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Some Last Minute NaNoWriMo Advice for This, The Plague Year

Hey NanoWrimos, you may be thinking ‘gosh, what a terrible year to try to write a novel’ and you’d be right! It’s not been a great year for being creative, shockingly! And you’re probably thinking, ‘well gee, here comes Agent Black to tell us to suck it up because that’s the spirit of NaNo’ because that’s what we expect from writing advice, don’t we?

Well, I’m not gonna say that.

NaNoWriMo is - and always will be - a very helpful month for trying to accomplish a big thing in a short amount of time. It’s great help to some. It’s stressful to others, and especially in this year of all the bad things, you should not be giving yourself stress you don’t need.

I will gently encourage you to do NaNoWriMo, no matter how you modify it to best suit your needs. If you think you can’t do 50,000 words but you might be able to do 25,000, great! If you think the best you can manage this year is a solid out, character sheets, and a plan to keep going, great!

It is helpful to have a solid goal, and with more lockdowns coming down the pipe, it might help to have a winter project. If those appeal to you, NaNoWriMo might be a good fit. If you can’t put a single word to the page because you’re too worried about everything, there are other ways to be creative. It’s not failure to take a break from writing, even in the month for it.

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Writer’s Block: 5 Ways to Help Yourself Over the Hump!

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. World Anvil, a 2022 NaNoWriMo sponsor, helps you develop and organize your characters, plot, and world setting. Today, World Anvil founder Janet Forbes is here to share some pro tips for world-building. Don’t forget to check out the offer to NaNoWriMo writers for 40% off a World Anvil membership!

Writer’s Block can hit anyone—but particularly when you’re writing a novel under time pressure (like during NaNoWriMo) it can be really tough! 

But you CAN get yourself over the hump! These 5 tips will get you out of writer’s block, and on with your novel writing—because just like NaNoWriMo, at World Anvil we believe the world needs your story, and we want to help you tell it! <3 

1. Explore your world-building

If you’re the kind of person that has a detailed world bible, sometimes just reading through it is enough to spark your inspiration. If you’ve created a world meta, you’ll already have an idea of current affairs and events in your world. Bringing in a plot thread from those is a great way to get things moving again if your character feels stuck. It can help introduce secondary conflicts which don’t revolve around the main character, making them feel less like the centre of the universe (Mary Sue, anyone?)! The magic sentence to ask yourself is, “If this, then what?”: 

Keep reading

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Needless to say, I am HORRIFIED.

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#poetry #poem #fate #writing #creative #writer 

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Things I want to see more in romance (sub-plots and main plots)

(Not necessarily in this order)

1. Rivals to lovers

2. Opposite aesthetics (ex.: red & blue)

3. Lovers to friends 

4. Healthy relationships 

5. Toxic relationships that are shown as bad

6. POC + POC (most of the time it’s a white person + POC)

7. Very slow burn (takes a bunch of books)

8. Consent!

9. Confessing without kissing

10. Pretending they still hate/can’t stand each other to keep their “reputation” when their together

11. When they end up together but still go on adventures, quests, etc.

12. Ghosts. That’s it.

13. The girl is the magical one (vampire, etc.) and the guy is human (or just make it LGBTQ+)

14. Lesbians and pansexuals in sci-fi

15. Person A gets jealous that person B is paying more attention to a cat/dog/etc

16. Person A teaches person B words in another/their native language

17. Person A gives something (like a bracelet, etc.) to person B, who will treasure it, and at some point person A is suprised person B still has it

18. They’re both dumb, but in different ways so they compensate each other

19. More soulmate AUs, but in books

20. Having fights, but being able to talk it out (especially if it’s an easy misunderstanding to get over)

BONUS

21. More of side character thing (or not) but old couples

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I just told this to someone, but -

If you struggle writing romantic relationships in a happy manner but you want to portray one, give a try to writing fanfic of your wips in one shots of indulging romantic scenarios between your characters that will give you glimpses of how they can fit together

And piece by piece you'll eventually get the full puzzle and a better grasp of how they can both get together, and stay together

Plus you get to explore the characters and know them better without exhausting the actual wip you want to write

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reminders for writers

you are talented, and more than capable of creating something extraordinary

your way of telling a story is unique, there’s not a single story in this world that could, or would, ever be told the same way, by any writer;

meaning, you bring something remarkable to the table, a story that never would have been told, if it wasn’t for you

and no amount of self-doubt is going to change that

— D

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Write for yourself. No, this approach is not selfish. Write for yourself because you need to fall in love with your story. You will have to edit this thing, you will have to rewrite some parts, you will have to work on it. If you don’t like it, you won’t find enough motivation to finish it. Don’t write for the market, write for yourself.

