#writer experience

[moccabunie]

things I've learned after a year writing fanfiction

This is a post from a non-writer who, apparently, now writes (❓) And this is a little crazy to me, considering that a year ago writing less than 1k decent words took a lot of effort. But this year I have completed a +100k project. (It's still difficult, though.)

I found out that the more I wrote, the easier it was to get into the story. So I think that being captivated by my own story has made a lot. I am an eager fanfiction reader, but I had yet to really try to write something on my own.

That was until I got hyper-fixated on three characters and wrote a small story about them sharing a room, and it was one of the funniest and most rewarding things I've done. So I was like "oh, maybe I can try to imagine stories I would like to read?"

(1) story one - a bird told me to wait

The first thing I considered was to make it completely self-indulging. The second was to make it as evocative as possible, not only telling what was happening. I like sensations and emotions, so I really wanted to write things I would like to feel as a reader. I wrote this story, and after that, I added a second longer part because I was enjoying it a lot. I used to doodle about the characters and make small annotations about their dynamics, but there wasn't really a lot of planning here.

(2) story two - beneath the moonlight

My second attempt was a three-chapter story (not so distant from the previous one that can be read as three parts too). But for this one, I wanted to challenge myself because I wanted to explore new themes and tropes, so I made a brief list of the things that should appear here. (but honestly, I just wanted to write a soft mating bite scene lmao, because I was super into a/b/o at that time.) I used keep notes app this time.

I barely showed explicit themes here but I got to enjoy the story anyway. This one wasn't difficult to write because I felt familiar with the characters. It's a light story but these 20k words gave me the courage to take a step further. I said to myself

"stop being a coward. you have enjoyed this. keep writing."

(3) story three - lucid dreams

This one was planned for four or five chapters, quite in the same line as beneath the moonlight. But, and the keyword is planned, it became a full 13 chapters as I developed the story and the characters. If I wanted it to be coherent then I needed to explain the things, build the context, and introduce the world. But it was also an experimental work. I took my notebook and listed the new things I wanted to try, such as - write in past tense - write first and edit later

my process was something like this • imagine random scenarios with pretty imagery as I listened to music • doodling the characters doing things so I didn't forget • open the notes app to write random sentences and dialogues in the middle of the night, I'll find a place for them later • dream about the story and daydream about the story

as for the physical notebook, I have scribbled A LOT there during the writing process.

(a little bit chaotic but functional enough)

One thing I wanted to keep in mind was the evolution of the characters, or in other words, how they were gonna be at the start and the end of the story. And this made things a lot simpler because it gave me an insight that was helpful whenever I had to decide what kind of decisions the characters would make along the story.

Parallelly, I was aware of my narrative flaws, as well as there was a lot of vocabulary and grammar that would escape me in a different language. So I used the notebook to do writing research. Some of my pages were like "how to write action scenes," or "tips for flat scenes." Whenever I felt blocked I read again these pages.

I'm going to copy down here some tips that were useful during the writing block days.

• read another book or fic you like, since sometimes, getting yourself caught by another writer's style can help you to flow through your own. • scroll on pinterest and try to find pictures that capture the vibe of your story, maybe try to describe them or setting a scene in a similar environment that you can see? • changing the setting (for example, day to night, or sun to rain) can add more variants and ambiental tools to play with. • or, changing the character's pov. maybe a scene feels flat because it's narrated by the wrong character. • use objects, not just the characters.

(4) finishing a story

To have an insight into the plot, I wrote the main scenes in really short sentences. That was useful for the first chapters, but suddenly I had 70K words of the story and a lot of details to track. Frequently I had to split chapters into two parts because the "short sentence" became a very long scene. See this comparison: the scenes' guide in the last chapters usually are fragmented into shorter scenes. That's how I avoided losing my mind as I wrote (?)

These are a few tips that were useful to me during this last part.

• write the important plot points as they are mentioned so you can come back to them later and don't forget about them. • keep a scrip to annotate significant things about the characters to make the story consistent. • notion pages is a great place to make inspo boards (usually I added 4 pictures for each scene). During the last chapter, I used the to-do list tool to keep track of the closed story points and the things that were yet to happen • list some of your favourite past scenes, those that have been nice to write, so you can pursue the same vibe again.

