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undieshogun What a fuckin year!!!! Nothing much happened.
THE BLOCK
"Square One" threw me into a seriously tough block, for real. It's unfortunate and beyond embarrassing, but every time I write something that I think is good, I'm convinced there will never be another like it and I somehow just lose all motivation. That's so silly!!!! But it gets me every time. Is it because my ego is too big or my self confidence is too low? Seems like both, really. So I need to learn to believe that I can be better than my current best, and that sometimes I will do a shitty job, but that doesn't mean I'm getting worse.
ORIGINAL CONTENT; BRANCHING OUT
Another goal for this year: write more original content. Lately I feel like I'm getting a lot more creative ideas for original stuff, but I haven't been confident about actually writing it because I...don't really know how? I grew up writing fanfiction, I just don't know where to start. But I have to start somewhere! And it's worth trying, if only to get out those ideas that are always crowding up my thoughts.
I think writing for NaNoWriMo really opened my eyes to how much I can accomplish with an original storyline. There was so much material I didn't even manage to finish the story with the 50k quota. I really loved my characters, and I loved their stories, and I had so much fun because it's been a long time since I got to do whatever I wanted with a character and be HAPPY with it. I have high hopes for that story, and for the DT project I'm working on with Alisa as well.
SELLING
Publishing comes with a lot of pressure to cater to the readers. Since I started publishing again in late '14, every time I pick up my pen to start a new story my first thought is about whether or not the readers will like it. Or, more specifically, whether or not A LOT of readers will like it. It's hard not to think about it, and I'm not going to make it a goal to stop doing it altogether because I know it's impossible, but I CAN make it a goal to stop making that my priority. There's nothing wrong with humoring the audience every once in a while, or getting something out there purely for the attention, but at some point my interests stop coinciding with those of the readers, and if I let my desperation for attention/approval force me into writing stuff that I don't want to, then no one is happy because nothing gets written. One of my most important goals for this year will be to write FIRST for me, and SECOND for my readers.
TECHNICAL STUFF
Haha...how about that dialogue......Spoilers: shit's dry as fuck!!! I'm so bad at writing witty, realistic, natural dialogue. I've spent pretty much this entire year envying all of my writer friends, for whom this stuff seems to come naturally. Everything I put in quotes comes out lackluster, monotone, and just EMPTY!! Strangely enough (or maybe not), that's basically exactly how I talk. I need to learn how people who are not me talk and how to apply that to my writing, or else I will be forever stranded with boring, droning dialogue.
I think the dialogue problem might stem from the fact that I don't really seem to know what my characters are thinking. My character introspection is lacking severely, and it's really hurting my creativity and productivity. I want my readers to connect with my characters or at the very least understand their motivations and feelings, but even I don't know most of the time...Too much of my stories are completely story-driven, I don't give myself or my readers enough room to really learn about the characters, so that's something I really, really need to keep in mind as I write this year.
Also, for some reason, I seem to be capable of only writing either really short sentences or super long run-ons with many commas. I don't know why but I always feel like I can't get the flow right. I should read more, I think, and try to diversify my sentence lengths.
BASICALLY,
This year is going to be all about loving myself as a creator and author (if not as a person haha), loving my characters, and learning about and from others. My publishing goal: 70k+ My total word count goal: 200k+. Here's to a year of writing and learning and writing more!!
THE BLOCK
"Square One" threw me into a seriously tough block, for real. It's unfortunate and beyond embarrassing, but every time I write something that I think is good, I'm convinced there will never be another like it and I somehow just lose all motivation. That's so silly!!!! But it gets me every time. Is it because my ego is too big or my self confidence is too low? Seems like both, really. So I need to learn to believe that I can be better than my current best, and that sometimes I will do a shitty job, but that doesn't mean I'm getting worse.
ORIGINAL CONTENT; BRANCHING OUT
Another goal for this year: write more original content. Lately I feel like I'm getting a lot more creative ideas for original stuff, but I haven't been confident about actually writing it because I...don't really know how? I grew up writing fanfiction, I just don't know where to start. But I have to start somewhere! And it's worth trying, if only to get out those ideas that are always crowding up my thoughts.
I think writing for NaNoWriMo really opened my eyes to how much I can accomplish with an original storyline. There was so much material I didn't even manage to finish the story with the 50k quota. I really loved my characters, and I loved their stories, and I had so much fun because it's been a long time since I got to do whatever I wanted with a character and be HAPPY with it. I have high hopes for that story, and for the DT project I'm working on with Alisa as well.