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Write. Just write.

That thing you’re scared of working on in fear of it not meeting your expectations?

Write it anyway. You can always edit it later.

At some point you’re going to have to face your fear or you’ll be treading water.

— D

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SETTING A WRITING ROUTINE Recently I've talking about writing every day (found here) and I know I've touched on writing routines before, but I wanted to talk some more about getting yourself into a routine because I feel like a lot of the advice is telling people to just write every day and then they'll have their routine. This isn't wrong, part of setting a routine is repeating it enough times that your brain recognises it, but I do feel like telling people that the only way to do that is to sit down and write every single day, is gonna lead to a lot of burnout and have new writers forcing themselves into a routine that doesn't suit them, and doesn't help their writing. So what can you do if you're new to writing and really want to make it something that you do frequently? How do you make it part of a routine? And how do you go about it without stretching yourself too thin and burning yourself out? How do you make it sustainable over a long period of time? I can tell you that writing every day might work in the short term, but not over months and months, we, as humans, are just not built that way. I thought that I would give you some tips when it comes to setting that writing routine, and doing it in a way that, I hope, is healthy for you, your writing, and your mental health. #1 TRY TO PLAN & START SMALL I know that anyone who's been on the blog for a while knows that I plan a whole ton when it comes to my writing time, or my time in general. I do this because it allows me to know what I'm supposed to be doing and when, and all that goes with it. Setting a writing routine, or any routine, is easier to do if you plan for it. When I say start small, I do mean start small. If you're someone with lots of free time, that's less of an issue, but if you've got other commitments, like a day job, or kids, or anything like that, you might not have much time free as it is, and trying to squeeze writing into every small chunk of time you do have is just gonna burn you out, and we don't want that. So, start small, choose a time frame that suits you, it can be as small as five minutes before bed, or when the kids are napping and the like. It doesn't have to be a huge chunk of time, because sometimes you get into that mindset where it must be hours and hours or else it doesn't count, and that's just not true. However long you choose, plan for it, tell people that you need this time to write, but at the same time, it's okay to sacrifice it if there's a problem, or an emergency. You gotta do what works for you, and that's okay. #2 KNOW WHICH PROJECT YOU'LL BE WORKING ON This applies more to people who are working on more than one thing, but it can also apply to those who don't. Like if you're planning to spend five minutes writing a scene, know ahead of time what scene and if you outline and plan, what's going to happen in it, make sure you have that outline with you, and if you don't plan, or outline, then try and think about what you're going to have happen a bit before the writing starts. This allows you to pretty much jump into the writing and get yourself off to a good start. #3 ALLOW FOR DAYS OFF Listen, it wouldn't be me if I didn't advocate for breaks. If you set a schedule to write for five minutes for five days, then you should be taking time off. Even if you don't write one of those days, you still need to be taking that time off. Time off isn't something that needs to be earned, it's very much something you should have by default. You are human, and things will come up, and that's okay, you need to take time to recharge and relax and anyone telling you different is wrong, yes, even if that someone is your own inner critic. #4 REMEMBER THAT IT TAKES AS LONG AS IT TAKES, AND THAT'S OKAY Building a writing routine takes time, you are not going to do it twice and then all set. It takes time, and effort, and it may take longer than you'd like, it may not, but it's good to be prepared for it to take a while. It doesn't matter how much time you put into your writing

sessions, it's just gonna take as long as it takes, and that's okay. It might feel like everyone else is already there, but I promise you they're not. I have gone from one routine to the other throughout my writing time, and it always is a bit of an adjustment, but when you reach that golden moment of having a solid routine, it's all worth it. So be kind to yourself, and remember to just let it take whatever time it needs. So there we go, those are my four tips on setting a writing routine. I feel like now that Camp NaNoWriMo is under way, people will be doing their own thing, and reigniting their love of writing. But just remember that you don't have to write every single day for the rest of your life. Even if you do it for a period, just keep taking those breaks so that you don't burn out. Any questions? Lemme know in the comments!

Follow Joey here on her blog, or on Facebook or Tumblr to be kept up to date with the latest news regarding Joey and her books

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5 Things to Remember When Your Brain's Trying To Convince You Your Writing Sucks/Doesn't Matter

1. No you're not perfect, but no one is.

2. You're not as terrible as you think - artists are their biggest critics.

3. If you're writing in a 2nd language, you are automatically incredible and should be INCREDIBLY proud, not embarrassed. You're a god/dess.

4. The fact that you trusted yourself enough to start writing, you should be proud of. You're amazing and should be commended, not put down.

