Writing Thread For Authors/ ups and downs

[Deleted member 46002]

Just like the title says, this is a thread for inexperienced authors like me, and I would like to have a deep discussion.

So I have THAT one idea swarming in my mind for a year or even two that I want to write and share with someone because the story has an interesting plot going on. (IMO)

This is how it started.

As an inexperienced writer, I was like, "Hey, writing is not so hard. I should give it a try because what is the worst thing that can happen?" Of course, that motivation overwhelmed me, and I decided to write the beginning of my story during the summer holidays. (I had a draft, do not worry.)

I asked a few random people for their opinion on my tragically executed piece of writing, hoping they would like it. This was the most naive thing I could do, and of course, I got nothing but negative feedback that impacted me and my huge ego. (in a bad and good way)


But! I did not give up and shot another shot, which resulted in another failure, and it did not take long before I abandoned the idea as if it was a burden for my soul. There was a lack of knowledge, grammar, better words to make the story worthy of attention.

After some time, the guilt started to gnaw my insides.
It felt that I had lost a chance to create something unique, and I blamed myself for being bad at writing.

However, the connection between me and the imaginary MC was strong enough to keep me going.

"BUT I WANT TO WRITE AS A HOBBY!" - The inner voice kept repeating, and I picked up my drafts once again.

Therefore, I somehow managed to get out of my comfort zone and post it on SH after ages of research and revising, but I know that I still have to learn to reach that road of greatness.

Although every time I open my work, I melt into a pool of awkwardness and cringe, but something is still preventing me from giving up.

I want to know if there are masochists like me or am I the only one going crazy over a story even if people I know keep telling me that they do not expect something creative and beautiful from my work 'because I am not made for writing stories' (they think I am more of a mathematician)

 

[nightshade.valentine]

I want to reply later to this post as I am cleaning the house right now

but yes I understand every single word that you wrote here . And I do feel the same

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

You and me both man. I started out writing a cliche and weird novel which I wanted to kill myself in the begining stages. As I am not newbie in writing, I did start out like you or basically worse off.

I tried writing a unique novel at that time(Writing a revenge isekai before shield hero, writing yandere stories before the popularity of it blown off and even writing a E-sports like novel before the CN novel). However, I started out at a wrong foot and began my journey in a site which is heavily popular on romance and drama(mine is a bit edgy and comedic at time) thinking that my novel would be popularize there. Disappointed in myself that I slowly lost motivation. Even if it was now popular years later(guessing that some peeps found out my novel there and got hooked) it was already too late for me to gain motivation. At least you guys have more of a fighting chance which I didn't had hope in mine in the first place.

Basically just do not give up at the least and even if its cringe-worthy or boring at least you had your hobby to write and improve rather than slowly losing hope like me.

 

[gaylolis]

i started writing a novel in a hentai website and didn't even realize the characters are actually considered underage despite doing lewd things.

i don't even know it was banned since at that time, the site post loli content like breakfast. it was early 2010 i think, and internet was more free with no cancerous cancel culture.

after i understood a lot of these will put me on the FBI watchlist (recently), I just went to Ao3.

to be said, i have no fucking idea on how to write a story and i don't really know how to continue the plot. after a long time i guess it doesn't really matter anymore. just write what makes me feel alive and happy, I guess.

no one cares if i write good or bad. if they enjoy the story, they may just like and follow. if they don't, they just leave.

 

[hauntedwritings]

I found my desire for writing before I even properly hit puberty. I tried to write something, but I could tell myself I would never want to read the thing I had written.
So I gave up. I loved stories, so I immersed myself into the creations of others. I loved almost every story I read. But with time, I began to see that not all works I read were actually that great.
The trilogy that I had been the greatest fan of no longer appealed to me. Why? Because I found the characters to be bland, with no real path of development. But as it was intended for a younger audience, so I suppose it was to be expected.
Don't get me wrong, everyone is looking for something different. Sometimes you just want something to read, without draging your emotions along. But I personally like that kind of stories.

Decided on an emotional whim to have another go at writing 15 years later. So far I'm enjoying it, putting the lessons learned from reading other peoples' work. And even if people tell me my first story is crap, I'll keep writing to improve. Because I want to see my own story come to a conclusion.

Being a mathematician I think is rather a strength than weakness for writing. Why? Because the true story of any tale is the characters. With a logical mind, your characters will make logical choices. You will likely want your stories to have a thread of cause-and-effect, which gives you a believable plot.

 

[Jemini]

Just like the title says, this is a thread for inexperienced authors like me, and I would like to have a deep discussion.

So I have THAT one idea swarming in my mind for a year or even two that I want to write and share with someone because the story has an interesting plot going on. (IMO)

This is how it started.

