Frustrated Writer Support Group

[Just-A-Stick she/her]

Just now, Part Of The Narrative said:

And it's not Jaxin's fault he has PTSD, but here we are.... -_^

*melodramatic sigh*

Fine then

here we are. 

 

[Part Of The Narrative she/her]

Just now, Just-A-Stick said:

*melodramatic sigh*

Fine then

here we are. 

 

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

 

 

im guessing all of that is from just-a-stick's writing page

Quote

3 minutes ago, Part Of The Narrative said:

POV: Your characters both need serious mental help but they're in a relationship and there's no therapist within 100 miles outside the town and she's a schizophrenic and he has PTSD so it'll never work out for them to be each other's therapy and yet they are.

*cough* @Just-A-Stick *cough*

1 minute ago, Just-A-Stick said:

HEY!

ITS NOT ECHO'S FAULT SHE'S SCHIZOPHRENIC!! 

^-^

1 minute ago, Part Of The Narrative said:

And it's not Jaxin's fault he has PTSD, but here we are.... -_^

 

 

[Part Of The Narrative she/her]

1 minute ago, RoyalBeeMage said:

 

 

im guessing all of that is from just-a-stick's writing page

 

We have a separate kind of rp thingy  yes it's fun no it's not ok

[Ookla she/her]

4 hours ago, Lego Mistborn said:

Have their arcs converge and have them sacrifice themselves together?

Why are they sacrificing themselves? If it's for different reasons and/or different ways, it's probably fine to even do them independently.

Or just throw caution to the wind and kill everyone.

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Is this what I'm supposed to do here? I don't want to be giving advice if this is a rant only thread.

  Hide contents

I'm not a good writer myself. I have loads of ideas, but I have trouble making them flow on paper. I think the best I could do would be a short story, and even that's a stretch. Like I said though, I have lots of ideas and I'm not afraid to speak them. That's why I came here to spew ideas and hopefully help someone who is stuck.

 

Writing advice is totally okay! This is as much a discussion thread as it is a rant thread.

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

27 minutes ago, Part Of The Narrative said:

We have a separate kind of rp thingy  yes it's fun no it's not ok

ahh that makes a lot more sence.

[Ookla she/her]

I made a big breakthrough on my story! I'd been informed that my magic system didn't make sense, so I had to scrap it and design a new one, and then one morning I woke up and realized that a dragon and a unicorn would solve all my problems. So now I'm much less stuck than I was before, and it's making me very happy.  

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

hey thats good news.

[Little_Dagger she/her]

7 hours ago, Ookla said:

I made a big breakthrough on my story! I'd been informed that my magic system didn't make sense, so I had to scrap it and design a new one, and then one morning I woke up and realized that a dragon and a unicorn would solve all my problems. So now I'm much less stuck than I was before, and it's making me very happy.  

That's awesome! Keep at it!

[Ookla she/her]

Thanks, y'all!

[That1Cellist he/him]

I am not a good writer.

I can almost never bring myself to write anything because I never feel happy with whatever it is I complete, including drawing. I love to worldbuild, but I never actually do any because I can never come up with any ideas of like. I really want to do these things, to write, draw, wordbuild. I want to create characters, places, and magics that are mine. But it seems that I can never come up with anything, and the things I do come up with, I don't like.

[Ookla she/her]

That's a sucky place to be. Sorry you're struggling that way!

I've just been at the Life, The Universe, and Everything writing symposium in Utah, and one of the panelists talked about making lists of lots of things and combining them in random ways to get unique combinations. Maybe something like that could help?

One thing I know for sure, though, is that you shouldn't get rid of anything you've already created. You never know when an old idea will take on new life!

Good luck!

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

30 minutes ago, Ookla said:

That's a sucky place to be. Sorry you're struggling that way!

I've just been at the Life, The Universe, and Everything writing symposium in Utah, and one of the panelists talked about making lists of lots of things and combining them in random ways to get unique combinations. Maybe something like that could help?

One thing I know for sure, though, is that you shouldn't get rid of anything you've already created. You never know when an old idea will take on new life!

Good luck!

wish i new that a few months back when i started writing again after a long time. storms i lost a lot in anger

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

8 hours ago, That1Cellist said:

I am not a good writer.

I can almost never bring myself to write anything because I never feel happy with whatever it is I complete, including drawing. I love to worldbuild, but I never actually do any because I can never come up with any ideas of like. I really want to do these things, to write, draw, wordbuild. I want to create characters, places, and magics that are mine. But it seems that I can never come up with anything, and the things I do come up with, I don't like.

