forum Share your best tip for writing (or writing related)!!!!

Started January 03, 2021 by @cinnamon

tune

hi, let´s share our best writing tip!

No matter what, always try to write at least a sentence a day. It might be a trash sentence, but hopefully it'll get the ball rolling. Once, I was totally stuck in my story and I just kept writing stupid sentences (like "he pranced around the room" or something really stupid) and one day, one sentence led to 4000 words. A little progress is better than no progress.

If you're not sure on a small idea in your story, write it out anyway. I cannot tell you how many times this has helped me.
A lot of the time, it's something small that wouldn't have much impact on the story. But if you're not sure if you want to include it or not, write it out anyway.

I had this last night, and I'll use it as an example.
I wasn't sure if I wanted my character to interact with the paintings of her anscestors in her cousin's home, or if I wanted to include it at all. Since I wasn't sure, I decided to write it out anyway. All of it. Writing it as if I was going to keep it in the story.
In the end, I got rid of all of it. Writing it out helped me see that it wasn't completely in character, and it definitely wasn't something she would have done this early on.

Of course, you could be in a situation where you decide that you actually like the situation, and you keep it in.
But you've been able to see it written and made a decision on that.

write the whole thing while you're inspired and don't try to edit it!!!!!!! re-write it all again if needed, but i personally don't edit, it's better to re-write!

here's a writing tip i use very often:

keep a journal for the sole purpose of writing. if you see something that you want to include in a story, or you just happen to get an idea for a story and you want to make sure you remember it, you can write it in the journal. even if the idea/detail you think of is a minor one, write it down so you won't forget! the details could be things like smells, textures, or you can even write down details about random strangers if you feel inclined to! you could also keep an online journal, if you don't have any blank notebooks/diaries at the moment.
i learned that this can help a lot with organizing thoughts and details for stories, and i can confirm that it does wonders for storywriting! at least imo; i've been using this technique often and it helps with the addition of minor and major details in a story, and sometimes i write down a few details about strangers i see on my daily walk as a way to influence my stories' characters!

tl;dr: keep a journal of things you see everyday or people you see everyday, as well as story ideas you get, and let that influence your writing! it helps!

Don't look at what you're writing, just write, and edit later. A site I use is ilys.com, you set a word goal and it only displays one letter at a time so you can't see what you're writing!

Another helpful site is Fighter's Block, it's a little game where you set a word goal and that's an enemy's health, you have to defeat your enemy by reaching your word count. It's helpful for if you're uninspired, because it helps you just word vomit onto the page.

if you see something that you want to include in a story, or you just happen to get an idea for a story and you want to make sure you remember it, you can write it in the journal.

see this is just my brain
because it sees something like this and just lets its sit there
it never lets it leave

the tip of keeping a journal for writing in it , i'ts literally the best!!!! keep it always with u and you'll see how many things can inspire you!

Let's see… for world building, if you've got a plot that's sparse or you just need a little more action, don't be afraid to throw around some big crazy ideas. Like, what if there was a house-sized moth to fight or these two separate antagonists are actually totally intertwined. At first it might not seem logistical, but then if you think and restructure a little it adds depth. Trying to think like anything was possible has been helping me a lot especially with sci-fi/fantasy, because it's helping me take advantage of the full limits of the world. And it makes things a lot more spicy.