#advice: outlining

[bardic-tales]

#advice: plotting #writing advice #advice: outlining #outlining #thriller novel

[biscuitsandspices]

If you hate writing outlines it's because of how they're taught in school. Toss out indentation and Roman numerals and map out your writing how you want to. Outlines are your FRIEND, dammit. This goes for everything, from political essays to fanfiction. If it's written you need an outline because the outline is for you. It can be general, vague, or a mixture of both! Be as informal as you want, who cares. They're to keep you on track and keep your writing flowing, so don't disregard them even if you dreaded making them in grade school. My outlines by chapter tend to look like this: 1. Character "P" goes to the diner to meet character "Q."

2. "P" tells "Q" about how the confrontation went. (dialogue I thought up on a bus ride) That's when shit goes DOWN. They're yelling, they're drawing attention to themselves, but before they can take it outside, "P" says (dialogue I thought up in the shower).

3. THEN "Q" SAYS THAT ONE LINE THAT "R" SAYS TO HIM IN CHAPTER FIVE BECAUSE THAT'S CALLED COHESION WOOOOO

4. idk they both leave??? you'll figure it out later

5. Self-reflection for "P." Keep your main point on how his moral compass goes to extremes and hurts others. He finally is realizing that HE is the PROBLEM

6. "P" drives to "Q's" house to apologize but GUESS WHO ANSWERS THE DOOR it's "R" and then just end the chapter there This is coming from someone who didn't write with outlines for years. Now I don't write anything longer than 400 words without one! Make them your own, make them so that they're useful to you. That's their purpose, so accept the help!

#writers on tumblr #writing tumblr #writing help #writing advice #writing tips #writing blog #writer tips #writing motivation #outlining #book writing #novel writing #writeblr #writer #writing tip

[physalian]

You don’t have to pay for that fancy worldbuilding program

As mentioned in this post about writing with executive dysfunction, if one of your reasons to keep procrastinating on starting your book is not being able to afford something like World Anvil or Campfire, I’m here to tell you those programs are a luxury, not a necessity: Enter Google Suite (not sponsored but gosh I wish).

MS Office offers more processing power and more fine-tuning, but Office is expensive and only autosaves to OneDrive, and I have a perfectly healthy grudge against OneDrive for failing to sync and losing 19k words of a WIP that I never got back.

Google’s sync has never failed me, and the Google apps (at least for iPhone) aren’t nearly as buggy and clunky as Microsoft’s. So today I’m outlining the system I used for my upcoming fantasy novel with all the helpful pictures and diagrams. Maybe this won’t work for you, maybe you have something else, and that’s okay! I refuse to pay for what I can get legally for free and sometimes Google’s simplicity is to its benefit.

The biggest downside is that you have to manually input and update your data, but as someone who loves organizing and made all these willingly and for fun, I don’t mind.

So. Let’s start with Google Sheets.

The Character Cheat Sheet:

I organized it this way for several reasons:

I can easily see which characters belong to which factions and how many I have named and have to keep up with for each faction

All names are in alphabetical order so when I have to come up with a new name, I can look at my list and pick a letter or a string of sounds I haven’t used as often (and then ignore it and start 8 names with A).

The strikethrough feature lets me keep track of which characters I kill off (yes, I changed it, so this remains spoiler-free)

It’s an easy place to go instead of scrolling up and down an entire manuscript for names I’ve forgotten, with every named character, however minor their role, all in one spot

Also on this page are spare names I’ll see randomly in other media (commercials, movie end credits, etc) and can add easily from my phone before I forget

Also on this page are my summary, my elevator pitch, and important character beats I could otherwise easily mess up, it helps stay consistent

*I also have on here not pictured an age timeline for all my vampires so I keep track of who’s older than who and how well I’ve staggered their ages relative to important events, but it’s made in Photoshop and too much of a pain to censor and add here

On other tabs, I keep track of location names, deities, made-up vocabulary and definitions, and my chapter word count.

