#writing hacks

[angrilydancing]

here's a tip if you struggle with being too scared to write bc you want it to be perfect and you don't know where to start: try opening a new document, copy paste what you have so far, and start writing from there. it takes SO MUCH pressure off knowing it's just a separate doc where you can experiment and do whatever you want, trust me but also just write what you love, even if it turns out "bad." write that scene you daydream about or want to read, even if it comes later in the story or you're not going to share it with anyone. let yourself have fun with it

[thatsbelievable]

[joytri]

[inks-books]

[Photo ID: A screen name blocked out in blue says “I would kill for the type of confidence you have.” 

Followed by a screen name blocked out in purple that says “I fake a lot of it but honestly? It comes with writing so much you push out the bad stuff and start seeing the good. But you have to understand that even the good will have some bad but that doesn't make it all bad. It makes it flawed, or more relatable. People don't expect a perfect book for everyone, they expect the book to have good points and bad, and to love it for both sides of the coin. Your writing doesn't have to be perfect to find people that will love it. It just needs you to love it.” /end photo ID]

I just want to remind people that you don’t have to be a perfect writer to be a good writer or for people to love your stories. There’s an inherent beauty in flawed writing that makes us more human and I think if everyone could allow themselves to be imperfect, you could see yourself flourishing a lot sooner and much more beautifully.

[sincerely-sofie]

Hey! Just wanted to say thanks for making a story so well written I feel like I get second-hand depression every time I read the last two chapters. :)

I think I had more of a thing I was trying to do when I thought I should make an ask, so uh... any advice for a very average artist/writer who struggles with finding motivation for writing?

As payment, I offer you this picture of a dog.

Thanks so much for your kind words! I'm real insecure about my writing and it's clarity, so to hear that it's emotionally powerful means a lot to me, hehe :>

Ooooh man. Do I EVER have advice for artist/writer combo creators who struggle to find motivation for writing. C’mere buddy. Lean in reeeaaal close. Your fellow average artist/writer is gonna tell you a secret. Come on. Even closer. You ready? Okay.

The world has conned you into thinking motivation is necessary to write, or even do anything in general. It's a scam. Motivation is nice, but it's just the icing on the cake. You need a cake in the first place to even enjoy it.

(If you're interested, I’ve written about making your own motivation in the past. Intrinsically created motivation is a lot healthier of a sort of motivation to seek out than extrinsically located motivation, which is the motivation I’m mostly referring to in this post. I figure I’d link to it in case you’re having trouble getting enough oomph to want to even consider writing in the first place, as the rest of this post assumes you’re fairly comfortable with the writing process, but have trouble getting it done.)

Before I wrote The Present is a Gift, I had never truly finished a writing project— I had co-written the script for a video game that never got made and wrote the first short story in an anthology I started and never concluded. Other than that, I had nothing but a massive field of stories that I'd endlessly flit back and forth between, adding to each project I landed on for a time, but never lingering long enough to actually see anything to completion. I loved all of my projects and wanted to do them justice by finishing them, but I never was able to do anything close to that. There were multiple reasons for my struggle to do substantial work on my projects— but the greatest reason was by far my refusal to use anything but motivation as a reason to work on projects. I’d wait for myself to feel motivated to write anything. And I would only be motivated so frequently.

I attribute my newfound ability to break from my pattern of abandoning and rescuing projects over and over to one thing— I set up a writing routine.

I chose a time that worked best for me every weekday to pour myself a massive mug of my favorite edible battery acid (tropical punch Tampico, for anyone curious) sit down at my computer, put on my headphones, turn on one of those multi-hour-long pomodoro timer youtube videos that have pretty music in the background, and write. This was also in combination with an attempt to win at NaNoWriMo, a writing challenge where you try to write 50k words in November, which gave me a daily word count target to try and reach or exceed. NaNoWriMo’s deadline was also helpful— and so was a promise I made to myself to not work on projects other than TPiaG before it was completed— but the real reason I actually managed to write TPiaG was because every weekday I’d do my writing routine.

