Korethea

[korethea]

I am so excited to start Lav’s Writing Retreat tomorrow. I have chosen to write and sketch during this retreat because I wanted to try something new (I have never sketched before), and I also wanted to try and follow an exercise routine because I find 75 Hard too hard to follow, and Lav said we could create our own challenges 😈✨

[hinar3dx]

Team Harmony Ch.29: Team 7 photo

A huge thank you to @bunnying-182! It came out so perfectly 🩷 It was our first time commissioning and it was such an amazing experience!

[curingourhearts]

choosing to have hobbies regardless of whether you are good at them or not is so important. you don't live to do things well. you live TO live. that is the joy of life, living, enjoying, experiencing. what does it matter if you can't draw the way others expect you to? what if you can't sing like the others or dance or move like them. so what if you don't look like them? you don't live for their opinion, you live for your own enjoyment

[lavender-long-stories]

How to sustainably build a writing routine (Part 1)

(from someone who has written 1 million words 2 years in a row and has ADHD)

Make you progress trackable.

This will help with some later tips.

Did something? You should write that down and date it.

I do this in a few ways. I mainly track my words by date and type, and when I finish a chapter by date (written, not edited). This information can be tracked in a spreadsheet that only takes a minute to set up, with a bookmark that takes only a second to open, and it gives you a lot of data, which is really helpful to see progress over time.

Keep a spreadsheet with a column for date and words written, then a total for the month, or even a sheet of paper to do the same. Then, maybe think about adding on what you would like to track next. (Picture Below)

Make you progress visual.

With the data from above, I have a chart where I can see how far I am in a story by how many chapters I have to upload by date (I can post it if someone is interested, but it looks a lot like a habit tracker).

A chart helps me see visual progress and brings the feeling of 'ooh, if I finish a chapter, I get to check another off', 'wouldn't it be nice to just check this whole month of'* when I check it.

Something that is a struggle with having ADHD is keeping motivation with long-term goals, and being able to see what is behind you and what is in front of you visually really helps you get a sense of time.

To get started, maybe a star on a chart for every 500 words, every day written, every scene done, every chapter? The check itself is the treat here. See what works for you and abandon what doesn't.

Focus on wider weekly or monthly goals rather than daily ones.

This is mainly talking in for of words because that is what I track, but this could be true of other tracking methods.

A daily word count goal is great, but like any 'check it off' daily habit, it sets you up to lose motivation that day you are sick, or get home late.

For example, say you have a year goal of 120k? Well, that is 10k a month. It breaks down to about 333 words a day. Sounds simple until you sit down to write one day and nothing is coming out of you. Now you feel like a failure. Instead, if you count the whole month, your wonderful 2k day makes up for that week when you couldn't write anything, and it all evens out.

This is another way to help the brain with long term goals over short term demotivation of missing a day and not remembering you had a great one last week.

For me, 100k a month is what I shoot for, and that is about 3.4k a day, which sounds very large and something that I can't do every day, but that's because I don't do it every day. I might write 5-10k on a Wednesday night that I do nothing but sit and write for 6 hours while my partner has game night or a weekend where I abandon my chores. For you that might be 2 good hours on your day off, to help those 20 minutes here and there throughout the week.

As I said before, I track this with the spreadsheet that has days and words written in columns. The total written for that month is divided by the number of days left in the month to give me my updated daily total.

Some pictures of my spreadsheets for ref:

Quarterly Word Tracker: (ignore the (-) in front of daily words)

Chapter Tracker By Date: (I am using notion here)

Word Tracker by date: (I am using notion here)

I track down to what the words were used for but this is not needed, I just like the extra data.

Chapter check off (this is very big so I just took a small snap to make it clear.)

[korethea]

Link Stories That Fit: Arranged Marriage/ Marriage of Convenience

Thank you for the tag, @lavender-long-stories, but you mentioned all the ones I was about to mention 😤😮‍💨💖

(Add Fandom, Couple (if applicable), and Rating)

Slice of Toast: Naruto | SasuHina | Rating: T

The Marriage of Summer and Winter: Naruto | SasuHina | Rating: T

Lavender Sand: Naruto | GaaHina | Rating: T

What We Owe: Naruto | SasuHina | Rating: M

I would like to tag @hazelsarts, @eastmeetsthewest and @millywrites (so excited to see recommendations from you all!) 💖💛

[lavender-long-stories]

Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the feeling of wanting to shake people and tell them to just make things. Over ten years into writing and a hoard of stories that wouldn't have existed if I hadn't started somewhere to show for it, I have this advice: Even if you think that it's going to be bad, even if you think it's going to cringe, even if you think it would be better if you waited until you got better, just make it now. You won't get better without making things. You won't have the things that you wanted to see to look at if you don't make them.

If it's really as terrible as you think, make it again later after you have improved. No one will stop you. Only you will stop you.

Make things. I beg you.

[lavender-long-stories]

@korethea Might as well make it pretty.

If this isn't proof that you can just… make things. I don't know what is.

[korethea]

Listen to her. She’s a wise lady 😌💖

[lavender-long-stories]

Writing Advice: Getting Words on a Page

With the 75k word count in November and 90k in August, I have been asked questions like how do I keep focus and what do I do when I get stuck. I am going to compile all the advice I have.

Over the last few years, I have posted 700k+ words of fan fiction and have been posting 3 to 6 chapters every week for the last ten months. This is not how to make your writing better. This is how to get words on a page. 

This is not all my original ideas. This is just a collection of things that have worked for me.

I am not sure I am the person to tell you how to make your writing better, but if people want my thoughts on that. I can make that post too.

When inspiration strikes, write like wild. 