The Word Count Guide:

*3/30 Edit to update this chart to its full glory. Column 3 is a cumulative count. Most of what I write breaks 100k and it's fun watching the word count rise until it boils over.

This is the most frustrating to update manually, especially if you don’t have separate docs for each chapter, but it really helps me stay consistent with chapter lengths and the formula for calculating the average and rising totals is super basic.

Not that all your chapters have to be uniform, but if you care about that, this little chart is a fantastic visualizer.

If you have multiple narrators, and this book does, you can also keep track of how many POVs each narrator has, and how spread out they are. I didn’t do that for this book since it’s not an ensemble team and matters less, but I did for my sci-fi WIP, pictured below.

As I was writing that one, I had “scripted” the chapters before going back and writing out all the glorious narrative, and updated the symbols from “scripted” to “finished” accordingly.

I also have a pie chart that I had to make manually on a convoluted iPhone app to color coordinate specifically the way I wanted to easily tell who narrates the most out of the cast, and who needs more representation.

—

Google Docs

Can’t show you much here unfortunately but I’d like to take an aside to talk about my “scene bits” docs.

It’s what it says on the tin, an entire doc all labeled with different heading styles with blurbs for each scene I want to include at some point in the book so I can hop around easily. Whether they make it into the manuscript or not, all practice is good practice and I like to keep old ideas because they might be useful in unsuspecting ways later.

Separate from that, I keep most of my deleted scenes and scene chunks for, again, possible use later in a “deleted scenes” doc, all labeled accordingly.

When I designed my alien language for the sci-fi series, I created a Word doc dictionary and my own "translation" matrix, for easy look-up or word generation whenever I needed it (do y'all want a breakdown for creating foreign languages? It's so fun).

Normally, as with my sci-fi series, I have an entire doc filled with character sheets and important details, I just… didn’t do that for this book. But the point is—you can still make those for free on any word processing software, you don’t need fancy gadgets.

—

I hope this helps anyone struggling! It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Everything I made here, minus the aforementioned timeline and pie chart, was done with basic excel skills and the paint bucket tool. I imagine this can be applicable to games, comics, what have you, it knows no bounds!

Now you have one less excuse to sit down and start writing.

#writing advice #writing resources #writing tips #writing tools #writing a book #writing #writeblr #organizing your book #outlining #shut up and write the book #google sheets #google docs

[muffinlance]

Wait wait wait BLIND ZUKO?!?!?! Why is this the first time hearing about it??????????? This obviously a major error on my part…but I am little confused…what is a sensitivity reader? are they like a beta reader, but someone who belongs to the blind community(is even calling it a community OK I don’t know how else to refer to it😅)? someone to make sure that what your writing is accurate??? Please educate me!!!

Basically that, yep. Sensitivity readers are a reasonably common practice in Serious Face fiction (...among writers and publishers who care about getting things right), but definitely not common in fanfiction, so it's no surprise if you haven't heard the term before--they're people from whatever group who are good at helping writers spot and correct when they're using harmful tropes related to the group(s) they're a part of (and offering suggestions to make things read more authentically).

Since people tend to spin off AUs of my fics (which is awesome and continues up be encouraged), I am putting in an effort to not totally screw up the Blind Zuko rep. Of all fandoms, Avatar should absolutely be a place blind fans can find themselves represented in and welcomed by.

On a related note, insert PSA here encouraging all Avatar artists and rebloggers of Avatar art to write alt text/image IDs. They're quick to write and they mean the world to the people who need them. Do it for Toph.