I was not motivated whatsoever at the start. I was anxious, intimidated, and very reluctant to write. But I committed to writing TPiaG to completion, no matter how I felt about it, because a lot of people wanted to read the story, and I didn’t want to let them down. Not the healthiest driving thought process, I will readily say, but it got me to sit in my chair at first. As time went on and I shook off the rust and reluctance, I wouldn’t feel as anxious about writing. I didn’t feel intimidated. I would wake up and think to myself “OH BOY, IT’S WRITING TIME!” and leap out of bed to start my routine. Motivation only came after I had already been writing every weekday for about three weeks. And the motivation stayed for as long as I kept up with my writing routine.

Don’t get me wrong— motivation is important. But waiting until you’re motivated to do something is a very unsteady way to go about life, and in my experience when that thought process is applied to writing, it means you’ll never finish anything and never be satisfied with your work. There’s a quote that I love that says “the motivation comes after you show up.” And it’s absolutely true.

Motivation loves momentum. You can set bait for it by writing consistently for a while, whereupon it will make its way into your brain and make itself at home for as long as you keep up the momentum you’ve gotten. If you just wait for motivation to stumble into you, you might get lucky, but only that— lucky. You won’t have gained any skills in cultivating your own motivation, and when that lucky motivation fizzles out, you’ll be left waiting for the possibility of another brief flash of motivation to take its place before you’re ready to write again.

[blackrosesandwhump]

Rose's Writing Tips #3: Word Lists

Another hack I use to get the words flowing is word lists.

It sounds simple, and it is, but it works, and I always end up writing something, even if it's short.

Here are the two steps:

Make a list of words off the top of your head. One trick I like to use is to start with a word and change one letter for each subsequent word. Example: hollow/follow/fallow/wallow/willow/pillow, etc.

Pick at least three words and write as much as you like (but at least a sentence) about each of them. You can also combine words into a prompt.

I just did this yesterday and ended up writing much more than I expected, which led to three new drafts of flash fiction that I intend to polish up.

Happy writing!

[wildflowergirlie]

Violet Baudelaire knew what was up when she put her hair up to think. this is fr a life changing hack to actually getting writing done.

[starchaserdreams]

writer hack: can't figure out how to end a scene?

don't. it just never ends.

- @cr-amber (while writing with me and @hopelessreggie)

[lesbian-disaster-academic]

hi!! I really love your blog🥹🥹if it’s okay with you, can you give me some advices how to wire a good essay? I am really struggling maybe due to adhd or is it just because of me it just seems really hard and I would REALLY appreciate your advice (no pressure ❤️) thank you, have a nice day!!❤️

Hi! Thank you so much! This is such a good question, and I'd be happy to help you out as best I can! First of all, I completely empathize with you! Essays can be really tricky, and it takes some practice to get a hang of it. I know how frustrating it can be (cut-scene to me lying on the floor, curled up in a ball and on the verge of tears because I can't get the words to go), but try to be kind to yourself! Take breaks and ask for help when you need it! And remember to eat and stay hydrated! Very important!

Secondly, I'm situating this within the framework of the dominant education system within the West (as that's what I'm most familiar with). I don't necessarily agree with all of these points (e.g., what is considered "credible" according to dominant settler-colonial educational institutions is grounded in eurocentric, classist, racist, sexist, etc. ideologies, which exclude very valuable and important forms of knowledge and learning). Regardless, this advice should hopefully help you write within that general framework! Good luck, anon!

STEP ONE: GETTING STARTED

If you have trouble focusing (as I do!), there are a couple of tricks you can try! These won't work for everyone, and they might not work all the time, but I like to give them a shot when I feel like I'm at a dead-end. BODY-DOUBLING: Get someone to sit with you while you're doing your work. Alternatively, I've heard that joining a "study with me" livestream can help make your brain get into that "writing" mode.

FAKE IT 'TIL YOU MAKE IT: Pretend you're someone else. I know it sounds silly, but bear with me for a moment. When I can't focus, I pretend I'm a world-class scholar who's working on her great manuscript (even though, in reality, I'm some sleep-deprived dumbass scrawling an essay at three in the morning). This can help to shift your perception and give you motivation to keep going

CHANGE IT UP: ADHD brains thrive on novelty. Try switching up your environment a little bit. Sometimes, it helps me to work on the opposite end of my desk. Occasionally, I'll even grab my laptop and sit UNDER my desk, just to add some variety and try to kick my brain into gear.

STEP TWO: BRAINSTORMING

Okay, so you're ready to go! Great! We want to come up with some ideas for the essay! I usually like to do this by making a mind map. I'm very tired, so here's a rough sketch of what it might look like!

