Experience Tumblr Like Never Before
(Help) advice for people who have been writing for a long time and haven't seen improvements?
ok, so first of all have you REALLY not improved? most of the time when we are working on complex tasks, our ability to see what we are doing wrong grows more quickly than our skills, so there's this constant, growing awareness of what we aren't doing well. i suspect if you look back at your first stories, you will see that they are clumsier than your current work
BUT, it's frustrating. i get it. hoo boy do I get it.
SO... the advice you asked for.
sit down and do a really cold-blooded assessment of your work. ask a couple CPs to help if you can bear it. figure out several places you have a clear weakness.
common things people struggle with include:
mechanics (grammar, punctuation, how to format dialogue, etc.)
prose (how does it read on a line level)
engaging opening pages (do people reading the start want to keep going, does it set up promises for the rest of the book to pay off, do we know, as readers, what sort of story we're getting from the first page)
characters (do the people feel real, do they behave in the way people behave, are they well rounded with flaws and strengths, do their stupid decisions seem believable given their own set of issues)
pacing (does the story feel too slow to readers? does it seem to skip over important moments)
plotting/structure (does the middle sag, do things build up in a compelling way, do plot points come out of nowhere, are there too many moving pieces)
stakes (are there stakes? what is the main character's goal? what happens if they fail?)
theme/mood/vibe (do you have a vibe? is there an overarching theme?)
emotions (are your characters/is your plot emotionally engaging to the reader)
climax (does it stick the landing)
pick ONE (and only one) identified weakness to work on for the next 3-6 months. Google resources that talk about that thing. write or revise aiming to work on that thing. (if you ask for a specific one of these, I will put together a list of resources, but it might be a bit much on an already long post to include here)
shake up your working methods to see if that knocks skills loose from your brain in the learning process. if you usually outline, try just brain dumping onto the page, focusing on that thing. If you usually pants it, try outlining.
go back to beta readers and CPs and say "how does this story work FOR THIS ONE PARTICULAR THING." It's much easier to beta read a chapter for someone if you know the thing that they want you to focus on is "prose" or "emotions" than "just anything that jumps out at you."
good luck and have fun!
The “What-If” Writing Method
Sometimes when I’m writing, brain just....stops. No more ideas. No more words. Nothing. Sometimes, the solution to this problem is to simply take a break from writing and let your brain relax. Other times, though, you really are just at a block for ideas. This happened to me significantly more often than I would like, but thankfully, I’ve developed a solution that works well for me, and it’s uncreativly titled the “what-if” method.
Get a piece of paper and pen. Or a Google doc, or whatever works best for you.
Start brainstorming questions about your story, or possible “what-if” scenarios. (Ex: What if my character got framed for a crime they didn’t commit?)
Write down every single idea that comes to your head. Even if it doesn’t really work for your story. Even ones that deviate from your existing plot. Even the stupid ones. Especially the stupidest ones.
Cross out the ideas you don’t like, circle the ones that you do like.
Start coming up with answers for the questions you circled, or expand in the by coming up with more questions. (Ex: They would have to prove they didn’t commit the crime to regain their freedom. How do they prove it?)
Repeat until you have a full idea that you can work on/write with.
That’s it. That’s the whole strategy. I’ve used this a million times, and it’s gotten me out of a million cases of writers block, so hopefully it can work well for you too! Happy writing!