My friend. The only way to be a better writer is to write. You don't have to write an original masterpiece on the first go like Patrick Rothfuss. Tbh, I think it's better that you don't because then you might wind up like Pat and not be able to write more for fear of disappointing people who loved the first book. Just write. Don't think to please anyone else, just write what you want to write. And if you don't have something you want to write, necessarily, I would just write things every now and then, scenes, bits of fragments. Listen to videos and think about stories, not necessarily your own, just stories. Other's books, a movie you saw the other day, a show you want to continue watching tonight. Just think about stories, think about how they work together, let yourself imagine. It takes a while for this to actually do anything, it took awhile for me. I'm just barely starting to get where I can actually have more ideas and be a writer fully again. 

Just keep trying. You'll get there! Brandon wrote 13 novels before being published and a lot of them sucked or were unoriginal, though the occasional one was epic, like Aether of Night and Elantris, they were not all good at all. Just keep working on it, tinkering on ideas. Take a random idea you have, a funny thought, and apply a story to it. Write a few lines of it. Yo udon't have to do a full on thing, just write as much as possible. And if you do that enough for different ideas that you have now and then while still trying to write what you want to write, while still trying to get the point where you're a good writer, then you are farther along the road than many who say the words

"I want to be a writer."

[Ookla she/her]

52 minutes ago, RoyalBeeMage said:

wish i new that a few months back when i started writing again after a long time. storms i lost a lot in anger

Yeah, I've done it too. Sometimes you've gotta learn the hard way. I'd recommend going back in your memory and trying to salvage whatever you can, as soon as you can. Even if you can only recover a few snippets, it's better than nothing at all, and they might be good seeds later on.  

45 minutes ago, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

My friend. The only way to be a better writer is to write. You don't have to write an original masterpiece on the first go like Patrick Rothfuss. Tbh, I think it's better that you don't because then you might wind up like Pat and not be able to write more for fear of disappointing people who loved the first book. Just write. Don't think to please anyone else, just write what you want to write. And if you don't have something you want to write, necessarily, I would just write things every now and then, scenes, bits of fragments. Listen to videos and think about stories, not necessarily your own, just stories. Other's books, a movie you saw the other day, a show you want to continue watching tonight. Just think about stories, think about how they work together, let yourself imagine. It takes a while for this to actually do anything, it took awhile for me. I'm just barely starting to get where I can actually have more ideas and be a writer fully again. 

Just keep trying. You'll get there! Brandon wrote 13 novels before being published and a lot of them sucked or were unoriginal, though the occasional one was epic, like Aether of Night and Elantris, they were not all good at all. Just keep working on it, tinkering on ideas. Take a random idea you have, a funny thought, and apply a story to it. Write a few lines of it. Yo udon't have to do a full on thing, just write as much as possible. And if you do that enough for different ideas that you have now and then while still trying to write what you want to write, while still trying to get the point where you're a good writer, then you are farther along the road than many who say the words

"I want to be a writer."

^This. Excellent writing advice. I was having a discussion with someone at the writing symposium today, and we were talking about the Inner Critic--specifically, that the best thing to do with the Inner Critic is to take all our creepiest, evilest, darkest, most macabre ideas and implement them on a personification of our Inner Critic. I won't go into detail--that's not family friendly--but whatever you would want to do to the character (either yours or someone else's) or person that you hate most in the world, do it to your Inner Critic and sense of perfectionism. During the initial writing process, all it's going to do is hold you back. You can bring it back out again during the revisions process, because it will help to highlight problems in your work you missed the first time 'round, but if you let it out too early it'll stifle your creativity and kill your story. Don't let it! When you're writing your first draft, the Inner Critic is your biggest supervillain, and you've got to get rid of it somehow.

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

6 minutes ago, Ookla said:

Yeah, I've done it too. Sometimes you've gotta learn the hard way. I'd recommend going back in your memory and trying to salvage whatever you can, as soon as you can. Even if you can only recover a few snippets, it's better than nothing at all, and they might be good seeds later on.  

