Tips For Writing

Tips for writing

I already had another story which I never got to post, since I kept rewriting it into eternity. After forcing myself to take a break from it, I think I finally figured out a way to keep consistently writing a story. So, I thought maybe this post might stumble across a reader who struggles with similar things as I did and I could provide a possible solution without them needing to go through a year and over 10 different versions of a first chapter ending in a failed project. (and admitting that I needed to stop was what hurt the most since I really love the idea I had and maybe I might even try to restart that story, but that's a topic for another post in maybe 2 to 3 years.)

Also Disclaimer: This is only my opinion on the matter and what I figured to be helpful. In the end, it's up to you how you want to write your story and to decide what works for you. I'm just sharing my experiences.

I had a couple of problems which mixed up together until I needed to give up.

First off, I lacked structure. With my first bigger story, I had an idea, a beginning and I knew some major plot points that needed to happen. But what I never knew was when or how the story ended. I just wanted to tell an endless story or figure out an ending on the way. That didn't work for me.

With my current story (which you can check out here, if you're interested) I researched a couple of ways how to structure a story properly. (It was just for fun honestly, but so helpful in the end) I already had, like before a vague idea, and some plot points I wanted to happen. What I did: See if my story would fit into any of these structures and what would happen at which point until the end. And then I found a structure that fit my story (almost) perfectly. After that, I wrote down the plot in bullet points creating my outline for the story.

(Note: Of course, you can take any story structure you find and bend it a little. For example, I decided to go for a three act-structure and decided to skip the introduction part, since I wanted to plunge the reader into the story without heavily explaining what was going on. They would figure it out on the way … )

This means I knew what happened at which moment. And most importantly, I had an ending. Now I had to face my next challenge, fighting my constant urge to rewrite everything. After proceeding with my used-to-way of just writing what comes to my head, I quickly figured out that this wouldn't work. It didn't work earlier and it didn't work now. So, I needed to figure out what was wrong with my approach.

For that, there are multiple options to do so. Either you can ask others for their opinion of what is wrong with your text or try proofreading yourself. I recorded how I read my texts and heard afterwards to the footage while I was reading along (and yes, it sucks hearing your own voice on record, but if you imagine it's another person, it's not that painful anymore, after a while)

Then I had another important realization. I still had no structure in my chapters. The story was now well structured and I knew what I wanted to write the chapter about, but my thoughts were jumping from one thought to another and then back again. To solve this problem, I came up with an approach that still works for me.

Before writing the chapter, I think about what I want to happen in this chapter. For example, in my current story, I needed to introduce the two main characters and they needed to meet. I also wanted to hide some hints on backstory and needed to write about the event that starts the entire story. With that in mind, I just start loosely writing down what comes to my mind. It doesn't matter if it's good or not, since I'm going to rewrite it later on. Once I come to a point, where I completed all of my goals for that chapter, I take what I wrote down and structure the plot into bullet points. Then I take these and write a second version along with the bullet points. This makes sure that my thoughts are structured in the end and that I have a clear storyline to follow.

After that, the last step is proofreading. As already said before, you can ask others to give you feedback or record yourself. Maybe use a grammar program to fix obvious mistakes you've overseen (helps a lot. especially if you're writing in a language that you don't use everyday) In this stage I mostly find some sentences that are hard to read / speak or just some wordings that repeat or don't quite sound right. So I go ahead, mark them and fix them.

And after that, I was by now always satisfied with what I wrote. This method might be a little overkill but it works for me and the most important thing you need to keep in mind: If you'd like to write something, it's supposed to be fun. No matter the way you do it. The process of creating an own story and slowly watching it come alive, that's the feeling that makes me happy and why I keep writing.

Hope you had fun reading and maybe I was able to give you one or another idea on how to write a story. If you want more tips, you can send me an ask or just comment on this post.

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writers on tumblr writing writing advice

DTIYS

The bg was a pain in the butt but in the end i love it 😭

Rules:

- you can change the perspective however you want as long as it resembles the original

- most importantly; HAVE FUN, FOLKS !

- use the tag #xnzliandtiys so i can see it, or just tag me!

I forgot what other rules i usually put in my dtiys but just ask me if you're not sure about something :)

Dream and Nightmare belong to Jokublog

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lostvi21

3 months ago

Swimming pool ...

I'm practicing backgrounds

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digital art background background art swimming pool background practice

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lostvi21

9 months ago

Send to 10 other bloggers you think are wonderful. Keep this going to make someone smile! Add a heart so we know how long the chain's been going! ❤️🖤💖🤍💚💛💗💙🩶🩵🤍🤎💟💜❣️❤️‍🩹💝🫀💖♥️💘❤️‍🔥💕🩶💜💛🫶💕💖💖💓💞🩷💚🧡

Awwwwww thank you 💕

Does it count if I send it back to you, @billygoat26?

Tags

thank you that's amazing so happy

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lostvi21

1 year ago

I want to draw ...

but I don't know who. I need to train expressions and wanted to do the "25 Essential Expressions" challenge but I don't know who to draw. So I thought: Hey, this could be a cool idea to let somebody else decide!

Sooo, that's what I'll try:

Tags

polls undertale au nightmare sans error sans Horror sans killer sans dust sans cross sans ink sans utmv sans classic

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lostvi21

7 months ago

Been doodling. That's my OC Percy. He's a cute one ... also a poor soul. I made him being hunted by a ghost.

