Finding time to want to write. I don’t know about everybody here but I work all day & I get tired so it’s like I never have the energy to wanna sit down & think hard about writing stories. Maybe it’s a lack of motivation but I be too tired from life to write in my free time
I feel the same way! What I do is find the time before work to write for at least 10 minutes. You could try waking a few minutes earlier than you usual time before you get ready for work.
I usually try to do a tiny bit on my breaks at work. Realistically you're probably not doing much else in those periods except killing time so write a sentence or two. Something.
I very much feel this way. I'm always plotting and planning in my head, but ever since a massive privacy violation where my accounts were hacked, I find it difficult to write on a computer at all. I'm getting over that - typing out thoughts on here is actually helping with that, but yeah. I guess I always feel like someone is looking over my shoulder, so when I do get time to write, I'll do a few short paragraphs or lines in a journal and keep it for now to elaborate on in the future when I'm able to shake the feeling off and finally uncork the ideas out of my head. I look forward to it and I bet it'll be very cathartic when I get there.
I can tell I'll be able to write again soon, but ugh I get this. The fatigue is real, even when you have been working hard to melt down your own creative blocks!
Yes! My husband is on third shift and my one year old is still a terrible sleeper. I have to prioritize sleep or I start to hallucinate. Here's to hoping something changes in the next two years.
I started a writing streak on June 24th and managed to keep it up by simply giving myself credit, even if all I write is a sentence. I work too, and my job is physically/emotionally exhausting. I don’t write “productively” as often as I’d like, but marking on my calendar every day I make an effort to write something, no matter how small, keeps me motivated to not skip writing for months. I hope that helps!!
Same. I know writers are notorious procrastinators and all the good writing advice is just to do your morning pages or whatever, but I wake up thinking about work and I really don’t have the intellectual capacity to be creative every day beyond that. Edit, sure. Draft, no.
I’ve just leaned into it at this point. I write the way I read: sometimes in little sips when I have a few minutes and an idea, sometimes in big gulps when I have a clear morning and a full coffee pot. I’m sure it’s slower-going than it is for some, but I’m okay with it.
My exact problem. I work 12 hour night shifts, have lectures on the weekends and I’m also in a band. It feels like I need to choose between writing, sleeping or having a social life 😂
Same here. My shifts change every few days and I work some weekends, I'm constantly adjusting my sleep schedule to get at least 5-6 hours if I switch from day shift to morning shift, I try to have somewhat of a social life, I have a household with my bf and my best friend, we have five pets and at some point I just want to turn off my brain and relax a bit
this is extremely common and the reason why most fulltime authors are either already wealthy or are subsidized by a spouse who works full time. working full time and then coming home to write is really, really hard.
Same. It's been nice with Christmas and New Year having 3 day weekends. I actually started a new story. I can only imagine by next weekend I will not be writing anymore because I am too mentally tired.
Yeah like 90% of my characters are female and it gets fun trying to workaround. BUT I will say it’s kind of like “said.” You don’t always have to be afraid of saying a character “said.” If they’re just saying something normally, you don’t have to get all flowery. That can actually be more annoying. People tend to kind of block the word out and still follow the story.
Basically, it’s okay if you have to repeat the characters names. Being confused is much more frustrating for a reader than a name being repeated. And trying to find creative ways to get around repeating the names can be annoying too.
Just do what feels right, but don’t overthink it! Only use those flowery descriptions when it really counts.
I've found saying the whole paragraph out loud helps. If you feel like you're saying "she" or "Melissa" too much, change it up. This will also help you realize if you're starting too many sentences with the name/pronoun, and you should change up your sentence structures a bit. That internal-verbal flow matters a lot more than I think many realize.
I used the character's names too much, and my editor had me get rid of a few of those instances. From reading other authors lately, I believe the best use is to keep to the pronoun unless the reader needs to know who the person is.
This is like starting too much with a name / pronoun. Eventually, with practice you learn how to write sentences without the name / pronoun first.
Yes!! I get confused quite often by authors choosing to use a pronoun instead of the name. I probably over-use saying the name, but it’s a pet peeve that I don’t want my future readers to deal with lol.
“Show don’t tell”.
It took YEARS for me to understand what it even meant, and now that I do I still struggle to apply it to my own writing. Like, I get it in theory. I see people post explanations and breakdowns, and I get it. But then when I try to edit my own writing using those techniques and suddenly I don’t get it anymore.
I think this advice is over-used. Sometimes it’s better just to tell. Not everything needs to be shown when a couple telling words does the trick and is cleaner.
I have a screenwriting background and am transitioning to short stories. What I’m finding difficult is adding so much more to the story. I’m not used to describing how things look, smell, etc.
Finishing a story. I don’t think I’ve ever finished a story. There are always gaps that I meant to fill in but never did. I also don’t know how to end a story.
I was once told if you can end the sentence with “by pirates” then it’s passive voice. So sometimes I’ll whisper sentences to myself and add “by pirates” to the end to see if it makes sense. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it just confuses me more. Why do we even have passive voice if we’re not supposed to use it????
I use "by zombies."
Passive voice makes the object of a verb into the subject. It emphasizes what's being acted upon while de-emphasizing who's doing it.
And it's perfectly fine to use, but fiction tends to read better when it's mostly active voice, whereas if an author just writes in passive voice all the time it can feel like no one's doing anything, things are just happening to them.
