Yes, literal-pants of the world, you can be inspired and the words can come easily. Most of us who write casually start pretty much everything we've done because we were inspired. However, most of us don't walk around in a perpetual state of inspiration, though. That leaves a lot of down-time if all you do is sit around waiting for your muse. Also, you look like a douche whining about writer's block all the time.
These gaps are where all the work comes in. Maybe you had an awesome idea for a scene. That's good. Now you have to flesh it out, figure out not just the details of it but how you're going to portray them. This is the wrench time you have to put in if you're going to get shit done.
This is not a matter of opinion and I wish some people would stop chalking this up to stylistic differences. Even if you think you're nailing both presentation and substance (and you usually aren't) all that flowery prose is distracting from the actual content. Even assuming every word is used properly (almost never happens, and I laugh when someone tries to handwave a glaring error as being metaphorical) you're still shifting the emphasis for the reader away from what's actually going on and to how many dictionaries you've read.
Most of these people burned out long before their "lives" pulled them away from RP. This same group were the first ones to call themselves writers instead of roleplayers despite the fact that they knew precious little about either activity. It was as arrogant as their writing was, and one of the main reasons I am of mixed feelings about Carlos's attempts
A lot of new members believe (or at least claim to believe) that they aren't very good writers, or that their RP isn't as good as _____'s. Usually _____'s writing is barely scraping by, by any realistic standard. This results in what I like to call intellectual inbreeding, where bad writing habits and completely misinformed ideas are passed on like genetic deformities until it's just
natural to fuck your kin, gosh. Doesn't everyone?
If you want to be a better writer, here's the best advice I can give you
- Try to actually learn a little about writing.
It may sound silly, but there's more to writing a story than making sure you spell everything properly. Lots of really smart people have spent a lot of time maintaining an entire slice of academia devoted entirely to writing. You don't have to take a full course, just select things at random. It took me ten seconds to find this on Google, and I'm not even the one who wants to be a better writer, here.
If a book has made it to you to be read, odds are the author did something right. The next time you read that novel, think about why the story/character/setting engaged you. What was it, specifically, about the author's delivery that spoke to you? is this something you can see yourself doing in your own writing? Why, or why not?
- Be willing to do the work (and it's a lot of work).
Learning to write is hard work. Creating a world is hard work. Keeping all the threads you're weaving together straight is hard work. You will get lost. You will get frustrated. You will have a great deal of technical skill to learn and a laundry list of bad habits to unlearn. However, you can rest assured that you won't get writer's block, because whenever you are feeling "uninspired" you will do one of two things: step away and change your perspective, or grind it out. You will always, always be working toward the goal of writing.
- Pay attention to what you're doing.
This is where Purple McFlowery is tripped up. Unfortunately, you don't have to be a douchebag for this to happen to you. It's important that you keep in mind a lot of things while you're writing, such as your target audience, character development, and plot progression.
It doesn't stop there, though. When you are describing a character, you are doing more than telling your reader what he looks like. You're dictating how your reader will react to said character. Does that particular phrasing paint your villain in the evilest possible light (or make her deceptively innocent)? Is doing so appropriate at this point in the narrative? Are three paragraphs really necessary for this description, or are my gradeschoolers all asleep?
It's not necessary to go over it line by line, but if you get from beginning to end in a writing project and never find yourself asking these questions, you either don't need to become a better writer (impossible) or you aren't paying attention to what you're doing, and your writing will suffer for it.
Those are my rules for becoming a better writer. For general rules on writing, I defer to the Grand Master.
"I'm just doing this as a hobby; those last two don't even apply to me." Wrong! I have seen far too many complaints from people about other members not posting with them, many of them contained in melodramatic goodbye messages. Valucre isn't the largest community, but it's not so small that every new member is going to get tackled by a team of eager writers as soon as they register for the forums.
You have to put yourself out there, and keep putting yourself out there until it takes. The place to do that
isn't the introductory forum, or even the Water Cooler. You need to hit the in-character forums themselves.
So you've done that, and still have no one to write with?
This is part of grinding it out. If you can't do this much, don't be surprised when people aren't making time to write with you.
In conclusion, I'd just like to point out that if you think this doesn't apply to you, or that you are doing well enough and don't really need to improve, you're wrong. Not because you're bad, but because no one is ever that good.
Originally Posted by supernal
Writer's Kit
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