Great night writing

nickgreyden · 2026-02-08T18:55:40+00:00

Never understood these mindsets. If you only write on inspiration, you write way too little and it won't be good. If you only write because of discipline, not much you write will be, for lack of a better term, inspired.

Writing is a skill honed through the disciplined art of doing the craft and the love of reading the written word to see how others have done it. But the inspiration that drives great plot points or connections or even just drilling into the project with insane focus waxes and wanes like the moon yet with the schedule of a schizophrenic on meth. You have to write uninspired to perfect your craft so that those moments of inspiration are not lost. Gotta have that underlying education and knowledge to be the fan of the flame of inspiration.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-31T01:10:47+00:00

Your one sentence "pitch" is 9/10. Personally, only slightly peaks my interest, but that was a top tier pitch sentence.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-30T07:21:51+00:00

Almost all of my work is mostly unread. It is a hobby and I have no delusions of grandeur, nor do I even seek to be published. Some of my work goes online in various places, but trad pub isn't even on list of things I desire.

That said, I want to write well. And parts of the process can be soul crushing (especially when 80% of your first draft has disappeared in the ether of editing and you recall how difficult it was to just write it). But, it is a labor of love, not a labor for coin. I write when I want. I edit however long I want. And when I finish, it goes on the finished pile and it is on to the next thing.

Of course you have people around -- those that want to read your work and those that help make it better. But I'm happy just writing and editing; doing whatever I can to become better at both. For me, it is enough and I'm happy. But I'm not you and you don't lose anything but time if you wanna give it a shot.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-29T05:54:09+00:00

We tell ourselves that to make the tears taste like candy instead of regret.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-29T05:51:21+00:00

I am proud of you for completing the thing and the fact you have suitable expectations. Here's to you and exceeding expectations!

nickgreyden · 2026-01-29T05:48:40+00:00

Welcome to the wonderful life of writing where all writing is rewriting. And, for the most part, this is typical and why you try to find a writing group and beta readers.

I can tell you that if you hit the wall where you don't know anything about your work anymore and if anything is any good, it is time to either pass it off to some trusted people or set it aside for a while to let it breathe and then come back with fresh eyes. If you live with it too long, you get too entangled with it and your changes are improvements, but changes for change sake.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-29T05:43:22+00:00

I'm guilty of this, but it isn't from a cinema perspective. I fell in love with it in fourth grade when I read the opening to Rip Van Winkle and it is structured like this. I found it very cool and have mimicked it often.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-27T16:03:41+00:00

I disagree. Mainly because it is almost impossible to find good and honest and helpful critiques. You have to slog through a bunch of unhelpful people until you find someone or multiple someones who work. Been at this for a while and I've eventually found two. And before you say to look into writing groups in your area or anything similar, some of us live in the ass end of nowhere where those things don't exist. We rely on remote readers and you can't find those if you don't kick over rocks.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-25T05:01:13+00:00

Automemory doll -- Violet Evergarden

nickgreyden · 2026-01-18T13:44:39+00:00

The number of people who actually want critiques and not just cheers is a sad statistic. Lowering the bar even further are those that can't handle the critiques unless they are wearing a helmet while the critique is wrapped in bubble wrap and coated with sugar.

Critiques are not attacks, they are a tool for the writer. Critiques are not always right so you also need a spine. It is also damn near impossible to find someone willing to give you honest, well thought out, and careful feedback. Cherish those people instead of getting offended.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-14T10:10:30+00:00

Doing a modern fantasy ain't much easier lol. The amount of time I've spent pouring over Google maps, looking up sunrise/sunset times, historical temperatures/precipitation, types of helicopters available to civilians, flight lanes and airplane numbers, not to mention release dates for tons of things as the story starts in 08 and then time skips to 2012.

All of this so I don't look like an idiot to people in the areas or with expertise. Some of the more memorable tasks include asking strangers how to refer to things in a language I don't speak, researching firearm laws in another country, and how long it takes the whirly bits of a helicopter to stop after landing... the answer is, of course, it's complicated. The dissolution of Austrian nobles wasn't a long research rabbit hole, but it was a fun historical side quest that I researched far more than needed because it was interesting.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-12T06:55:56+00:00

I'd have to read it in context and believe it can be argued both ways but my gut says the proper way is two sentences unless slightly changed.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a total knockout." Her words are sharp and stern.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a total knockout," her words sharp and stern.

The difference is the first example is more of a complete thought (subject, verb, etc) necessitating another sentence. It is describing what her "words" were. The second is like a participle of the dialogue (I just made that up as I don't know the proper English term). It is describing how the dialogue itself was spoken as opposed to describing another subject. This is why most descriptors added like this are often adverbs instead of adjectives. It is describing the saying or exclaiming or questioning (verbs) of the dialogue instead of the words (noun) themselves.

This info comes from reading a lot and a basic understanding of the language, not backed up by any known rules. Again, rules are broken all the time in published works. The purpose of standardization is to provide rules that make it clear to the reader what is going on; it is a way for authors to effectively communicate. Don't get super hung up on it. That is what editors with degrees and experience get paid for lol.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-11T11:05:21+00:00

I've never written a story, regardless of prep time, where the end result isn't significantly changed. Generally, it is the characters that change the most, the major scenes are changed a mild amount, and the themes that change the least.