#on an equally related note I only reblog art that has ids. so if you want to get reblogged you know what to do. #my sensitivity reader is on Tumblr and regularly posts excellent writing advice so I'm very excited to be working with them #but I haven't actually cleared with them whether they want their name publicly associated with this #So no name for now #Fingers crossed for nothing huge on the outline level #Though I'm fully expecting a million little issues on the chapter by chapter level #Blind Zuko #avatar the last airbender #atla

[writingwithfolklore]

Stripping away Supports

                In classic outlining structure, the midpoint is where your MC loses all the advantages they’d relied on up until that point—allies, resources, powers, etc. In fact, this structure is used in so many films that the ‘characters fight at the midpoint’ is an easily found cliché throughout media.

                However, there are other ways of stripping away your MC’s supports to achieve the same effect.

They fight

Okay I know I just implied we might want to avoid this, but why fix what’s not broke? The important part about following the ‘characters fight at the midpoint’ trope is to ensure the fight doesn’t start at the midpoint, but rather starts from the very moment the characters are seen with each other/meet. The fight should be about something that’s been brewing underneath all of their interactions from the beginning—the one thing they should’ve talked about but didn’t. The ‘elephant in the room’.

                This fight is less of a fight but an unearthing of feelings, thoughts, and problems that have always been there, but have been ignored or avoided up until then. What’s the event that unearths these truths? Typically, something threatening or scary causes people to speak ‘out of turn’…

2. The protagonist chooses to go on alone

Something big happened, something so dangerous and scary that the protagonist intentionally pushes away their allies in order to protect them… Of course, later they might realize that they are stronger together anyway. This is also a bit of a cliché, but done thoughtfully can be very impactful.

3. The allies are in over their head

The reversal of the last trope, instead of the protagonist pushing their allies away, the allies decide this quest is far too dangerous and risky for them… The protagonist is abandoned by their allies. Later, these supports may return, their love for the protagonist stronger than their fear of the situation, but whatever happened must have spooked them bad enough to lead them to betrayal.

4. An integral piece they’ve been relying on has been destroyed

The hideout was found and torched, the old man’s journal was tossed into the sea, the leader/mentor/keeper of information has been kidnapped or killed. Maybe the allies and the protagonist are still together, but one important thing that’s been keeping them together or leading them has been lost, now they have to adapt and improvise on the fly if they wish to continue their quest.

5. An integral piece they’ve been relying on turned out to not be true or important

Similar to the last but with a bit of a twist. They’ve been following the wrong lead all along—where to go next now that the very foundation of their quest is crumbling beneath them?

          

What are some other ways of fulfilling the midpoint reversal?

#writing #writers #writing tips #writing advice #writing inspiration #creative writing #writing community #books #film #filmmaking #screenwriting #novel writing #fanfiction #writeblr #midpoint #midpoint reversal #stripping away supports #outlining #planning

[dduane]

A while back you gave amazing advice on a good way to outline. Something like breaking down each plot point into three action items and then again into three points or something. I liked the post at the time, but despite looking in my likes for a couple days, I can't seem to find it. Is there any way you'd be willing to reiterate the method? Thanks!

No problem! The full discussion of the process is over here at Out of Ambit.

(BTW, my apologies that due to the ever-increasing crapfest going on at The Site That Once Was Twitter, the tweets that kicked off this discussions are no longer displaying correctly. :/)

#writing #writing advice #outlining #plotter

[so-many-ocs]

on plotting: the rule of three

what is it?

about the rule

other people might call it something different, but for me, the rule of three in fiction writing is a foreshadowing tool. to persuade your audience of something and make a twist or story element feel earned, you hint at it at least three times.

things are appealing in sets of three. if something happens once, it’s random, twice is coincidence, and three times is a pattern.

a brief guide

on using the rule

use showing over telling. the whole point of this rule is to convince your reader of something, and unfortunately you can’t “trust me bro” your way into establishing key information.

look into types of foreshadowing. you can call attention to these scenes using strategies like symbolism or irregular description, in which you call unusual attention to a seemingly insignificant detail.

let’s say you want to convey that a specific character is untrustworthy. let’s break this down into three scenes.

