Morning chaps! I was sitting, sipping my coffee and thought, I should have a discussion with my blog peeps. (The kids still say ‘peeps’ right?) I’ve been slow in my reading, having left the book I’m currently working on at work over the past weekend, so I felt the desire to be chatty.
Many moons ago, I attempted to write a book, a YA post apocalyptic novel. I made it decently far in the process, but my grandfather (my inspiration to try to write) passed away and with the depression that followed, I stopped. I didn’t feel the urge to try again until the last couple of months. It’s no longer the same book, but I’m trying again.
I’m struggling more than I was the first time, but I’m being much more critical of myself this go around. I recently instated a new house rule, Wednesday nights and Saturdays I must work on the book for one hour minimum. If I keep going past that, excellent, but I was having a hard time finding the time to write. Inspiration isn’t so hard, especially after Ignited Moth and I have a writing meeting. (Yeah, we’ve formed our own cool little writers group.)
So my question is this, what writing tips (or encouraging tips in general) do you have to help someone along in the process? What have you struggled with yourself?
cupcakesandmachetes 
I’ve found the ‘don’t worry about being right… just write!’ approach works for me, both with the odd short story, and with degree assignments… I just find it easier to fix something that already exists rather than stare at the dreaded Blank Page
That is very good advice! Thank you. 🙂
I have been working on a ‘visual novel’ for approximately the past 10 years! my approach to the book was that I had to be 100% happy with the writing or I scrapped it and started over… this turned out to be a terrible idea and nothing (apart from the visuals) ever got finished. I have stopped that process in the past year or so and have made so much more progress since, so as Alex above me put – don’t worry about being right, just write. Also, and it worked for me, I treat the chapters of the book as individual short stories as opposed to part of a greater whole and since that, I have produced much more content than ever before… shorts feel so less intimidating to write overall. 🙂
Oooo, that’s an interesting idea. I may have to try that method and see how it comes together. Thank you. 🙂
Hmm, well i can’t really give you advice on writing, cuz i don’t write – but i think you are on the right track with setting an hour on a specific day to do only one thing (write). You picked two days, which is really good start, not too overwhelming, but if it becomes a habit, it will help you a lot.
Hope it goes well! 🙂
Thank you. 🙂 I think the dedicated time will help so I don’t make any excuses to myself, like, “You can just work on it tomorrow , you have SO much to do today.” Because that just turns into a vicious cycle of putting it off. (Something I was already doing.)
best of luck…
Thanks. 🙂
I always found that I wrote best when doing my disertation to techno….
Cheers,
Pete.
I’ve struggled with listening to music while writing. Something I know a ton of authors love to do. I have not tried techno though so it’s worth a shot. 😉
I can recommend Regis and Surgeon, I listen to a lot of the Boiler House live DJ sets too.
Cheers,
Pete.
I’ll have to check them out, thanks. 🙂
I’m easily distracted so a good hard slap to the face and screaming “you lazy bastard” often helps. Haha
In all seriousness, like Alex said, just write. Let it flow. You like writing for a reason and deep down you want to write so just do it. Whatever comes out the end could be amazing or a load of bollocks BUTT if it is Bollocks at least it’s a start. Then, amend it, edit it, improve it. You could write your name in the snow with urine and all us lovely folk would love it 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Ahahha! If I managed to write my name in the snow in urine EVERYONE should appreciate the difficulty I went through to do it lmao. I was much better with just going with the flow last time I tried to write, this time has been a little more difficult but I think that’s partially because I don’t want to get the survival aspects wrong. There is nothing I hate more than reading a post-apocalyptic/dystopian novel and they use something that is completely impossible. For example; one was a zombie book 15 years after the outbreak and people were still eating plastic wrapped food like it wouldn’t have finally molded and started to fall apart.
Haha that’s fair. Research is everything.
The thing I have to remember about a first draft is from this meme I found: it’s shoveling the sand into the box, and you can build the castle later. Don’t worry about it not sounding great as yo go along; you can always fix shit later with edit. I’d also say don’t force it. There are days I want to write, but I just don’t have it in me, so I leave it. This works for “writer’s block,” too. I’ll figure it out later (usually right before I fall asleep). To that end, I’d also recommend using a note program to take down any idea for scenes/dialogue as soon as you have it, but trust me, you will NOT remember it later and/or when you wake up lol. I use OneNote, but you could use anything. I used to use the note app that came with my phone, but I had an incident where I lost nearly all of them, and that was a bad day. OneNote syncs with a desktop program, because technology is wonderful 😀
Thanks! I’ve been a little bit better about not making the rough draft sound like gold. I keep telling myself that I can come back after the first draft is complete and polish things up. Seems obvious but the mind does what it wants. 😛 I’ve used the little note app on my phone a couple of times now, but I try to at least log it on the laptop notes as soon as I get home. I may have to check out OneNote though as I get further along. 🙂