#kookied

➥ [ reading is the main game changer ] :

firstly i feel like writing found me through reading, i've been a reader for a long time, i think i started when i was around 11 years old and my shelves were literally always oveflowing with books, as i got older that love for reading turned into a love for fanfiction after i became an army and wattpad became my main reading source for years. even before becoming an army reading had already kinda lead me towards writing, i'd write silly little stories here and there, some by hand and i loved creative and narrative writing at school so that definitely encouraged me too. as i grew older i started writing a few oneshots on docs and after becoming an army i even gave wattpad a shot. i wasn't very consistent back then, i'd write whenever i got the inspiration but i never really posted much despite having unfinished fics, i prioritized reading mostly. then over the last few years i got back into reading physical books and i've read so many romance novels and they've become one of my biggest inspirations, some of my all time favorite authors are penelope douglas, h.d carlton, ali hazelwood, mia sheridan and i've read almost all of their backlists, for romantasy i'd recommend sarah j. maas and stephanie garber, reading their books made me realize how much i wanted to create my own stories. in between physical books i've never really stopped reading fanfics either because at the end of the day fanfics are my baby, i also discovered tumblr and thought why not give it a shot? and here we are hehe

this is basically the little backstory behind what motivated me to start writing, i genuinely think reading is the biggest reason i became a writer, it has taught me so much in so many ways, every book or fic i read teaches me something new, reading different authors, paying attention to how they write has helped me improve so much over time, i think the best advice i could ever give someone who wants to write is simply to read and read, read as much as you can because there's always something to learn

➥ [ write down every idea ] :

i feel like story ideas always come to me out of nowhere, it could be when i'm doing something random or listening to music and suddenly an entire plot or scene pops into my head, the problem is that i know i'll probably forget it later if i don't write it down so i actually have a notebook where i jot down my ideas because for some reason physically writing them down makes me feel more motivated to eventually write them and also my phone's notes app too, i have so many random messy notes saved there, i think writing everything down has helped me so much because when i finally sit down to plan one of my main fics, i already have a collection of ideas instead of starting with a blank page

i know not everyone likes planning or writing their ideas down and that's completely okay because every writer has a different process but personally it's one of the best habits i've developed and it has helped me more than i can explain

➥ [ plan before you write ] :

i do a lot of brainstorming before i start writing a fic, before any oneshot or chapter i'll spend a good amount of time planning everything out, most of my rough work is either on my notes app or in my notebook but if i'm in a hurry i usually use my notes app because it's much faster to type everything out than write it by hand. i'm constantly adding new ideas andchanging things, i don't just plan the big plot points either, i plan even the tiniest details that randomly come to mind, i'll have sections dedicated to character development, their personalities, important plot points i know i want to include, if i come up with a better idea i always edit afterwards too

one thing i've always done and still do to this day is create scene by scene outlines, something like this:

scene 1: ...

scene 2: ...

scene 3: ...

under each section i'll write down what happens in that scene and the sequence of events i'll follow while writing that particular scene and having everything written out like that helps me stay organized and keeps me from losing track of the story, whenever i'm writing i almost always have my notes app open beside my doc so i can view my outline whenever i need to

ofcourse new ideas still come to me while i'm writing so my planning isn't completely fully followed, sometimes i'll even jot down dialogue if a certain conversation suddenly comes to mind but for the most part i let the dialogue flow as i'm writing, i think having a clear outline of each scene makes that process much easier because i already know where the conversation needs to go. i also definitely wasn't very good at writing dialogues when i first started writing but i think that's something that improves with practice, the more i wrote and the more i read, the more comfortable i became with writing dialogues

➥ [ separate writing from editing ] :

another thing that's helped me a lot is separating writing from editing, when i'm writing my first draft i don't worry about making everything perfect, my drafts are honestly a complete mess and i just write whatever comes to mind, for me quantity always comes before quality in the drafting stage, when i first started writing i used to obsess over making every sentence perfect, i'd constantly rewrite paragraphs and overthink everything, while doing that i'd end up forgetting the next scene i wanted to write, it slowed my writing down so much and left me stuck with writer's block because i was putting too much pressure on myself to make everything perfect

eventually i realized that my first draft doesn't have to be perfect so now i let myself write as messily as i need to, i also tend to write in lots of separate blocks instead of one huge paragraph because it helps my ideas progress much better and since i usually write long fics i almost always end up restructuring everything anyway, tumblr also has a limit of too many blocks and i've actually hit that limit several times so i've had to go back and merge sentences together before posting. once i've finished writing that's when the editing begins, i'll fix grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, honestly it takes me a while but the biggest thing i've learned is to treat writing and editing as two separate processes, when i'm writing i let myself be creative without worrying about perfection and when i'm editing i polish everything up

lastly i just wanna say that it's really hard to always keep up with schedules and goals as a writer, i've realized that myself because some days writing one sentence feels like the hardest thing and everything you write seems so imperfect that you lose all motivation to continue, sometimes that feeling lasts for days or even weeks and i'm speaking from experience, i go through writing slumps and procrastination often but then there are other days when inspiration suddenly hits and i can sit down and write for hours, i've had times where i've written over 5k words in one sitting. for example this month i tried setting a posting schedule for the first time but unfortunately i wasn't able to stick to it because life got busy and things came up, not everything goes according to plan and i hate breaking promises to my readers so nowadays i only announce a release date when i'm completely sure i'll be able to deliver it, usually that's once i've finished writing and know i can complete the editing within a day or two

➥ [ be patient and gentle with yourself ] :

i'll be honest i get frustrated with myself sometimes too, i wonder why i can't post as frequently or why i can't write more every day and it can be discouraging but if there's one thing i want every writer to remember is to be gentle with yourself, this is your story and your writing and you shouldn't feel guilty for not posting enough or for taking longer to finish a story, what matters most is that you're happy with what you've created, writing is supposed to be a hobby you love, not a chore so don't rush and let yourself improve little by little, my readers have honestly been my biggest motivation too, i don't think i'd still be posting today if it weren't for them and they make all the hard work worth it