So, there’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now… and that’s taking the time to thank everyone who posts things to encourage and uplift their fellow writers.
I’d like to thank the people who remind us that taking breaks when we need them is okay, the people who remind us we don’t have to take every piece of writing advice we see and aren’t horrible people/writings for doing so, the people who remind us that we’ve got this, the people who remind us that we’re allowed to have fun with our stories, the people who remind us that we’re not silly or foolish for writing the genres/tropes we really like even if they’re unpopular or called cliches, and the people who take the time to comment on our poems, our stories, our character art, our WIP pages, and remind us that yes, yes it is possible that another human being can actually enjoy the story we’ve spent so much time and energy plotting, and struggling, and fighting to write with all of the passion we can muster.
Thank you so much for everyone who helps spread the positivity and encouragement needed for creators to create. You have no idea how much you help.
By the way, writing a book is really fucking hard. Like, it’s so much harder than you think it’s going to be. You think, oh, I’ll just write 500 words a day and eventually I’ll have a book, but no. You won’t. You’ll have a lot of words in a row with insufficient stakes and spelling errors.
tricky words I always see misspelled in fics: a guide
Viscous/vicious–Viscousis generally used to describe the consistency of blood or other thick liquids. Viciousis used to describe something or someone who is violent.
Piqued/Peaked/Peeked– To piquesomeone’s interest is to catch or tease their attention. When something peaks,it reaches its total height or intensity. To peek(at) something is to look briefly, or glance.
Discrete/Discreet– this is a tough one. Discretemeans to be separate, or distinct, i.e., two discretetheories. Conversely, when someone is discreet,they are being secretive or cautious to avoid attention.
Segue/Segway – one is a transition between things, the other is a thing you can ride at the park and definitely fall off of.
Conscious/Conscience/Conscientious – to be consciousis to be awake, i.e., not unconscious, or to be aware of something. Your conscienceis the little voice in your head telling you not to eat the entire pint of ice cream. Finally, to be conscientiousis to be good, to do things thoroughly, to be ruled by an inner moral code.
Hope this helped! Please add more if you think of them!
Counsel/Council-counsel is advice, the advice giver, or the verb form of giving said advice. Council is the group of people who come together to discuss and/or make decisions.
Desert/Desert/Dessert-desert is a barren landscape where little precipitation occurs. desert - abandon (a person, cause, or organization) in a way considered disloyal or treacherous. dessert - a usually sweet course or dish (as of pastry or ice cream) usually served at the end of a meal.
OH MY TIME IS HERE! I HAVE MADE A POST I KEEP FOR THIS EXACTLY
Taunt/Taut-Taunt is a jeer or provocation, taut means to be pulled tight, or not slack
Weary/Wary-wearymeans tired and warymeans cautious
Rogue/Rouge-rogue is a person who has unaffiliated themselves from what they were before (is the general understanding); a person or thing that behaves in an aberrant, faulty, or unpredictable way - rouge is red
Wonton/Wanton - a wontonis a dumpling, wantonis (of a cruel or violent action) deliberate and unprovoked and/or sexually unrestrained
Haphazard/Halfhazard-haphazardmeans to have a lack of plan, order, or direction - the other isn’t a word
Corporal/Corporeal-corporalis a lack of plan, order, or direction and corporealis to have a physical existence: to be tangible: of a person’s body
Peck/Pec - the first is a kiss (peck) and the second is the shortened version of pectoral (pec)
Virile/Viral - to be virileis to have strength, energy, and a strong sex drive (typically said about men) and then this last year (2020) has personally taught us, is how virala plague can really be, so of the nature of, caused by, or relating to a virus or viruses
Vulnerable/Venerable-vulnerablemeans being susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm, and if a person is venerablethey’re accorded a great deal of respect, especially because of age, wisdom, or character (or if you’re religious, holy)
Dyedis something that is colored, and diedis deceased
Chalk (it up to something) ; chock (-full of something); choked (to cutoff air).
toaffect is the action,theeffect is the end result
If something doesn’t bother you then you weren’t fazed by it. If you are between two states of being that is a phase.
Please. For the love of all things holy. I beg you.
Loose: the opposite of tight
Lose: to misplace something or the opposite of win.
I BEG YOU.
breath is the noun, breathe is the verb
Confident is feeling or showing confidence in oneself. Confidant(e) is a deeply trusted friend, usually the go-to for sharing secrets/advice, and DOES depend on gender - the e on the end is if the person is a lady or female-leaning. Lack of an e denotes male, nonbinary.
Advice is the thing. Advise is the verb
Same with prophecy (thing) and prophesy(verb).
Also, please be careful with blond/blondeandbrunet/brunette. Yes, there is a difference. I made a post all about these words if anyone wants to check it out.