If you have the time and you are bitten by the writing bug, keep writing anything while you are in peak form. You will thank yourself later when you feel like you can’t write everything. I have done the extreme version of this where I have a month (four chapters) written ahead of almost everything on my post schedule (you don’t need this), but this was really nice after I brunt out after finishing out the 90k challenge I destroyed myself with in August.

Write in little pockets of time.

You don’t need to sit down and write for two hours. Write 100 words here and 500 there. It will all add up. When I was struggling at the end of the 75k, I would just open a doc every few hours and write half a page until I got distracted and tried again later.

Change your font.

If you are struggling to edit or even just find yourself drifting while writing, change your font. It helps trick your brain into paying attention. (I like doing a mono font like Courier when I need writing vibes. It looks typewriter-y)

Take a shower. 

Not just for shower thoughts, being clean and fresh helps with focus

Get dressed.

I love being comfy, but something about getting dressed makes me feel like I am working and should finish my task. Extra points for it being fun. (Maybe cosplay a pirate or something.)

Move Locations.

Desk, kitchen table, bed, outside: changing location helps move you out of a brain rut.

Handwrite notes.

I take most of my notes on notion, but when I am struggling with my plot, I write out notes by hand, starting with what happened last and continuing from there, writing even things I know will happen. Then I transfer this to my digital notes so they are easier to move around in order, AND a lot of time, I add details when revising them to digital. Double power.

Always, always write down your thoughts and keep them.

Some of my most popular stories came from me rediscovering a 2 am thought that I wrote down six years ago. Keep a notepad next to the bed if you have to.

Change POV

If something is not working in a scene, maybe it is who you have reacting to it. Try switching POV. It helps you think of the scene from another perspective.

Watch a show in your genre.

I watch a lot of the silliest KDrama’s and get lots of romance ideas. Maybe I didn’t think of sending my character to a park or trapping them in a sky lift. Maybe I should add a stalker that sounds fun.

Take your bathroom breaks.

You should always drink lots of fluids and remember to take your bathroom breaks because the brief moment of walking away always gives me an idea.

Skim through the story and make notes on what HAS happened, not just what will happen.

This helps more with my style of having next to no plot outline. Need your next plot point and don’t know where to go? Remember that time they did x? Let’s build off that. This helps intertwine the plot without losing things.

Just read the story back.

You don’t always need to make notes, but sometimes just reading from the beginning can make you pick up on a detail that was unimportant at the time, and you may not even have meant to put in that could have a lot more meaning now. Then, you can call it clever foreshadowing.  

Explain your problem or the scene you are struggling with out loud.

It doesn’t have to be to someone. It could be a glass of water. This is called ‘rubber ducking. It’s a programmer term (hello, that is my day job). Restructuring your problem in a way you have to articulate it most of the time makes the solution come to you.

Try focusing on the scenery.

If you can’t get a scene to work open with the weather or how the floor is creaking under step, give the world a new feeling. How does the person feel about the weather or the temperature of the room? 

Can’t figure out what is wrong? Rewrite the chapter from scratch. 

Open a new doc and rewrite the chapter from memory. I do this a lot in the beginning of a story that didn’t quite hit the way I wanted it to. I will start the chapter from memory and skim the old one to ensure I didn’t miss anything important. Can’t do it from memory? Read a paragraph and write that from memory. 

Take a left turn.

Sometimes, if you can’t go any further, go back a sentence, a paragraph, a scene, a chapter, and just make a different decision. Turn left instead of right. Change how someone reacts to an argument. It opens a whole new lane to go down.

Excited for a scene that is in the future?

Write it! You don’t have to use it word for word in the future. Sometimes, you can copy and paste it in, and sometimes, you can just rewrite it, and you lose none of those thoughts you originally had.  Writing it might remind you of something that needs to happen first to help you get there.

Have more than one story you are working on.

I don’t think you need to be working on four+ stories like I do, but having something to switch to when your brain really isn’t feeling your main is a great way to keep you writing. Call it productive procrastination. This is the REAL reason I have so many stories uploading.  (ᵕ—ᴗ—)

Other Somewhat Related Advice

Context Switching

I work on multiple projects at a time, and I tend not to mix them up because they have a different vibe to me. It feels like stepping into each world.  If you are struggling with context switching between stories, I suggest finding a song or making a playlist that gives you that story’s ‘vibe’ and keeping a link to it in your writing folder or snagging a section of your story that captures the vibe you are going for and keeping it off to the side to reread when you need to switch.

Don’t edit the same day you write.

You’re not going to catch errors. Your brain is too familiar with what you wrote. Also, I recommend Grammarly or another grammar checker for all your missing comma and period needs. (Word, Docs, and any other text editor simply won't bully you enough.)

If you hate editing, don’t leave yourself with a painful amount of editing.

When people ask me how I edit my work, how many passes I take, etc, I tend to disappoint them. The short answer is one read-through (after using a grammar checker).  I learned a LONG time ago that as much as it would be nice to write a bunch of dialog and then tell yourself you will go back to add all the actions or write without quotes because it takes time, you will save yourself a lot of time and pain if you learn to write it correctly the first time and then editing won’t be as much of a chore. I have been writing for years, and I am used to how I write and edit. If you are newer to writing, give it another pass or two, but try to shift some of that work to the writing process, not the editing process.

Make yourself an editing cheat sheet.

Make yourself a doc or a notion of words you notice you use too much or common words you misspell when writing.  I usually make one when I get back and do a post edit (when the story has been up for a while and I get back with fresh eyes and edit it). Reading through your old work and find things that you don’t like or don’t want to do anymore is a great way to build this list and improve your writing.

Now go write.

Got any advice for me? Reblog and tell me.