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Writing Motivation - Blog Posts
how to stay motivated as a writer
Reread your old writing, especially those scenes you're most proud of
Write something silly. It doesn’t need to be logical, consistent or included in your story. Write something dumb
Compare your old writing to your new writing. Seeing how much you've improved can be very motivating
Explore different storylines, those type of storylines that would never make it into your story, but you'd still like to play around with
Choose one of your least favorite scenes and rewrite it
Read old comments from people praising your work
Create a playlist that reminds you of your wip
Draw your ocs
Don't push yourself to get back into writing the thing that made you stop writing in the first place. Write something else
Write what you wanna write, no matter how cliché it might be. It doesn't matter, if you want to write it, write it
Take a break, focus on another hobby of yours. Consume other pieces of media, take a walk to clear your head
You don't have to write in chronological order from the very beginning if it isn't working for you! Sometimes a scene you aren't interested in writing can become interesting after you've explored other scenes that is connected to that one
Read one star reviews of ''awful'' books. You'll unlock a new sort of appreciation for your own writing
Create a new storyline, or a new character! Anything that helps bring something fresh into your story. Could even be a completely new wip!
Not writing everyday doesn't make you a bad writer. Take a break if you feel like you need one
Remind yourself to have fun. Start writing and don't focus all your attention on following ''the rules.'' You can get into the nitty-gritty when you’ve familiarized yourself with writing as an art. Or don’t. It's fiction, you make your own rules
Go to sleep, or take a nap. Sleep deprivation and writing does not go hand in hand (trust me)
Listen to music that reminds you of your characters/wip
Remember why you started. Know that you deserve to tell the story you want to tell regardless of the skill you possess
Imagine you're a writer, and there are people scribbling in the margins of your books, underlining their favorite passages, leaving makeshift bookmarks between the pages (subway tickets, library receipts, handwritten notes), reading excerpts out loud to their friends and lovers or to themselves just to feel the words on their tongue, memorizing quotes and then copying them in their notebooks, daydreaming about your characters and excitingly speculating about what's going to happen to them in the sequel, writing reviews in their school newspaper.
Literally my favorite scene/trope in a book especially if the protagonist starts realizing they're in love
"I write for my own enjoyment"
And
"I'm happy when people interact with my writing"
Are two sentences that can coexist!
Repeat after me:
The first draft just needs to exist
The second draft needs to be functional
The third draft needs to be effective
The first draft just needs to exist
The second draft needs to be functional
The third draft needs to be effective
The first draft just needs to exist
The second draft needs to be functional
The third draft needs to be effective
Remember, the second and third can't happen if you don't have something to work with. Your first draft will always be shit compared to your third, but at least it exists. The worst first draft is an unfinished one. The best first draft is a just completed one.
You read books/stories not in their first draft form-- only in their finished form (third, fourth, sometimes fifteenth draft). So stop comparing your first draft with a final one.
So, just write--you can make it better later. Perfectionism is the greatest weight a creator can carry.
Being obsessed with your own ocs is so so good for you i seriously can't recommend it enough
if you hate your draft, just pretend it’s a collaboration with past you.
Writing advice from my uni teachers:
If your dialog feels flat, rewrite the scene pretending the characters cannot at any cost say exactly what they mean. No one says “I’m mad” but they can say it in 100 other ways.
Wrote a chapter but you dislike it? Rewrite it again from memory. That way you’re only remembering the main parts and can fill in extra details. My teacher who was a playwright literally writes every single script twice because of this.
Don’t overuse metaphors, or they lose their potency. Limit yourself.
Before you write your novel, write a page of anything from your characters POV so you can get their voice right. Do this for every main character introduced.
Write that story because you wanna see it created. Because you wanna read it.
Because in a month or a year or maybe ten years, whenever you come back to read what you wrote, it’s like rediscovering a gift you left for yourself. Like hearing the whispers of a younger you telling a story that feels both new and familiar, wondrous and nostalgic.
So go ahead. Write that story. Write that story, for the you in the future. 📖✨
How To Stop Editing As You Go
What’s wrong with editing as you go?
Disclaimer, everyone has a different writing process, and that’s okay! But a lot of people never finish their novels because they don’t get through the first draft, and what’s the biggest killer of a first draft? Obsessing over your writing until you hate it.
