Writing What was that one piece of advice

[Agentt]

Hey Cat. This thread turned from what advice you got to basically a lecture

 

[Wintertime]

Write a story you would love to read but read the story as if you were writing a critique on it. Make sure to finish it before changing anything. Also, if you're a lazy person like me, who cares about what other people think, just have fun with it!

 

[CookieCrumble]

Mine was what Ira Glass said

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

 

[Deleted member 45782]

I am probably regurgitating someone's advice but eh.

Don't have high expectations if you're just starting out. Your first story most likely not gonna turn it instant success and into tv shows and all of that. Most time, it is due to you becoming a better writer which means lots of practice and lots of writing until you cultivate yourself to become a immortal actually being good at writing.

Expect yourself to try and experiment and encounter multiple times where things failed and learn to pick yourself up again and stand up and continue writing.

Don't ignore all feedback -you may not like to hear what they say, but some are actually helpful and you can use it to improve your writing on. Learn to sift out what is helpful critical feedback and what is just rudeness.

 

[Not_A_Symphony]

We all had that one piece of advice that helped us when writing, or staying motivated and all the other things you need. What's yours?

When I started writing everyone told me I should already know the plot and how the story would end but, back in the day, that was something that I couldn't do. Then I learned something that (if I am not mistaken), the author of Game of Thrones said (something within these lines):
"There are two types of writers: architects and gardeners. The architects plan everything from the main plot to the basic details while the gardener just lets his flowers bloom with his inspiration"
So if someone in the future tells you how you should write, ignore them because where you plan it or not, it is entirely up to you!

 

[Jemini]

all of this advice is good. here's my actual practical advice that you should heed:

the stickiest stories and the ones that people read and like the most are the ones about interpersonal relationships. As opposed to plot driven stories (high fantasy high adventure lots of things happening that the hero has to do). heavy plot stories have a much harder time taking off than say a story about a man and a woman and their personal drama. also, long chapter legths in online fiction is ridiculous. if your chapters are too long people won't turn the page to the next one. keep the chapters between 900 and 1800 words if you actually want them to turn the page.

people will present anecdotal counter arguments to what I just said. but trust, me I've been doing this a while. heed my advice.

While the point itself is spot on, I think the final statement combined with the exact word counts you gave there seem a little egotistical.

I've taken a look at the actual successful works over on Royal Road. The ones that have authors earing six figures from their patreons. Every single one of them have chapter lengths close to 2000 words. Chapter lengths close to 1000 words are more successful than those close to 3000 words, but most of that is really because a large number of smaller chapters is an exploit on the algorithm and it cheats to get them more views. In the long term though, readers and fellow writers both tend to look at this unfavorably. You can see it in the analytics when you look up views per chapter that although the first-glance numbers for these short-chapter series look good, they are actually not doing all that much better than 3000 word chapter series in the long term.

The sweet spot is definitely somewhere around 1800 to 2200 words from my observations. This is from observing ACTUAL SUCCESSFUL authors. I feel that trumps personal experience by quite a bit.

 

[K5Rakitan]

Make a little time to write every day, even if you only write one sentence.

Before my baby popped out of me, I was writing a little bit in a paper notebook every night before bed. Now, I have to hold my nipple in his mouth until he falls asleep, and then I'm too tired to do anything but sleep. I also moved recently, and settling into my new place is a very slow process with my baby in my lap most of the time. He WILL NOT SLEEP unless he's touching me.

 

[ChubbyLiv]

Get an editor.

It does wonders.

 

[Agentt]

Get an editor.

It does wonders.

Rich folks

 

[DarklyReadsBooks]

Very