As an inexperienced writer, I was like, "Hey, writing is not so hard. I should give it a try because what is the worst thing that can happen?" Of course, that motivation overwhelmed me, and I decided to write the beginning of my story during the summer holidays. (I had a draft, do not worry.)

I asked a few random people for their opinion on my tragically executed piece of writing, hoping they would like it. This was the most naive thing I could do, and of course, I got nothing but negative feedback that impacted me and my huge ego. (in a bad and good way)


But! I did not give up and shot another shot, which resulted in another failure, and it did not take long before I abandoned the idea as if it was a burden for my soul. There was a lack of knowledge, grammar, better words to make the story worthy of attention.

After some time, the guilt started to gnaw my insides.
It felt that I had lost a chance to create something unique, and I blamed myself for being bad at writing.

However, the connection between me and the imaginary MC was strong enough to keep me going.

"BUT I WANT TO WRITE AS A HOBBY!" - The inner voice kept repeating, and I picked up my drafts once again.

Therefore, I somehow managed to get out of my comfort zone and post it on SH after ages of research and revising, but I know that I still have to learn to reach that road of greatness.

Although every time I open my work, I melt into a pool of awkwardness and cringe, but something is still preventing me from giving up.

I want to know if there are masochists like me or am I the only one going crazy over a story even if people I know keep telling me that they do not expect something creative and beautiful from my work 'because I am not made for writing stories' (they think I am more of a mathematician)

Is this thread only for first time writers? It wasn't clear, but this sort of thing sounds like it needs the perspective of a more experienced writer.

To share my story, my first attempt at writing a story was a total bust. I made a few honest attempts, but I could tell the story was starting to trip over itself and so I trashed it and re-started the story twice. I never did manage to finish the thing.

From there, I went on to write for an erotica website and then did several other kinds of writing as well.

For around 8 years, I was writing at least 1000 words around every 2 to 3 days.

They say in order to become an expert at something, you need to practice for 10,000 hours. Well, 8 years of 1000 words every few days is a very good way to rack up that practice.

It wasn't until I had been constantly writing like this that I got bold enough to start putting something out there on a common site that was not either 1. A writing thread for novice writers, or 2. An erotica site where people will praise even horrible work so long as it has something to titivate.

The result I got from this was fairly positive, but after some time it still started getting panned as crap. However, I saw a HUGE improvement in my writing even beyond what all those years of private writing had done. Writing in the spotlight forced my work to improve far faster than anything I had done previously.

Moral of this story, failure is a common part of practice, and it takes a LOT of practice to actually become good at writing. I failed a lot in order to get to the level of skill I write at now, and I still see a lot of room for improvement when I look to greater and more successful authors for inspiration.

All of your writing skills will improve with practice, perseverance, and hard work. Also, loosing the ego as quickly as possible is a very good thing. An ego will hold you back from improving.

You are on the right track to becoming a great author right now. The only time you truly fail is when you quit. That's the kind of game this is. So, keep writing and keep improving. That's the only way you become great.

 

[EternalSunset0]

I want to know if there are masochists like me or am I the only one going crazy over a story even if people I know keep telling me that they do not expect something creative and beautiful from my work 'because I am not made for writing stories' (they think I am more of a mathematician)

Tell me about it. I'm probably the least creative person I know, and I mean that quite literally. I'm not much of a dreamer or a creative mind at all. What I can do is break down elements from stuff I watch/read and pick out the ones that click with me. Even when I was in school around half a decade ago, I was more of the uptight stats guy instead of the intuitive type.

But it didn't keep me from starting out writing last year because of, out of all things, my social awkwardness. I want to be able to communicate and make friends behind the monitor and behind an alias as a total stranger, and writing and putting my stuff out for the world, as I found out, is actually a pretty easy way to find the handful of like-minded people. Then, my story and theirs ended up being good topics to keep us chatting and knowing each other more. It helps that I don't have a lot of readers, so I have the chance to have personal connections with the few people who engage. As they say, quality over quantity.

I guess that's enough for my story time. As for advice, there's the common thing about practicing, trying hard, working on your craft, etc. but others can give you that advice, and I'm not the best one to take it from.

I think a more personal advice/encouragement I can give is that there's no need to cringe at your work. Not sure if it's a hot take or what, considering the things I see on forums even outside SH, but hear me out.

It's natural to look at your old writing and find it so awkward and embarrassing. However, behind all those "awkward writing" is a person who took the first step. No matter how cringey your writing was, you still gave it effort, and you more than likely gave it some love and were so proud of it at one point. I think that specific person deserves respect instead of being laughed/cringed at. That's not to say that you shouldn't find a way to improve your old writing, but my point is that even if you cannot find confidence in your work, the fact that you spent time on it and dared share it deserves respect. If it's still up on a website somewhere, you can go back to it and instead of laughing at your bad writing, you can give yourself a pat on the back and say "Whoa, I did that? I managed to write something and got the courage to share it?" At least, that's how I see it.

