nowrimomo

[nowrimomo]

Any advice for people who have lots of Thoughts™️ about fictional characters but who have not, in the past, enjoyed the act of writing? I was always bad at it in school, which didn't help, and I know ~"you should write it even if it's bad"~ however I am still a recovering perfectionist and this is easier said than done (hence the not enjoying it). Add on top of that that writing fiction is very different from writing a 5 paragraph persuasive essay or whatever else they taught in school, so the little I do know doesn't feel applicable. (I'd just draw fanart instead, but my abilities do not lie there either lol). But I desperately want a way to actually engage in fandoms instead of just lurking in the shadows, and you seem to be quite knowledgeable about writing

Okay so first of all I am SO EXCITED for you because you get to start a new creative pursuit and it's one that comes with a huge community of like-minded people. One of my absolute favourite things in fandom is getting to see people posting their first fic. Truly a magical experience. I am always so so proud of them.

Second, have a quote from Jodi Picoult which is a favourite amongst my beloved writing group:

You can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.

The trick with writing is that in order to do it, you have to do it. In this way it is similar to the majority of human endeavour.

If you genuinely hate the process then my sincere advice is to not do this. You've only got, like, 100 years at the outside on this little rock. Better not to spend any of them doing things you do not enjoy in your leisure time, if at all possible. Make playlists or reclists, start conversations, take up podficcing, take up fic binding, write meta about your character thoughts, do something congenial to you (and some part of fandom must be congenial to you or you wouldn't like. Be here.)

However. If you do want to write, and you think you could learn to love the process, or at least want to try, here are some inroads you could take a crack at:

Outline your idea rather than trying to write it as a polished narrative and post that. I do this a lot. Sometimes I then go back and actually write the fic, sometimes someone else writes the fic for me, which is delightful. (This looks like "So I'm thinking about a fic in which Aloysius inherits a haunted mansion..." etc.)

Use an established format. The only one of these still remotely in fashion is 5 + 1 fics, I think (back in my day we wrote songfics and listfics and Very Secret Diaries riffs but I think if you do that last one now Cassandra Clare steals your lunch maybe idk). This I also do all the time, as a way to break the seal on a new fandom. The format is such that you're practically just filling in the blanks. You could do something like this in as little as six sentences.

Try epistolary format (letters/texts/emails/post-it notes/notes scribbled in the margins of a notebook/whatever). This cuts all the tricky bits of prose narrative and allows you to focus on the events of a story using a form of writing you are undoubtedly already comfortable with.

Try a retelling. This is what the pros do when they're stuck & it's just fanfic layered with fanfic, really. Crack open a copy of your favourite fairy tale and just rewrite it. Sentence for sentence if you like, with nothing more than names and details changed. Pick a single scene from something you like and rewrite it for The Characters.

There are probably a million more ways to approach this, but the overall point is to get you to start. You simply cannot do a thing without doing the thing. Once you've started, then you can worry about improvement. Or not. You are not obliged to be 'good' at writing in order to do it. Many professional career writers are fucking awful.

A bonus few things I wish I could personally carve into the inside of every new writer's skull:

You are allowed to write more than one story in your life, the first one does not have to say Everything You've Ever Wanted To Say or contain Every Single Idea You've Had. It's probably better if it doesn't, even!

It is orders of magnitude better to finish a very short story that has a complete arc than to get 10% in to an epic and then stop because you don't know how to continue it. If all your writing practice involves writing openings and then stopping, you are teaching yourself to write openings and then stop. Better to write 100 words and have it be a complete story than 10,000 words of introduction.

There's no such thing as 'good' or 'bad' art and you should be suspicious of anyone who tells you there is. The measure of success in art is that it's what you meant it to be.

You cannot possibly please everyone. The person you should focus on pleasing is yourself, because you are the only person obliged to interact with your work. Might as well be fun for you.

Talent isn't real. Anyone who appears to be 'talented' has put a lot of hours of work into doing the thing they're doing.

If you take no other advice from this list, take this piece: read more. Read widely. Read old books, read new books. Read people's dropped grocery lists. Read amateurs, read professionals, read poetry and lyrics and the backs of shampoo bottles. The more words you absorb, the more you have to draw from when you sit down to write.

All that said: please imagine me rolling out the welcome mat and blowing a party whistle while eagerly beckoning you to come in and join the wider writing community.

[nowrimomo]

I've already said that my number one piece of writing advice is to read.

But my number two piece of advice is this: be deliberate.

Honestly this would fix so many pieces of bad writing advice. Don't forbid people from doing something, tell them to be conscious and deliberate about it. This could help stop people from falling into common mistakes without limiting their creativity. Black and white imperatives may stop a few annoying beginner habits, but ultimately they will restrict artistic expression.

Instead of "don't use epithets": "Know the effect epithets have and be deliberate about using them." Because yes, beginners often misuse them, but they can be useful when a character's name isn't known or when you want to reduce them to a particular trait they have.

Instead of "don't use 'said'" or "just use 'said'": "Be deliberate about your use of dialogue tags." Because sometimes you'll want "said" which fades into the background nicely, but sometimes you will need a more descriptive alternative to convey what a character is doing.

