You know. Reading is important. Because I’m like always trying to make every line I write this groundbreaking mindfucking art but like. A book is 90% just saying what happened. “I hugged him around the waist.” “The chair was brown and overstuffed.” “I woke up alone.” Etc etc. Like normal ass lines. I just keep comparing my boring, necessary to set a scene lines, with famous authors’ absolute best lines and like…. every line doesn’t have to shatter the earth. Sometimes someone just sits in a chair and the lines that wreck you come later, one at a time, here and there. It’s alright.
This is super common and I wish we were taught when we begin to write that those quoted lines are also in a sea of the same sort of setup we obsess over not being ‘good enough’. I saw multiple people drop out of writing courses over this in college. Sure, sometimes you need a better way to describe something prevalent or to pinpoint an emotion, but if EVERYTHING was written in that sort of tone for a whole book it would prove utterly exhausting to read.
Also, if every single line in the book was hard-hitting and mindblowing, then it wouldn’t be memorable because it would be drowned out.
She stayed outside for a long time. When at last she sought her own bed, wet and chilled, only the dim glow of a peat fire lit the darkened hall. There was no sound from above. The young singer sat in a corner, playing a slow song to himself. One of her aunt’s maids was kissing a knight in Lord Petyr’s chair, their hands busy beneath each other’s clothing. Several men had drunk themselves to sleep, and one was in the privy, being noisily sick. Sansa found Bryen’s old blind dog in her little alcove beneath the steps, and lay down next to him. He woke and licked her face. “You sad old hound,” she said, ruffling his fur.
the guardians are what you bitches in 2012 wanted the avengers to be (living happily together as a family in avengers tower playing board games together)
it’s okay to stray from your story. go write that short fic you can’t take your mind off of! give you—and your characters—a break.
you! won’t! always! make! your! word! count! – you don’t need to keep stretching sentences because the scene you finally got right is a hundred words too short. sometimes it’s better that way.
the “rules” and “tips” are just ~guidelines~ (especially for people who like to swear by them) – writing has no laws. especially first drafts. scrap the grammar, scrap the emotional tips, write it because it feels right, not because someone else says so.
every writer procrastinates. it’s not easy being a writer.
take time off for yourself. the only thing harder than writing a story is to keep pushing it when you need a break the most. come back to it later. I promise there will be no dumpster fires when you’re gone.
all writing is “real” writing. I don’t think there’s an explanation here?? fiction writers are writers. nonfiction writers are writers. fanfic writers are writers. (like how all reading is real reading!! in every format, too!)
it doesn’t need to be perfect. honestly, it might never be. but it can be really close to it. if you’re not satisfied with it, move on and come back when you’re ready.
you are just as skilled as any bestselling author. remember that everything you read has been heavily edited by teams of people! their first draft could not even be as good as yours is now.
not using clichés is cliché. you will find one in any story. no one can bring you down for liking a certain trope. just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s bad!
no writer is fully well-rounded. dialogue will be easier to write for some, and description for others.
and, finally, no one knows what they’re doing. trust me. we’re all stumbling around blind here.