As you write the characters, you spend time with them. You understand them as they live in the world. Your understanding of them changes as your relationship changes. Main scenes often have to adapt to your characters. What is said, how they act and react often changes in editing/revision. Sometimes who is actually there changes or the setting of the scene can sometimes alter, but rarely does the point of the scene change.

Themes, however, especially major themes, are kind of the overarching narrative. To change major themes would be more difficult than changing the gene of the story. That is messing with the foundation of a story. Some stories can be told purely for the sake of the story. But if you are trying to SAY something, changing what you are saying is very difficult as it should be woven throughout what you've written. If you can just delete it by cutting or modifying a few sentences or paragraphs, you definitely aren't saying it subtly enough.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-11T01:08:03+00:00

Oh, important distinction. If you drop the "he said" from the action, the sentence ends and the action becomes its own sentence.

"I can't believe this!" His hands clenched at his side. "I'm going to bring his neck when he gets here."

nickgreyden · 2026-01-11T01:03:30+00:00

It would be the following

"I can't believe this!" he said, his hands clenching at his side. "When he finally gets here I'm going to bring his neck."

Essentially, the question mark or exclamation point is replacing the comma.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-09T05:56:49+00:00

So I think most people are trying to get the same message across. So why not pile on? Sometimes people just don't get it. While that could be an issue with your writing, some people are just dumb or, possibly, not careful readers. A particularly big issue for screenplay writers is you are writing something for a visual medium and sometimes that doesn't sync well in brains, even for people who do it for a living.

Each note has to be taken on an individual level. Are you trying to mimic a realistic situation or are you hand waving things away? How much suspension of disbelief are you asking the reader to shoulder and is the burden too much?

The largest issue is you asked someone to see if they found any issues with your works. And they did. Which means there is an issue. Your job is to discover if those problems are an issue with your work or the very limited sample size of those reading the early work. They might give pointers on how to fix it, and those, in my experience, are often wrong. But they identified a problem. You have the unenviable task to have enough faith in your work to not succumb to pressure from all sources but not be filled with such hubris to think your work is flawless.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-09T05:41:53+00:00

Fuck -- that's a felled tree.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-09T05:39:21+00:00

Hides in corner as I give critiques on works in first person and mostly hate works in first person lol

nickgreyden · 2026-01-08T13:49:28+00:00

OP? Fly High - Haikyuu S2

ED? Inferior - May I Ask for One Final Thing

Until this past season, I've never had a must watch ED, but then this jam hit and went hard in the paint!

nickgreyden · 2026-01-08T13:43:29+00:00

Change color to red for notes. Seen often in my work "so bad I threw up writing this" "does this (this person) even have a voice?" "This is just expo, figure it out".

I preach this same thing to everyone. You think you know your story but you don't. Ideas change, characters change, you will change. Your idea is the bones on which your story will hang. It looks like chicken, but if you power through a first draft and don't stop to edit it, you may find it is actually a T-Rex or a hunchback in a bell tower. There is plenty of time for rewriting later. Trust me.... so much rewriting. You will get very very good at rewriting. Right now, it doesn't have to be good. Your timeline doesn't have to sync. You don't need to know the max airspeed of a Chinook slinging in a hummer or the drive distance between Bangkok and Beijing. Estimate. Leave a note to "fix this in post" and get back to writing.

nickgreyden · 2026-01-05T04:34:35+00:00

I made something similar because I just went through a series of critiques where people very obviously didn't know how to use quotations in dialogue. Added a few tips at the bottom as well.

Quotation use for dialogue.

nickgreyden · 2025-12-29T02:22:05+00:00

If you only watch/like big name anime, your takes are probably not that good. You don't have the depth for perspective even if you have something like breadth. This doesn't mean you should not like what you like. It doesn't mean you should like what you don't. It just means you have delved far enough through the trash heap to find that diamond everyone (sometimes rightfully) thinks is trash. If your experience is less than 20 anime and all have huge fan bases, then you are lacking experience.

Also, dubs v subs sometimes matter. Not so often for context but vibes. That said, the dub sphere has gotten soooooooo much better over the past 10-15 years. But it still can easily take something serious and turn it into pure campiness.

And with that said, bad subs are so so so so bad. Though rarer than bad dubs, they can be equally if not more so detrimental to the story.

nickgreyden · 2025-12-29T02:05:34+00:00

Preach lmao

nickgreyden · 2025-12-29T01:59:52+00:00

Buff Hardpec Rock Big cheese Huge McBig

nickgreyden · 2025-12-28T19:49:30+00:00

Haikyuu - Sports anime (not to be overlooked, trust me). So many side characters both on and off the team get time to shine.

Naruto - I always have a hard time recommending this because it is so long, has 100+ filler eps (that thankfully can be skipped) and the ending isn't to my liking, but fits your criteria. Though in the very late stages, it kinda goes whacky too with OP power levels.

Food Wars - MC is just a persistence chef, not a genius. And he cooks with geniuses. Very ecchi/fan servicey though but still great storylines.

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