hiiiiiii! i really love your writing, especially how you manage to make it both humorous and smutty in really good ways. the characters always feels super real and just lived-in. i was wondering if you had any advice on how to improve writing? i'm sure your style has also changed a LOT over the years but like. how do you do it 😭😭😭 i know everyone starts somewhere but sometimes i just have an idea, and i start writing stuff for it. and then i immediately delete it because i HATE IT but by then the plot bunnies have already left me and i can't continue. and then the cycle goes on for my next idea!
idk, any guidance would be appreciated, i love all of your work! 😁
Okay, listen, I'm not exactly Jane Austen over here, but if I can tell you anything is that first of all you need to get more comfortable being cringe. Nobody's going to see that doc except you, so who are you deleting it for?
The first thing I do is I chuck all my ideas in one doc so that I don't forget them and that doc is a mess, it's ugly, it's cringe, it's stupid, and it doesn't matter, okay, you have to start holding onto your ideas even when it makes you uncomfortable, because if you delete them and give up every time it's not immediately exactly what you want, then you'll get nowhere.
Taking something weird and bad and embarrassing and turning it into something good that you're proud of is the fun part!
And it's probably not going to be perfect the first time, or even the second and a lot of times after that, but the important part is to keep writing and to keep going even when it feels bad and silly and you sort of hate it, keep it there, don't delete it, keep writing until you get used to yourself, because chances are it's just your self consciousness talking anyway.
And I'm all for plots and big long stories, you'll find so much online advice about planning and plotting stories, but I'll be honest, I never managed to stick with anything until I started writing one shots and short stories, so I would suggest don't give up on big stories yet, but try something small first, even just 500 words, even if it's a scene or a part of your big story, just use it for practice to get the hang of it, like 5 minute figure drawings, and when it's done it's done.
It can be so encouraging to just finish something sometimes, however small and short.
Just try to write and don't even backspace, don't get sucked into editing that sentence you just wrote, just keep writing until you've written your whole scene and then you're allowed to go back and edit, I think things like that really helped me write less self consciously, and it really helps the words flow instead of getting stuck on the details right away.
In terms of style, I think honestly it's just the voice you want to tell your story in. Different stories and writers often have very different styles and voices, so I think what I'd suggest is read more and find stories that have a similar style to what you're going for and take inspiration from them. A bit like adopting an accent, you know? Sometimes what I do is I sort of end up writing a bit like how I'd imagine the character to think or speak, how would they move, how would they tell you what just happened?
But it's also something that you just naturally find with time the more you write.
I really do think the hardest but most important part is just to keep going, no matter how hard or uncomfortable it is, keep going until the pride and joy completely overwhelms whatever part of you that cringes is even left at that point