I use it sometimes, on purpose. People say passive voice takes the attention off the characters and makes the reader more distant from them. But when the character is disassociated, overstimulated (like getting caught in a gunfight), etc. I think is nudges the reader closer to their state of mind (Edit: as long as you go back to active voice as the character gets their bearings). Others may disagree though.
I hadn't heard the "by pirates" thing. I'll have to use that.
What works in normal language and what works in literary language are two different things. In normal language, for instance, repetition and filler words are really useful, because they add redundancy to what we're saying, making it easier for the other person to follow our thoughts.
In contrast, readers expect literary language to be lean, controlled, chiseled. The passive voice, by its nature, is slower and more cumbersome than the active voice. Sometimes you *want* that, or *want* to show a character being passive. But usually not.
This. In college, as a chem E major, we were taught (haha) that we had to write in passive voice for it to sound formal. Instead of "we distilled that shit" it had to be "the shit was distilled". Every single time.
Now that I'm trying to learn creative writing, it's hard to me not to break in the old habit. The fact that I still write reports in passive voice doesn't help.
Remembering sensory details. I'll put effort into what the scene layout is, but then forget everything else by the time the ball gets rolling on the scene itself.
I have the opposite issue, like the feeling touch smell of everything is described, but what f-cking color is it? Where is it? The clothes are uncomfortable but that doesn't matter cause where are they standing?
They don't know
Ik
Dunno if other people find it easy to counter, but I really struggle with character POV qualifiers. For example:
*It seemed to her that* the world was changed, maybe ultimately. Maybe forever.
*She thought* he looked older, exhausted beyond his years.
*She saw* that the flowers swayed in the field, though no breeze touched her cheeks.
Even though I'm aware that I need to eliminate these, they always creep into my sentences when I get into the zone. They're completely unnecessary.
One tip that I found relatively helpful is acting it out yourself, kind of documenting what is actively being done, and what is done after another action.
My 8th grade English teacher drilled not tense-switching into my class, so thankfully I’ve been aware of it for half my life now and don’t make too many mistakes. Of course, every now and then I’ll read over my first draft and realize I switched tenses for an entire paragraph. (And don’t pay attention as much when I’m, say, commenting on Reddit posts lol) English is hard. I wish it were like Chinese which has no tenses lol.
For me it depends whether it is first or third person.
For first person past tense I think about them sitting down next to me and telling me about the things they did. I write down what they say.
For first person present I imagine that they have an earpiece in and are telling me what is happening as it happens.
For third it is similar. I think about whether someone is telling me details about a movie they watched, or whether it is a voice-over that is describing what is happening as it is happening.
Repetition is fine in the first draft. Can't think of another word to use, put the placeholder in, then fix it in the second draft.
It's better to keep writing in the first draft than trying to find alternatives while in storywriting flow.
Now if my brain would remember that when I'm writing, it would be great.
I realized I said “smile” way too many times in one paragraph, but like that’s what my character is doing? I feel like it would be even weirder to just change every other “smile” to a simile. Overusing thesauruses is painfully obvious sometimes lol.
I have that exact problem too. My characters always smile, smirk, or grin. I'm not sure how to vary the accompanying actions sometimes. Especially when two people are just sitting having a super long convo
Same with tenses omg. And when I catch it I start wondering if I was using the best tense to begin with and thinking maybe I should change it lol. Another is describing settings. Like idk how y'all do it. I can imagine a setting but trying to understand how to write what I'm seeing is so hard for me and I write the most basic unimaginative descriptions and I'm constantly googling things that I don't know the real name of to help.
I feel like my descriptions are basic too, even if they are lengthy. Lately I’ve been writing down random words I hear that I either never knew the meaning of or don’t think about often enough to think to put in my book lol.
You could try using AI to generate images based on your words. Or Google images. For a few settings and characters I’ve googled images until I found one that fit and then described what I saw, or sometimes when I write down a description of a person but can’t quite picture it in my mind lol.
By default my ~~natural style of~~ writing is ~~really quite~~ verbose with ~~a number of~~many unnecessary adjectives.
As with your issue, it's fine - that's what editing is for.
Keeping track off all the things/details. What did my character last, is she wearing a yellow or green dress. Have so and so already met? All the consistency things are kinda hard and names ! In general I think it’s hard to see the bigger picture, I get lost in details.
Having variety in how I start sentences. I always just cycle between the same things; using their pronouns or name. I physically can’t start a sentence without using a pronoun or name I think. That and ending chapters. I don’t understand what I do wrong but always get told “well it was a clear pausing point”.
I get too carried away in a characters inner dialogue or their outward dialogue, and trying to find that fine line of passion/thoughts/perspective without it sounding like a monologue or preachy
I personally have a rambling inner dialogue constantly but I know not everyone does so I try not to get too carried away. I let myself write it out and then go back and edit it. It does help me get my thoughts in order and "what's the fastest way to get this feeling/idea across" while also cutting out sentences that veer off track. But it still pains me to get rid of them so I have a separate doc where I copy and paste the originals so I can keep them
For me it's the opposite. I write, but my writing ends up pretty close to a script. Characters do things, occasionally thinking a thought, and dialogue is spoken. I have difficulty because my natural inclination is to just go with the flow, and the flow moves my story forward at a breakneck pace...