Instead of "don't use passive voice": "Be deliberate about when you use passive voice." Because using it when it's not needed can detract from your writing, but sometimes it can be useful to change the emphasis of a sentence or to portray a particular state of mind.

Instead of blindly following or ignorantly neglecting the rules of writing, familiarize yourself with them and their consequences so you can choose when and if breaking them would serve what you're trying to get across.

Your writing is yours. Take control of it.

It probably sounds like I'm preaching to the choir here because most of my mutuals are already great writers. But I'm hoping this will make it to the right people.

[nowrimomo]

Re-sharing this post I found on Twitter for people looking for alternatives to NaNo. I haven't tried any of these sites but they might be worth looking into.

[nowrimomo]

*taps mic*

Fuck NaNoWriMo

It's always been a shit way to write a book. Slamming through fifty thousand words in a month leads to burnout and a garbage draft you'll spend more time unfucking than if you'd actually just paced yourself.

I'm proposing Novel Outline November

Start with your idea on November 1st.

Write something for your novel every day. The only unacceptable amount is 0.

Attempt to complete the plot in 50K words. Stick with that as a limiting factor so you focus on what's most important to your story.

When it's done it's done! Everyone is a winner!

You will

Develop good writing habits

Challenge yourself to write long form

Create a base that can be expanded into commercial fiction (70-100K) or genre fiction (100-110K)

Happy writing!

[nowrimomo]

Free Resource Library for Fiction Writers

Hey all, I maintain a free library of downloads and checklists for fiction writers which you can access through my website. This is what's current, but I update it and add stuff all the time. They're all printable, too! Woo hoo!

Download the Free Resource Library right here.

Get Access to the Free Resource Library on my website :)

Hope this helps!

/ / / / /

@theliteraryarchitect is a writing advice blog run by me, Bucket Siler, a writer and developmental editor. For more writing help, download my Free Resource Library for Fiction Writers (yep, this one!), join my email list, or check out my book The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.

[nowrimomo]

"Would anyone want to read --" Listen, imma stop you right there. Yes. YES, someone would want to read that. You write that weird little fucked up story. Or that domestic little slice of life story. That drabble or that 300k monster.

I promise someone wants to read it.

[nowrimomo]

writing tip #3695:

meet other writers so you can procrastinate together

[nowrimomo]

When it comes to sex scenes, the rules say things like: Don’t write them at all, and if you do, don’t use these words. Don’t write them silly, porny, dramatic, tragic, pathological, grim, or ridiculous.

My whole practical thesis around the craft of writing a sex scene is this: it is exactly the same as any other scene. Our isolation of sex from other kinds of scenes is not indicative of sex’s difference, but the difference in our relationship to sex. It is our reluctance to name things, the shame we’ve been taught, our fraught compulsion to an act a theatre of types. It is indicative of the lack of imagination that centuries of patriarchy and white supremacy has wrought on us. 

To teach sex scenes is to talk about plot, dialogue, pacing, description and characterisation: all those elements that make a captivating scene. A sex scene should advance the story and occur in a chain of causality that springs from your characters’ choices. It should employ sensory detail that concretises and also speaks symbolically to the deeper content of the story. Or if not, it should service your work of art in whatever ways you want from your scenes.

“Mind Fuck: Writing Better Sex” in Body Work by Melissa Febos

[nowrimomo]

i think we as a society need to use cell phones/laptops/cars/backpacks to flesh out characters

[nowrimomo]

Happy Day 22, Writerly Self Care.

[nowrimomo]

wait why does my toaster look so yonic right now

[nowrimomo]

Just popping in to say thank you! The daily emails have really helped me, and I'm grateful to have something that has turned out to be so nice, to begin filling the NaNo void

Sorry this took a hot minute to respond to! I'm really glad the newsletter's been good for you!

It's nice to look at the archive now at this point in the month and see a nice solid bank of resources. I hope to be a little more prepared next year so I won't miss any days, but I like to hope it's encouraged a lot of people to write more and avoid NaNo.

[nowrimomo]

If generative AI were trained only on public domain works, and was not horrible for the environment, and was always clearly marked computer-generated and never attempted to be passed off as anything else, and was always automatically public domain from creation, literally no one would have a problem with it.

But unfortunately we live in the world where tech billionaires are just stealing from poor people who've in most cases never seen a single cent in return for all of their work, then selling this stolen content to other rich fucks, and allowing it to be used to scam people out of their time and money in various ways and costing artists of all kinds their jobs, and all the while the billionaire fucks and their accomplices are pretending they're all just doing this to help "those poor useless disabled people, who are fundamentally incapable of creating anything for themselves."

yeah fucking right.

[nowrimomo]

Day 3! We tackle core skills for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and fanfiction!

To anyone still doing NaNo: consider, not! The organization has committed itself to insisting AI can replace artists, and used ableism to justify it. Join me in practicing craft, and if you're looking for a community, the discord server that brought you the goncharov lore compendium has pivoted to original work, and we're doing word counts and sprints!

[nowrimomo]

Happy second day of November! Consider ditching NaNo and doing a challenge by a disabled creator instead!

[nowrimomo]

Hey folks! giving up NaNoWriMo because of their shit terrible AI policies and ableism? give another writing challenge a try! happy november!

[nowrimomo]

Today's the day!