A 50000 words manuscript amounts to around 1667 words per day for 30 days and so I set that amount as my per day word target. I jumped into writing the novel without much of an idea about the story.
What could go wrong?
I started writing a coming of age story about a guy just starting his second last year of high school. I wrote the first chapter day before yesterday and the second one yesterday. The words flowed out pretty well and easy leading to me meeting the word count target easily both days. But the problem is that I'm genuinely stumped about what to do next. I have thought for a lot of time but genuinely can't come up with anything good.
[long boring summary of generic high school scenario about a kid and his crush with absolutely no hook whatsoever]
How can I get over this writing block thing quickly?
I want to go a little easy because this is probably a kid, but if you're bored of your story by day 3, write a different story. You cannot write a coming of age story if you have nothing to say about coming of age, and you cannot write a novel if you don't have ideas for a novel.
If you can jerk off when you're not horny, you can write when you're not inspired.
HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I MASTURBATE TODAY?
If you never feel inspired for a particular story, it's time to ditch it.
You say: “I have many ideas of where the story should go next but none of them are good ones.”
Day 3 is way too early for sunk cost, how about writing something you actually like?
Well I've been procrastinating since 5 years so I'd say my target is 5 years and 30 days
Neighbor write a short story or something goddarn
Why would you want to be a writoid if you never have ideas?
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They just like the label, the idea of "being a writer".
Most of the problems in these very, very funny subs seem to boil down to the people involved not having anything they really want to say in their writing.
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They know the basic mechanics of writing (forming words and sentences) and sometimes even have creative ideas but know basically nothing about style
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ffs, not having a writing style is the ultimate cope. Neighbor, just read someone else's book and imitate them.
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Um, actually, you don't need to read in order to be able to write. Believing in the superiority of long-form writing over alternative media is LITERALLY white supremacy by means of suppressing the voices of BIPOCs
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This is true, we invented dictation apps for people of illiteracy.
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I support content creators of color by only consooming shitty anime
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Style isn't the issue. It's the fact that /r/writing users (and most writers in general) have absolutely zero idea how to tell a dramatic story.
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Unironically why I like using LLama when I write. I can feed the AI a paragraph I wrote, tell it add prose, repeat 20 times and then pick the handful of nice lines
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Does llama put out more interesting responses than chatgpt? I feel like gpt puts out responses that are accurate but boring (no interesting style of writing, sounds like an /r/writing kid tbh)
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100%. You have to prime it with examples (I'll feed it like 3 paragraphs I wrote and then say "Continue the above in the same style adding detail, dialog and prose")
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Isn't it more fun to think of the lines yourself?
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They just have no passion.
The 800,000 word MLP Fallout crossover fanfiction is evidence you don't have to be a particularly good writer to write, you just need some passion about the subject you're writing about.
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This is why I write porn, always something to say about butt fricking, sissy raceplay and futa orc X goblin cbt
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Post excerpt
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The most offensive thing is that it's 2nd person what the frick
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I intended to make a cyoa out of it lol
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Can you?? Amazon self pub too
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😴😴😴
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f u lpb
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It really seems like 90% of the people on that sub are Brian Griffin impersonators
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its a good show!
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I would rather 1000 losers with no “ideas” actually writing than 10,000 losers on /r/writing who all have a “great idea” (eg a fantasy epic about a mystical boy who fingers a dragon or w.e) but who refuse to actually write
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You don't need to have some epic message in your writing. Tolkien didn't have any cute twinky morals in his stories, he just told badass tales. Its just a collapse of originality.
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I'm not talking about having an epic message. I'm talking about something you want to express. Most (good) literature starts with the desire to say something, to put something out into the world.