And a quick example (again, I'm very tired, so this is just the skeleton, sorry)!

STEP THREE: RESEARCHING

Depending on how you like to structure your brainstorming, this can either come before or after step two! Either way, when you're doing research, you want to look for a few key things in your sources. I'll list some of them here

How recent is this information? If it's something like a historical or literary essay, of course primary sources are best, so it's okay to use very old documents! However, if we're writing a scientific research paper, we want to use more up-to-date info.

Is the author an expert in what they're discussing? Look at their credentials.

What is the purpose of the information? Is the source trying to teach us something, or is it trying to sell us something?

Try using Google Scholar! The "Advanced Search" settings can be particularly helpful!

STEP FOUR: OUTLINING

Now we have all our information, and we have an idea of what we'd like to say! Try placing it in an outline, such as the one I created below (Sorry, this is a very incomplete outline. Again. Very very tired. On the verge of falling asleep as I'm writing this lol). Please note that this outline is more for generating a basic idea of what you want to say. Post-secondary education (at least where I live) doesn't rely on this format as much, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

STEP FIVE: DRAFTING

Time for your first draft! Try putting everything together into one document! Remember: it doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to get written. I'll add some pointers below!

Remember to use transitional terms/phrases. For instance, "however", "then", "first", "therefore", "in conclusion"! These help your writing flow smoothly!

Spellcheck. I'm a professional author, and even I mess up my spelling from time to time, so I treat spellcheck as a dear friend lol.

Always remember to format your proof as a sandwich. The intro to your proof is like the bread, the quote/proof/statistic is the filling, and the explanation and elaboration is the other piece of bread. This will help to structure your writing!

STEP SIX: EDITING

Yay, you made it! Time to edit! You can get someone to read over your work! You can also use a checklist, such as the one I've included below!

(full checklist)

Okay, that's about it! On a final note, REMEMBER TO CITE YOUR SOURCES! Google Docs has a built-in citation tool, if that helps! Software like Zotero can also be great, but my go-to is always Purdue OWL.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask!

[zigmenthotep]

Always remember that there are no rules to fiction. If you want female dragons in your fantasy world to have huge throbbing ovipositors, they can. And the genuineness of portraying an honest artistic vision will always be better than just bottoming to "Tradition" with another Tolkien knockoff.

If there's a voice in your head telling you what dragons can and cannot do or be, slit that bitch's throat. Dragons aren't real, they can be whatever you want them to be.

"Oh but historically..."

STFU. Historically we've taken dozens of unique mythological creatures from different cultures and just shoved them all into a single box marked "Dragon," then taken the least interesting aspects and shoved them together into an overpowered DeviantArt OC and held it up as some kind of fact of fantasy.

[em-dash-press]

Writing conversations can feel tricky. Use this weekly writing prompt to overcome the writer's block that sometimes happens when writing two or more characters who are deep in conversation.

Read the article here!

[catgirl-catboy]

Are you a writer?   Do you struggle to write because all of your writing turns out subpar?  To the point where you hardly ever write and then feel bad about it?

Have you tried (100 word) drabbles?

I was in your shoes.   Now, I have written 1200 words in two days.

I know that what I want to write can’t be 'good’ in 100 words.   By giving me a goalpost other than good to shoot for, it's taken quite a lot of the pressure off.   The only way to fail (the old definition of) a drabble is to write the wrong amount of words.

By trying to be short, I can feel my writing get closer to my standards instead of my standards seeming farther away.

[vacantgodling]

since @sarahlizziewrites asked, i figure it’d be good to make a post kind of explaining my method of madness or how i’m trying to force myself to finish a book by catering to and weaponizing my interest focused brain

STEP 1: i have a full outline for myself where i actually do bracket out what happens in every single chapter. obviously when i go to write things stuff may change, get added, will be longer etc but we’re focusing on the “first draft get it out!” scenario. your outline doesn’t have to be perfect—you can leave stuff out etc. but the goal is that you literally have the entire story written out beat for beat. how are we getting from point a to point z. paramour’s full outline is 12 pages but yours could be longer or shorter than that. the reason for this is because as a lot of people do, it’s easy to figure out the beginning and the end but the middle is always a befuddled mess. so i’m basically doing this to take the excuse out of my brain that i can’t write this because idk what happens next—because i do! the outline also serves as a rekindling of interest for me because it’s like reading an abridged version of the book i know i want to write and love. when i lose motivation i can go back and reread my notes for a chapter or the whole thing and get reinvigorated to work on everything because WOW!! i can’t wait to get here!!!