first, let’s say we catch this character sneaking out after they said they were going to bed. this raises questions of why they lied and what they’re actually doing. using a direct scene like this first will alert the reader and make them more likely to notice less obvious information later on.

second, we maybe include a scene where they directly contradict something they said earlier. it helps if it’s a minor detail that wouldn’t make much sense to lie about, such as their birthday.

the third scene is the one that should cement this item in your readers’ minds. maybe this scene is a step above the others; maybe this time, the character tries to pit everyone else against each other. maybe they steal or participate in a much bigger lie.

if you’re building up to a betrayal, this can either be the betrayal itself or the scene directly before.

use this rule in moderation. if you bring up something too many times without solidifying it, the story risks becoming repetitive.

brainstorm, create brief outlines of the scenes you want to include, and then decide where in the story these scenes should go.

when i’m using the rule of three to revise, i create a list of all the scenes and chapters i currently have and tack the new scenes on as sticky notes where i see fit.

this may be a bit excessive.

instead, you might consider creating a rough outline of the plot or plots you want to write and jotting down a list of scenes according to where in each arc they should fall, or simply having a document or notepad where you write down ideas.

in action

media examples

the hunger games. the poisonous plant nightlock is specifically mentioned three times, once in the capitol and twice during the games, before it is used for a major plot point.

the karate kid. the crane kick technique is introduced early on, and there are scenes where the main character specifically practices his crane kick before it wins him the match at the end of the film.

---------------------------

thanks for reading! hope this was helpful :)

tip jar | so what even is radio apocalypse?

#🌿 writing #writeblr #writing advice #writing tips #how to write #writing help #plotting #outlining

[projecttreehouse]

write EVERY DAY. here's how.

where inspiration fails, habit will always have your back. this is why it's important to build writing into your life as a habit, if you ever want to finish a project or improve your skills.

back in 2018, i (nat) was a college student without much going for me. i was feeling creatively stifled and insecure and like i didn't have TIME to write good. and i was right. i didn't have time to write GOOD. but i did have time to write SOMETHING. so that january, i built the habit. i wrote every single day in 2018, and almost every single day since.

because once you establish the habit, it becomes safer to skip a day (or three days) here and there. you will at least THINK about writing every day, even if you go straight from work to social plans to bed, or you're on vacation, or you're too sick to write. and that thinking is part of the habit!

here are the tips i followed to make this happen.

-pick a reasonable goal. starting off, mine was 300 words. now, i don't follow a goal, because the habit is so solid i don't need to. but 300 words is easy and quick. and if you give a pig a pancake, they'll probably have days where they write 500, 1000, even 3k words.

-log your word count. this is interesting to look back on every new year's eve, and it provides accountability. do this however you like; a spreadsheet, a physical notebook, a note in your phone, each day's section in your planner, whatever works for you. i have a channel in my personal discord server where i log mine.

-do NOT edit as you go. just write write write. if you feel like something you wrote needs work, yeah, it probably does-- everything needs to be edited, but that's a problem for later. highlight sentences you can't get right or make note of them to edit LATER. but do not edit as you go!

-write self-indulgent crap. fanfiction, shitty poetry, manifestos, rants, self insert fantasy romance, whatever floats your boat. having a shitty self-indulgent backup story to work on when i didn't feel like writing for the projects i cared about really helped get me in the habit. write for an audience of one!

-journal if you can't write. this may not necessarily build your skill as much as writing regular prose would, but it does help you maintain the habit and it can be useful in lots of other ways.

-think outside the box. write trivia questions. write a list of your favorite childhood toys. write a review of the book you're reading. i'm writing this post, that's going toward my word count for the day. again, this is still writing, and it helps maintain the habit.

-get comfortable writing on your phone. this took me a long time, but making it over this hurdle has saved my habit so many times.

you'll be surprised at the cool shit you end up writing on those days when you swore you weren't inspired enough. and you'll be delighted with how much progress you will make honing your craft!

happy writing! if you have any questions about how to implement any of these tips, our ask box is always open.