Writing an outline. Unless it's a significantly long piece of work, like a longer short story or book, I almost always just dive right in and start writing.
I don't know if it's normal with others, but for a long time I struggled with the idea of whether something is "in-character" or not, just the idea of naturally knowing whether it made for a character to act a certain way. But eventually you get used to it, I guess it comes down to being in that person's headspace for a long time.
It is so unnecessarily difficult for me to write multiple characters in the same scene. If there’s only one character in the scene, there’s not enough to say about them, the setting, what’s going on etc. If there’s three characters, the conversation is likely to get mixed up at some point. I have to have two characters in a scene whenever possible. I’m writing a scene with three characters and a dog in it at the moment and it is so difficult to know when using “he” is going to make someone confused as to exactly who is doing/saying it (all 3 people and the dog are males). If there’s no conversing going on, I try to find a way to skip along to a time when there is a conversation happening.
Describing scenery. I like to blame it on the fact I can't really visualize but that doesn't fix the problem that stories don't take place in a void lol
Me too! I have trouble sticking to past tense or present tense especially when in the first person. Sometimes it's clear there *should* be a switch, but other times it's a gray area, and I'm not at all sure of my judgment call.
Nope! You sit down and let your creative voice write. Sometimes you're surprised by what happens. Sometimes it can feel scary, but it's like riding a roller coaster: there's no actual danger involved. It's just fun. And your creative voice weaves in twists and subplot and you just go over it once it's over and make sure things are foreshadowed when necessary.
Not that there's anything *wrong*, necessarily, with planning and outlining, but when I stopped, every single one of my first readers sat up and took notice and said my stories were *far* better than anything else I'd written.
So at the very least, it's a valid way to do things.
But if I jump off a cliff in a squirrel suit and go splat, readers won't marvel at my uncontested brilliance! They'll just point and laugh.
I tried pantsing my new series (*sans* audience, just to try it). I very quickly ran out of runway and the story began to meander and feel pointless. Stakes weren't rising. It was floundering because I wasn't sure what to aim for next. I love the characters and premise, but I ended up needing to concretize the goals and villains and all that--so I could feel like and there are enough clever twists and fun things to keep readers turning pages. Otherwise, it just felt aimless.
I was afraid of that happening, too. It never ended up happening. I have to be deep in creative voice mode, though. The moment my critical voice takes over, that's it (so I don't let it). I'd definitely practice on some short stories, if you are inclined to try again in the future.
For my last novella, I knew a character was going to die, but not exactly how or when. So when it finally happened, it was a surprise for both me and my first readers.
I struggle with writing plot. I already have characters that I’ve developed over the course of a few years, a while ago. I want to bring them to light in an action packed story, sticking true to their characters, but it’s difficult.
I instantly down voted you because I assumed this was going to be some nauseating question on here, but I actually agree with you. Staying in tense is difficult.
I make my descriptions WAYYY too descriptive, I will search up specific color variants, clothing brands, to the point where my reader would have to search up every single thing the character is wearing. I like to draw and make character designs as well which makes me forget how people are supposed to have their own interpretation of what the character actually looks like…
Lately, spelling. I used to be so good at spelling, but now there are multiple times where my computer has to correct me or doesn’t even know *how* to correct me. I don’t know if it’s due to me being out of school for a few years, auto-correct-induced laziness, or if I made myself pass out one too many times as a stupid teenager and killed off my spelling bee winner brain cells.
No cause writing, not conflict, dialog conflict is easy and flows (and its more fun tbh.) What do you mean they need to have at least one normal conversation?
World-building is where I get stuck. It's my favorite part of any good fantasy book, seeing the vivid descriptions of the people, places, social expectations, different cultures, but it is so hard for me to put together for my own pieces. I still enjoy doing it, but wow, it is hard!
Emotions and inner thoughts. I'm not a sensitive guy, and I think I'm pretty analytical and logical. That can make my writing feel cold and detached at times.
Mostly dialogue and pacing. I feel like all of my writing is very fast paced, and I always struggle with dialogue descriptors, deciding what to say and what to show, and overall making it sound natural
Just coming up with the story. Characters, tone, grammar, dialogue, all that comes easily enough. But just what... stuff happens? I envy people who are like "yeah I have 90,000 words and idk what to cut." I'm a vicious cutter when I edit. It's having enough in the first place that stumps me.
Well, let me be clear: what I'm saying is that the plot isn't something you set up and then lead your characters on a tour around the book plot.
And so the plot happens automatically as your characters act, and their history and relationship to the setting is part of their perspective an opinions, and so worldbuilding is automatic. And you can even discover how your characters react to different situations when they get there, and that helps you discover who they are.
But basically, if you write strong characters, plot and worldbuilding build themselves automatically. I recommend reading "Writing Into the Dark" by Dean Wesley Smith. It's short and it's fascinating. (It also sounded insane, but it was how I always wanted to write but stopped myself in high school and college, and when I started doing it again my first readers were like "I've loved all your stories but this is so much better than anything else you've written. I guess those writing classes are starting to pay off!" which slightly annoyed me because writing into the dark was more fun and less "work," but screw it, they were right, lol.)
I'm not much of a pantser so I don't know how I'd incorporate it into my process but I'd be willing to try. I think I get hung up on conflict and obstacles. My characters are generally pretty good about being proactive and distinct but inventing things that prevent them from just automatically succeeding seems to hold me back.