5. You are amazing. There is a lot of time and care that goes into writing, and the fact that you have the spirit, energy and motivation to write should also be point of pride, even if you're convinced your writing sucks. You're putting so much effort and time into these works. That takes a whole other set of skills - whether or not the writing itself or plot or whatever the hell else is polished.

People try to write writing off as "anyone can do it," but few of these people bother to even try, so they'll never understand the struggle that goes behind writing.

Keep pushing forward and remember to stop to be PROUD of your writing and not always look for the bad things to improve.

🤍

-H

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the sheer offensiveness of rereading something you wrote, discovering that, hey, it’s actually pretty good, and then reaching the end, wherein you realize that if you want more you actually have to write it

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You got a good new job, have learned quickly and done well, and you’ve just been invited to meet the boss. Outside the boss’ office, you find a cache of weapons and medical supplies, and the ambient music in the office changes. You wonder what kind of boss you work for.

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Fey gain power over someone by having their name, the most powerful of Fey wouldn’t be kings or queens, but coffee shop baristas.

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Three months ago I pitched an idea for a party game. Today, ‘WHAT THE PLOT?!™’ is a real game and available for pre-order! I am so excited. Thank you everyone for your support!

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My Writing Advice

I’ve been writing for about six or seven years now and… well I’ve seen a lot of other people do writing advice posts, so I guess I’ll do one too bc I feel like I’ve learned a lot over the years.

It’s okay if your writing isn’t “perfect”. Whatever reason you might feel like it’s not good enough - you’re not confident bc english isn’t your first language, you’re bad with grammar, spelling, and/or punctuation, you can’t remember which their/there/they’re to use - is totally fine! Every writer makes mistakes, even published authors, and that’s okay. The occasional spelling error or grammar mistake reminds people that the writer is human, and makes people like me appreciate their work that much more.

You will hate your old works. I’m not gonna sugarcoat this, but when you look back at your very first writing piece, you will definitely cringe. That’s okay though, because what you wrote then was preparing you to write what you’re writing now. Sometimes your old writing will seem like it has no flow or a weird plot, but that’s all part of growing as a writer.

Writing is all about learning. Additionally to my previous point, it’s important to remember (especially when looking back on your old writing) that it’s all a learning curve. With everything you write, you are growing and learning as a writer, you’re gaining knowledge and experience and understanding of what it truly is to be a writer. When you look back on your old writing, try and look at the things that make you cringe, and you’ll see that you don’t make those mistakes in your writing anymore.

Copying is okay. I’m not saying take someone else’s writing and copy it word for word and call it yours; what I mean is, if you get a little inspiration from something else (a book, movie, tv show, etc) it’s okay to use that. Original ideas can be hard to come by and if you’re nervous about the originality of your work, you can always say in the description where the idea was from (“yes, this was inspired by She Ra, shush”). Even famous artist Vincent Van Gogh started off by copying paintings by Japanese artists, which made me feel a bit better about not always being 100% original.

Write from personal experience. Your life is probably an original idea. If you have an interesting story to share, write it! Whether they’re fanfics based on your life or true retellings of your experiences, it’s always good to use your own memories. Writing like this is also a good way of coping with grief or mental health issues, as getting the story out, in whatever way possible, can provide closure and relief.

Start off with scripts. This is more of a writing strategy than advice, but if it’s hard to get into a story, try writing as a kind of script first. Like this:

Sam: I mean that’s me, long limbs just flailing all over the place like a baby deer-

Owen: also you’re top heavy because of all the muscle on your shoulders and all your hair-

Sam: ... ( ¬︡  ͟ʖ ¬︠ )

This would probably be written like this:

“I mean, that’s me,” Sam said with a shrug, “long limbs just flailing all over the place like a baby deer-”

“Also you’re top heavy because of all the muscle on your shoulders and your hair.” Owen interrupted smugly.

Sam didn’t respond, just frowned at him in irritation.

Remember, in script-writing;

*write actions in asterisks like this*

{write internal dialogue like this}

Put the characters name before a colon: then write what they say or do.

And with all that, the most important thing to remember about writing is;

YOU ARE WRITING FOR YOURSELF, AND NO ONE ELSE.

Don’t ever let anyone force you to change the way you write. Don’t let someone tell you you’re a “bad writer”. Or, to use a quote from none other than yours truly, “If you happen to enjoy my writing I'm glad, but if you don't I don't owe you shit so just don't read it.”

Now go out there and get writing my children!

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/sees fossils of older dinosaur and baby dinosaurs intertwined in a way that implies the adult died crouching over the nest trying to protect them from a natural disaster/ oh my god it died crouching over the nest trying to protect them from a natural disaster 😭