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GENTLE WRITING ADVICE:
Write at your own pace. Progress is progress, sometimes in inches, sometimes in miles. It’s okay that it’s hard. Other writers are cheerleading you on just as you cheerlead them because we all want our stories out in the world, told and heard.
Not sorry?
Write at your own pace. Progress is progress, sometimes in inches, sometimes in miles. It’s okay that it’s hard. Other writers are cheerleading you on just as you cheerlead them because we all want our stories out in the world, told and heard.
Not sorry?
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
It’s okay to feel like you don’t know what you’re doing because nobody knows what they’re doing, we’re all just making it up as we go along. It’s a big game of make-believe both in and out of the fiction.
It’s okay to feel like you don’t know what you’re doing because nobody knows what they’re doing, we’re all just making it up as we go along. It’s a big game of make-believe both in and out of the fiction.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
There is no one way to write, no one magical process, no map to follow that hasn’t already been burned, no formula, no equation. You relearn how to write every time you sit down to start a new story. It’s okay. It’s normal.
There is no one way to write, no one magical process, no map to follow that hasn’t already been burned, no formula, no equation. You relearn how to write every time you sit down to start a new story. It’s okay. It’s normal.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE:
Of course you have impostor syndrome. You’re an imposter. I’m an imposter. Writers are a community of imposters, an island of misfit toys, that’s how we belong together. It’s wonderful and weird and it’s okay to feel that way. Let it empower you.
Of course you have impostor syndrome. You’re an imposter. I’m an imposter. Writers are a community of imposters, an island of misfit toys, that’s how we belong together. It’s wonderful and weird and it’s okay to feel that way. Let it empower you.
Cont’d: writers are a party attended only by people not invited to the party. A boat captained by stowaways. An avalanche of singular snowflakes. It’s cool. You’re doing fine.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
Even a little goes a long way. A spare, simple 350 words a day, weekends off, can earn you the first draft of a novel in one year. A huge triumph. Most people write one novel every never. You can proceed slowly, carefully, and still move mountains.
Even a little goes a long way. A spare, simple 350 words a day, weekends off, can earn you the first draft of a novel in one year. A huge triumph. Most people write one novel every never. You can proceed slowly, carefully, and still move mountains.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
You often have to write a lot of not-great stuff before you write good stuff. It’s normal. And you’re not the best judge of your own work anyway. So, just write. It’s part of the process, the good, the bad, the uncertain. Write anyway. Take the mad leap.
You often have to write a lot of not-great stuff before you write good stuff. It’s normal. And you’re not the best judge of your own work anyway. So, just write. It’s part of the process, the good, the bad, the uncertain. Write anyway. Take the mad leap.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
Some days will be easier and some days will be harder. And the days of your best work won’t always be the easy days, and the hard days don’t mean the work is bad. It’s just the way of things sometimes. Just keep going.
Some days will be easier and some days will be harder. And the days of your best work won’t always be the easy days, and the hard days don’t mean the work is bad. It’s just the way of things sometimes. Just keep going.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
Your creativity isn’t a well that runs dry. It’s an ocean. It has high tide, and low tide. But it never runs out. It has unseen depths and rough water. It has pirate treasure and bitey fish. Sometimes you get your feet wet. Sometimes it sweeps you away.
Your creativity isn’t a well that runs dry. It’s an ocean. It has high tide, and low tide. But it never runs out. It has unseen depths and rough water. It has pirate treasure and bitey fish. Sometimes you get your feet wet. Sometimes it sweeps you away.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
Originality is overrated in fiction. Don’t sweat it. Stories are timeless. What’s original about a story is you. The author chooses the elements and tropes to remix, rewire. Stories comprise known atoms; the author arranges them in new narrative molecules.
Originality is overrated in fiction. Don’t sweat it. Stories are timeless. What’s original about a story is you. The author chooses the elements and tropes to remix, rewire. Stories comprise known atoms; the author arranges them in new narrative molecules.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
With your first book or your fortieth you still feel at points like it’s awful, like you don’t know what you’re doing, like you should quit. It’s okay. Care less. Absolve yourself of that pressure. Take most — not all! — of the fucks out of your fuckbasket.
With your first book or your fortieth you still feel at points like it’s awful, like you don’t know what you’re doing, like you should quit. It’s okay. Care less. Absolve yourself of that pressure. Take most — not all! — of the fucks out of your fuckbasket.
contd: when writing any book I often punctuate the process with sharp, sudden doubt around the 33% and 66% marks. I know the doubt is coming, so I shoulder past it. I don’t question my judgment overall, but realize that I’m wandering the dark forest and must push on to get out.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
Process is all well and good until your process becomes a prison. Nobody can tell you your process, and your process can evolve from story to story. The book needs what the book needs. It’s a river and sometimes it carries you instead of you carrying it.