STEP 2: this is optional but if your memory isn’t great like mine this might help. i create “chapter titles” more so as a guide to tell me in even shorter hand what a chapter is about. for instance, the chapter i’m currently working on in paramour is chapter 10. it’s cheat sheet title is “aloe” to remind me, oh yeah, this is the chapter that hya and aloe meet in person for the first time. stuff like that. this will help with the next step.

STEP 3: rank each chapter, between 1-5 stars, based on how excited i am to write it. it doesn’t matter what the reason, my goal was to simply gauge my interest level for each chapter, what things do i have a good idea of, which scenes are more difficult or require more research or technical or they aren’t as interesting or whatever.

STEP 4: FINALLY i group them all together, all the five stars, the four stars, the three, etc. and then among those lists, which of THOSE am i the most excited to write? same 5 star scale. and that’s how i ended up creating my list: most excited to write to least excited to write. for me that process looked like this:

now, what you do with this list is up for you to decide. for me, i’m playing into my interest addled brain: i wrote the chapter i was MOST EXCITED to write first (chapter 20 i finished it in 2 days lolol) but now i went to the very bottom of my list to write the chapter i want to write the least with the promise that i can go back up to the top to write the chapter i want to write most next as a motivator! so yeah that’s the process for how i decided everything it’s been working pretty good so far (even tho it’s only been a few days). i hope that explanation makes sense haha,,

[lets-dance-to-joy-division]

I think that flarf may be the best thing for writers block I’ve ever discovered. If you’ve never given flarf a go I highly recommend, it’s a real bananas time.

BL

[winterlandwonder]

♥️ Short list of words I love using in their archaic sense ♥️

Dayspring (n.) : dawn

Degust (v.) : taste (something) carefully to appreciate it fully

Eventide (n.) : the end of day; evening

Illecebrous (adj.) : enticing or attractive

Draught (n.) : a quantity of a liquid with medicinal properties

Droll (n.) : a jester or entertainer; a buffoon

Fair (adj.) : (of a means or procedure) not violent

Beautiful

(n.) : a beautiful woman

Gallant (adj.) : grand or impressive

(n.) : a man who is charmingly attentive to women

(v.) : (of a man) flirt with

Glout (v.) : to scowl

Interim (adv.) : meanwhile

Overmorrow (adv.) : the day after tomorrow

Phantasm (n.) : an illusory likeness of something

Pulchritudinous (adj.) : beautiful

Rakehell (n.) : a fashionable or wealthy man of immoral or promiscuous habits [this is probably my favourite one]

Rend (v.) : wrench (something) violently

Retrograde (v.) : go back in position or time

Splendent (a.) : shining brightly

Swine (n.) : a pig

Swash (v.) : flamboyantly swagger about or weird a sword

(n.) : the motion or sound of water dashing or washing against something

Stagger (v.) : waver in purpose; hesitate

(of a blow) cause (someone) to move or walk unsteadily, as of about to fall

Vex (v.) : cause distress to

Yestereve (adv.) : yesterday evening

[mspbandj]

ADHD Writing Hack I Just Invented Yeehaw

Guys, I’m a goddamn fuckin genius and I cannot be stopped.

The biggest block for me with writing is that I open up a blank document and then I cant write anything. A pretty universal experience, I know. But, the reason I cant write anything is because the blank screen takes up all of my vision, and its so boring and empty and blank that its overwhelming and my brain shuts off.

And recently I’ve been thinking “Man, if they just invented a writing app with a shit ton of useless crap all over the screen surrounding the box in which I actually write, that would literally solve all of my problems”

Well guess what motherfuckers, turns out all you gotta do is shrink the document window down and pin it over your internet browser. I’ve written a full two fuckin pages in like half an hour holy shit it works so well it works so so well. The internet being in the background isnt even a distraction coz truth be told, I aint even interested in that, my mind is on writing right now, but having a bunch of shifting and varied info in the background I guess acts like a visual fidget cube. Theres enough secondary input that I can zone out of it and focus in on what I’m actually doing, which is typing up the most horrendous bullshit drabble this side of the american constitution.

Give it a go, shit rules