Good luck with writing. Hope you enjoy SH

 

[BackWoodsJ_ACK]

Can be bad as me. My first novel was practically a bootleg version of HOTD. But I have no regrets bout doing it...i wonder what are the comments about now?

 

[Valmond]

Just like the title says, this is a thread for inexperienced authors like me, and I would like to have a deep discussion.

So I have THAT one idea swarming in my mind for a year or even two that I want to write and share with someone because the story has an interesting plot going on. (IMO)

This is how it started.

As an inexperienced writer, I was like, "Hey, writing is not so hard. I should give it a try because what is the worst thing that can happen?" Of course, that motivation overwhelmed me, and I decided to write the beginning of my story during the summer holidays. (I had a draft, do not worry.)

I asked a few random people for their opinion on my tragically executed piece of writing, hoping they would like it. This was the most naive thing I could do, and of course, I got nothing but negative feedback that impacted me and my huge ego. (in a bad and good way)


But! I did not give up and shot another shot, which resulted in another failure, and it did not take long before I abandoned the idea as if it was a burden for my soul. There was a lack of knowledge, grammar, better words to make the story worthy of attention.

After some time, the guilt started to gnaw my insides.
It felt that I had lost a chance to create something unique, and I blamed myself for being bad at writing.

However, the connection between me and the imaginary MC was strong enough to keep me going.

"BUT I WANT TO WRITE AS A HOBBY!" - The inner voice kept repeating, and I picked up my drafts once again.

Therefore, I somehow managed to get out of my comfort zone and post it on SH after ages of research and revising, but I know that I still have to learn to reach that road of greatness.

Although every time I open my work, I melt into a pool of awkwardness and cringe, but something is still preventing me from giving up.

I want to know if there are masochists like me or am I the only one going crazy over a story even if people I know keep telling me that they do not expect something creative and beautiful from my work 'because I am not made for writing stories' (they think I am more of a mathematician)

You will constantly try and fail. This is the path towards improvement. Happens to all of us. I cannot even begin to tell you how awful my works were when I started. Though, you gotta keep at it. Part of the hobby if that is your route is also learning to get better at it. Which means, knowing the basics so that you can get more complex at it. One of the better ways to improve is to also distance yourself, and work on the craft. Writing is something that takes hours upon hours of practice. This is something I also balance in with six other activities or so.

Anyone can turn a poorly written mess into something great, you just gotta learn the craft and rewrite. If there is one solid advice. You can write countless stories, but if you are not getting any better at writing, it will still be the same quality. With this being stated, it is better to work on the same piece of writing until your skills develop to the point of where your next work will not suffer from previous problems in the least.

Anyway, gotta keep at it, only way to get better is to practice. Here are some methods to help at least further the ball when you understand the basics.

1. Reread your work line by line

2. Rewrite line by line

3. Edit line by line

4. Use an audio reader for confirmation

These methods will improve your story overall, including minimizing errors made. There will be some no doubt, but not to any major level. It is even possible to eliminate most if not all errors this way given enough time. If you know your work is bad, and you accept this, this is really the first step here. It means you have something to work and improve on. So don’t go giving up, and keep at it. No one gets better by throwing in the towel.

 

[Sylverius]

Just like the title says, this is a thread for inexperienced authors like me, and I would like to have a deep discussion.

So I have THAT one idea swarming in my mind for a year or even two that I want to write and share with someone because the story has an interesting plot going on. (IMO)

This is how it started.

As an inexperienced writer, I was like, "Hey, writing is not so hard. I should give it a try because what is the worst thing that can happen?" Of course, that motivation overwhelmed me, and I decided to write the beginning of my story during the summer holidays. (I had a draft, do not worry.)

I asked a few random people for their opinion on my tragically executed piece of writing, hoping they would like it. This was the most naive thing I could do, and of course, I got nothing but negative feedback that impacted me and my huge ego. (in a bad and good way)


But! I did not give up and shot another shot, which resulted in another failure, and it did not take long before I abandoned the idea as if it was a burden for my soul. There was a lack of knowledge, grammar, better words to make the story worthy of attention.

After some time, the guilt started to gnaw my insides.
It felt that I had lost a chance to create something unique, and I blamed myself for being bad at writing.

However, the connection between me and the imaginary MC was strong enough to keep me going.

"BUT I WANT TO WRITE AS A HOBBY!" - The inner voice kept repeating, and I picked up my drafts once again.

Therefore, I somehow managed to get out of my comfort zone and post it on SH after ages of research and revising, but I know that I still have to learn to reach that road of greatness.

Although every time I open my work, I melt into a pool of awkwardness and cringe, but something is still preventing me from giving up.

