{ ＩＮＫＬＩＮＧＳ v.4 } A Thread For Writers

[Pyjaks]

The only effective "cure" I've ever found for writers block is to just ignore it. Write even if you aren't enjoying it or feeling like it's any good. If you just wait for writers block to pass you could be waiting for months, like you said. Writers block works hard but you just gotta work harder ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Koráki]

The only effective "cure" I've ever found for writers block is to just ignore it. Write even if you aren't enjoying it or feeling like it's any good. If you just wait for writers block to pass you could be waiting for months, like you said. Writers block works hard but you just gotta work harder ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Honestly, this is the only thing that works for me. Just working past it, OR reading. Reading other people's writing, or even rereading some of my favorite books can help with writer's block.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

For me I think there's a difference between being burnt out and blocked. Burnt out means I've been working too hard and need to take a break and go sleep or do something else, but blocked means I need to keep working until I get past it.

[beebopbee]

The only effective "cure" I've ever found for writers block is to just ignore it. Write even if you aren't enjoying it or feeling like it's any good. If you just wait for writers block to pass you could be waiting for months, like you said. Writers block works hard but you just gotta work harder ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i'm assuming because the forms are auto'd i may post here? anyway:
i struggle with writers block loads, but i agree that if you are writing, atleast you are writing something, y'know?
i personally think writing something is better than nothing, and if it really bothers you, just delete it or rip it out
of your journal.

[Kira Nightblade]

What genre do you guys prefer writing in?
I really love Fantasy just bc all the mystical and magic creatures and stuff idk XD

[blackbird.]

What genre do you guys prefer writing in?
I really love Fantasy just bc all the mystical and magic creatures and stuff idk XD

i love reading fantasy and sci-fi
but usually i do realistic/slice of life/romance stuff
it's so cool that you can write fantasy though!
i always struggle with writing that genre
so i figured it's just not meant for me

[rutilant]

What genre do you guys prefer writing in?
I really love Fantasy just bc all the mystical and magic creatures and stuff idk XD

i love to write romance, but i'm really trying to get more into other genres and expand with stuff out of my current comfort zone. normally everything i do is realistic, so i'm definitely trying to write some more fantasy/sci-fi stories in the future. i just fear, i guess, that people would think my stories are extremely strange since i enjoy sharing them with my friends and teachers. i noticed that i'm pretty uncreative when given plots or a story i have to stick to by other people and go a boring way, so i definitely would like to improve on that also solely for school.

i had to write a story for my english class recently on a picture of a sculpture to tell us the backstory behind it. (basically, come up with whatever the heck you want) it was with a group of people i was mostly comfortable with and i feel as though it was actually an entertaining process and idea? i kind of want to do that more. look at a piece of art and write a backstory behind it or whatever i feel is going on in the picture. anyway, there was 4 people in our group including me, and originally i wasn't supposed to write it. however, the person that was, didn't end up writing it by the time it was due, so i took in and wrote it in about 30 minutes during the period before english. it was 3 pages long (in size 12 font) and i was actually super impressed with what i came up with! i'd totally share, but i feel as though it goes to a bit of a dark route? :') (feel free to pm me if you want to actually read it tho & you're okay with a little violence i suppose?) but ahh, after i was done everyone was complimenting me. i was overwhelmed yet literally super happy.

another thing on the topic of writer's block, i get it quite a lot because i don't think my work is ever good enough. even when it came to the story that everyone was complimenting me on, i originally thought it was trash until i had a lot of people reassuring me telling me that it was super good. i get unmotivated to write because i don't think i'm good, which is super bad to do, because if i don't write i realize i can't improve. i just can't help it skskgh. i feel as though i always need someone there to tell me that i'm an okay writer and i shouldn't have to dwell on such little things. it sucks. if anyone has any tips on maybe how to resolve this issue with myself, it'd be appreciated because i think maybe quite a few writers have gone through this themselves?

[Uchuujin]

I've never posted here before, but I have a question. How do you guys decide how to break up (or not break up) your story?

Clearly the obvious answer is chapters, but a lot of really fantastic literature, even some very long ones, are told without being broken up into real chapters at all. Sometimes authors will just have shifts in the scenes, or maybe much longer "books" or "acts" within the story.

I'm kind of in a bind right now, because one story that I have written was meant to be just a long one-shot, but it ended up being much, much longer than I had planned. It's not like full novel length, but it's really more novella length, like 40k or 50k words. It's already completed but I'm still doing some final editing which is why I don't have an exact word count yet. I suppose it's important to note that it is a fanfic. So my plan is to upload it online, likely on AO3. But because it ended up much longer than I planned, I'm really unsure of HOW to upload it. I really have 3 options, I guess.

1) Upload it the way it was written, as a long one-shot that is broken up by scene shifts but still presented as one "chapter". I like this option the best, because it affects pacing the least, however I'm not sure what most people feel about not having chapters to help organize their reading, especially when it comes to stuff posted online where you can't just throw a bookmark into the pages. 40k or 50k words is a LOT for one sitting.

2) Divide it into chapters based on the scene changes and upload each chapter. I normally do this, but in most situations I go into the project knowing it will be a chaptered story and so I pace myself accordingly, allowing for chapters of roughly the same length and with similar weight of content. This option allows people to leave the story and come back easily without struggling to find their place. However, since this was never meant to be a chaptered story, some of the scenes are very, very small, especially in comparison to other scenes. So just... for example oh here's the big climactic chapter that's many thousands of words long, but then the scene right after it might be just 5 or 6 paragraphs of character dialogue or something. I am afraid that uploading it as chapters might make the pace feel uneven and jarring.

3) Upload it in two chapters as a sort of... before "X" event and after "X" event kind of thing. I suppose this is good middle ground, but the two chapters would still be very long and the first chapter of before "X" event would be quite a bit longer than the second one, which again, I'm afraid would make the pacing seem strange.

Can you guys help me? What would you do in my position? And as readers, what would make the story most enjoyable for you?

I know it's silly to waste so much time worrying about this, since it's only fanfiction, but I'm seriously at such a loss about what to do.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

I personally favor the method of breaking it up via scene changes, 40/50k words is a lot to have withought breaking up and if someone didn't have time to read it all it could be frustrating to have to keep scrolling down to find their place. With the smaller scenes you could add several of them together in a chapter and break them up with spaces or if it's a little scene between two large ones it wouldn't be terrible to have it on it's own, might bring a little variety into the pacing.
May I ask what fandom it's for?

[Ranger of the North]

I agree with the breaking it up by scene ^-^ Personally, though, having chapters of differing lengths actually kinda makes it more interesting to me? Like you never know what you're gonna get, whether it's going to be a long, slow, chew-it chapter, or the skippy kind that you read through in a few sentences c:


I wrote a smol thing that I'm pretty happy with earlier today!