Anyway, I'm very grateful for the recommendation, I hope you don't take any of my thoughts here as naysaying. I'm very appreciative!
> I hope you don't take any of my thoughts here as naysaying.
We're both writers discussing craft. :)
Even if you read "Writing Into the Dark" and it just makes you feel more comfortable letting your characters break free from the outline, that's still a useful skill! It's all more tools for your writing toolkit.
I started a novel *just* before I started writing into the dark that I really need to get back to (I ended up translating a series of novels, which is what takes my my writing time these days) and it was all pretty interesting, and going well, and then suddenly I realized that I'd been writing for *pages* and nothing was really happening.
Turns out I fell in love with the main character (nice kid, not terribly unlike me as a kid since it's a period piece) and it was time for the inciting incident to happen and kick off the story, and I didn't want anything bad to happen to him! So I was writing a lot but procrastinating! I'll read it before deciding to continue it or start writing it over from scratch. There are a few scenes I think are awesome.
I took a break from that and wrote a novella from scratch, writing into the dark, and it went great. Even when bad things happened, which they did. Oh boy, *did* they! The best thing is my primary first reader said the way the tension built up was exquisite, the way the main character's mom was in the middle of scolding him when he broke down and she immediately supported him and recontextualized why she was upset. I don't think I would've ever planned out that scene, but he'd been hiding a secret all book long and trying to be responsible and... well, anyway, one of the kid readers said it was his favorite scene in the book.
Other things have been fun. I wrote a humorous short story where a space trader ends up trapped by aliens because of a fight and the planet he's on has to explain to the aliens what makes humans *human*. Had no idea at all how that was going to turn out, but I'd figured it out by the end, and that was *super* fun.
So keep the writing fun, and good luck with your projects! :D
Transitioning scenes.
You mean you don't want a blow by blow of walking down a hall, turning a corner, opening the fridge, making a sandwich, amd eating it on your way out the house?
But whyever not, good friend?
Oh because it's boring?
Yes well.
That's unfortunate.
So, down the lengthy corridor......
Figuring out what my characters would feel in a certain situation. I often forget that e.g. in this situation they would be upset or sad and to have them react accordingly. I was never taught to deal with emotions very well myself, so it's a learning experience for me.
Also descriptions of surroundings are hard - what to include and what to leave out. I saw a video by the Quotidian writer on yt, and she advised to focus on a few specific details. I think I will watch that video again.
It might sound silly but I really struggle with explaining the size of large things.
Like, if I’m describing a city with high walls. I can’t just say “the city had high walls” but anything else I say makes me worried that readers one day, might be like that city will crumble. The walls were knee high.
I also struggle with explaining dialogue.
Sometimes I’ll write “he said, she said, they said.” Etc. but it’s more intricate than just said. Sometimes it’s yelled, or sighed, or exhaled. But even that gets repetitive.
This is minor, but my beta swapping partner has pointed out to me *in two separate books* that I keep using a period in dialogue tags where it should be a comma :P
OP, I took creative writing in high school and my teacher would always point out my tenses were switched up halfway through...I still struggle with it, I'm sure...sometimes you write, and you're so zoned in, you forget one of the easiest mistakes to make...
When to add paragraph breaks. I’m good at everything grammar except paragraph breaks. I hate them so much, why do I need them? Where do I put them? It drives me insane
I hate tense. I can NEVER get it right. I even tried looking up like those teacher and student worksheets to make it make sense but... I'm hopeless lol
Titles! I don’t think I’ve ever titled my stories- maybe one of them total has a title. I don’t know what I’ll do if I ever get published because I have no idea how to come up with a good title.
Writing a plot...it's worse because I'm pantsing and I'm trying to write a plot that actually make sense for my character without it feeling weird
And grammar...don't get me started on grammar
This is so real! I always have to rewrite sentences. Or ill find myself accidentally writing completely in one tense, so I just decide to switch it to the accidental one. But then when I do that I accidentally write in the previous tense! Its alright im just complaining ive actually getting better.
Finding time to want to write. I don’t know about everybody here but I work all day & I get tired so it’s like I never have the energy to wanna sit down & think hard about writing stories. Maybe it’s a lack of motivation but I be too tired from life to write in my free time
I feel the same way! What I do is find the time before work to write for at least 10 minutes. You could try waking a few minutes earlier than you usual time before you get ready for work.
I usually try to do a tiny bit on my breaks at work. Realistically you're probably not doing much else in those periods except killing time so write a sentence or two. Something.
I very much feel this way. I'm always plotting and planning in my head, but ever since a massive privacy violation where my accounts were hacked, I find it difficult to write on a computer at all. I'm getting over that - typing out thoughts on here is actually helping with that, but yeah. I guess I always feel like someone is looking over my shoulder, so when I do get time to write, I'll do a few short paragraphs or lines in a journal and keep it for now to elaborate on in the future when I'm able to shake the feeling off and finally uncork the ideas out of my head. I look forward to it and I bet it'll be very cathartic when I get there. I can tell I'll be able to write again soon, but ugh I get this. The fatigue is real, even when you have been working hard to melt down your own creative blocks!
Yes! My husband is on third shift and my one year old is still a terrible sleeper. I have to prioritize sleep or I start to hallucinate. Here's to hoping something changes in the next two years.