But it’s right there! I want to edit it!
So take it away. I use a very simple method of having a working document and a master document. I write each chapter on the working document before moving it into the master. The master doc CANNOT be edited unless you need to add something in for the plot. This way, you remove the temptation to edit and you leave it alone.
Okay, and when it comes to my second draft?
Then you duplicate the doc, keep the old crappy one, and edit the new one. This way you don’t edit the things you end up cutting, but if you cut something you want back, you still have the original copy.
[if you repost to Instagram please tag @isabellestonebooks]
me as a writer: Oh no I can’t write that, somebody else already has
me as a reader: hell yes give me all the fics about this one scenario. The more the merrier
Is it ok to mock teenagers for bad/mediocre writing & artwork?
listen. l i s t e n. listen. kudos does not equal quality. popularity does not equal quality. i have read some “fandom classics” that i could barely fathom how boring or terrible i - personally - found them, and i have stumbled across some absolute gems that didn’t even break 100 kudos.
what is good doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves. it’s sad, but true. just because you haven’t - or possibly never take - off in fandom doesn’t mean your work isn’t astounding and beautiful, it doesn’t mean you should stop writing; it just means that a very select corner of the internet missed the diamond in the rough.
fanfiction is flooded with content, there are so many of us out there producing it these days, and having a fic that takes off is almost as much about luck as it is about talent. never let a few artificial numbers on the internet dictate to you what is and isn’t worthy writing.
additionally, you don’t have to read or enjoy fics just bcs they’re big. i cannot count the amount of times i’ve read the first paragraph of something fandom adores and immediatly exited out of it.
just… do what makes you happy. write what you wanna write, read what you wanna read. understand that while we all want recognition - and some deserve it more than others - we did not get into fanfiction for that recognition.
recognition is good, but sometimes we get all tangled up chasing it and stop enjoying writing and reading and fandom as a whole along the way. be careful of that, please, or you’ll burn yourself out.
Suffering from writer’s block? Why not develop your character a little bit more?
“WRITE IT BADLY. Write it badly, write it badly, write it badly, write it badly. Stop what you’re doing, open a Word document, put a pencil on some paper, just get the idea out of your head. Let it be good later. Write it down now. Otherwise it will die in there.”
— Brandon Sanderson on overcoming writer’s block to create a first draft as a professional author
W o aH
Writing Websites
1. a website with a list of superpowers and what they are
2. a website that generates random au ideas
3. a website that generates names, basic info and futures in a bunch of languages
4. a website that checks your grammar
5. website that lists types of execution in the states
6. a website with info on death certificates
7. a website with info on the four manners of death
8. a website with info on the black plague
9. website with information on depression
10. a website with info on the four types of suicide
11. website that lists famous quotes
12. website with different kinds of quotes
13. a website with info on food in every country
14. a website with a list of different colors
15. website with a list of medieval jobs
16. website with a list of fabrics
17. website with a list of flowers and pictures
18. website with a list of flowers and no pictures
19. website with a list of poisonous plants
20. website with a list of poisonous and non-poisonous plants
21. website with a list of things not to feed your animals
22. website with a list of poisons that can be used to kill people
23. website with info on the international date line
24. website with a list of food allergies
25. website with a list of climates
26. website with info on allergic reactions
27. website with info on fahrenheit and celsius
28. website with info on color blindness
29. website with a list of medical equipment
30. website with a list of bugs
31. website with an alphabetic list of bugs and their scientific name
32. website with a list of eye colors
33. website (wikipedia sorry) with list of drinks
34. website with a list of religions
35. website with a list of different types of doctors and what they do
36. website (wikipedia again sorry) with a list of hair colors
37. website that generates fantasy names
38. website with a list of body language
39. website with a list of disabilities
40. website with an alphabetic list of disabilities
SITES FOR WRITERS
Fantasy name generator
Fighter’s block - try to defeat a monster by writing
Child’s Traits Calculator ; predict a child’s appearance
Child’s Traits Calculator ; predict other traits
Fifty Plot Twist Ideas For Your Work-In-Progress!
Name generator (Character, Baby, Last name, etc.)