SELLING
Publishing comes with a lot of pressure to cater to the readers. Since I started publishing again in late '14, every time I pick up my pen to start a new story my first thought is about whether or not the readers will like it. Or, more specifically, whether or not A LOT of readers will like it. It's hard not to think about it, and I'm not going to make it a goal to stop doing it altogether because I know it's impossible, but I CAN make it a goal to stop making that my priority. There's nothing wrong with humoring the audience every once in a while, or getting something out there purely for the attention, but at some point my interests stop coinciding with those of the readers, and if I let my desperation for attention/approval force me into writing stuff that I don't want to, then no one is happy because nothing gets written. One of my most important goals for this year will be to write FIRST for me, and SECOND for my readers.
TECHNICAL STUFF
Haha...how about that dialogue......Spoilers: shit's dry as fuck!!! I'm so bad at writing witty, realistic, natural dialogue. I've spent pretty much this entire year envying all of my writer friends, for whom this stuff seems to come naturally. Everything I put in quotes comes out lackluster, monotone, and just EMPTY!! Strangely enough (or maybe not), that's basically exactly how I talk. I need to learn how people who are not me talk and how to apply that to my writing, or else I will be forever stranded with boring, droning dialogue.
I think the dialogue problem might stem from the fact that I don't really seem to know what my characters are thinking. My character introspection is lacking severely, and it's really hurting my creativity and productivity. I want my readers to connect with my characters or at the very least understand their motivations and feelings, but even I don't know most of the time...Too much of my stories are completely story-driven, I don't give myself or my readers enough room to really learn about the characters, so that's something I really, really need to keep in mind as I write this year.
Also, for some reason, I seem to be capable of only writing either really short sentences or super long run-ons with many commas. I don't know why but I always feel like I can't get the flow right. I should read more, I think, and try to diversify my sentence lengths.
BASICALLY,
This year is going to be all about loving myself as a creator and author (if not as a person haha), loving my characters, and learning about and from others. My publishing goal: 70k+ My total word count goal: 200k+. Here's to a year of writing and learning and writing more!!
no subject
Date: 2015-12-11 05:09 am (UTC)really though, i am super excited for dt and i hope we can make a lot of progress on it in 2016!!!
also, good luck reaching all your other goals!! <3
no subject
Date: 2015-12-11 05:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-11 06:59 am (UTC)omfg i get that feeling all the time. it's just like *past you, you've done it, you've set the bar so high that it's unsurpassable, i have plateaued in my early twenties goodbye world.* we have to recognize that other people think this way too and i think it's exactly like you said--you need to believe that you're improving! because you definitely are but you read/hear your writing all the time so it all seems the same. it's like if you hang out with someone all the time you don't notice how they're growing, but they are! your writing's growing too! (i think that was a bad analogy but I DON'T CARE IT WORKS.)
re: original content;
aw yeah, write awesome stories and get them out there!! fanfic writers can go on to be awesome original fic writers because, well, fannish tales give you exposure to a whole lot of stories and storytelling styles that you wouldn't see out there in the mainstream published world. it gives your stories a unique quality that i think people really enjoy. :)
i expect signed copies, wink wonk--
re: writing for yourself;
those fucking kudos.
anyways, i know you love writing and i know you have a lot of ideas, so i believe that you can do this for yourself! cheering you on!!
(one thing that might help is turning off your ability to see the hits counters on your fics on ao3)
re: characters + dialogue;
basically, you choose a character (or multiple! but start with one while you get used to it) and create them as an imaginary character in your head (character-sim). then you go about your day and just check in with them every once in a while. you could be standing in line for pizza and ask your character (let's say... snart) what kind of pizza they like. then your character-sim of snart would answer. eventually, the more you do it, the better the grasp you'll have of (a) your characterization of them because of all the questions you've been asking and (b) their speech patterns because they'll be yammering at you all the damn time.
if you'd like to try this technique and journal it, i'll journal along with you and we can both be a couple of too-invested writers with voices in our heads. :)
LOVE YOURSELF, WE LOVE YOU, AND KICK ASS IN 2016!
no subject
Date: 2015-12-11 07:04 am (UTC)Join
no subject
Date: 2015-12-11 07:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-11 07:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-11 07:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-11 07:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-11 07:31 am (UTC)we're getting ambitious in our old age--
no subject
Date: 2015-12-11 07:36 am (UTC)