placeintime
Yeeting myself out
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These are some tips for writers who are starting out
You can take my words with a grain of salt. I’m not the best writer out there but I think I'm ok at the least XD. I won’t be talking about plot-based tips or anything of that sort because everyone has a different opinion on what they like and how it should go. And grammar too. That is one of my biggest weak points. XD
Tip 1: Audience
For beginner writers, before you start writing, when you think about what you want to write, understand what kind of audience you will be focusing on. This is really crucial because you don’t want to stray off that path.
For example, if you’re going the harem route, you would have your protagonist have multiple female leads chasing him or something of that sort. You wouldn’t have him only having one female lead. You have to understand what your audience is.
Tip 2: Outline.
The second tip for beginner writers is that you should have an outline. But before going into the outline, you should know how the novel should end. It doesn't have to be specific, but you should have an idea. The reason why I say this is because if you don't have an idea of how the novel will end, you're going to keep adding things into it, and the novel will be continuous.
Going onto the outline. All writers, no matter beginner or expert level, should use an outline. It helps organize your ideas easier and understand the main focus of your chapter. When I write my outlines, I find having it be more general helps out. If you go too specfic into the outline, you might tunnel into one idea too hard. But having it generalized gives you the main focus on what you want the chapter to be, but also gives you the freedom to write what comes to your mind on the spot.
Usually, 1-2 sentences should be enough. But then add some bullet points under it as well.
*The ideas in an outline aren't final.
Tip 3: How many words should be in a chapter?
Ok, so this one will vary a lot. One thing to point out: There is no perfect word count for a chapter!!!! There isn’t a concise optimal word count. Like you have people writing 500 words like me and then people who are writing 2000+ words in a chapter. That doesn’t mean one of us is doing it wrong or anything; it’s just a preference of style.
So for this, I think you have to experiment a bit to figure out your comfort zone.
But for beginners who are starting out, a good rule to have is to write and edit at least 450-500 words daily. Reason why I’m saying this is because in school, you write essays around 450 word essays XD. That should be a good start for anyone that’s in middle-school and up.
Also keep in mind: If your chapters are too small, it’s going to feel really annoying as a reader as they’re getting little to no information. And if you write too much, it would feel clunky as there’s too much information.
Tip 4: Consistency.
Tip 4 is going to be correlating to tip 3. Most people think of consistency as writing and posting every single day. But it's not. That will cause burnout in most cases. In most cases too, we don’t have time to write all the time.
Consistency is having a set schedule of posting. Ex) You post every weekend or something.
Just having a set date for posting is important because it gives your reader the knowledge of when new chapters come out. This would help build up your audience because they're not wondering whether or not ypi will post again this week or something.
So going off of this, how do you create consistency? This relates back to what I said in tip 3. You have to figure out what your comfort zone is. Because as a beginner, you need to understand what your limit is. An example:
A person is able to write 2000-word chapters a day. But he wants to post 2000-word chapters every day. That is overkill. The reason I’m saying this is because the person is writing at his limit. You have to write every single day without stopping. Also, you have to make time to write your outlines, edit your chapters, etc. There are a lot of variables that stop you from writing so much.
FYI, pointing out an extreme case.
There are two popular ways to create consistency::
And that’s about it. Hope this is helpful. ^^
You can take my words with a grain of salt. I’m not the best writer out there but I think I'm ok at the least XD. I won’t be talking about plot-based tips or anything of that sort because everyone has a different opinion on what they like and how it should go. And grammar too. That is one of my biggest weak points. XD
Tip 1: Audience
For beginner writers, before you start writing, when you think about what you want to write, understand what kind of audience you will be focusing on. This is really crucial because you don’t want to stray off that path.
For example, if you’re going the harem route, you would have your protagonist have multiple female leads chasing him or something of that sort. You wouldn’t have him only having one female lead. You have to understand what your audience is.
- You don’t have to have the perfect understanding of your readers which is impossible. Just have a common idea, and you should be good.
Tip 2: Outline.
The second tip for beginner writers is that you should have an outline. But before going into the outline, you should know how the novel should end. It doesn't have to be specific, but you should have an idea. The reason why I say this is because if you don't have an idea of how the novel will end, you're going to keep adding things into it, and the novel will be continuous.
Going onto the outline. All writers, no matter beginner or expert level, should use an outline. It helps organize your ideas easier and understand the main focus of your chapter. When I write my outlines, I find having it be more general helps out. If you go too specfic into the outline, you might tunnel into one idea too hard. But having it generalized gives you the main focus on what you want the chapter to be, but also gives you the freedom to write what comes to your mind on the spot.
Usually, 1-2 sentences should be enough. But then add some bullet points under it as well.
*The ideas in an outline aren't final.
Tip 3: How many words should be in a chapter?
Ok, so this one will vary a lot. One thing to point out: There is no perfect word count for a chapter!!!! There isn’t a concise optimal word count. Like you have people writing 500 words like me and then people who are writing 2000+ words in a chapter. That doesn’t mean one of us is doing it wrong or anything; it’s just a preference of style.
So for this, I think you have to experiment a bit to figure out your comfort zone.
But for beginners who are starting out, a good rule to have is to write and edit at least 450-500 words daily. Reason why I’m saying this is because in school, you write essays around 450 word essays XD. That should be a good start for anyone that’s in middle-school and up.
Also keep in mind: If your chapters are too small, it’s going to feel really annoying as a reader as they’re getting little to no information. And if you write too much, it would feel clunky as there’s too much information.
- Good rule of thumb to have: so if you write shorter word chapters, you would post more, and if you write longer, then you post fewer.
Tip 4: Consistency.
Tip 4 is going to be correlating to tip 3. Most people think of consistency as writing and posting every single day. But it's not. That will cause burnout in most cases. In most cases too, we don’t have time to write all the time.
Consistency is having a set schedule of posting. Ex) You post every weekend or something.
Just having a set date for posting is important because it gives your reader the knowledge of when new chapters come out. This would help build up your audience because they're not wondering whether or not ypi will post again this week or something.
So going off of this, how do you create consistency? This relates back to what I said in tip 3. You have to figure out what your comfort zone is. Because as a beginner, you need to understand what your limit is. An example:
A person is able to write 2000-word chapters a day. But he wants to post 2000-word chapters every day. That is overkill. The reason I’m saying this is because the person is writing at his limit. You have to write every single day without stopping. Also, you have to make time to write your outlines, edit your chapters, etc. There are a lot of variables that stop you from writing so much.
FYI, pointing out an extreme case.
There are two popular ways to create consistency::
- You write extra chapters(Basically writing ahead.)
- This is what the majority of writers do; they have a stash of extra chapters for Paetron or when they have an off day.
- Either shorten the number of words in a chapter/ or shorten the time you post
- Two examples:
- Instead of posting 2000-word chapters every day, post 1000-word chapters every day.
- Or, every two days, you post 2000+ word chapters.
- This is less stressful as you're not forcing yourself to the limit and it gives you more free time too.
- Two examples:
And that’s about it. Hope this is helpful. ^^
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