The last two months writing the fic I joined the nanowrimo to keep myself motivated but also to have an impulse. My only goal was getting the habit of writing everyday, not minding how many words (usually it was around 400-600 daily). I ended that month with 16k added on my wordcount (to me, that was a lot!). Since I enjoyed that little challenge, I did the same on the next month, resulting in finishing the fic :)

The most important thing during this time was remembering myself from time to time why I am doing this. Let me say I am an utter perfectionist, so I would easily get trapped in making-the-story-perfect, which would end in a writing block. So each time this happened I repeated to myself that I didn't want to write a good story. I just wanted to enjoy and have fun while writing a story, so I should write only things I enjoy. And this simple thing was incredibly helpful whenever I wasn't able to continue a scene.

I think that this is what most writers say, but now I have come to understand that it's true: just have fun. Write what you wanna read.

(5) the next story - requiem of the sleepless

This would be the third part of my first fic. I miss these unhinged boys and I have a little draft of (unholy) things I want to happen to them! Now I want to unlearn everything I know. I want this story to be zero planned, I just want to ~feel~ the characters and make a lot of random things happen. This is about not forgetting why I started, so here I am again.

Being a non-writer writing.

thank you for reading ♡ 

#writing #writing tips #non writer #writing fics tips #fanfiction writer #fic wip #my post #bsd #writer tips #writer experience #ao3 writer #god help me #it all started because I read a fic so good I became obsessed #and because of fyodor my forever babygirl

[hopelessromanticghost]

I have made a meme

This is refering to my previous post btw

#hrg #Meme #writer experience #writing #writing memes #the femenine urge #hyperfixation

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

#due to the Great Data Decay academics write viciously argumentative articles on which episodes aired in what order #at conferences professors have known to engage in physically violent altercations whilst debating the air date number of household viewers #90% of the couch gags have been lost and there is a billion dollar trade in counterfeit “lost copies” #serious note: i'll be honest i always assumed it was english imperialism that made shakespeare so inescapable in the 19th/20th cent #like his writing should have become obscure at the same level of his contemporaries #but british imperialists needed an ENGLISH LANGUAGE (and BRITISH) writer to venerate #and shakespeare wrote so many damn things that there was a humongous body of work just sitting there waiting to be culturally exploited... #i know it didn't happen like this but i imagine a English Parliament House Committee Member For The Education Of The Masses or something #cartoonishly stumbling over a dusty cobwebbed crate labelled the Complete Works of Shakespeare #and going 'Eureka! this shall make excellent propoganda for fabricating a national identity in a time of great social unrest. #it will be a cornerstone of our elitist educational institutions for centuries to come! long live our decaying empire!' #'what good fortune that this used to be accessible and entertaining to mainstream illiterate audience members... #..but now we can strip that away and make it a difficult & alienating foundation of a Classical Education! just like the latin language :)' #anyway maybe there's no such thing as the 'greatest writer of x language' in ANY language? #maybe there are just different styles and yes levels of expertise and skill but also a high degree of subjectivity #and variance in the way that we as individuals and members of different cultures/time periods experience any work of media #and that's okay! and should be acknowledged!!! and allow us to give ourselves permission to broaden our horizons #and explore the stories of marginalized/underappreciated creators #instead of worshiping the List of Top 10 Best (aka Most Famous) Whatevers Of All Time/A Certain Time Period #anyways things are famous for a reason and that reason has little to do with innate “value” #and much more to do with how it plays into the interests of powerful institutions motivated to influence our shared cultural narratives #so i'm not saying 'stop teaching shakespeare'. but like...maybe classrooms should stop using it as busy work that (by accident or designs) #happens to alienate a large number of students who could otherwise be engaging critically with works that feel more relevant to their world #(by merit of not being 4 centuries old or lacking necessary historical context or requiring untaught translation skills) #and yeah...MAYBE our educational institutions could spend less time/money on shakespeare critical analysis and more on... #...any of thousands of underfunded areas of literary research i literally (pun!) don't know where to begin #oh and p.s. the modern publishing world is in shambles and it would be neat if schoolwork could include modern works? #beautiful complicated socially relevant works of literature are published every year. it's not just the 'classics' that have value #and actually modern publications are probably an easier way for students to learn the basics. since lesson plans don't have to include the #important historical/cultural context many teens need for 20+ year old media (which is older than their entire lived experience fyi)