I started a writing streak on June 24th and managed to keep it up by simply giving myself credit, even if all I write is a sentence. I work too, and my job is physically/emotionally exhausting. I don’t write “productively” as often as I’d like, but marking on my calendar every day I make an effort to write something, no matter how small, keeps me motivated to not skip writing for months. I hope that helps!!
Same. I know writers are notorious procrastinators and all the good writing advice is just to do your morning pages or whatever, but I wake up thinking about work and I really don’t have the intellectual capacity to be creative every day beyond that. Edit, sure. Draft, no. I’ve just leaned into it at this point. I write the way I read: sometimes in little sips when I have a few minutes and an idea, sometimes in big gulps when I have a clear morning and a full coffee pot. I’m sure it’s slower-going than it is for some, but I’m okay with it.
My exact problem. I work 12 hour night shifts, have lectures on the weekends and I’m also in a band. It feels like I need to choose between writing, sleeping or having a social life 😂
Same here. My shifts change every few days and I work some weekends, I'm constantly adjusting my sleep schedule to get at least 5-6 hours if I switch from day shift to morning shift, I try to have somewhat of a social life, I have a household with my bf and my best friend, we have five pets and at some point I just want to turn off my brain and relax a bit
this is extremely common and the reason why most fulltime authors are either already wealthy or are subsidized by a spouse who works full time. working full time and then coming home to write is really, really hard.
Same. It's been nice with Christmas and New Year having 3 day weekends. I actually started a new story. I can only imagine by next weekend I will not be writing anymore because I am too mentally tired.
Same. It’s so difficult to find the time to write, and it’s made even worse when you’re slow.
Deciding when to use the characters’ names or pronouns lol
This times ten when writing same-sex romance. The struggle is so real.
Yeah like 90% of my characters are female and it gets fun trying to workaround. BUT I will say it’s kind of like “said.” You don’t always have to be afraid of saying a character “said.” If they’re just saying something normally, you don’t have to get all flowery. That can actually be more annoying. People tend to kind of block the word out and still follow the story. Basically, it’s okay if you have to repeat the characters names. Being confused is much more frustrating for a reader than a name being repeated. And trying to find creative ways to get around repeating the names can be annoying too. Just do what feels right, but don’t overthink it! Only use those flowery descriptions when it really counts.
Omg I can imagine lol!!
I've found saying the whole paragraph out loud helps. If you feel like you're saying "she" or "Melissa" too much, change it up. This will also help you realize if you're starting too many sentences with the name/pronoun, and you should change up your sentence structures a bit. That internal-verbal flow matters a lot more than I think many realize.
I used the character's names too much, and my editor had me get rid of a few of those instances. From reading other authors lately, I believe the best use is to keep to the pronoun unless the reader needs to know who the person is. This is like starting too much with a name / pronoun. Eventually, with practice you learn how to write sentences without the name / pronoun first.
This is a good one. I think re-reading or reading out loud helps a lot to understand the right pace and to avoid repetition!
Yes!! I get confused quite often by authors choosing to use a pronoun instead of the name. I probably over-use saying the name, but it’s a pet peeve that I don’t want my future readers to deal with lol.
Same here. I'd rather err on the side of clarity.
Start the paragraph with the name and then switch to the pronouns for the remainder. If someone else is there/involved you alternate names.
“Show don’t tell”. It took YEARS for me to understand what it even meant, and now that I do I still struggle to apply it to my own writing. Like, I get it in theory. I see people post explanations and breakdowns, and I get it. But then when I try to edit my own writing using those techniques and suddenly I don’t get it anymore.
I think what makes this rule so frustrating is everyone wants to see and be told different things respectively. lol
I think this advice is over-used. Sometimes it’s better just to tell. Not everything needs to be shown when a couple telling words does the trick and is cleaner.
I have a screenwriting background and am transitioning to short stories. What I’m finding difficult is adding so much more to the story. I’m not used to describing how things look, smell, etc.
You are not alone in your battle with the tenses, OP :(.
Finishing a story. I don’t think I’ve ever finished a story. There are always gaps that I meant to fill in but never did. I also don’t know how to end a story.
Maybe 2024 will be your year to end a story!
I hope so
Passive voice. I don't know, it's like I'm hard-wired to use it.
I was once told if you can end the sentence with “by pirates” then it’s passive voice. So sometimes I’ll whisper sentences to myself and add “by pirates” to the end to see if it makes sense. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it just confuses me more. Why do we even have passive voice if we’re not supposed to use it????
I use "by zombies." Passive voice makes the object of a verb into the subject. It emphasizes what's being acted upon while de-emphasizing who's doing it. And it's perfectly fine to use, but fiction tends to read better when it's mostly active voice, whereas if an author just writes in passive voice all the time it can feel like no one's doing anything, things are just happening to them.
I use it sometimes, on purpose. People say passive voice takes the attention off the characters and makes the reader more distant from them. But when the character is disassociated, overstimulated (like getting caught in a gunfight), etc. I think is nudges the reader closer to their state of mind (Edit: as long as you go back to active voice as the character gets their bearings). Others may disagree though. I hadn't heard the "by pirates" thing. I'll have to use that.