My only real and valid writing tip is that you google every word you make up for your fantasy stories. That’s It
there won’t be any results though because you just made it up
One time I made up a name for a character and after googling it discovered it was a Zimbabwean slur
Looking at you, prolific Marvel villain Knull…
i went through the notes for you:
to the people in the notes making the argument that every combination of letters is a word in some language: sure. but you’ll want to at the least know what that word is! naming your character detergentin another language is pretty different from naming your character slut in another language
me, knocking on some writer’s door: hi, um, about your oc?
them: oh! puta cajones? isn’t she great?
me:……..
also, rip to the wattpad writer who titled their book “roseville” because it sounded pretty, and everyone in the comments replying “i live there and it’s not like this” because it’s actually a big city irl
Studio Ghibli did this exact thing when they made Castle in the Sky. I cannot watch this film without wincing every time characters say the name of the castle: Laputa.
Their only saving grace is that the film came out in 1986, so it wasn’t like they could Google the name to check and see if maybe, possibly, probably they should change it.
“I’m an artist. Artists don’t need permission to work. Regardless of whether I’m acting or not, I write. I write when I’m tired in fact, because I believe your most pure thoughts surface.”
you know what doesn’t get talked about enough in writing circles
completed story grief
That feeling you are left with when you have finished a long project - whether it is long because it contains a lot of words, or long because it took you a long time to write, or long because it took you a long time to start writing it - when you’re happy because you finished it but empty because it is finished. You took out all of the words that were inside of you, at least all of the ones that pertain to that story, and the relief that follows such an action can be devastatingly exhausting.
On top of just the empty feeling, there follows that bittersweet sense of understanding that this thing which has for so long been your companion is no longer just your companion, and that you have in some ways severed the ties with it, because you will not be writing it anymore. You might write other stories related to it. You might write stories in the same world. Or stories with the same characters. But THAT story is finished. That story has been taken out of you and put where it can be a part of everyone that reads it. That is unimaginably happy and sad at the same time.
So I just want to say, I guess, be nice to yourself after you finish a story. Yes it’s happy, yes it feels good. But if you also feel a little like you’ve just lost something, give yourself some time to process that, because in a way you did. It’s a happy loss, the sort of loss wildlife rescuers feel when an animal they saved is able to go back and be wild again. It’s a good, happy thing, but it’s also okay to take a little time to be sad and take care of yourself.
I’ll add that us readers have this grief too. Reading a long multi-chapter fic, or the last in a series, is equally as exhilarating and devastating. Sometimes readers also need that advice: process the grief, a bittersweet knowledge that there is no more coming from this story but the story was that good. Cherish the memory, take time to reflect, move on when ready.
I’m always sad at the end. And sometimes, if the fic has been that good, I’ll need a little delay before I read it again (I’m looking at you, @loopstagirl) but I will read it again. And again. And again. And the sadness eases just a little every time.
I know that you mean well, and I appreciate that you are attempting to bridge a gap to relate to this post, and that you (and others) absolutely do experience something like this as a reader, and I want to be clear I am saying this as gently as possible, but this post isn’t about reading or readers. I’ve seen a lot of posts talking about what you are talking about, often with regards to watching stories in visual media (I’ve even seen it addressed publicly by major corporations like Netflix in commercials about story void) and it’s definitely applicable to reading stories as well, but I wrote this post to make a space to speak specifically to and about writers.
Because it IS different. Writers are not (just) consumers of the end product (even though many of us are that as well). Writers are not meeting someone else’s characters or experiencing a story that has been given to them by another. They’re parting with something that came from themselves. They’re parting with a piece of themselves, something they created, something which is bigger on the inside of their head than anything they’ve put on the paper. They’re parting with something they’ve connected to in a way different than anyone else will be able to do. I made this post to address that, specifically, because I haven’t seen much, if anything, which does address it for writers at all, and I think it’s important to do so.
It’s important for the writer to know and understand this is a thing for them and how to deal with it (and that it’s okay to take time to deal with it, because there is OFTEN pressure from readers and even from themselves to get right back to producing The Next Thing). A lot of people don’t even recognize that this is what they are going through BECAUSE they have only ever seen it discussed from the reader/consumer side (if they have seen it at all). I’ve watched writers struggle after completing something, trying to write their next story because they think they can just keep going without taking time to process BECAUSE this effect isn’t discussed for writers, and then experience frustration and a sense of failure for not being able to BECAUSE they don’t know this is a thing for writers, or how to deal with it.
It’s also important for readers to recognize and understand that this happens to writers, and that this may account for long silences from writers after they complete fics- silences both in production of more stories AND for responding to comments etc. It’s important for the community at large to understand that this happens to writers, and that supporting writers AFTER the story is finished can be useful and helpful to them.
Because all of this is something which just doesn’t get discussed with regards to writers, at least not from what I’ve seen.