[hallwords]

to you, it's a shitty sentence. to some random bitch 500 miles away, it's a fire line that'll haunt them for the next 17 years.

you don't know how impactful your writing is because it's been in your brain for far too long now. you've stared at it for hours and repeated "this sucks" over and over again to the point that you killed your capacity to feel anything about your work.

but trust me, once you get your shit out there, someone's gonna go over that paragraph you hate and go "jesus fucking christ" and put the book down to have an existential crisis.

#writeblr #motivation #encouragement #writer #writers #writing community #writers of tumblr #writerscommunity #it's also a matter of different life experiences yknow yknow #someone couldve gone through something that leads to that shitty sentence hitting them harder than it hit you #so write shitty sentences #scheduled #my posts

[canisalbus]

What if I told you that RoobrickMarine went and wrote an entire novella starring my 16th century dog couple? It's very canon-adjacent, well researched and thoughtfully put together, has inspired me a ton during these past months and it's now publicly available at AO3. I highly recommend it.

✦ Separation ✦

#content warnings for sex violence self harm and general angst #six chapters 41K words #people who have asked for longer stories of these two please give this one a look #I've watched this unfold since late may? early july? and it's been an exciting experience #I'm not a writer I think it's better than what I could've come up with #honestly though the way he managed to get inside Machete's and Vasco's heads was uncanny their mannerisms and thought processes are spot on #some of the events aren't canon but they might as well be #and most of the background details and backstory tidbits are accurate believe me he's very well versed on their lore #big history nerd so the worldbuilding is intense #you get to meet the dog pope #there's saint sebastian #roommate hijinks #it gets kind of bleak at times though so be mindful of that #it's not all fluff and good feelings #Separation #Heinaven #RoobrickMarine #own characters #own art #artists on tumblr #CanisAlbus #Vasco #Machete #anthro #sighthound #dogs #canine #animals #if you end up reading the whole thing it would be really sweet if you left a little comment as a thanks for his hard work

[radley-writes]

My enjoyment of writing, my productivity, and the quality of my work improved tenfold when I started embracing slumps and taking them as an opportunity to read everything I could get my hands on, watch lots of films and shows, go to the theatre, play games, hang out with friends, visit new places, and generally absorb life and marinate my brain in the art of storytelling.

Take from that what you will.

#writing advice #writing #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writer problems #radley writes #creative writing #writer's block #writers #writer's block is to be cuddled and nurtured not loathed x #unless you are beholden to deadlines in which case - HATE HATE HATE #radley rambles #my experience will not be your experience etc. etc. etc. #if 'write every day' works for you great!! #if not... this post may be for you

[marisatomay]

i’m so sick of writers who proudly proclaim that they don’t read and directors and actors and other filmmakers who smugly say that they rarely watch movies or any artist who acts like an audience is stupid for connecting with their work like what the fuck is wrong with you that you hold such contempt such derision for the art that you have chosen to make the art that so many people dream of the opportunity to make the art that brings meaning and connection to people’s lives it’s unbelievably disrespectful to both your audience and the art-form and if you can’t muster basic respect for either your art-form or your audience then kindly fuck off and do something else

#i hate how rare it is to have an actor be like ‘yeah i just really love movies and going to the movies it’s the best i love what i do’ #to the point where when an actor or director IS like that people are like ‘wow what a freak…they’re faking it for attention’ like!! no!! #that’s what it’s SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE!! you WANT creators who are obsessed with their medium!!! #and what gets me about the people who don’t feel that way is the clear Pride they feel like they’re Better for not caring #that uk ya author adapting the odyssey and admitting that they’ve never read the odyssey or the iliad #that writer on twitter saying that telling writers to read is ableist #the russo brothers saying that the theatrical experience is elitist and auteurism should bow to the disney/netflix model #christain bale and any number of other actors who proudly announce that they don’t watch movies #sam levinson who talks about tv like it’s a long movie because he can’t hack it as a filmmaker like his dad but he doesn’t actually LIKE tv #like i get not wanting to consume your own work after it’s released unless it’s for research or self reflection purposes #but you do not exist or create in a vacuum and it’s SO disrespectful and arrogant to act like you do

