hey iām super late to the party but ur friendly internet poet here to Stop This Madness before you Become The Madness.Ā
i kind of think of the blank page of ms word as like. when you walk through a doorway into a room and are likeĀ āwtf was i even doing.ā for some reason our brain sees blank and then draws a blank. and ur like. i was actually really excited about that 45 seconds ago?? come back idea we can still be friends!!
so how do you. not do that? here are some tips that i just PERSONALLY LEARNED and arenāt like. purdue university.Ā
donāt you dare even lookĀ at tumblr or any other site tbh just get outĀ asap
if you have trouble detaching from reality, have an emergency Music Bin of classical music/instrumental/video game music saved on ur computer. Not the internet. notĀ the internet. bc you typeĀ āyoutubeā in the url bar, goodbye cruel world. 3 AM and youāre watching compilations of cats talking. just have it saved somewhere on ur library and hit play. block out the noise of the Rest of the World.
the sound of rain/mood/white noise helps, thereās a bunch of sites for that, but tbh just download rain sounds from youtube when youāre bored one day so you donāt get lost in one of those ~calming masterposts~
if something is Immediately Pressing, try to āwriteā internally and do the thing at the same time - i canāt tell you how many good ideas iāve had while making myself a sandwich. being away from the blank page andĀ handling my hunger help.
donāt wait. write it now. NOW. now. notĀ āafter scrolling another secondā no now , right now. i have left bed at 2 AM to write. you gotta #commit bc the truth is if you donāt, you have the worstĀ anticlimax when your brain lets you down. it gave you a gift and you said youād open it later and now itās mad at you. donāt do that. just open the gift.
donāt fear. if it comes out bad itās still OUT. writers live in the Void Of Self-Doubt, where sometimes weāre likeĀ āhow can i do this idea justice?ā and we get so tangled in being goodĀ enough for it that we never doĀ it. who cares if you accidentally write like 3 sentences where u meant to write 16 pages. it just means that youāre concise as hell my guy. itās always easier to build from somethingĀ than nothing.
fuck everything else. if your brain is like ā!!!!!!!!!!!ā like mine is (24-7 my guy) itās hard to āturn it offā how do you write when everything is crowded up there? my solution is to turn the writing up. turn up your imagination so loud it shouts down everything else. you canāt make inspiration but when you start thinking,Ā those cogs get turning. and everything else drowns out.
THE SCARY SCARY DURING:
fuck ms word. itās so blank!!! tbh a lot of my writing gets started ANYWHERE ELSE, bc i canāt look at a blank page without getting Writer Sweats. start it at the bottom of your english essay. type it in a tumblr text box so itās lowkey and not official. i have a saved document of just like ā¦ half-stories or story ideas and bc theyāre not Official, they can be weird and painless and quick.
you gotta write bad stuff before you learn to write good stuff so who cares if itās not poe like itās yoursĀ just keep writing even if it doesnātĀ āmeasure upā to what you want it to exactly look like.
donāt start at the beginning, fuck the beginning. your brain started with the idea halfway, right? so you start there too. sometimes i just pick up in the middle of a sentence -Ā āand it was good enough, at last.ā who cares what happens before that, my idea starts there, so iāmĀ gonna start there!Ā
on that note, trust your readers. half the time i just decide - u know what, i see this world like this, and you can catch up as i go. a writer when you sit there and have to explainĀ āin this world mice are hording your secrets and They Know,ā great, now youāve written the whole story in one sentence. just write it and let ppl figure it out. donāt waste the inspiration trying to explain the rules behind your floating city. write the city and run in it while you have the energy.Ā
parts missing? like you just really have a setting thereĀ but wtf is the plot gonna be? or holy shit a character with bazookas for hands!! handgun guy!!! but like in what world ā yeah it happens to all of us. the thing is, instead of being likeĀ āthis is nothing,ā remind yourself you have soĀ much to explore because you just fucking inventedĀ something. even if you write fanfic and the world is already there and stuff like that - dang son explore everything. is there dust in the house is he allergic to cats whatās it like in the forest are there many dogs? does he like being kissed upside down howās that desk they keep doing it on and what has itĀ seen poor thing. and when you start that, you realize - wait! thatās the story! the desk breaks or family shows up and asks to buy it (why wonāt u just sell it, laura dear, u hardly do any real work at it) - thatās where itās all hiding. think of ur brain as giving you the whole idea every time - itās just up to you to look.Ā
donāt edit fuck editing youāll get around to it eventually
āoh i changed a rule i should go backā no donāt youāll get to it eventually, just keep writing
ādoes this sound natural?ā who cares just write
fuck it sometimes i literally will change what iām saying in the middle of a sentence but instead of deleting i just keep it up because then iām not starting back at the topĀ
grammar is a silly silly myth and you can break it with your big strong lobster claws and i even hope you doĀ break it
meaning if youāre like me and sometimes donāt write in Caps or you start going forwards in Txt speech it literally doesnāt matter just go, heck, once i was in the flow and instead of writing a response for something i just had a character sayĀ ā>:Iā and it worked.
if none of the above is even helping not at all: DONāT CLOSE IT. SIT . BE GOOD. Ā SIIIITTTTTā¦. SIT. stare at it. stare it down. when u give up too fast the idea is likeĀ āfine. i wasnāt good enough to fight for? bye.ā i would say that the averageĀ āstare-downā time iād give an idea before giving up on it is 15 minutes. not 15Ā āchanging the tab to be on fbā minutes. 15 donāt you dare look at anything else minutes. bc chances are? minute 5 your brain will become Bored - and it will open up bc itās likeĀ āfine fuck you if this is all weāre gonna focus on letāsĀ go.ā
THE GRUESOME AFTERMATH:
go get water and pat yourself on the back kid
even if it went badly do that bc writing is hard and you tried your bestĀ
