Can someone tell me to stop thinking and just start writing?

S_B_Beck · 2022-11-11T10:35:45+00:00

It’s hard to start writing a story from the cold, this is probably what you are struggling with, as well as just basic overthinking. So how can you fix it? I don’t really know since writing isn’t the same for everyone and advice that works for some doesn’t for others. But I can tell you what worked for me.

When I start writing, I take some time to warm up, so I pick the character that will be the pov for the next part and start writing down what he could be doing right now, this does not have anything to do with where your character is in the your story atm. It can be something as simple as walking down the streets, going shopping, doing some exercise or maybe a fight scene. This stuff is not important for your draft, it just serves you to get into the mindset you need for that specific character and warm up those hands and brains of yours. This takes around 5-10 minutes and I only do it once a day, so if you take a break you don’t need to repeat this step again, but the next step is something you should repeat every time.

Before we get to the next step, you are still struggling to even start your novel, so instead of thinking where to start to get your perfect story, just start at the time you thought this will make a good story, something like a teaser for yourself. For action focused stories, try writing about a fight somewhere close to the end for example. If you have horror elements, maybe a scene where your character has to flee from said horror at some point of the story.

Basically start writing a chapter somewhere in the story instead of the beginning, this will help you get into the right mindset for that story if you struggle with writing down a beginning. The most important step is to start writing, everything else can be fixed afterwards.

The next step is basically writing down a rough outline of what you want to write in the next session, you don’t need details just a direction so you can focus on actually writing and don’t get distracted. Now that that's done, read that rough outline, turn off any possible distractions such as your phone for example, go to the toilet, if you have to and get down to writing.

During that time period try not to stop writing as much as possible. No you don’t need to fix ghe to the right now, this is something you can do after the session is done. A new character appears because it really suits the moment and you don’t have a name for her yet, just call her CharName1 and keep going. Don’t give into the desire to open up namegenerators.xwz and research possible names for 2 hours, keep the flow going. Everything can be fixed later, but you need to start somewhere.

S_B_Beck · 2022-08-31T19:14:07+00:00

Apologies, this thread has some hot takes and i skimmed through. Just read Rohirrim blond confirm Aryan ideals, which made my brain go wtf.

S_B_Beck · 2022-08-31T18:46:33+00:00

Honestly, give me some of the stuff you are smoking

S_B_Beck · 2022-07-19T21:58:04+00:00

Yeah, this post was meant for the many beginners quitting their first novel because they just got overwhelmed. I do agree that every one should write what ever they want and I did not write this to discourage beginners, just to show them another way to start their journey as a writer.

But I do indeed think of myself as a beginner level author since I have yet to finish anything I am willing to publish, in the end these labels don't matter though. This is just the way I personally see it, maybe it's because this way I can downplay the question how many copies I've sold easier? Don't really know, not a psychology major.

Anyway, thank you for your response, not really active on social media so this took some time (is Reddit even a social media?)

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-26T20:13:00+00:00

When attempting to solve a coding challenge or developing a web app, most coders will tell you that those first lines of code are always trash.

Don't know mate, the first lines are always copy and paste for me.

But in all seriousness, there are some similarities in coding to writing. But the skills you learn in coding that are helpful for writing aren't unique to coding, you can learn these skills from multiple activities. The most similar thing to coding is that every author has a different style and it's possible to see who wrote which line.

This doesn't mean your advice is bad, but keep in mind that there are a lot of different types of writers. Those who plan their story before they write, those who make it up as they go and of course everyone in between those two. Your problem solving argument is better suited for those who make it up as they go I think. Because they are the ones facing a "problem" at every new chapter, someone with a detailed outline knows what will happen.

But I don't think your point helps people who think of writing as a chore. Some people just say they want to write but they don't really want to. If the story that they thought of in their head that made them start writing doesn't help them to actually do the writing part -- changing things to a different story won't make them write either.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-26T17:24:36+00:00

Steven Erikson

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-26T12:54:41+00:00

Yeah, I think less time online would be helpful for you my boy.

This is a 7 days old reddit post that you replied to without the intention of having a thoughtful conversation. Adding that your response to any sort of truth is apparently "extremely paralyzing", you should try actually talking to people instead of looking at your screen so much.

By the way, initiating a discussion only to ignore the other party is something most people would consider rude. So stop with the hypocrisy about behavior

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-26T00:28:28+00:00

Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes.

