As requested by @radio-b, here are some tips and techniques I've utilized to develop my writing habit.
Writing is inherently subjective. What one person finds as amazing will seem terrible to someone else. You can't please all the people all of the time and you shouldn't even try.
You should try to please yourself. Write for yourself. Others will recognize the authenticity in your work and be attracted to it. Writing for yourself also helps keep you motivated.
Write what you want to read. I guarantee someone out there wants to read what you want to write. This may sound conceited, but I am my own favorite author. I write what I want to read and I enjoy rereading my own work. Be your own favorite author and you will always be excited to write what comes next.
Quality does exist, however, but is a mutable trait. Hard work and practice produce results. You can improve your craft, but you cannot maximize some nebulous metric. Perfect simply does not exist.
I read almost no fiction except other StH fanfics. I read a lot of books on science, philosophy, corporate shenanigans, and history. I'm able to learn a lot about a bunch of topics and that knowledge allows me to flesh out my worldbuilding in realistic ways.
Reading about other people gives you access to perspectives on life and events that you will not encounter yourself, which allows you to add facets to your characters that aren't a direct reflection of yourself.
Learn how other people approach the world. Learn about what motivates people. Learn how people you don't agree with justify their actions. Learn about the breadth and width of human ingenuity and passion and the depths of human misery and depravity.
The world is an amazing place and countless people are trying to share it with you via nonfiction.
There is an audience for everything. Popular media may seem 'right' or 'good' by virtue of appealing to a large audience, but that is an illusion. Finding your audience can be tough and it might seem small, but keep in mind that not everything was made for everyone. So make a social media account for your work. Post shamelessly promoting yourself. It's your account and you can do whatever you want with it.
Try to keep in mind that your audience are real people, not just a number. 10 Kudos may seem like a small amount, but those are 10 humans that read what you wrote and enjoyed it. You have improved the day of 10 people and thats a wonderful thing.
To be a writer, you've got to write. Easy to say, hard as fuck to do. My advice is to establish a habit of writing. What you write or how much doesn't matter, but doing it everyday will result in a sizeable body of work after a few years. Once you have the habit down, making something becomes easier and you can then focus on other things, like plot development or marketing.
Open a document and write one hundred words. Save it. Close.
Tomorrow, open the file. If you wrote 100 words yesterday, write 101 words. Otherwise write 100 words. Save it. Close it.
The following day, if you wrote 101 words yesterday, write 102 words today. If not, write 101 words today. So on and so forth.
Each day you write, increase your target for the next day by 1. Each day you don't write, decrease your target for the next day by 1. See how high you can get your number.
Depending on your writing cadence, writing 100 can take less than ten minutes and can be done nearly anywhere. On your phone. In a notebook. While you're waiting for the bus. While you're lying in bed. While your cup noodles are spinning in the microwave. While you're waiting in the lobby for your next DoTA/LoL/FortNight or whatever the fuck game to start.
The 1% increase will feel negligible, but its more a trick than anything. You will find that you easily end up writing more than 100 words and those bonus words add up. You will find that once you get started, you don't feel like stopping and 100 words turns into 500. All of these are good things.
If ever you stop for awhile, that's okay. You can always start over at 100 again. It's fine. You are establishing a habit like brushing your teeth or doing stretches.
How high can you get your streak?
Are there any other topics you'd like to see me cover?
Does anyone want some nonfiction recommendations? If so, what topic/genre?
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
ellievsbear
gracieabrams
snowghoul