Tags

my art traditional art oc pencil

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lostvi21

1 year ago

I finally finished the next chapter 😁 took me too long 😂

Chapter 2.1 - A place to stay

I finally figured out what I hated about this chapter and now it's alright to me 😂 guess I'll blame it on character growth ...

<…>

We teleported straight back to my room. Just by now, I realised how dark it was in here. I opened up another terminal to change the time outside to daytime. But now in the light, the room seemed pretty empty. I decided that this wasn't worth to worry about now. Ike looked wide-eyed around the room until he noticed my circular desk in the middle. He pointed excitedly at my chair, "Is … Is that thing floating?! Can I sit down?! Please, please, please …" His excitement made me smile, "I mean sure, if you want to …"

Before I finished that sentence, he already run towards the chair, jumping onto it and floating a couple of meters further until it bounced off the wall. Next, he turned his attention towards my window. He walked over there looking at the horizon, "So, you live here … This is amazing!" I joined him. I was not sure if I should tell him that this was fake ...

As much as I wanted Ike to enjoy himself a little longer, I also needed to figure out what happened. I asked him hesitantly, "… Would you mind telling me, what else you remember before passing out?" His expression changed to a sad gaze to the floor, "I … I was running back through Snowdin but it was awfully quiet ... Then I got attacked." I already had a suspicion, "Let me guess. The attacker was looking like Sans but something about him was different."

He looked at me, "I … I'm not sure … Wait, from where do you know Sans?!" … I spent so much time on my own, that I completely forgot that there were AUs which are not familiar with the concept of the multiverse. I tried to explain, "I probably know another Sans than you do … " In response, he just looked confused at me.

I continued, "So you never heard of the multiverse before?" His expression stayed unchanged and he carefully shook his head. I walked back to the desk and opened a couple of screens showing different AUs. Ike quickly followed me and watched excited the screens. I explained, "These are all alternate universes. That means these are all worlds which are coexisting with yours. Some of them might be completely different to yours and some of them quite similar."

All that I could hear from him was a silent, "Coooool!", as his eyes stuck to the screens. I was certain that he still had no idea what I was talking about. Looking at his gaze wandering from one AU to another, I was thinking about how peculiar he acted. Ike really seemed like a harmless child excited by everything new he saw. But his stats didn't match this at all. It was highly frustrating that I didn't know what was going on with that boy.

But the way his world looked after the destruction … that terrified me even more. The lack of … of anything. Usually after destruction, there's always something left, some traces of code which weren't entirely removed. I always like to call them the 'core' of a world. But his world … it looked exactly like mine. Clean. Empty. Nothing …

I suddenly realised that I unconsciously clenched my hand into a fist. I opened it up stretching my fingers out. I shouldn't be thinking about that right now. There's no use to get entangled in old memories … Ike looked at me, tilting his head to the side, "Uhm … Are you all right? You have been staring at me for … " I shook it off, "Yeah! I … I was just lost in thought. That's all … "

Well, that was awkward. To break the silence, I refocused back on the topic, "… That means you don't know who attacked you?" His gaze lowered while he was shaking his head. By now, I still didn't know how his world got destroyed. There were too many scattered clues which simply didn't make any sense.

First off, there was that white light, that probably started shining as the AU got destroyed. Secondly, there was his completely emptied AU. And last, there was Ike, who was strangely the only thing left. Adding to that, his behaviour didn't reflect his stats in the slightest and I just noticed that his HP by now dropped a significant amount. Also, he was telling me of someone attacking the AU. I just couldn't be sure if he was telling the truth but I also doubted that he would be lying in his situation.

I leaned onto the table thinking loudly, "… to be honest, I still don't have a clue what is going on. There are too many factors which I am still not able to piece together. It will probably take some longer to be able to conceive the situation entirely … " Now I was left with one single question. What was I supposed to do now? I had no idea where to start …

Then I suddenly stopped. Why was I even doing that? I didn't need to help him. I could just send him back to his AU. His HP were still decreasing, so he would die there anyway, right? … That was cruel. I felt horrible for even considering that option. God, I should have left as I still had the chance to! Now I can't leave him alone like that …

Maybe I can find somebody else who can help him. The first person to come to my mind was Core, who once came over to invite me to the Omega timeline. It is widely known as a safe haven along AUs. I'm sure they would help him …

As I looked up at Ike again, I was reminded by his stats that this wouldn't be that simple. He was a genocider. No matter how he acted, I couldn't bring a genocider to the only safe place in the multiverse. But did I have any other options? Sadly, I didn't know too many people around the multiverse since I kept it mostly to myself after … No.

No, no, no, no. I would NEVER ask HIM for help. I'd rather lock myself for eternity in that white hell I once called home than ask INK for help. He's reckless and he doesn't care about any of the AUs! Claiming to be the guardian of the multiverse … More like a wandering target plunging them into being destroyed …

I took a deep breath. No matter how mad I was at Ink, he was probably my only option. I didn't know anyone else. I exhaled with a sigh, now turning my attention towards Ike again, "I guess for now, you can stay here. I know someone, who might be able to help you… I just need to find him."

He nodded at me, "Okay. Can I keep watching worlds? This is so cool … " I smiled, "Sure. Feel yourself at home." He excitedly got the floating chair and sat down in front of the holograms.

I opened up another terminal, trying to figure out where Ink was.

<…>

first | previous | next (W.I.P.) | master

Ink by @comyet

Core!Frisk and Omega timeline by @dokudoki

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