>spend hours working on four pages of writing
>read it over once done
>it's all shit
>take a deep breath and start editing, reminding myself that all first drafts are shit
>take hours to edit carefully
>re-read what I have now
>it's still shit
It keeps happening
>>8088579
>>8088579
Post it.
Maybe its not as bad as you think.
>>8088579
don't edit a first draft as you go. The 4 page edits are infuriating because you are evaluating in a vacuum with no larger text/story to base your edits on.
>>8088579
do some more reading, find and style you like and mimic it. repeat until you develop your own
avoid translations and read in your native language to get away from academic prose
>>8088613
Is this how everyone learns to write ?
So originality doesn't exist ?
are you writing because you want to be a writer or are you writing because you have a story that can only be told in text?
>>8088632
Le true writer, gtfo
Writing because you want to be a writer is as good a reason as any.
>>8088632
>You're not a REAL writer unless you A, B, and C
Fuck off
>>8088640
>Being published makes you a REAL writer
>>8088637
nice try but the question was whether you want to write or you want to be a writer
>>8088579
Since when does rustle draw adults
>>8088579
as someone who struggled for a long time, then got a degree in writing (and still struggles), but who eventually got over that skill barrier:
>your taste will probably exceed your skill for the rest of your life. Sorry. Good news is that gap will decrease as both increase, so eventually you will become satisfied (if not completely blown away) by your own writing. That takes time and practice. A guitar player will always have other musicians he admires and aspires to be like, but eventually he'll go from shitty technique to good to virtuoso if he practices every day.
>Proper practice means editing after you're done. Don't write four pages and edit that. Write a full piece (story/novel/poem/etc) and edit that. Otherwise your sentences will be great and your story arcs / character development will be shit. That's where I was for a long time.
>Four pages shouldn't take hours. The first four pages should be approximately word count divided by typing speed, because you have things in your head that you're just vomiting onto the page. Yeah, it'll be shit. That's why you keep going and finish the thing before you look at it and get depressed.
TL;DR:
>write as much as possible as often as possible
>finish your shit before editing any of it
>just GO; don't agonize over every word
>>8088849
>This
>>8088849
thanks man
any other tips?
>>8088684
story != plot
>>8088579
>first draft
Write a second, a third and fourth draft until you feel that is godd, and than you edit/rewrite it to improve even more.
>>8088849
>Otherwise your sentences will be great and your story arcs / character development will be shit. That's where I was for a long time.
Didn't grasp it. What do you mean?
>>8088631
We think it does only because so many writers are 'schooled' writers. They just decide they want to write and begin to do so. But even in these cases their style will be influenced by anything they've ever read and in many cases heard or seen. Any newspaper, advertisement, book, magazine, they all add up over time in your conscious and unconscious mind. This post right now is influencing your style on a minute level. The music you listen to, the art you visit will have a similar effect. You are the sum of your experiences. However, as no one on Earth will experience the same things as you this sum will always add to something different. This is what we perceive as originality.
>>8089543
It can become inconsistent since you're writing under different ideas for your plots and characters at anywhich time
Its an issue I'm dealing with now, but its onlly the first draft and I keep things very organized, so the effect is mitigated.
>>8089604
But you don't outline the plot before of writing it? I do this, and when something isn't working in the structure I can't just change paragraph's places and expect that everything keep coherent. I change the outline and then... write another draft with that new.
It's a little painful and longstanding, but for me this is the only way to work in it. For example, I'm writing the 2nd outline for a novella to change things in the 2nd draft of it, to deep some things and restructure the order of the parts (I don't like to say "scenes"; it seems I'm talking about screenwriting when I say it, which I'm not).
>>8089623
>plot
ayy lmao
>>8089623
I outline the plot but very loosely, I've tried to preserve what I've written so far since not all of it need be tossed, if anything I'm trying to work out how all my elements can fit together best without compromising the entire thing, which has me reformatting the plot and structure.
>>8088632
Plot twist: your opinion is relevant and your question deserves at least some consideration.
>>8089685
>plot
>>8089650
If you're still deciding the plot you can write and edit however you want, since chances are you will discard huge chunks anyway due to plot changes.
>>8088579
Nobody said it was easy.
>>8089973
>>8090058
>>8090094
>>8088888
Not really. If you have any specific questions, and/or when you practice enough to have specific questions, that would probably be more useful than any of the other "tips" i have. Feel free to hit me up at [email protected], because I obviously don't check this board as often as I should.
>>8089543
If you never actually finish a story, you never have the opportunity to edit a story. Example:
I'm Shakespeare. I write the first few pages of Hamlet. I'm feeling pretty okay about it. I've got a ghost, a tortured prince, courtly intrigue, whole nine yards. I'm even thinking about adding some unrequited love. Then I look at the first few scenes of my draft and I think, "Jeez, this sucks. My meter is all over the place, my dialogue is cheesy, and my character kinda just sounds like a prick." So I smooth out the meter, write snappier dialogue, and give Hamlet a little more kindness. Still not satisfied (because I'm the OP version of Shakespeare, not the real life one, and my skill is still lagging behind my taste). I obsess over the first few scenes and get nowhere with the rest of the story.