^This. Excellent writing advice. I was having a discussion with someone at the writing symposium today, and we were talking about the Inner Critic--specifically, that the best thing to do with the Inner Critic is to take all our creepiest, evilest, darkest, most macabre ideas and implement them on a personification of our Inner Critic. I won't go into detail--that's not family friendly--but whatever you would want to do to the character (either yours or someone else's) or person that you hate most in the world, do it to your Inner Critic and sense of perfectionism. During the initial writing process, all it's going to do is hold you back. You can bring it back out again during the revisions process, because it will help to highlight problems in your work you missed the first time 'round, but if you let it out too early it'll stifle your creativity and kill your story. Don't let it! When you're writing your first draft, the Inner Critic is your biggest supervillain, and you've got to get rid of it somehow.

YES

Kill your inner critic, resurrect them for drafting then crucify them when you're right about to finish your book. 

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

29 minutes ago, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

YES

Kill your inner critic, resurrect them for drafting then crucify them when you're right about to finish your book. 

yes!!! we don't need to listen to the inner critic.

[Weaver of Lies he/him]

What about the part of myself that tells me I don’t have the passion to be a writer? That part has been growing significantly stronger.

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

2 minutes ago, Weaver of Lights said:

What about the part of myself that tells me I don’t have the passion to be a writer? That part has been growing significantly stronger.

burn it at the stake!

[Weaver of Lies he/him]

Just now, RoyalBeeMage said:

burn it at the stake!

But…what if it’s right?

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

Just now, Weaver of Lights said:

But…what if it’s right?

listen to me. you do have the passion to write! everyone does! just like everyone can do anything they set their mind to. if you want to write you can and you will!

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

33 minutes ago, Weaver of Lights said:

What about the part of myself that tells me I don’t have the passion to be a writer? That part has been growing significantly stronger.

What do you want to do? If you do want to be a writer, then say keep going. Keep pursuing writing even though it might not feel like you can. Think of why you want to do it and your good experiences with writing.

however, if writing is not the path for your life, don’t force it to be. You might have something else you need to do. But I do recommend you keep writing anyways at least in the side. It’s a healthy way to express ideas and learn how to communicate better with people.

[Weaver of Lies he/him]

1 minute ago, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

What do you want to do? If you do want to be a writer, then say keep going. Keep pursuing writing even though it might not feel like you can. Think of why you want to do it and your good experiences with writing.

however, if writing is not the path for your life, don’t force it to be. You might have something else you need to do. But I do recommend you keep writing anyways at least in the side. It’s a healthy way to express ideas and learn how to communicate better with people.

I do want to be a writer.

 Thanks Thaid.

[J. Magi she/her]

9 hours ago, Weaver of Lights said:

What about the part of myself that tells me I don’t have the passion to be a writer? That part has been growing significantly stronger.

Oh! I get this feeling so hard. I was explaining some of the bigger stories in my head to my family on night (for whatever reason) I was talking about how I struggle to figure out filler-plot for the stories. I've got the beginning and ends figured out, as well as the characters, but I have a hard time doing the in-the-middle bits.

My mom said something along the lines of "You just need to sit down and write it, if you aren't constantly feeling the passionate urge to write than writing isn't really for you. If you really wanted to get this story down than it wouldn't already be written."

I love my mom, and she's a really nice person, but sometimes her life advice doesn't really suite me. I think she was trying to be encouraging, but it came off as the opposite. imo, passion for something that interests you can be fostered, and can grow with time (I've experienced this with drawing actually, so I'm pretty sure it does work). It's okay to be casual about a hobby, we're not all Branderson, we can't all write 2 books a year. If you want to be like that, that's great! But I firmly believe that prolific-ness is a skill, not a natural trait or talent. It can be built up over time, you don't have to born with it, or whatever. Lots of really famous "masters' in writing history didn't write very many books, and they took a really long time to write them. 

Spoiler

Side-tangent, but I also think that who you get advice from is possibly more important than the actual advice. I've had two conversations about relatively the same thing (figuring out the above mentioned story idea). One of the people I talked too is a really nice person, and I enjoy hanging out with them, but they're not who I would go to for advice. The advice they gave me left me feeling discouraged and self-conscious about my ideas. I don't think they were trying to be mean, or anything, but what works for them is much different then what works for me. The other conversation was with my bother, and his advice made me feel super empowered and excited to write. We happen to be very similar people, with similar personalities/natures, so it doesn't surprise me. 

Anyway, I just found this thread, and I will probably be here often lol, despite only having two (extremely jank) short stories and a few unfinished scenes to my name.

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

8 hours ago, justice magician said:

Anyway, I just found this thread, and I will probably be here often lol, despite only having two (extremely jank) short stories and a few unfinished scenes to my name.

welcome to the group. doesent matter how much or how little you have as long as you love to write.