May The Tides Help Me To Forget.

- first of all, you’re doing great. 700-1,500 words is a lot more than you are giving yourself credit for. i can write 1,500 in an hour and a half on a good day. that’s a lot of time!! especially for someone who has other priorities in life other than fanfic.

- writing stamina is real and is an actual “muscle” that does grow and strengthen with repetition as time. it’s something you can expand and build with practice.

- don’t get too wrapped up in perfection. get words on the page and don’t get in your head about if they’re the right ones. you can fix garbage but you can’t fix nothing.

- write what excites you. i know nonlinear writing is sacrilege to some people so this may not work for you, but for me personally if i get stuck, i just jump to something i want to write. sometimes that means writing out only dialogue that i add to later. sometimes it means several paragraphs of world building. you’ll be surprised about how much you end up writing if you don’t adhere to the structure rules and add stuff later.

- don’t feel pressured to write it all at once. most of the greatest novels were written over the course of months, even years. sure, there are authors that can crank out 10k in a day (i’ve done it - it’s killer and i was exhausted after) but having realistic goals can help.

- to add to that, setting achievable goals is also important. don’t shoot for the stars just yet or else you may find yourself feeling disappointed. give yourself small checkpoints that you can have mini rewards for.

- when it comes to brainstorming and outlining, i find making a list of plot points and character beats with no specific order that i then organize later into a sequential outline is helpful. outlines are another way to have a tangible proof of your progress

- don’t burn yourself out on one project. breaks are important and so is nourishing your mind