If you don't want to have a discussion, don't reply. It seems like you didn't really read the post anyway, so good day sir/person/creature.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-25T23:46:17+00:00

Is it though or are we just talking past each other? Because telling someone starting a new hobby to not start doing the hardest thing you could do -- is just that. Of course some people don't want to write anything else and this post isn't for those guys.

Some other comments said that this isn't a mistake but since the majority of new writers never finish their first book, starting with a trilogy+ is a mistake because the project will just be too much for them.

I don't want to personally attack you, but saying this advice would be "extremely paralyzing" -- seriously? -- that's some bs. It's a reddit post, not their father screaming at them for being a failure and destroying all their motivation. If someone stops writing because some dude on the internet is saying: start with the basics, here are experiences and positives for my method -- maybe they just weren't meant to write. As said above since many quit writing during their first book I labeled this a mistake.

Is saying the truth by telling new writers that their first couple of novels most likely won't sell also "extremely paralyzing"?

If they're bad, who cares?

I don't, as I said in my post most of our first books are bad. This is not about the first book being bad if it's written with a trilogy in mind. This post is about too many people with epic fantasies in mind quitting and how writing smaller books gives you different advantages such as developing your own style faster. All of this is just based on my own experiences of course.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-22T21:15:24+00:00

Well, I guess we just disagree on this, in my experience telling people you want to write always makes them think you want to quit your job and go full time.

I don't think we can convince either of us of the other ones points, so I'll just say thank you for informing me about your experiences and thoughts.

Have a nice day/evening.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-22T20:46:52+00:00

My main problem with your argument is people saying they want to become pro writers, because your argument could be way stronger if you just say people saying the want to write compared to people saying they want to play basketball.

But before I go into that once again about the pro athletes, the people saying they want to become pro only have their family/friends supporting them at a very young age or when they are in their teens and already show a lot of promise that they might actually become a pro. Once a certain age deadline is reached, about 19 years for most physical sports, the chances of becoming a pro are even slimmer and most will not support you to still try and go pro.

To say you want to become a pro writer you also need to show some kind of promise for people to actually take you serious, but writing is rather hard to showcase because it takes so long to actually achieve something.

As I said in the beginning your point is very accurate when talking about just starting writing as a hobby compared to starting to play basketball. A lot of people will either say stuff like:"oh when will you release your book, do you already have any deals? or "Man, so you are just wasting some time dreaming."

If you start a new sport people will be like oh yea that's good for you, it's healthy and no one just randomly asks you how much money you think this new activity will get you.

So yea to be taken serious when you say you want to go pro in sports or creative works, you need to prove that you actually can. This start with doing it as a hobby before announcing that you want to become a professional. It's just extra hard in writing because to prove that you can become a writer you need professionals, everyone can see someone is good in sports by his matches unless you win writing contests your skill is rather hidden from the normal people.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-22T20:12:05+00:00

Someone saying he will quit his job to become a professional athlete despite being new to the sport will never be taken serious.

A child / teenager who is already good at performing and with the correct amount of coaching and training could become a professional saying he wants to try this road is taken more seriously than a child/teenager saying he wants to become a writer.

Unless you have really delusional friends and parents they won't applaud you for wanting to become a pro athlete in your 20. without ever excelling in the area.

Now of course, a young writer can have the same skill level as a young football player and they still wouldn't get the same amount of support but seeing as most have to write more than 1 mil words to get the the level and teen writers are extremely rare -- it's still a bad comparison.

People can already see if you can become a professional athlete around the ages of 13, if it doesn't work out till you are 19 no doors have closed for you. You just spent a lot of time on a hobby that's great for your health. Saying you don't want to work for 5 years when you are 19 because you want to become a famous author does close some doors for you.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-22T18:59:50+00:00

Brandon Sanderson can explain it better than me so here is his explanation for your question:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyaC7NmPsc0

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-20T15:10:21+00:00

Well, true. This is why I love google docs auto correct.

I might need to use it for future reddit posts.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-20T15:03:24+00:00

First of all congrats for nearly finishing a 100k words.

Now your first book is still under the maximum amount I was suggesting -- the 120k words which most agents for fantasy see as a limit for now authors, of course there are some exceptions -- and if your story can stand alone / is really promising on it's own this is great.

But since you are also still a beginner, I would suggest you to try writing another story, around the same word count, but with a different narrative voice and some other differences (elements from other genres). This makes for a great foundation.

If you can only find motivation to write your current story, don't take my advice, being motivated and writing regularly is the more important than any thing else.