This is intriguing because I never thought about this in terms of writing, but this is actually a well known phenomenon in theatre? I was active in community theatre for years, and the post show depression was a known and discussed thing. Maybe it’s easier to recognize in the performing arts because other people are involved, or because it’s more likely to be an obvious organized and scheduled part of the participants’ lives, or because it’s usually not actually possible to jump straight into another play immediately (plays have seasons, schedules, other people). Regardless, we all knew and talked about that hollow empty feeling that came after closing night, when there were no more rehearsals, no more shows, when this thing you had scheduled your life around for months was just gone.
And though we never called it grief, we had rituals for grieving. What IS a cast party, after all, but a funeral or a wake? A chance to celebrate and say goodbye?
It makes sense that authors would experience the same feelings of loss. Of hollowness and confusion. But it also makes sense, sadly, that they’d have a harder time coping. A writer IS the cast. And the director, and the stage crew. Writing is often a solitary craft. An author who’s just finished a novel has no one else to throw a cast party with. And no external logistical barriers to stop them from trying to leap immediately into the next project without taking time out to breathe.
I’m not sure what the author equivalent of a cast party and a lull in the theatre season would be. But one person doing an entire show by themselves with their brain probably needs it more than a whole theatre group does, not less.
You know what’s really cool? Being in a call with a writer when they’re just coming up with an idea for a new story.
Being trusted enough not to laugh or snicker as they explain everything they have so far– from the newest and vaguest of ideas to the most concrete and fleshed-out.
Listening to the excitement in their voice as they come up with character arcs and side plots; as they come up with a story right infront of you, and being equally as excited because “Holy shit man, this is something you’ve gotta see through! Seriously! I want to read it right now!”
Being asked for advice and sheepishly throwing something out for them to work with, only for them to embrace that idea and flourish it into something even more spectacular than you would’ve thought it could be.
Laughing as they explain the little inside jokes and easter eggs they’re going to web between their sentences– little tidbits that now not only are you going to keep an eye out for, but that you’ll still laugh at and gasp over once they’re revealed.
I think everyone should know a writer, or at least get to be around one while they’re coming up with an idea. I assure you, there’s something so euphoric about being in the presence of that much raw creativity and passion, that it’s just absolutely inspiring.
Now is a very stressful time and I think we should all be lending more time to self care and listening to ourselves. It can be hard and downright heartbreaking when your writing suffers or makes you feel strained because of everything going on. So I’m here to help all I can.
Remind Yourself That Your Voice Matters
In this beautiful world, we are expanding the voices in literature constantly. Every new voice we gain is part of that expansion. It’s worthwhile to share your stories and nothing should be discouraging that. Even if you feel now isn’t the right time to share, you don’t have to. You can just write for now and share later. There’s no shame in sitting on a draft for a while.
Let Yourself Take a Break
We all need time now and again to recover or refill our creative well so that we can write our best. And it’s okay if you’re needing to take more breaks. They’re there to help you if you let them. You don’t have to be productive in these periods, you can simply be and get back to writing when it feels natural. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself to produce right now.
Motivate Yourself Using Incentives
Sometime you really have to get down and write, no excuses. Maybe you have a deadline or you finally find a burst of energy. To sustain yourself, make physical or mental incentives to reward yourself. Whether you’re measuring time allotted, word count, page count, or another goal, there are plenty of ways to motivate yourself. Use Dollar Store knickknacks, try a fancy food from the store, give yourself stickers. Find the fun in motivation and productivity. And remember that you are not a work horse.
Remember: You are worth more than your productivity!
Overnight, I became the friend that will make personalised playlists for people’s birthdays, the friend that will ask you how you were at every silent moment in a conversation, because it’s a question that isn’t asked enough, the friend that won’t go a day without seeing you because she misses your face, despite the fact she didn’t know you before September, the friend that will get up and dance the second Ode To A Conversation Stuck In Your Throat plays, or Sex by The 1975, and will grab the hands of the closest person and get them to dance too, the friend that will knock first so you can speak, the friend that will talk to the Year 13s because they seem so scary despite being only a year older than you, the friend that walk you down to the coffee shop because you were going on your own, the friend that says hate is a strong word, but uses ‘love’ as easily as connectives, the friend that will ask you if you want to talk, because she’s there to listen, the friend that will be the first to apologise, the friend that will write poetry about you at 3am, and post it anonymously on Tumblr, the friend that confidence comes easily to, the friend with a god complex, despite hating herself, the friend that tells you that she dreamt of you the night before, despite it being a complete lie, the friend that will lie and cheat to get her own way, the friend that will manipulate and deceive just to remind everyone that she isn’t really thatfriend, because how could anyone have thatfriend? No one has her, really. She’s a Manic Pixie Dream Girl that’s trying too hard for the purpose of something that doesn’t even exist. She was none of these people four months ago. I wish I never had thatfriend. I think I’d kill her. She’d drive me mad.