What works in normal language and what works in literary language are two different things. In normal language, for instance, repetition and filler words are really useful, because they add redundancy to what we're saying, making it easier for the other person to follow our thoughts. In contrast, readers expect literary language to be lean, controlled, chiseled. The passive voice, by its nature, is slower and more cumbersome than the active voice. Sometimes you *want* that, or *want* to show a character being passive. But usually not.
Using the Hemingway website app really helped me with this.
Oh that’s a good idea. Thanks!
This. In college, as a chem E major, we were taught (haha) that we had to write in passive voice for it to sound formal. Instead of "we distilled that shit" it had to be "the shit was distilled". Every single time. Now that I'm trying to learn creative writing, it's hard to me not to break in the old habit. The fact that I still write reports in passive voice doesn't help.
Yeah, I'm a cell biologist. Sucks how little actual overlap there is between technical and creative writing.
Remembering sensory details. I'll put effort into what the scene layout is, but then forget everything else by the time the ball gets rolling on the scene itself.
I have the opposite issue, like the feeling touch smell of everything is described, but what f-cking color is it? Where is it? The clothes are uncomfortable but that doesn't matter cause where are they standing? They don't know Ik
I struggle with writing descriptions that don't feel like a checklist.
Dunno if other people find it easy to counter, but I really struggle with character POV qualifiers. For example: *It seemed to her that* the world was changed, maybe ultimately. Maybe forever. *She thought* he looked older, exhausted beyond his years. *She saw* that the flowers swayed in the field, though no breeze touched her cheeks. Even though I'm aware that I need to eliminate these, they always creep into my sentences when I get into the zone. They're completely unnecessary.
Me too. I struggle bad. Waiting for tips
One tip that I found relatively helpful is acting it out yourself, kind of documenting what is actively being done, and what is done after another action.
My 8th grade English teacher drilled not tense-switching into my class, so thankfully I’ve been aware of it for half my life now and don’t make too many mistakes. Of course, every now and then I’ll read over my first draft and realize I switched tenses for an entire paragraph. (And don’t pay attention as much when I’m, say, commenting on Reddit posts lol) English is hard. I wish it were like Chinese which has no tenses lol.
For me it depends whether it is first or third person. For first person past tense I think about them sitting down next to me and telling me about the things they did. I write down what they say. For first person present I imagine that they have an earpiece in and are telling me what is happening as it happens. For third it is similar. I think about whether someone is telling me details about a movie they watched, or whether it is a voice-over that is describing what is happening as it is happening.
Repetition. There are just some situations where I can't think of any other way to put it down
Repetition is fine in the first draft. Can't think of another word to use, put the placeholder in, then fix it in the second draft. It's better to keep writing in the first draft than trying to find alternatives while in storywriting flow. Now if my brain would remember that when I'm writing, it would be great.
I realized I said “smile” way too many times in one paragraph, but like that’s what my character is doing? I feel like it would be even weirder to just change every other “smile” to a simile. Overusing thesauruses is painfully obvious sometimes lol.
I have that exact problem too. My characters always smile, smirk, or grin. I'm not sure how to vary the accompanying actions sometimes. Especially when two people are just sitting having a super long convo
Same with tenses omg. And when I catch it I start wondering if I was using the best tense to begin with and thinking maybe I should change it lol. Another is describing settings. Like idk how y'all do it. I can imagine a setting but trying to understand how to write what I'm seeing is so hard for me and I write the most basic unimaginative descriptions and I'm constantly googling things that I don't know the real name of to help.
I feel like my descriptions are basic too, even if they are lengthy. Lately I’ve been writing down random words I hear that I either never knew the meaning of or don’t think about often enough to think to put in my book lol.
Putting thoughts into words, fr fr. Descriptions, both for things and for people. I just don't SEE them with words. Makes me wish I could draw =(
You could try using AI to generate images based on your words. Or Google images. For a few settings and characters I’ve googled images until I found one that fit and then described what I saw, or sometimes when I write down a description of a person but can’t quite picture it in my mind lol.
To make AI draw something, you need to put thoughts into words - catch 22
By default my ~~natural style of~~ writing is ~~really quite~~ verbose with ~~a number of~~many unnecessary adjectives. As with your issue, it's fine - that's what editing is for.
Keeping track off all the things/details. What did my character last, is she wearing a yellow or green dress. Have so and so already met? All the consistency things are kinda hard and names ! In general I think it’s hard to see the bigger picture, I get lost in details.
Having variety in how I start sentences. I always just cycle between the same things; using their pronouns or name. I physically can’t start a sentence without using a pronoun or name I think. That and ending chapters. I don’t understand what I do wrong but always get told “well it was a clear pausing point”.
I too battle tenses! Sometimes my thoughts race ahead and shift without warning. It's frustrating, but we'll figure it out together!" 😅
I get too carried away in a characters inner dialogue or their outward dialogue, and trying to find that fine line of passion/thoughts/perspective without it sounding like a monologue or preachy I personally have a rambling inner dialogue constantly but I know not everyone does so I try not to get too carried away. I let myself write it out and then go back and edit it. It does help me get my thoughts in order and "what's the fastest way to get this feeling/idea across" while also cutting out sentences that veer off track. But it still pains me to get rid of them so I have a separate doc where I copy and paste the originals so I can keep them
For me it's the opposite. I write, but my writing ends up pretty close to a script. Characters do things, occasionally thinking a thought, and dialogue is spoken. I have difficulty because my natural inclination is to just go with the flow, and the flow moves my story forward at a breakneck pace...