I want to know if there are masochists like me or am I the only one going crazy over a story even if people I know keep telling me that they do not expect something creative and beautiful from my work 'because I am not made for writing stories' (they think I am more of a mathematician)

Not gonna lie, this is the reason why I posted my story here. Your reason is the same reason as to why I shared my story.

 

[Horizon42]

Just like the title says, this is a thread for inexperienced authors like me, and I would like to have a deep discussion.

So I have THAT one idea swarming in my mind for a year or even two that I want to write and share with someone because the story has an interesting plot going on. (IMO)

This is how it started.

As an inexperienced writer, I was like, "Hey, writing is not so hard. I should give it a try because what is the worst thing that can happen?" Of course, that motivation overwhelmed me, and I decided to write the beginning of my story during the summer holidays. (I had a draft, do not worry.)

I asked a few random people for their opinion on my tragically executed piece of writing, hoping they would like it. This was the most naive thing I could do, and of course, I got nothing but negative feedback that impacted me and my huge ego. (in a bad and good way)


But! I did not give up and shot another shot, which resulted in another failure, and it did not take long before I abandoned the idea as if it was a burden for my soul. There was a lack of knowledge, grammar, better words to make the story worthy of attention.

After some time, the guilt started to gnaw my insides.
It felt that I had lost a chance to create something unique, and I blamed myself for being bad at writing.

However, the connection between me and the imaginary MC was strong enough to keep me going.

"BUT I WANT TO WRITE AS A HOBBY!" - The inner voice kept repeating, and I picked up my drafts once again.

Therefore, I somehow managed to get out of my comfort zone and post it on SH after ages of research and revising, but I know that I still have to learn to reach that road of greatness.

Although every time I open my work, I melt into a pool of awkwardness and cringe, but something is still preventing me from giving up.

I want to know if there are masochists like me or am I the only one going crazy over a story even if people I know keep telling me that they do not expect something creative and beautiful from my work 'because I am not made for writing stories' (they think I am more of a mathematician)

It sounds like you're overthinking it. Just do it. Progress you're writing prowess at a rate that aligns with your goals.

 

[K5Rakitan]

I was there once upon a time, too!

 

[Spica66]

Just like the title says, this is a thread for inexperienced authors like me, and I would like to have a deep discussion.

So I have THAT one idea swarming in my mind for a year or even two that I want to write and share with someone because the story has an interesting plot going on. (IMO)

This is how it started.

As an inexperienced writer, I was like, "Hey, writing is not so hard. I should give it a try because what is the worst thing that can happen?" Of course, that motivation overwhelmed me, and I decided to write the beginning of my story during the summer holidays. (I had a draft, do not worry.)

I asked a few random people for their opinion on my tragically executed piece of writing, hoping they would like it. This was the most naive thing I could do, and of course, I got nothing but negative feedback that impacted me and my huge ego. (in a bad and good way)


But! I did not give up and shot another shot, which resulted in another failure, and it did not take long before I abandoned the idea as if it was a burden for my soul. There was a lack of knowledge, grammar, better words to make the story worthy of attention.

After some time, the guilt started to gnaw my insides.
It felt that I had lost a chance to create something unique, and I blamed myself for being bad at writing.

However, the connection between me and the imaginary MC was strong enough to keep me going.

"BUT I WANT TO WRITE AS A HOBBY!" - The inner voice kept repeating, and I picked up my drafts once again.

Therefore, I somehow managed to get out of my comfort zone and post it on SH after ages of research and revising, but I know that I still have to learn to reach that road of greatness.

Although every time I open my work, I melt into a pool of awkwardness and cringe, but something is still preventing me from giving up.

I want to know if there are masochists like me or am I the only one going crazy over a story even if people I know keep telling me that they do not expect something creative and beautiful from my work 'because I am not made for writing stories' (they think I am more of a mathematician)

I enjoyed my time with world building, imagined myself talking with characters to see how they interact with me (I'm sane), and weaved all plots together.

Most of the time it stayed in my thoughts. So, I got myself out of my comfort zone because I felt like I had to take MC to the finish line.

Although I'm not confident in my writing skills (including storytelling skills) especially when it comes to a second language, I believe in my story(plot).

So let's gooooo!!! Auksoun, you have to bring your MC to the end!

 

[Deleted member 46002]

I enjoyed my time with world building, imagined myself talking with characters to see how they interact with me (I'm sane), and weaved all plots together.

Most of the time it stayed in my thoughts. So, I got myself out of my comfort zone because I felt like I had to take MC to the finish line.

Although I'm not confident in my writing skills (including storytelling skills) especially when it comes to a second language, I believe in my story(plot).

So let's gooooo!!! Auksoun, you have to bring your MC to the end!

As a person who is not a native speaker, I can relate.
:inhales:
Okay, let's do this