#i remember joining tumblr again like 'damn look at these cool writers. im not one tho'

[bramlouisgreenfeld]

Tips for disencouraged writers 😿??

gosh i can’t believe people are asking me for writing advice given i haven’t written in like 30 years but

the first tip is that everyone has lapses in encouragement. you’re never going to love everything you write. sometimes your idea doesn’t work out, or it’s not as good as you imagined it, or someone else has done it better, or you can’t get it to go, or or or... there’s a million ways it can go wrong. losing the thread or not being successful super easily isn’t failure. the best thing is to keep trying until it does start to work. take any progress as good and build off it. (for instance, i have never written a full length story in my life, but my short stories have gone from ~1000 words to over 10k... progress!!)

and you can find encouragement in lots of different ways. from your passion for great stories - the fact that you have no way of experiencing this story except to write it - validation from friends/strangers on the internet/classmates - the reward of an increasing word count - the reward of doing something productive and creating something from nothing like a GOD - just, you know, the little things.

also, start with something easy. beginnings aren’t easy. but you know what is? that one scene you’ve been imagining since you first got the idea. that one great scene that’s gonna be so rewarding to write as soon as you get to it. spoiler alert: you don’t have to wait! use it as a writing exercise to get back into the swing of things and remind you of the joys of writing. you can always change it later - that just means you get to write it again!!!!!!!

all my advice i guess pretty much boils down to write anyway. it’s either that, or take a serious break. reading helps your writing. watching tv and movies helps your writing. engage in other people’s writing and think about what you like and don’t like, and when you come back to writing, it’ll be so much better. i promise this as someone who stopped writing entirely for multiple years to focus on school, then school stressed me out so much that i suddenly remembered that i really liked writing and- hey look ma i’m now planning on writing a book. so.

hope this helps