Remember: if finishing a draft seems hard… that’s actually the easy part.
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Getting words written is more important than getting them right.
But if you have to fight your own brain, and spend a lot of extra energy trying to write without editing, it might be better to just allow yourself to perfect things as you go.
Generally, we are all different, and different processes will naturally fit each person, so don’t take any piece of advise as gospel.
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Read and play a wide variety of genres and learn what works and what doesn’t in the games you play or books you read - whether you liked them or not, you’ll learn something.
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Write what you like writing.
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This basically boils down to what sort of advice would be applicable for everybody. Which is…
Be yourself. Write in your own style, for every other style has already been taken. You know yourself best, so write in a style that best suits your strengths. If you try emulating the styles of others, you’ll only fall flat. There’s no other style that you can do best, but your own. There is no perfect style either.
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The reason that your writing can feel more dry and less interesting than that of others is that you can see all the construction lines.
If you find yourself reading older work and finding issues/errors, or things you would have done differently, it doesn’t mean the writing is bad or that you’re a bad writer… it means that you’re improving.
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This is such a common thing with graphical/visual art. New aspiring artists getting hung up on developing a style, and trying to figure out what the ‘trick’ to it is.
There is no trick. Style is something that naturally develops as you make art of all kinds, as you try different things, and figure out what you like to make.
It probably won’t look like a style to you, it will just be the choices you made and the things you like. But from the outside, it will be your personal, distinct style.
And I think that goes for any creative endeavor.
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A bit of a different thing:
Anyone got any tips for how to write options for the MC not being understanding, when someone who has unintentionally hurt them in the past expresses remorse?
I find it frustratingly difficult, because I purposefully gave the NPC understandable reasons, and it’s situations where the MC can naturally be understanding. So I find it really difficult to put myself in the shoes of holding a grudge or just being shitty about it, and have trouble writing it convincingly.
How does one do that?
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I think it’s very human to not feel forgiveness if someone hurt you, even if you can understand how it led to that point. The PC could feel frustrated with themselves about the NPC having a “reasonable” reason and lash out at them; they could be dwelling on the hurt that happened; perhaps they could still feel angry or betrayed if the events made them see the NPC in another light after trusting them before. Or they could simply be feeling like they can’t afford to be vulnerable with the person. Perhaps focusing in on the harm that was done to the PC, rather than the reasons behind it, might help with getting into the frame of mind for bearing the grudge.
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I have exactly the opposite problem I am a person who tends to write vengeful characters so characters that are so empathetic with people who wronged them are something I hate to write and play.
If someone hurts and cheats on the mc; you should focus on the feelings and the betrayal the PC felt. And how that pain is still there instead of focusing on the reasons of the attacker
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If it’s something seriously bad, I don’t have a problem writing the MC being angry.
That makes sense to me.
I guess it’s a question of temperament? I personally make a virtue of trying my best to be understanding and forgiving as much as possible, until the point where I feel things are unforgivable, after which I just want nothing to do with the person. But even then, I try to at least be civil, if I’m forced to interact.
I guess my anger burns more cold than hot.
@HarrisPS thank you for the suggestions! Focusing on the hurt is probably what works best for me, but I also want to allow the reader to react more outwards, at least in most situations, and those reactions always seem so… extreme and over-the-top to me, I guess?
What I’m trying to do right now is having the narrative kinda back up whatever feeling the reader chooses, to reflect that it is the reality that MC is experiencing, which I think is helping it feel more ‘real’ to me.
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What about taking a “tone-deaf” approach?
With a tone-deaf reaction the reader can be unable to appreciate or understand the concerns or difficulties of others; in other words out-of-touch of any understandable reasons.
This can be nuanced in different directions as your narrative unfolds as well, to give the reader future choices as to the origins and/or depth of that tone-deafness.
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If you could give a new writer one piece of advise what would that be?
Stories are about people. Never forget the people.
I think that’s the one that is often forgotten about among the other important ones: you must write and finish it, editing is as much part of the process as the first draft, fall in love with every character and see the world from their point of view, even the awful ones, read more than you write, never forget your own voice, remember Kipling’s six honest serving men: who, what, why, where, when, how)…
But all writing is about people. Even when it isn’t. Especially when it isn’t.
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“You had your reasons, I get it. And next time you have reasons, you’d hurt me again. No thanks.”
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Maybe something along the lines of “Sure, I know why you did it, I just don’t care about the why. You did what you did, your reasons and intentions are irrelevant. You screwed me over/hurt me/whatever, why you did it doesn’t matter, what matters is that you did it.”
Idk what the “it” would be in this case, but that’s sort of how I’d go about it.
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Copy something else you’re interested/passionate about and go from there. There is almost nothing someone can come up with that is an entirely original idea in today’s day and age since so many things have already been made. What sets stories apart is how they’re told. I took Wayhaven, Criminal Minds, and Umbrella Academy and smashed them all together. I essentially started by copying all three of those, and eventually, after enough time writing, it became something that could stand on its own.
An immeasurable amount of great stories have a base foundation of imitation. I say if someone is aware of that, they can lean into it as a crutch for as long as they need to make the process easier.
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Just be aware that you can also have people thinking you’ve copied another game. I found out that some people have thought UnNatural was copying Wayhaven despite it being released before that.
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If someone came up and said that to me, my exact answer would be, “You’re absolutely right. Wayhaven was a primary starting foundation for my game. Just like Twilight was a starting foundation for Wayhaven.”
Or, if someone was saying that to someone who didn’t take inspiration from Wayhaven, you could say, “My book is most certainly a supernatural detective story, just like Wayhaven. And The X-Files. And Supernatural. And The Dresden Files. And Bright.”
Everything is a copy of something, even if subconsciously influenced by our intake of certain types of media. Kingdoms and Empires is, from my understanding, an isekai “Game of Thrones”. Vendetta is reminiscent of “The Boys”. Sherlock Holmes: An Affair of the Heart is- okay that one’s self-explanatory. You get the point though. The fact those works, or any others, are spurred on by existing stories throughout media doesn’t make them any less astounding (Not saying you’re saying that, just in response to this hypothetical person).
Here’s another one for you; man in a zombie apocalypse who has lost everything has a single companion to help keep him in check and works through the story to secure a cure for humanity. Along the way, he meets other characters that also help maintain that hope in humanity and the future of mankind.
Was that a synopsis of “The Last of Us” or “I Am Legend”? Same basic concepts told with entirely different story beats. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my Animal Science major that I think applies here it’s this:
Everything comes from something.
I guess i could see that viewpoint. I just think taking inspiration from as a phrase is now used by people who just want a less negatively connotated way of saying the word “copied”. So I think either way, at least readers, will end up complaining about the same thing. But i see your point. People do tend to think it’s a bad thing. I just think it’s more productive to correct them on it rather than come up with new ways of saying the same thing. That’s how i see it, at least.
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I think you’re right, but I don’t think “copy” is the right word to use. It has negative connotations, even if it isn’t negative in this circumstance. And I just don’t think copy is a super accurate way to describe it. I think “inspiration” is a better word to use. “I was inspired by Twilight to write a YA vampire story” or “I was inspired by Lord of the Rings to write an epic fantasy” or “I like Enemies to Lovers, so I was inspired to write my own.”
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Being inspired by something and copying something does have different connotations.
For example having UnNatural being called a “Wayhaven Clone” despite being released first. Personally I just found it funny but a newer writer might not take it as well.
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