, but it is a necessary inconvenience if this is the way things work for you.

I know some of you might think, but isn’t the other way better than? Should I just slog through? You could, if you think that works for you. If you know, it’s not going to though, keep reading.

Because they cater a lot of writing advice to plotters. The people that absolutely love, or really need, a well-plotted novel and characters to keep them focused and excited to write. That’s a completely valid strategy. But pantsing is a valid strategy too, and that’s what I’m focusing on.

There are four types of writers out there.

You have the methodological plotters, the intuitive plotters, the methodological pantsers, and the intuitive pantsers.

These four types are categories on a sliding scale. Think of an audio mixing board and on it are sliders. You have two of these sliders installed on your board as a writer, but how these sliders are set or how fast they are sliding might dictate on what kind of advice you need to focus on. To get your first draft written.

Ellen Brock, an editor with a YouTube channel, explains these four types of writers in this video. I highly recommend you watch it.

But just in case you don’t feel like doing that, here’s a quick rundown:

Methodological plotter: This is the extreme planner type. You have everything broken down, from your scene structures to your story structure, to your character’s arcs. You need to have everything spelled out and planned out before you can write your story from beginning to end. If you don’t, you lose focus and interest. This is the type that edits everything in advance before they write the story. Making their first drafts clearer and more cohesive. A good sign that you’re not this type is if you plot everything and then you don’t want to write this story anymore. You just lose interest.

Intuitive plotter: This type still needs some type of plot, like a summary, or some characters plotted out in order to get their story written. Yet their way of writing and solving problems is not structured or logical, but comes from their gut. From their own intuition. You just know what works for your story and you don’t need to shuffle scenes or plot around in order to make it seem natural.

Methodological pantser: This type can seem like an oxymoron because their two greatest needs, pantsing vs thinking through everything on a logical level. And that feels very contradicting. But it’s the type of writer who needs to see something written in order to spark their creativity. So what you might do as a methodological pantser is you do some planning, you do some writing; you go back to planning a few things, and then you write them down, and you edit as you go along. You keep switching back and forth. This is the most chaotic writing process for anyone outside looking in, but for the methodological pantser, this is completely natural. And it is something that you need to do in order to get your story written and for it to make sense. I have found that this type suits me the best. It’s also the type that is frowned upon in most writing advice. But your writing style is not wrong, it’s just as valid as the others.

Intuitive pantser: This is the most romanticized type of writer. Where you have someone who can just sit down, write an entire story without plotting and who intuitively knows when something is not working and also knows just how to fix it. Without applying the usual logical way of structuring a story. And yet these writers make it seem completely natural. It’s the type of writers most of us want to be, yet it’s also the rarest type. This type also spends most of their time in editing.

The two slides I talked about earlier are the plotter vs pantser slides and the methodological vs intuitive slides. These slides usually stay within one side of the spectrum, but can also slide around a little. Plotters might find days where they need to just write, and pantsers might find days they need more structure to keep going. The trick to discovering your type, though, is to try them all and find out what works for you.

In short, you just need to write.

Discover what type you are, and use it to write that first draft.

But how do I keep motivated during that process? What if there are other stories that pop up and that I want to write?

As someone with ADHD, I have struggled with those days too. What I found helpful is to sit down for a day, write all those ideas for later, maybe even work a little on one or two, and then come back to the story you were working on. There’s nothing wrong with that.

You are human. And yes, you would like to publish that book and just get it written. You might just have to accept that some days are very distracting. That’s okay. Be kind to yourself and discover what works for you, is perhaps the best writing advice you can get. Try everything and learn. And if you find it doesn’t work, discard that advice.

Some tips I found helpful for my ADHD writing brain:

Create a reward system for yourself to keep your brain on that dopamine surge. This can be anything, from rewarding yourself with snacks/drinks to rewarding yourself with other fun activities. Keep it fun.

Treat your own first draft as a fanfic you’re reading and write enthusiastic comments to yourself. Mail them to yourself if you have to. (Don’t post your first draft online, just keep it to yourself.)

Write fanfic for writing practice and fun! Post chapters as you go and get feedback or likes/kudos.

Learn to love the process of writing, and if it becomes too much of a chore, take a break. It’s okay.

Keep a notebook or an app on your phone for all those pesky little thoughts that come up during your day. Write them down.

Use prompts from prompt blogs or other sources of inspiration to fuel your first draft. Just make sure you can either edit them out later or may use them in commercial works if you want to publish.

Just have fun and write a story you love. If you don’t love your story or have no investment in it. Your readers will know. This doesn’t mean that you can never write when you’re not motivated. You will have days when you’re not as invested. But it means that for the majority of the time, you should enjoy the story you’re writing.

Practice gentle writing. Try to write every day but don’t set hard word count goals, try to write daily on set times and just have fun with it. Even a hundred words a day will eventually become a novel if you just keep writing.

#writing advice #writerblr #writing #tips for writers #writing tips #writing tips for neurodivergent people

35 notes · View notes