At the end of that writing day, I have a problem. I haven't done any story crafting. All my edits were sentence-level, and I haven't revised or even written any further plot, character development, major conflicts, resolution, etc. So even if my meter and word choice is great, there isn't actually any story. Just a few first scenes. This is bad because you will NEVER write something on the first draft that you're completely satisfied with (assuming you're human and also not an e e cummings type). Once you're in the pattern OP describes, you end up writing the first few pages, editing it until you're sick of the idea, then writing another few pages of the next story. Rinse, repeat. You get good at sentences, paragraphs, maybe even scenes, but your actual story skills don't get any better. If you edit a complete story, you practice all the skills involved. I hope that clarifies my point.
>>8088579
>re-read
stop with these fucking anime stutters jesus christ the autism, i swear
>>8091778
Is this bait? Am I being baited?
>>8088579
Write more. Write faster. Your problem is not writing poorly, it is not writing enough to become a better writer.
Everything I write is gold lmao
>>8091787
Yeah, but tbf, it's pretty funny.
Don't write and edit like that op.
Finish the entire work, put it away, go to edit/rewrite at least a week later, after you've been working on something else entirely.
>>8091899
Except for that post, right?
It's cobalt at best, not gold.
>>8092321
That post actually was perfect you just aren't capable of appreciating post ironic art
>>8092338
zinc
Heath?
>>8088579
just spend more real nigga hours smashing that mf like button
>>8092370
Jessica?
>>8092494
Oh shit it's dat boi! Waddup!
>>8088849
I find it really super hard to just GO. Any tips about that?
>>8091778
noice
>>8093793
Make a separate file for each day you write so you aren't looking back at yesterday's work. Don't stop writing when you're out of ideas but before so you have somewhere to pick up the next day (Hemingway). Outline. Start to consider 'how would this character act in this situation' instead of forcing it to happen.
It's important to remember that your character shouldn't be you, they should have their own likes and dislikes, habits, etc that influence how they act.
![100-emoji[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/P6p96z7.png "100-emoji[1].png")
>>8093658
>>8091778
took me a second but thats quite funny
>>8088579
If you keep editing every four pages, ten years from now, you'll still only have four pages. Maybe four really good pages, but still only four pages nonetheless.
>>8093793
Yeah totally. Here are a few. I've tried them all with varying degrees of success. You can also mix and match.
>Don't use the backspace/arrow keys (or your eraser) on first drafts. At all.
>Set a timer and write as much as possible within that time. Do this several times in a row and try to increase your word count each time (try your damnedest to avoid reading when you do the word count). I found that ten minutes was a good duration to start with, and as I got better at making my writing speed equal my typing speed over that period I increased the time to a half hour, then to an hour. Now I don't use a timer at all, because once I get in the flow it's easy for me to turn off the "you must edit" portion of my brain. Side note: don't feel bad about writing past the timer because you're on a roll. That's exactly what you want.
>Intentionally write shit. Seriously. Get your story on the page no matter how bad it is. Use the first word that comes to your head every time you need a verb or adjective. Lean into sentence clichés. Ignore typos. Don't try to be a genius with your first draft. It'll all get edited eventually, so there's no reason to sweat about quality right now. The point is to get your story on the page in whatever form. You can edit shit. You can't edit something that hasn't been written.
>See if you can find an app or website or whatever that only lets you see the line you're currently on. This will help you avoid looking up at the previous paragraph, noticing a typo or bad word choice or a misplaced comma, and getting distracted with editing.
And this is more general, and I'm not sure how it relates to the "just GO" problem, but it definitely helped me barrel through my first book:
>Eliminate distractions. Turn your internet off while you write. If you can avoid it, don't write in the same room as a TV, phone, or book. Lock your door. Don't write in public or in a shared living space. Don't give yourself access to food and drink until you've written for a designated time.
>>8094080
Couldn't have said it better myself.
>>8093865
The Hemingway tip is a great one. I personally think reading the previous day's work is a great way to get back into the flow, but of course your mileage may vary. Outlining and roleplaying your characters are also solid tips for making sure you don't get stuck.
>>8094191
Oh, also feel free to jump around in the story. There's no law that says books have to be written in the same order they're read, and if it helps your flow to take a break from scene X and jump into scene Y, do it. Speed is paramount. Getting your story on the page is paramount. Everything else is a roadblock.
>>8094080
I can easily imagine a book of four-page short stories
Why shouldn't he edit every four pages?
>>8088579
I've been doing this for about... oh, I'm going to say 7-8 years now
>>8095652
Did you read the thread like at all? He's not writing 4 page stories. He's writing 4 pages of a story and then editing, which discourages him from continuing.
>>8096243
Maybe he just needs to realize he isn't cut out for stories longer than 4 pages.
>>8097046
Undervalued advice. Not everyone is meant to write novels.