Process is all well and good until your process becomes a prison. Nobody can tell you your process, and your process can evolve from story to story. The book needs what the book needs. It’s a river and sometimes it carries you instead of you carrying it.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
Don’t worry about trends, tropes, or genres that are supposed to be hot (or not). I’d rather read the story you wanted to write then the one you thought I wanted you to write. Cozy vampire mystery in space? You do you, writer friend. Let your weird out.
Don’t worry about trends, tropes, or genres that are supposed to be hot (or not). I’d rather read the story you wanted to write then the one you thought I wanted you to write. Cozy vampire mystery in space? You do you, writer friend. Let your weird out.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
They often say you have to murder your darlings. But sometimes the opposite advice is true: you need to know what hills you’re willing to die on, what parts of the tale must remain because to you they make the story whole. Because they make the story YOURS.
They often say you have to murder your darlings. But sometimes the opposite advice is true: you need to know what hills you’re willing to die on, what parts of the tale must remain because to you they make the story whole. Because they make the story YOURS.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
A real writer is a writer who writes.
You don’t need an MFA.
A real writer is a writer who writes.
You don’t need an MFA.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
“Write what you know” is an opportunity to know more, not a limitation on what you can write. It’s a chance to plumb emotional depths and personal truths. Also a chance to go live life and to read more books. It’s not a commandment. It’s a weightless idea.
“Write what you know” is an opportunity to know more, not a limitation on what you can write. It’s a chance to plumb emotional depths and personal truths. Also a chance to go live life and to read more books. It’s not a commandment. It’s a weightless idea.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
All writing advice should be taken with the same weight you give to a person giving you directions or suggesting a pair of shoes to wear — it is highly personal, totally subjective, and is born almost entirely of survivorship bias. Don’t sweat it.
All writing advice should be taken with the same weight you give to a person giving you directions or suggesting a pair of shoes to wear — it is highly personal, totally subjective, and is born almost entirely of survivorship bias. Don’t sweat it.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
You can use dialogue tags other than “said.” Adverbs won’t shoot your parents out in front of an opera house. You can write an unlikable character who describes the weather while looking in a mirror. You just have to make it work. What works, works. Simple.
You can use dialogue tags other than “said.” Adverbs won’t shoot your parents out in front of an opera house. You can write an unlikable character who describes the weather while looking in a mirror. You just have to make it work. What works, works. Simple.
(contd) We ask for and then codify these UNFUCKWITHABLE ROCK HARD RULES OF WRITING GRR because writing is a chaos parade and it helps to have answers. But very few rules are actually rules. The ground is soft beneath our feet. Just do what feels right and make it work.
(cont) We like to say that ahh yes those IRONCLAD RULES are actually for beginners, which is fine, except that once in a while a beginner breaking a “rule” they didn’t know is a good instinct, not a bad one, and it is a shame to demand correction. To extract the art from the art.
(contd) We learn the rules so we know when to break them, and we break the rules to realize when we need them. The goal can be intentionality, too, but sometimes in writing we discover much UNintentionally — there is wonder in that chaos, sometimes.
(Contd, final) And of course actual technical writing has rules (though even there, we can break them as long as clarity is achieved). But storytelling is an unclaimed frontier. It has no rules, only suggestions. It is of infinite shape and boundary.
P.S. prologues are ok too
P.S. prologues are ok too
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
It’s okay if you are your own Ideal Reader. You don’t always need to write to The Market or Some Audience. Write the books you wanna read. Those are the stories for which you have Feelings
and so those may be the stories that you will care about the most.
It’s okay if you are your own Ideal Reader. You don’t always need to write to The Market or Some Audience. Write the books you wanna read. Those are the stories for which you have Feelings
and so those may be the stories that you will care about the most.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
You don’t have to get it right the first time. Or the second. You have as many chances to write and rewrite a story as you’d like. And contrary to opinion it’s okay to quit a story too. Just don’t quit all of them.
You don’t have to get it right the first time. Or the second. You have as many chances to write and rewrite a story as you’d like. And contrary to opinion it’s okay to quit a story too. Just don’t quit all of them.
GENTLE WRITING ADVICE
You’re doing great. Take whatever breaks you need, go as slow as you have to (or as fast as you can), and don’t compare yourself to other writers because that game is one you always lose. Like pinball, or Canadian badger wrestling, or unfettered capitalism.
You’re doing great. Take whatever breaks you need, go as slow as you have to (or as fast as you can), and don’t compare yourself to other writers because that game is one you always lose. Like pinball, or Canadian badger wrestling, or unfettered capitalism.