Writing an outline. Unless it's a significantly long piece of work, like a longer short story or book, I almost always just dive right in and start writing.
Describing stuff. My friend is so good at making detailed and enticing descriptions while mine are usually pretty flat or purple prosey
I don't know if it's normal with others, but for a long time I struggled with the idea of whether something is "in-character" or not, just the idea of naturally knowing whether it made for a character to act a certain way. But eventually you get used to it, I guess it comes down to being in that person's headspace for a long time.
It is so unnecessarily difficult for me to write multiple characters in the same scene. If there’s only one character in the scene, there’s not enough to say about them, the setting, what’s going on etc. If there’s three characters, the conversation is likely to get mixed up at some point. I have to have two characters in a scene whenever possible. I’m writing a scene with three characters and a dog in it at the moment and it is so difficult to know when using “he” is going to make someone confused as to exactly who is doing/saying it (all 3 people and the dog are males). If there’s no conversing going on, I try to find a way to skip along to a time when there is a conversation happening.
Figuring out and writing Plot.
Describing scenery. I like to blame it on the fact I can't really visualize but that doesn't fix the problem that stories don't take place in a void lol
Focusing. My autism makes it so I can't stop thinking about an idea, but my ADHD makes it harder to actually do something with it. F\*\*k my life. 😑
Me too! I have trouble sticking to past tense or present tense especially when in the first person. Sometimes it's clear there *should* be a switch, but other times it's a gray area, and I'm not at all sure of my judgment call.
I struggle with the tense thing too. I mainly write in past but others that have read my writing have pointed out that I sometimes switch to present 😅
You’re not the only one with tense issues. My brain does it too and i don’t know why it does.
Prose. Rhyming poetry comes easy to me but writing half decent prose is a challenge.
Writing so fast?? I post my stories in a website and some people are able to post 7 chapters per week and I’m barely able to do one. How the heck-
Heh heh same. I am a plotter. I don’t understand pantsers.
You sit down and want to know what comes next, so you have to write it so you can see what happens! It's *great* fun.
Sounds like fun that leads you off a cliff…
Nope! You sit down and let your creative voice write. Sometimes you're surprised by what happens. Sometimes it can feel scary, but it's like riding a roller coaster: there's no actual danger involved. It's just fun. And your creative voice weaves in twists and subplot and you just go over it once it's over and make sure things are foreshadowed when necessary. Not that there's anything *wrong*, necessarily, with planning and outlining, but when I stopped, every single one of my first readers sat up and took notice and said my stories were *far* better than anything else I'd written. So at the very least, it's a valid way to do things.
But if I jump off a cliff in a squirrel suit and go splat, readers won't marvel at my uncontested brilliance! They'll just point and laugh. I tried pantsing my new series (*sans* audience, just to try it). I very quickly ran out of runway and the story began to meander and feel pointless. Stakes weren't rising. It was floundering because I wasn't sure what to aim for next. I love the characters and premise, but I ended up needing to concretize the goals and villains and all that--so I could feel like and there are enough clever twists and fun things to keep readers turning pages. Otherwise, it just felt aimless.
I was afraid of that happening, too. It never ended up happening. I have to be deep in creative voice mode, though. The moment my critical voice takes over, that's it (so I don't let it). I'd definitely practice on some short stories, if you are inclined to try again in the future. For my last novella, I knew a character was going to die, but not exactly how or when. So when it finally happened, it was a surprise for both me and my first readers.
I struggle with writing plot. I already have characters that I’ve developed over the course of a few years, a while ago. I want to bring them to light in an action packed story, sticking true to their characters, but it’s difficult.
I instantly down voted you because I assumed this was going to be some nauseating question on here, but I actually agree with you. Staying in tense is difficult.
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I make my descriptions WAYYY too descriptive, I will search up specific color variants, clothing brands, to the point where my reader would have to search up every single thing the character is wearing. I like to draw and make character designs as well which makes me forget how people are supposed to have their own interpretation of what the character actually looks like…
Lately, spelling. I used to be so good at spelling, but now there are multiple times where my computer has to correct me or doesn’t even know *how* to correct me. I don’t know if it’s due to me being out of school for a few years, auto-correct-induced laziness, or if I made myself pass out one too many times as a stupid teenager and killed off my spelling bee winner brain cells.
No cause writing, not conflict, dialog conflict is easy and flows (and its more fun tbh.) What do you mean they need to have at least one normal conversation?
World-building is where I get stuck. It's my favorite part of any good fantasy book, seeing the vivid descriptions of the people, places, social expectations, different cultures, but it is so hard for me to put together for my own pieces. I still enjoy doing it, but wow, it is hard!
Emotions and inner thoughts. I'm not a sensitive guy, and I think I'm pretty analytical and logical. That can make my writing feel cold and detached at times.
Mostly dialogue and pacing. I feel like all of my writing is very fast paced, and I always struggle with dialogue descriptors, deciding what to say and what to show, and overall making it sound natural
Describing places! I hate doing it. Just use your imagination tf
Just coming up with the story. Characters, tone, grammar, dialogue, all that comes easily enough. But just what... stuff happens? I envy people who are like "yeah I have 90,000 words and idk what to cut." I'm a vicious cutter when I edit. It's having enough in the first place that stumps me.