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Snapshots:
undelete.pullpush.io
archive.org
ghostarchive.org
archive.ph (click to archive)
If you can jerk off when you're not horny, you can write when you're not inspired.:
undelete.pullpush.io
archive.org
ghostarchive.org
archive.ph (click to archive)
You say: “I have many ideas of where the story should go next but none of them are good ones.”:
undelete.pullpush.io
archive.org
ghostarchive.org
archive.ph (click to archive)
Some writers write a novel for 2, 5, or within 10 years.:
undelete.pullpush.io
archive.org
ghostarchive.org
archive.ph (click to archive)
Well I've been procrastinating since 5 years so I'd say my target is 5 years and 30 days:
undelete.pullpush.io
archive.org
ghostarchive.org
archive.ph (click to archive)
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Good one, Snappy
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1600 words a day leaves no room for editing or re reading or anything, it's going to be trash
Also why would you write a book if you don't have a story, that's kind of the whole point
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There's something to the Stephen King school of writing, just belt out your first draft as fast as possible and see whether it can be edited into something decent when the coke wears off.
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If you've got the thing mostly in your head already, sure. But without any idea about anything? Huge waste of time
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I can see the benefit of writing just to write if you're in a lull and need to keep fresh but only if youre the type that will have a decent story to turn out later. Even then, make it productive - mark down every single thing you did that day but make it overwhelming and dramatic, write a menial guide to something from the perspective of someone who barely understands english.
Otherwise it feels masturbatory in service of "being a writer"
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Legitimately would rather go through years of no writing than do this
I wrote TONS a decade or so ago then spent like 5 or 6 years without putting a single letter to paper, picked it up again about 2 years ago and I'm writing fairly consistently now
I guess if you have to write to get paid it's different but as a hobby why bother when your heart isnt in it
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TBF it's nanowrimo
The goal is less "finish your bestselling novel within the month" and more, "Put some words to paper and hopefully endup with with the start of a first draft by the end or at least learn a lot about the process along the way"
That said
Holy shit these neighbors looks like a dorks
In my experience you end up with someone way more coherent if you go in with some kind of drafting process already done (duh)
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Wtf is Kissinger doing on the middle far right
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1667 is the NaNoWriMo target. I remember doing it a couple times as a teenager. It can be a useful exercise if the only goal is to practice a writing habit or to force out a draft of something. You just have to understand it's something for you, rather than something to brag about
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I think it teaches the useful muscle for writers of writing even when you don't feel like it.
Motivation is a lying mistress; whether you are training in the gym, learning a language or writing a book you can't rely on it.
It also teaches a second lesson, which is that drafts are worth nothing without hundreds of hours of editing
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I tried but writing just for the sake of finishing a novel has never left me with anything worthwhile. The OP can't even be bothered to storyboard on his own before running to reddit
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I don't know about that, most writers seem to get by just fine
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"BUT LOOK AT AT MY DEEP THEMES!"
"My 87th novel is called 'Strawberry Cheesecake Cat Cafe Murder'"
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I don't know, it's not that big of a deal if he writes a shitty novel that he doesn't like, at least he'll learn something useful for his next novel.
It's probably better to stick with it and write something shitty than not write anything at all.
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tbh i appreciate it that he's trying
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I'm more annoyed that the commenters are encouraging him to keep plugging at this without motivation. They're setting him up to fail
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I agree it's one step better than the usual "it's all in my head I just gotta write it down" that you see on there. At least he's writing which is more than can be said for all of /r/writing
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I have to do a lot of writing for my job and I've found I can write like 10,000 words over a weekend just fine but then I'm burnt out and can't really write anything except for amazing comments on rdrama for the next few weeks.
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Huh, you must not have written that much in a while then.
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No 😭
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Dude is writing the epitome of cliches at the moment, too
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there's been several novels written about OP even
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aspiring writer is like aspiring actor, only for people not fit for screen time. Why not pick something you have a chance of accomplishing?
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Just write Apocalypse Now except in Afghanistan, and make Martin Sheen schizophrenic from a TBI, and he has an older Black male authority figure aka the narrator explain things and the nuance of scenes for the reader and Martin Sheen because reading between the lines and allegory is dead. Instant hit classic. Also you know what, make that Martina Sheen.
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love writing posts. my advice for them is in the lyrics of the classic white rapper endless jess:
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