#writing wisdom

[isaacfitzbooks]

Writing Wisdom: You Deserve to Love Your Writing

"Let's get this right... you deserve to be comfortable and you deserve to just love your skating again."

That's what coach Tracy Wilson told figure skater Jason Brown last season. Jason, who is known for his artistry and is the only male skater capable of medaling without a quad, was plagued by boot issues. Every practice was painful. His performance suffered. Tracy said she couldn't bear to watch his practice sessions because of the struggle.

So they paused. They fixed the equipment issue. And once Jason found boots that worked, his skating transformed.

"You deserve to be comfortable and you deserve to just love your skating again."

That stuck with me.

Figure skating is brutal. Skaters wake up at dawn to train for hours. They condition off-ice. They deal with injuries, sometimes requiring surgery. The mental pressure is immense. And yet, skaters like Jason, who have the agency to walk away anytime, choose to return to the ice year after year.

Writing isn't an extreme sport, but it has its own physicality. Wrist strain. Eye strain. The sedentary toll on your body. And mentally, it's exhausting to take something that exists only in your head and translate it to the page so others can see it in theirs. There's also the vulnerability in sharing your work. And the rejections that come with the publishing business.

And yet, writers return to the page.

Around the same time Jason was struggling with his boots, I was struggling too.

The thought of sitting down to work on my manuscript was painful. My brain and body wanted to do anything but write.

Hearing Tracy say, "You deserve to be comfortable and you deserve to just love your skating again," hit me hard.

Because it's true.

Just like Jason deserved to be comfortable and love his skating again, I deserved to be comfortable and love my writing again (and now I do!).

That doesn't mean every day is easy. Even elite skaters fall. Even books you love writing will have difficult chapters. But if the act of writing, the thing you've chosen to do with your creative life, fills you with dread, then something needs to be addressed.

Maybe it's the project (wrong story for right now).

Maybe it's the process (forcing a method that doesn't fit you).

Maybe it's the pressure (external expectations drowning out your voice).

Whatever it is, you deserve to pause and figure it out.

You deserve to be comfortable.

You deserve to love your writing again.

Source

[emilywrites185]

Writing Affirmations to Motivate and Inspire Part One

I can and will make time to write today.

I have a writing goal and I will reach it.

I may not like how my writing sounds right now, but I will edit it until I like it.

I will shut out my inner perfectionist when I write today.

My writing is important.

I am capable of improving my craft.

I will write what I like to write about.

I am worthy of writing for myself.

I am proud of the writing I have done so far.

I will put in my best effort today, even if it is not 100%.

I can and will sort out this plot.

Getting it written down is the most important part. The rest will come later.

Today I will learn something new about my characters.

I will take time to nurture my creative side.

I will rest when I feel burnt out.

Sometimes you just need to remind yourself that you have some control when things are overwhelming. Take charge of that inner voice that has nothing good to say. Slap it with these affirmations. Be stubborn with yourself. You will make time. You will figure out those plot holes. You are worthy of writing whatever makes you feel better. The ones I listed are affirmations I tell myself. They have helped me many times when I felt I had no time, energy, or motivation to write.

Do you have any affirmations you tell yourself regarding writing? Please add and share to the list!

[bae-owyn]

I read that @nocompromise-noregrets had committed to writing 200 words of fic a day recently, and I figured I'd try the same approach for my original story after being in a *huge* slump with it over the past few months.

I'm not at all surprised and yet still utterly delighted that this method actually works - I've done at least 200 words per day this week, often more (who knew that starting each time was the hardest part? once you're on a roll you're away!) it's also forced me to just write, rather than editing and umming and ahhing along the way (which is how I get myself into holes I can't escape from, bringing everything to a screeching halt). this method is so freeing, and more importantly so FUN. I'm 100% planning to keep going with it; as with most things in life, turns out something > nothing!

[writers-hq]

"The fact is that writing is half craft, half religion. It is designing and divining. You plan and you flow... Writing is an act of immense vulnerability, and so, when we’re frozen or stuck, often the best thing we can do is to kick out our negative voices and make a safe, quiet space for our weird artist hearts to shuffle out and sniff the night air."

Alex Clark - Get Out Of Your Own Way

[heyitsave]

quinn. ._. i know ive been bothering you a lot today and i am sorry. but but how do you say it when someone blinks a lot like jokingly to look pwetty and innocent???

HEWWO DW i like being bothered <3

"batting their eyelashes" i think is most common ! you can add an adjective to make it more flirty, joke-y, which then comes down to connotations and such.

"Slowly batting his eyelashes" can be flirtatious, and then, "playfully batting his eyelashes" can be joke-y etc.

[willow-salix]

A question for you all...

Last year I started a YouTube channel and did writing tips ans some book reviews there. It kinda fizzled out when I had a lot of stuff going on in the family and lost my motivation to write, plus I'd covered a lot of ground with.

It was based around giving clear, simple advice, easy to understand and follow examples and lots of help to fix problems in your short stories and novels.

But since I've been in the fan fic world I was wondering if anyone would like me to continue them but with help and advice for writing fan fics?

Also would anyone like me to reblog the videos I already have again?

[thebluestockingfirefly]

How to write a story (according to 11-year-old me, c. 1999)

1. Get a pencil (preferably one with lead in it) and a piece of blank, lined notebook paper.

2. Sit down on a chair or a stool in front of a desk or table. 

3. Put your paper and pencil flat on the desk.

4. Clear your mind of any distractions.

5. On your piece of paper, use the pencil to write down the first thing that comes into your head.

6. If you don’t like the thought once it’s on paper, use the pencil to scratch it out. Start again at step 4 and proceed to step 5, going to 6 if you still don’t like the idea.

7. When you have an idea you like, begin writing on your paper with your pencil.

8. Don’t worry about names for people, or places. Those will come later.

9. The thought should flow freely from pencil to paper.

10. If you get stuck, put your pencil down, take a break, and come back later.

11. The end result should be something you like, something that sounds good to you.

[the-most-sublime-fool]

honestly I kind of resent how hemingway's writing style is so often held up as like....the Platonic Ideal of writing styles. like...as if simple sentence structure and no-frills writing is the only good way to write. which it absolutely fucking is not. Hemingway was brilliant, yes, but so was Nabokov and so was Wilde and so was Woolf and so was Saramago and so were & are a million other writers who like(d) to use long unwieldy words and adverbs and write sentences a page long with thirteen semi-colons and parentheses within parentheses. I love that shit!!! take that sentence and just fucking run with it. hit me with that stream-of-consciousness narrative!!! teach me a new word that no ones used since fucking 1872. I don't give a shit.....writers I support you!!