A Question of Character

Take it from someone who's done it for 14 years. We love our 50k, yeah! Nice big, round number, has a good ring to it. It's traditional.

But listen, if 50k is too much for you? If you're finding yourself already wanting to drop out on Day 5 because you realized writing 1,667 words a day is kind of a lot actually? Stop trying to write that much!!

But don't stop writing.

(unless you need/want to do that too, in which case halt! go no further! take your rest!)

Otherwise, just simplify the goal. Or, don't even give yourself a goal if that sounds better. Just write how much you want to write, whenever you want to write it, and enjoy being surrounded by other writers doing the same.

No Wrimo with half an ounce of decency is gonna try to kick you out of the community because you decided not to go for the big 5-0. We're just happy to see you here. Check out the NaNo forums, the writeblr tags, your local in-person events, the discord servers, or just connect with a couple of creative friends and do NaNoWriMo the only way it's meant to be done: with joy for the craft, support for your fellow writers, and most importantly celebration for your work.

Followers! I have an important request on behalf of a friend in education. Does anyone know of a good, free resource online that one could give high schoolers to help them learn to read Shakespearian English? 

Okay so basically the idea of it is that I'm writing a short book/guide/thing for my school library about how to get started writing novels or other long-form fiction, right. Topics like how to make the process less daunting, how to find a place in the writing community where you can talk to other writers, where to find good writing advice/what to listen to and what not to listen to/when certain writing advice is useful, that kind of thing.

What I wished I knew when I was a baby writer tm and didn't yet have connections to other writers, or even a great sense of what questions to ask.

When it is completed, a free PDF will be available for general readership

So what kind of help is most needed?

PLEASE REBLOG THIS AND SPREAD THIS AROUND

But mainly, I wanna hear what pieces of advice you would give your past self when you were first getting started? What pieces of knowledge could have made a noticeable difference in how you approached the journey? If you started writing already surrounded by writer friends, what were some things they told you that you think were instrumental in how you're doing now? If you didn't start in a writing community but feel pretty connected now, how did you get there? What was your path?

Below is a handy-dandy google form below to write in responses (including an opportunity to boost your current wips!)

To all you authors out there, here’s a little advice that will help you so much. 

Do not write for other people. Yes, this sounds like classic writing advice, but I’m going to go deeper into it. Because I realized today what that actually means.

When you write for other people, you find yourself constantly being anxious over how they’ll perceive it. As you’re writing you’ll be looking at it like “there’s no way anyone will ever like this.” You’ll point out every flaw and that just makes writing a burden. You’ll get writer’s block or quit writing altogether, because it’s just not fun anymore.

So instead of doing that, just…turn off that part of your brain that points out the mistakes and tells you people won’t like it. Save that for later. It might be hard to do this, but you’ve got to understand that you’re telling this story for yourself, and that at this point it doesn’t matter if it sucks or not. That’s for your other drafts. 

Enjoy the writing. Smile when you make some cheesy joke, even if you know you’ll have to delete it later. Write out the parts that you like about the story, whether or not they matter to the plot.

Make every effort to find books that are exactly like the ones you want to write, read them, and treasure them. I'm talking books that feel like they were written for you, books that feel like an idea you might have come up with yourself.

In my own work, it took me years to stop unconsciously shoehorning in narrative elements that felt out of place and weren't enjoyable to write. It was because all of my favourite books had those elements, and they were great to read about, but not necessarily a natural part of the stories I wanted to write. It wasn't until I found books that were in this intimately familiar style that I found myself fully able to embrace OP's advice.

the written word is so beautiful and powerful and my ability to utilize it is a gift that I am so grateful to have, I’m going to sit down and write ten entire pages 

and then other days it’s like

When I started writing Runaways, I was afraid that the plot was too predictable, too obvious, too elementary. I’d been writing Storge so long with all it’s complicated plots, and even though fantasy stories about civil war and rebellion are kind of overdone, it’s so inextricably tied to Laoche and my world and my characters that I’ve never been able to find another book that matches it’s vibes. But there’s dozens and dozens of books about fae and changelings out there, and the premise of Runaways always just felt so obvious to me. There was no other way this story could be told.

I picked up a middle grade book the other day in the library called The Last Changeling, which took place in the lands of seelie and unseelie. I was afraid that I’d read it, only to find that my idea was already done. It wasn’t even remotely close. It was such a relief and such a fun, almost goofy, story that took place fully in the faerie world and followed a hostage prince and midwife’s apprentice. Even though it lit up all the same keywords in the synopsis, it was a startlingly different concept.

I picked up a YA book the other day in the library called House of Hollow, which follows three strange sisters trying to protect each other from the supernatural. I was afraid that I’d read it, only to find that my idea was already done. It wasn’t even remotely close. It was such a relief, and such a compelling, dark, intense story that took place bordering two worlds completely unlike mine. Even though it lit up all the same keywords in the synopsis, it was a startlingly different concept.

I had an absolute blast reading both stories - drawing the similarities and feeling slightly smug about coming up with an idea good enough to be published; drawing the differences and feeling slightly smug about coming up with something so original and intrinsically mine that it can also be published. These books will not push each other off the shelves, they will play to different strengths of the genre, different tastes for different readers. A thread of a common trope, but three distinctly colored threads weaving together to create a fascinating tapestry of storytelling.