[jomeimei421]

Felt a bit nostalgic watching RT shut down…Here are the og faves again for old times sake 💙

#rvb #agent washington #agent Carolina #lavernius tucker #michael j caboose #epsilon #my art rvb #ahhh a lot of feelings…of course I stepped away from rt as a company a long time ago #but RvB is special to me!! it was my first fandom experience ever #and the community here on tumblr specifically was so instrumental to me growing up #I really could not have asked for a better community of artists and writers to grow up in. I know it sounds like platitudes when I say #that everyone was super nice and talented but REALLY. People were so kind to me and somehow I became well known despite #my art and writing and me in general still being immature and hashtag cringe #I found my creative legs and #people would respond to my stuff with walls and walls of support in the tags and we would do exchanges and events every year #I made my first lyric comic and it’s still doing extremely well on YouTube even today!! my dad who passed away recently always loved it #and my favorite RvB writer came out of hibernation to write me a bunch of text wall asks about it #I’ve never had another fandom experience quite like RvB #I still keep in touch with many of my friends from that time period even though we’ve all moved on the other things #these guys will always always have a place in my heart #so long reds and blues….

[houseswife]

listen. this may sound like a reach but I don’t think house’s eagerness to go to the lesbian bar with thirteen was fetishistic glee. because like. okay. straight men love lesbians. but it’s only ever in a “conventionally attractive porn stars making out”, “I’ll pay these 2 strippers to kiss” sort of way, not exactly in the sense that they like to surround themselves with regular, real life sapphics. in fact, most hetero men despise the lesbians they meet in real life because they see them as either unattainable or unappealing disappointments to their fantasies. now, listen. house isn’t stupid, it’s not like he thought thirteen was gonna let him in on some hot girl-on-girl voyeuristic action, and he certainly knew he wasn’t about to get laid himself at a bar of ALL WLW. he’s an overconfident perv, sure, but not the kind who thinks he can ‘convert’ a gay gal, nor would he even desire to. the damn patient of the week is a guy who tried to ECT himself straight, which house obviously doesn’t believe is reasonable (this episode also gave us the shot where both house & thirteen are shown making a face in response to “I’m as straight as any of you!”)

with all of this laid out, you kinda have to assume that he was excited about the bar for another reason. dare I say it was simply… the joy of existing in a queer space as a queer person?

#I know there’s 0 chance that the writers thought it through this hard #but I genuinely believe this with my entire soul #it’s one thing for house to be an ally and support thirteen’s sexuality #but to delight in sharing the bisexual experience with her? just basking in the inclusiveness of an lgbt environment? #that’s a whole nother beast #you get what I’m saying? #he was just there for the vibes. #one might even say… for the pride #he had 0 ulterior motives other than to have a good time #house md #gregory house #greg house #dr house #hatecrimes md #remy hadley #remy thirteen hadley #thirteen house md #you know what I’ll also throw in a #hilson #house/wilson

[a2zillustration]

He's just like me fr

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[[ All Croissant Adventures (chronological, desktop) ]]

[[ All Croissant Adventures (app) ]]

#who's the lead writer for Gale I need to personally thank them for my experience in this game lmao #YEAH I DID GO BACK AND RUN THE SCENE I KNOW HOW IT GOES AND IT'S VERY SILLY #I love this guy so much ngjkfldnjkh #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 spoilers #act III spoilers #croissant adventures #tav #gale #gale x tav #nym orlith #sorn orlith #drow twins #comics #breadweave #gale dekarios

[mister-writes]

Hey writeblr I have a question!

So I often see posts in the same vein as this one here:

Things along the lines of "oh my characters are always changing the story, they're the ones that are really in charge."