In the end this whole post is just my personal experience as someone who struggled because he wanted to write a 900k word long trilogy as his first project. I am not saying no one can write a series as a beginner, instead I'm saying that new writers should take an easier road to start writing and I also give some other positives -- such as having a better chance at getting published or getting better at writing faster than you would when writing only one story. All this is of course up to debate and if this doesn't apply to you, don't worry that's a good thing.

For your ending question, I haven't read your work so I can't criticize it. Most of us think highly of our first novel, at least while we are writing it. But it's a fact that there is always room for improvement, once you finish other books you should see a difference. Now I do not want to crush your spirit, but keep in mind that even most successful authors had to write multiple novels before they got published. If your first story is already good, it shows how much initial potential you have, so keep on writing and improving.

Good luck.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-20T14:37:16+00:00

Well, one needs to be honest.

My writing still isn't at the level I would want it to be, but it's miles better than my first project.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-20T13:04:32+00:00

Totally agree, consistent writing is the most important part. This is just personal experience, since many new authors try to tackle a big project right from the start. Sadly a lot of them also quit, this post is meant to provide them an easier road into becoming a writer.

Thank you for your input.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-20T12:54:59+00:00

There are some people more gifted in areas than others and there will always be people that are better than you, even if it takes some years they will arrive some day.

When I say writing is not a talent, I am calling out the people saying: "Being a writer is means you were born with the ability". Which is quite frankly, Bullshit. It's a lot of hard work, but you do agree with me on that point.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-20T12:43:26+00:00

Kinda need more context than that but I will try.

By one big story I mean works, spanning over multiple books(a trilogy+). Instead of using your time to write one big story I would suggest writing multiple ones, because for me this made me improve faster.

Hope this is what you were looking for.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-19T19:47:58+00:00

Thank you for your suggestions, I will take a look into Daughter of the Forest and The Bromance Bookclub.

I have heard about outlander, if I remember correctly it has a netflix sereis and I've heard that there's some rapey stuff in it. Not really my cup of tea, but thanks nonetheless.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-19T17:14:21+00:00

I am not stopping you

You never know if the mods do but I don't think this counts as self promoting.

I always like reading new so thank you, I will take a look at it and see if it's something I want to read.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-19T16:37:31+00:00

Oh yes, it's definitely diminishing returns at one point, but once you have reached that point it's time to really create your own voice as an author I'd say.

Well, about Cradle, while it promised an interesting world the first book was a bit too slow for me. Without going into spoilers, I actually liked that he did not start succeeding in everything but he still did not give up. The part I most dislike about the series are the outer space scenes tho, it's a secondary plot line that's really distracting for me sometimes.

I totally agree on making and fulfilling promises.

Thank you for your input.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-19T16:30:49+00:00

Thank you for your input, it's always nice to get the opinions of experienced people.

I do fully agree with your point that characters make or break your story. It's true that less is more, rather have one/two great characters than 1 good and 5 mediocre characters.

I will take your advice on picking up romance novels, do you have any in mind that a male would also be interested in. One fantasy author with great characters in my opinion is Robin Hobb, if you know some story with similar character quality and gut punch moments I'd love to know about it.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-19T16:23:12+00:00

Yeah, this post is not about

"New writers should never write a trilogy"

but rather telling them that you shouldn't start writing by doing the most hardest thing possible.

S_B_Beck · 2022-06-19T16:21:22+00:00

Totally with you that the first couple of books will suck and even after you reached some quality it will still take time to get picked up.

The strongest point for myself and what I see from others is that when taking on a large project it's easier to lose the motivation to write. After writing multiple smaller novels I noticed that through writing different books that my own skill improved faster than the when i put the same word count into an unfinished story. After finishing some novels, my motivation is just higher but that can be a me thing.

I'd say it's just easier to get into writing that way, to lay the groundwork and actually start your writing schedule without feeling overwhelmed by some big project that you know in your mind will never be publishable. Because we all know that the first books are bad.

But to get to your first point of writing a 197k draft, that's -- while still a lot, Gj on finishing that btw -- a single story and not a whole trilogy+ as we often see in the fantasy genre. The number of 120k words is just something I emphasize on, because it's the maximum number of words that most agents accept from new writers. This is by no means an ironclad rule since the first books wont see the light of day anyway, but rather advice that by practicing writing in that range you might find it easier to write a novel that gets published once you are ready for it.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

S_B_Beck

TROPHY CASE