#WRITERS ON TUMBLR #WRITING #WRITEBLR #OUTLINING #WRITING TIPS #EDITING TIPS #WRITING ADVICE #INDIE PUBLISHING #INDIE WRITING #WRITING COMMUNITY #NOVEL EDITING #NOVEL EDITING SERVICE #NANOWRIMO #WRITE IT #WRITERS BLOCK #WRITING WARM UP #NOVEL WRITING #WRITING PROMPTS #WRITER THINGS #CREATIVE WRITING #WRITERS #WRITING TOOLS #PUBLISHING #EDITING #BOOKS AND NOVELS #YA NOVELS #FICTION #LITERARY FICTION #SHORT STORIES

[books]

Hi! So, I’ve struggled A LOT with this in the past, and I was just wondering what a good way to outline a book was? I understand that there are many different ways to do it, and that it’s different for each person, but it’s hard to find good examples online on the different methods.

When we talk about outlining, we're often talking about structure, even though I think the best outlining also offers some connective tissue between the events of the story and the motivations and consequences of those events. My personal favorite outlining method is what I call a narrative outline, which is kind of like a reverse synopsis. In a narrative outline, you pretend you're explaining your story to someone very invested in it, who wants to know all about it. It's in paragraph form and written in your voice. It can be casual and incomplete. You can fill in the gaps with things like [FIGURE THIS OUT LATER]. Then you can take each paragraph you've written and make it into a chapter.

Sometimes, though, I don't even know enough about what I'm working on to do a narrative outline, and that's when I break out the tried and true four-part structure. This structure has served me well for many years, and even if it doesn't work for you, it's at least a place to start. Long-form stories generally have four major parts: exposition, rising action, climax, and denouement. I like to think of them as buckets in which I toss various scene ideas. The scene where characters A and B meet probably goes in exposition, which is the part concerned with establishing context and leading to an inciting incident. My characters getting to know one another would fall into the rising action bucket. Rising action involves raising stakes and escalating the tension. Then, the climax. This is when the rising action culminates into a major breaking point. Maybe my characters have a fight and break up. And lastly, my denouement, the action that falls in the aftermath of the climax. Here's where my characters, after some time apart, reunite.

Generally speaking, the halfway point of a story parallels the ending. If your halfway point is a major success of some kind, you likely will also have a happy ending. If your halfway point is a failure or a loss, you're probably writing a tragedy. Deciding off the bat, "Will this have a happy ending or a sad one?" will help you start putting events in order. Of course, there are also complicated or bittersweet endings, and those will also be reflected at the halfway point. For a complicated ending, your halfway point may be the most complex part of the book, the point with the least clarity. And a bittersweet ending will have a bittersweet middle.

Other writers have other structures they employ. There's Freytag's pyramid, which is two parts only: rising and falling action. There's the three-act play and the five-act play. There are the six stages and the eight key turning points. I've used all of these just to test them out, but I always end up back at my four parts. The trick to choosing an outlining method or an existing structure is to use it only as a jumping off point. It's a lot easier for me to start writing something knowing my job is just to fill four buckets. Often I end up with five parts instead of four. Don't box yourself in too much; as you begin writing, your story will let you know how it wants to be written. Trust your process and your intuition.

For those just joining us, @bettsfic is running a writing workshop on @books this month. Want to know more? Start here.

#tumblr writing workshop with betts #q&a with betts #writing advice #book outline #narrative strategy #writeblr

[writing-with-olive]

Outline I like (especially for shorter works)

Note: I learned this in film class (which is why it says "defines the movie" at the top, but I've also had success using it for non-film writing. It's basically a three-act structure, but I find for non-novels it's easier to work with than Save The Cat, for example.

Another note: Unraveling The Map is rarely a whole scene in and of itself in my personal experience - I usually use it to create an opening image that leads into the Launch Point, which I make the first scene

Unraveling The Map - Do you have an opening scene that defines the movie?