#writeblr #writers of tumblr #..... i feel like you can tell by the fact that i'm asking this question #that this is something i find really funny but it's not something i... relate to? #so i'm just really curious how common of an experience this is #i'm excited to see! #polls #writeblr poll #writing

[insanesonofabitch]

Liking destiel is basically having to go through feeling overjoyed by how much incredibly gay shit they managed to retain into the show and put on air but also mourn how much incredibly gay shit they deleted and/or cut off along the way.

- parallels Dean and Cas with Romeo and Juliet

- deletes the part where Dean holds Cas’s face

- whatever the hell Endverse destiel had going on

- not include the part where Endverse!Cas says the only thing they have left is each other

- had Dean break Cas away from a brainwashing spell by having him kneel and beg and say “I need you”

- but also replace the original script where he says he loves Cas, and that he forgives him for what he’s about to do (kill him)

- make Dean keep Cas’s dirty, moldy, bloody overcoat because he just missed him that much

- but cut off the part where Dean says “part of me always believed you’d come back”

- paralleled Dean and Cas to Cain and his wife Colette

- then deleted the scene where Dean dreams about how guilty he feels for beating up Cas, while in a bar with bi lighting and Cas gets referred to as his “admirer”

- and also the part where Cas and Crowley has a banter about which one of them is Dean’s boyfriend (yes this is real)

- had Dean go through a widower arc where he becomes hopeless and suicidal because Cas is dead back in s13

- made it seem like it didn’t affect him much when it happens in s15

#and so so much more #It’s like the writers were trying to see how gay it can get before the network goes “hold up” #destiel #deancas #dean x castiel #dean winchester #castiel #spn #supernatural #bi dean winchester #bi!dean #unparalleled media experience #reiotalks

[writerfae]

I’m one of those people that lived and breathed the Percy Jackson books when I was younger and therefore regularly forgets that not everyone has read it as a kid

#someone around my age will tell me no they didn’t read the pjo books and I almlst get offended #until I realize that my experience is not universal and not everyone my age has made these books their entire personality as a kid #dare I say Percy Jackson formed my character in a way no other media ever has #it literally sparked my interest for mythology and for writing among other things #I wouldn’t even be here and have this blog if I wouldn’t have started writing pjo fanfics cause I loved the books so much #can’t wait to watch the show tbh but I try to be patient and wait for all episodes #writer speaks #percy jackson #tagging this probably was a mistake :|

[kaleidoscopic-quiddity]

we’re only 3 episodes in but buddy daddies is already superior to lots of shows in the childcare genre by letting the child character have tantrums and be annoying to her guardians sometimes and say she needs to go pee at literally the worst moment rather than just being a cutesy moe blob designed to induce baby fever

#iirc the series writer said in an interview that theyre basing parts of the show off of their own experiences as a parent #and like!! you can tell #miri is loud and has a short attention span and throws tantrums bc thats what lil kids do!!! #ppl who hate buddy daddies bc miri isnt 'uwu kawaii' but 'too loud' and 'anoying' just say youve never spent time around kids b4 #buddy daddies #og post //

[did-i-do-this-write]

New experiment: I have to write 5 words per boop I get today.

I'm already up to 490 words.

Reblog to join me.

Do your worst.

#writing #writeblr #boop #writing community #writing motivation #writers on tumblr #zac speaks #the great motivation experiment

[writingwithfolklore]

Ways to Experience More

(Hi, I am still alive! Working on some longer posts but for now have this mini one..)

Go to a meeting of a club in your community/school/neighbourhood

Actually attend one of those events your campus throws, even if you have to go alone

Attend a festival

Do that thing you’ve always wanted to do that your parents never let you do

Don’t be afraid to go to places alone if you have no one else to go with

If you are able to—travel, apply for your uni’s study abroad program, apply for field school

Volunteer!

If you don’t have a job, try out a job you think might be interesting or that will give you a skill you want

Change food brands from what you usually buy for one week

Look up the events going on where you live. Commit to going to two.

Go out hiking, to the beach, to the lake. Explore nature.

Take a class or attend a lecture on a topic you’re interested in

#writing #creative writing #writers #screenwriting #writing community #writing inspiration #books #film #filmmaking #writing advice #ways to experience more #experience