Plot generator ; Inspiration for your next novel, film or short story
Character generator ; Generate Rich Characters in Seconds
Writing Exercises ; This site provides (completely free) writing prompts and exercises to help you get started with creative writing and break through writing blocks.
Notebook ; create your characters, worlds, objects, places, etc. and save them
Festisite ; Create a fake license, marriage certificate, credit card, ticket and you can find other stuff as well.
The most common last names in the US
Lists of most common surnames
List of most popular given names
List of the least common surnames [last names] in America, rank 16,001-20,000
Fantasy name generator (again)
Random Name Generator (Choose origins, gender, etc.)
Said is dead (Remember that you can use said, don’t use it to less.)
How Much Blood Can The Human Body Lose?
How Long Can Someone Go Without Breathing?
The 6 Types of Collars Every Man Should Know by Name
18 Different Types of Sleeves Design Patterns
What are the most widely practiced religions of the world?
Differences Between a Short Story, Novelette, Novella, & a Novel
Hemingway editor ; It grades your writing by its readability.
Zen writer ; writing without distractions (Might not be free after a while)
33 Ways to Write Stronger Characters
75+ bad habits for your character
30 SCENE IDEAS FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
10 Things Writers Don’t Know About The Woods
British and American terms
Free writing worksheets
Feel free to add more!
why you should keep writing your story
because it’s a puzzle no one else will ever arrange the same way as you.
because there are ideas that simply won’t come to you until you write down the wrong words.
because all the bad scenes are the bones of the wonderful scenes.
because someone will love it: someone will read it once, and twice, and thrice; someone will ramble to you about the complexity of it; someone will doodle your characters out of love; someone will find it in exactly what they were looking for with or without knowing it.
because they have things to say, your characters. they’ve told you all those secrets and they have more to tell you, if you will listen.
because you love it even when you don’t; even when it drives you mad or when it accidentally turns into apathy; even when you think you’re doing it all wrong; you love it, and it loves you back.
because you can get a treasure even from things that go wrong; because if a story crumbles down you can build a shinier one on the same spot; because you won’t know where it will take you until it takes you there.
look…………….. write as much shitty fic as you want. nobody can stop you. you’re learning constantly and it’s better to write hackneyed implausible ridiculousness than it is to not write at all out of fear of fucking up. you’re good
SITES FOR WRITERS
Fantasy name generator
Fighter’s block - try to defeat a monster by writing
Child’s Traits Calculator ; predict a child’s appearance
Child’s Traits Calculator ; predict other traits
Fifty Plot Twist Ideas For Your Work-In-Progress!
Name generator (Character, Baby, Last name, etc.)
Plot generator ; Inspiration for your next novel, film or short story
Character generator ; Generate Rich Characters in Seconds
Writing Exercises ; This site provides (completely free) writing prompts and exercises to help you get started with creative writing and break through writing blocks.
Notebook ; create your characters, worlds, objects, places, etc. and save them
Festisite ; Create a fake license, marriage certificate, credit card, ticket and you can find other stuff as well.
The most common last names in the US
Lists of most common surnames
List of most popular given names
List of the least common surnames [last names] in America, rank 16,001-20,000
Fantasy name generator (again)
Random Name Generator (Choose origins, gender, etc.)
Said is dead (Remember that you can use said, don’t use it to less.)
How Much Blood Can The Human Body Lose?
How Long Can Someone Go Without Breathing?
The 6 Types of Collars Every Man Should Know by Name
18 Different Types of Sleeves Design Patterns
What are the most widely practiced religions of the world?
Differences Between a Short Story, Novelette, Novella, & a Novel
Hemingway editor ; It grades your writing by its readability.
Zen writer ; writing without distractions (Might not be free after a while)
33 Ways to Write Stronger Characters
75+ bad habits for your character
30 SCENE IDEAS FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
10 Things Writers Don’t Know About The Woods
British and American terms
Free writing worksheets
Feel free to add more!
Finnaly...
Normally, I wouldn't post something about my gaming, but I literally got over 3k words written because I forced myself to write something every time I died to this child...
It was a surprisingly effective method for circumventing my procrastination, but I think it is one I should use sparingly for my own sanity....