The Launch Point - Where are we, and who are we with?

The First Leg - What’s a normal day look like in this world?

Change Course - What sets our characters off on their journey from normalcy?

The Foot of the Mountain - Okay, we’re going on this journey together. (choosing the direction for solving the problem)

Climbing The Side - It starts hard, but you get used to the problems as you go.

Through The Cave - Do you have a B story? Set that story off on its own now too.

Reassess the Problem - You’re at the middle. Is there another way to get it done?

Try and Fail - Things begin to fall apart, can they handle it?

The Fall - The worst thing happens, something so bad you don’t think you can get up.

The Hidden Clue - What do your characters discover about themselves/the problem that they never saw before?

Race To the Finish - They’re up and running no matter what

The Treasure Chest - Did they get what they came for?

Where We Go From Here - Show us the world in a new light, hint what’s next.

#writing #writing advice #writers on tumblr #writeblr #outlines #outlining #mountain expedition outline #three act structure #novels #movies #short film #short stories #launch point #through the cave #foot of the mountain #treasure chest #writing tips #writing process #olive's writing vibes

[novlr]

How to create a plot outline in five easy steps

1. Think of a premise

Every story needs to start somewhere, but it doesn't have to be a complicated process. Coming up with a premise is as simple as asking"What if?"

What if four writers spent the night in a haunted house? What if humans evolved wings?

It's that simple! Now you have a story premise.

2. Get to know your characters

Your characters are the backbone of your plot, so knowing who they are, and what they want is a great first step in outlining your story.

Create character profiles. Consider their inner and outer lives. What are their goals, motivations, and conflicts? What are their relationships, and how do they come into conflict with each other and their world?

3. Develop a setting

Your story setting is more than just where the action happens. It's an integral part of your plot, and arguably, as important as your characters!

Determine where your story is told, and ask why it's the ideal place to tell this story. How do your characters relate to their world, and how does it factor into their goals, motivations, and conflicts?

4. Create a timeline

A timeline of events is just one part of creating a compelling plot, but it's the part most people think of when you say the word 'outline.'

Once you have your premise, characters and setting worked out, you need to determine what happens in your story, so a brainstormed timeline of your plot's main events gives you a beginning, a middle, and an end — a strong foundation on which to build a more layered narrative.

5. Brainstorm some scenes

Now that you know your plot's main events, think of some important scenes that might happen within that plot. What needs to happen to get you from point A to point B?

Brainstorming scenes that will move your story along lets you set your narrative's pace. Place those scenes in your timeline to get a clearer picture of where your story might need more developing, or is too packed with content.

#nanowrimo #plotter #plotting #storytelling #story outline #writers #writing #writer #creative writing #plot bunny #writer things #writing resources #writing advice #writerscommunity #writing tips

[bettsfic]

Hi!

I recently decided I want to write genre fiction. I have ideas and would love to try. But I have come to realize that my writing is just naturally literary leaning. Very character focused, and internally driven more than anything. Sometimes a bit passive. I was wondering, if you had a student who was the same way, how would you direct them to learn to get better at the external conflicts and the various genre conventions?

reverse outline everything. buy a really fancy notebook and a nice pen, and take down notes about every story you encounter, especially ones in the genre you'd like to write in. tv shows, movies, books, video games, everything. make a bullet point list of Things That Happen. when the story is over, review your notes and highlight the inciting incident, moments of rising action, the climax, and the resolution. notice also *when* these things happen, at what percentage of the story. find an existing structure you like, say the three-act play, and draw lines between the bullet points that signal the end of each act. draw major conclusions about the way every story works. avoid criticism; practice neutral observation. if you find a movie you like, read the script. annotate the hell out of your books. articulate and witness your own perspectives of narrative.

when you reverse outline habitually, you start to internalize story structures and deploy them more easily and intentionally. you start seeing patterns in cause and effect, events that are expected or unexpected, plot beats that aim to satisfy or disappoint. and even if you're only noticing and jotting things down, your observations will naturally, eventually, bleed into your own work.