The plot is how the characters react to their setting and how their reactions change affect other characters and the world around them.
How does that square with discovering the characters while you write? Genuine question.
Well, let me be clear: what I'm saying is that the plot isn't something you set up and then lead your characters on a tour around the book plot. And so the plot happens automatically as your characters act, and their history and relationship to the setting is part of their perspective an opinions, and so worldbuilding is automatic. And you can even discover how your characters react to different situations when they get there, and that helps you discover who they are. But basically, if you write strong characters, plot and worldbuilding build themselves automatically. I recommend reading "Writing Into the Dark" by Dean Wesley Smith. It's short and it's fascinating. (It also sounded insane, but it was how I always wanted to write but stopped myself in high school and college, and when I started doing it again my first readers were like "I've loved all your stories but this is so much better than anything else you've written. I guess those writing classes are starting to pay off!" which slightly annoyed me because writing into the dark was more fun and less "work," but screw it, they were right, lol.)
I'm not much of a pantser so I don't know how I'd incorporate it into my process but I'd be willing to try. I think I get hung up on conflict and obstacles. My characters are generally pretty good about being proactive and distinct but inventing things that prevent them from just automatically succeeding seems to hold me back. Anyway, I'm very grateful for the recommendation, I hope you don't take any of my thoughts here as naysaying. I'm very appreciative!
> I hope you don't take any of my thoughts here as naysaying. We're both writers discussing craft. :) Even if you read "Writing Into the Dark" and it just makes you feel more comfortable letting your characters break free from the outline, that's still a useful skill! It's all more tools for your writing toolkit. I started a novel *just* before I started writing into the dark that I really need to get back to (I ended up translating a series of novels, which is what takes my my writing time these days) and it was all pretty interesting, and going well, and then suddenly I realized that I'd been writing for *pages* and nothing was really happening. Turns out I fell in love with the main character (nice kid, not terribly unlike me as a kid since it's a period piece) and it was time for the inciting incident to happen and kick off the story, and I didn't want anything bad to happen to him! So I was writing a lot but procrastinating! I'll read it before deciding to continue it or start writing it over from scratch. There are a few scenes I think are awesome. I took a break from that and wrote a novella from scratch, writing into the dark, and it went great. Even when bad things happened, which they did. Oh boy, *did* they! The best thing is my primary first reader said the way the tension built up was exquisite, the way the main character's mom was in the middle of scolding him when he broke down and she immediately supported him and recontextualized why she was upset. I don't think I would've ever planned out that scene, but he'd been hiding a secret all book long and trying to be responsible and... well, anyway, one of the kid readers said it was his favorite scene in the book. Other things have been fun. I wrote a humorous short story where a space trader ends up trapped by aliens because of a fight and the planet he's on has to explain to the aliens what makes humans *human*. Had no idea at all how that was going to turn out, but I'd figured it out by the end, and that was *super* fun. So keep the writing fun, and good luck with your projects! :D
Thank you! You as well :)
First sentence when beginning a novel
Transitioning scenes. You mean you don't want a blow by blow of walking down a hall, turning a corner, opening the fridge, making a sandwich, amd eating it on your way out the house? But whyever not, good friend? Oh because it's boring? Yes well. That's unfortunate. So, down the lengthy corridor......
Figuring out what my characters would feel in a certain situation. I often forget that e.g. in this situation they would be upset or sad and to have them react accordingly. I was never taught to deal with emotions very well myself, so it's a learning experience for me. Also descriptions of surroundings are hard - what to include and what to leave out. I saw a video by the Quotidian writer on yt, and she advised to focus on a few specific details. I think I will watch that video again.
It might sound silly but I really struggle with explaining the size of large things. Like, if I’m describing a city with high walls. I can’t just say “the city had high walls” but anything else I say makes me worried that readers one day, might be like that city will crumble. The walls were knee high.
I also struggle with explaining dialogue. Sometimes I’ll write “he said, she said, they said.” Etc. but it’s more intricate than just said. Sometimes it’s yelled, or sighed, or exhaled. But even that gets repetitive.
Dividing stories in chapters. I just never really know when to break them and it always seems too big or too small.
This is minor, but my beta swapping partner has pointed out to me *in two separate books* that I keep using a period in dialogue tags where it should be a comma :P
OP, I took creative writing in high school and my teacher would always point out my tenses were switched up halfway through...I still struggle with it, I'm sure...sometimes you write, and you're so zoned in, you forget one of the easiest mistakes to make...
When to add paragraph breaks. I’m good at everything grammar except paragraph breaks. I hate them so much, why do I need them? Where do I put them? It drives me insane
I hate tense. I can NEVER get it right. I even tried looking up like those teacher and student worksheets to make it make sense but... I'm hopeless lol
Titles! I don’t think I’ve ever titled my stories- maybe one of them total has a title. I don’t know what I’ll do if I ever get published because I have no idea how to come up with a good title.
I think a lot. I talk much. I write a little. This is my curse
Writing a plot...it's worse because I'm pantsing and I'm trying to write a plot that actually make sense for my character without it feeling weird And grammar...don't get me started on grammar
This is so real! I always have to rewrite sentences. Or ill find myself accidentally writing completely in one tense, so I just decide to switch it to the accidental one. But then when I do that I accidentally write in the previous tense! Its alright im just complaining ive actually getting better.