#this sort of reminds me of these complimentary fics that i want to write 👀 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

talkfantasytome · 3 years

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I love writing but I am very distracted, I am slow and, although I have ideas that I think are very good, I never manage to put them together to form a story

Do you have any advice to achieve it or tips that you follow when writing? Thank you!

Okay, first of all, just want to say a big thank you! You coming to me for advice on this is extremely complimentary, and when I saw this (on my way to a concert and thus could not respond thoughtfully), it just made me giddy and smile widely. So, really, thank you. 💕

I totally get being distracted. Let's just say I have well over 20 ideas, including next parts to some pieces, that are thought of, partially planned out, or even have actually writing attached. Not to mention my original novel idea...7-8 years later, I have a lot of the world building sorted, I know the endings for the three books, and I have juuuuust started barely drafting actual writing - meaning I have the last few lines of the last book and the first few paragraphs of the first drafted. So, you're not alone in getting distracted! And you're not slow - we all go at our own speeds, but it's not good or bad to be at one speed over the other. I often feel like a slow writer, but really, I'm just more loquacious. 👀

Okay, my advice:

1. Just write. I know that may sound silly, but seriously, if you love writing, just start writing. Not everything needs to be planned out. Yes, for most of my stuff I have at least a few bullets on the concept/plan, but the one-shots or short stories, sometimes it's a very small list. Sometimes, it's ONE bullet - or it's three, but they're all different ideas. And sometimes I have nothing, or more information in general but it's not an actual plan for the story. It's just my personal brainstorm to help me keep my thoughts in check so I don't get away from myself.

For example, this is what I had for "A New Habit" - the fic where Aelin accidentally walks into Rowan's apartment, which ended up being about 3.5k words:

Literally, that is all the planning I had - the prompt, Rowan being Australian, and the fact that, after Aelin's little mistake, she'd end up at a bar with him cause of Aedion. I may have, at one point, had more speech written out, like a script, but that would've gotten embedded in the story. I do that a lot, though, when I have fun banter ideas, and I just write out the words said and the visible reaction first so I don't lose the ideas or wording, then I come back and write the story as a narrative.

My point, though, is to not harp too much on the ideas and the planning. I get really stuck in planning, and that's why so many longer fics have not actually been written. I want to plan it to perfection, forgetting that I get HELLA inspired when I write, and soooo much flows out of me just in the actual writing.

My CC fic is what reminded me of that. Literally the original plan was just a few scenes of Connor and Bryce's relationship building. That's why it's titled "It Would've Been So Right" - that was a title about them. And the first three chapters generally stuck to that plan. And then I did chapter four, and decided I wanted something to be on Danika's mind that was more wolf-y, and ended up setting up the larger plot that I then started to roll with. But there's still no plan. I have no idea what I'm doing with it, I'm just writing and it feels good.

Have an idea, and just go. Don't focus on the details, let your fingers create those as you're writing.

That's literally what happens to me. Sometimes things come out I barely even thought of, and I'm convinced my fingers moved on their own accord. 😂 But it's just getting into the practice of actually writing, that's HUGE.

2) Read. This is a piece of advice I need to follow more myself, too, but read. Every time I pick up a new book, it gives me some inspiration or ideas on how things can play out, even if they seem unrelated. For example, I have a fic I've been working on where I'll explore magic on three planes - physical, mental, emotional - and I've had no idea how to make the mental and emotional different from each other and from what we already have seen. I'm now reading The Atlas Six, and it's offering up new ways of thinking about these types of magic. Will I copy what's done there - of course not! But it's helping me see things through a different lens and definitely inspiring me.

It's not about finding stuff you can specifically use, reading is about finding inspiration, seeing what is done and what you could consider doing. For example, Sarah's books often are retellings of different myths and legends and fairy tales, but they're also an amazing representation of how you can do just that without being incredibly obvious (sometimes), or how you can use it for just pieces of a story.

3) Start smaller. If you're really struggling to put a story together, then...don't. At least not yet. Instead, start with drabbles, one-shots, 2 or 3 part fics. Build your way up to the larger stories where a lot needs to be tied together. I think once you really get writing, and/or once you actually finish a story, it'll help you keep going.

4) Let go. This probably sounds a bit weird, but just let go. Let go of the reservations. Let go of the fears and anxieties. Let go of feeling the need to be perfect or absolutely original or different or the best. Let go of other people...in your thoughts about writing. We all want that. We all want people to love our writing, to read our writing if we put it out there. But we should, first and foremost, be writing for us.

I'd like to say that everything I write I write for me, but that's not always true. Sometimes I am writing for others. Or, at least, others are priority #1, me being #2 or lower. But, sometimes, even when it is a prompt from someone else or an appreciation event, I still end up putting me first, and when I do that, the reception is often insane. And, even if it isn't, I come out of it with a piece I love. And that's what matters the most.

But, in the end, there has to be at least a nugget for us, preferably more. Write what you want to write. Don't worry about others or how people might react to it. We all write because we need to get something out, and I can tell you, from experience, writing down the planning helps, but it's NOTHING in comparison to actually writing the story.

This is a huge piece, though. Just as it's easy to get stunted by planning, it's sooooo easy to get stunted by fear of what others will think. So let go and write your heart out.

Those are the main pieces of advice I would give to anyone struggling to actually write, which is something I found with myself a lot. So many ideas never written down, some that will now never be shared because we have more canon information and it would now conflict. 👀 I wrote for contests on a website I'm on, but other than that, I hadn't written for me since college - not until March/April of this year. I forgot how much I missed it, and now it's like I can't stop.

I really hope it helped! If it's a specific thing giving you pause, and you don't feel this helped, you're welcome to come back to explain that a bit more specifically and I can try to offer more advice, but that's just my general take on it. <3 I'm not saying don't ever plan stories, of course, but we don't have to plan out everything to every detail. Even for my original novel, I'm trying to push myself to just start writing it, to see if ideas on plot points will come out as I go, since I'm very stuck there. :)

#ask box #writing

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