#writing advice #structure #plot #reverse outlining

[rightwriter]

This is THE video for anyone looking for a comprehensive and thorough way to outline your book! Kat goes chapter by chapter with the beats you need to hit, and also gives an example from her own story, which really helps you understand! If you watch only one video from this blog, it should be this one! Reposting this because it's SO GOOD

#katytastic #outline #writing outline #on writing #writing advice #writing tools #writing #writing tips #writing help #youtube #rightwriter #haunted tattoo #save the cat #writer #writerslife #writerscommunity #writers on tumblr #novel #novel writing #Youtube #nanowrimo #nanowrimo 2023 #preptober

[muffinlance]

Just realized that the solution to an outline issue was, as it frequently is: "need more children being eco-terrorists."

#anyway I just had a VERY productive outlining session #this is better if I leave you guessing what the heck story it was for #because actually this advice is surprisingly broadly applicable #- Jet probably

[sas-soulwriter]

Let´s talk about your word goal

Writing can be incredibly rewarding, but let's be honest, there are times when it feels like scaling Mount Everest would be easier. When you're staring at a blank screen, and the words just won't flow, reaching your word goal can seem like an insurmountable challenge. But fear not! Here are some tips to make it not only achievable but also a tad less daunting:

Set Realistic Goals: The first step in reaching your word goal is setting one that's actually attainable. Be honest with yourself about how much you can realistically write in a day or week.

Create a Writing Schedule: Consistency is your best friend. Dedicate specific times for writing, and treat them like important appointments. Whether it's early morning or late at night, find what works for you.

Eliminate Distractions: Find a quiet writing space. Turn off your phone or use apps that block distracting websites. A focused environment can work wonders.

Use Writing Prompts: Writer's block happens to the best of us. When your creative well runs dry, turn to writing prompts. They can be a great way to jumpstart your imagination.

Break it Down: Your word goal may seem enormous, but remember, you don't have to tackle it all at once. Break it down into smaller, more manageable chunks. Focus on one section or chapter at a time.

Reward Yourself: Celebrate milestones along the way. When you hit your daily or weekly word count goal, treat yourself to something special. It's a great motivator.

Accountability Partner: Share your goals with a fellow writer. Having someone who can hold you accountable and provide motivation can be a game-changer. Fell free to always text me here on this app .I would love to connect with more writers!

Write First, Edit Later: During your first draft, don't get bogged down by trying to make everything perfect. Just write. Editing can come later.

Visualize Your Success: Imagine the sense of accomplishment when you complete your story. Visualizing your success can provide the motivation needed on tough days.

Stay Inspired: Seek inspiration everywhere—books, movies, nature, or even a random conversation. When you're genuinely excited about your story, writing becomes a joy.

Take Breaks: Writing marathons can lead to burnout. Schedule short breaks to clear your mind and recharge. A refreshed mind is more creative.

Track Your Progress: Use word count trackers or writing apps to monitor your daily achievements. Seeing your progress can be incredibly motivating.

Remember, reaching your word goal is a journey, not a race. It's about consistent effort and unwavering determination. So keep writing, one word at a time, and soon you'll find yourself at the finish line.

#writing creative #writers block #writblr #writing advice #writing #creative writing #writing tips #writers on tumblr #screenwriting #filmmaiking #book #booklover #bookish #writingtips #wordgoal #spilled ink #tipps #outline #bookswriting #reading #reading and writing

[dduane]

I asked you a little while ago about your outlining method in prep for Nano and now I'm 37k into my Nano project and on track to win for the first time in ten years of trying. Thank you so so much! You are a lifesaver. ♡

I'm absolutely delighted you've found this useful.

Use it in very good health! :)

#writing #writing advice #outlining