#instant improvement

[the-wip-project]

SloMo WriNo: Instantly Improve Your Writing With One Simple Trick

Want to make your writing instantly better?

Don’t we all?

Promising instant improvement is an easy way to hook eyes, (I’m sort of sorry for click-baiting you— but not too much.) so a lot of writing advice is framed that way.

But is it actually possible?

Generally the advice on those types of posts isn’t anything revolutionary. You’re told to eliminate adverbs/filter words/telling. Or perhaps the advice is additive. You should start using all 5 (or even 6?) senses in every description, do or don’t use certain tenses or povs, change up sentence lengths, use more paragraph breaks, and so it goes.

It’s (usually) all useful advice, especially when applied in moderation. (No one will come and shoot you for occasionally using suddenly or summarizing a scene instead of showing every detail.)

The issues is that a lot of writers (especially beginner writers) are seeking some sort of magic bullet. That one trick that will change everything and magically make you good. (never mind that ‘good’ is far more nebulous and subjective than anyone wants to admit.)

Sadly, once you get beyond learning things like punctuation and when to insert paragraph breaks, there’s not really any single technique that you can quickly apply and immediately lift the quality of your writing.

For the rest, it really takes time. Even if the advice is good, you need to learn when and how to apply it.

As such, there’s only one technique that will definitely make your writing better.

Practice.

Yeah. So boring. The least sexy piece of writing advice. Write more.

But it’s also the simplest. (Not always the easiest, but definitely the simplest!) Writing is not mystic or singular. It’s just like any other art or craft. The only way you get good is by spending time at it. And just like anything else, you’re going to be bad before you can start to get good.

You would never expect to become an accomplished guitarist by spending lots of time listening to and thinking about music, while almost never picking up your instrument to practice. And you will not become a good writer without practicing the action of writing.

It’s a comforting idea that gets bandied around at times, that writing isn’t just fingers on the keys or pen on paper. That it’s thinking and daydreaming and making mood boards etc. While those writing adjacent things are fun and undoubtedly can help you write, they are not writing. They are not practice.

Spending your time doing those things instead of writing do not make you a better writer, and obviously they don’t finish your novel or writing project.

Which is my goal here. To help you finish your project. As such I spend very little time on dispensing advice on plot or prose, and focus mostly on the process of writing.

That’s not to say that I don’t think you should spend time on learning how to write better prose, or how to create compelling characters and plot, those things are important! But if attempting to learn that stuff gets in the way of practice, then it’s counterproductive.

So don’t let the writing advice become the focus of your writing. Apply advice slowly, and don’t overwhelm yourself with trying to fix all your perceived faults at once. (I still have a difficult relationship with punctuation, but I’m learning. Slowly.) If you can, focus on techniques that interest you. Keep things low pressure— fun even?

Yes you want your work to be as good as possible, but also, you’re doing this writing thing because you enjoy it, right? So don’t allow the pressure to be good to stop you from having fun. If trying to apply a certain piece of writing advice is making you miserable, toss it aside. It’s either bad advice, or it’s not the right time for you to worry about it. Above all, avoid anything that kills your joy and makes writing a miserable chore.

So I guess this is my one piece of advice that will improve your writing (process) instantly.

Enjoy yourself, and ditch anything that ruins that joy. You’ll get better at your own pace, as long as you keep writing.

—Maree

Subscribe to my substack to make sure you don't miss a post, chat with me on the WIP Project discord, and tag any posts you make about the challenge with #slomowrino if you want me to see them!

[krafterwrites]

Just drank a lot of milk because I heard it had electrolytes in it and ooooohhhhh I know why they call them electrolytes now. Doctor fucking Frankenstein just pulled that lever and zapped my weak body back to life

[paradoxical-machine]

Pretty sure I've said this before but vrchat is gender affirming care

[implantart]

Ideal candidates for no-prep veneers have healthy teeth, minor cosmetic concerns, and prefer minimal alteration.

[a-loose-collection-of-ants]

[batsylabs]

lil bat ooooooouh soft lil bat in the hand ohh soft lil tiny bitty bat gripping him ooooh oh holidng the small lil soft lil bat oooh lil soft tiny bat ooh so soft look at little bat ooh itty bitty bat oooooouuh oh so holdable in your hand ohh soft bat ohhh so soft sweet lil bat ohh grab the lil tiny lil bat oohh look hes so small in the hand lil bat ooooouhhh tiny bat

[wolfsbane-if]

Did you ever think about using AIs like GPT, Claude, Gemini (all free) to help you in writing your book? They could help you in writing a scene, for example.

No, never. And I never will.

Even if I could somehow guarantee the training data used by the program was sourced ethically, the whole point of writing is that I'm telling my story. I may be taking forever to finish it, but I can at least stand by the fact that this is wholly my work and every element has been carefully crafted with artistic vision and intent - something computers lack. I think that to do otherwise would be a disservice to both myself and the overall work.

[milkiie]

the reason manifesting and shifting take practice is not that you are not capable of manifesting/shifting right now

it is because your subconscious mind is always trying to protect you and that, in this case, means putting up resistance

practicing isn't about honing your skill here - you are already a master - its about slowly and gently coaxing your subconscious into relaxing and letting it happen, like a scared little fawn

[mlentertainment]

I’m glad it wasn’t just my brain going BRRRRR during Mother May I 🙃

bro i've answered this ask four times and it won't let me aGREE WITH YOU. MOMMY ISSUES MOVIE GOES HARD IN THE PAINT. THEY SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN UNETHICAL WITH IT!!!!!!!!

[shi0n]

listen to uragoi hanabi right now. song of the year

[fortune-maiden]

Well when you put it like that....

[teddytoroa]

i try to avoid pretension bc people who are smug about dumb shit make me mad but i do feel good about having no spotify no netflix no disney plus no streaming services other than tvnz on demand (completely free) and arovision (supports the last remaining film library in aotearoa) and the dvds/cds at the public library and when i listen to music its almost always on cds on my discman or albums ive bought off bandcamp. if i have to i listen to music on youtube but my adblocker is good so i never get ads. and i literally never feel like im missing out on anything and i save so much money and the money i do spend is going straight to libraries and individual artists and the occasional opshop. like idk man people seem to be very reliant on slop websites charging them increasingly high fees to feed them more and more ads and i simply do not experience this and i want you to know that its actually very possible for YOU to experience peace serenity and more money in the bank as well. its not even hard. take my hand🖐️ come with me the wonderful world of not giving money to billionaires and never watching another ad again in your life

[thevegetablewhichnoonedaresname]

i unraveled half a dishcloth about 3 times because i was having a toxic man-refusing-to-ask-for-directions moment and kept telling myself "nah you've knit stacks of these and it's literally the easiest pattern" and ignoring the fact that i've been crocheting for 3-4 years and could really spare 5 seconds to google a pattern as a refresher

[huellitaa]

[loadreams]

Hi babes, I’m starting this self confidence and law of assumption acc on tiktok! Follow me for more🩷

@myworldmadelaine is the name

@wishfulfilled @reverieaa @realifebarbie @iivenusii @itsravenbitch @princessofangiemania @arabella111 @stxr-kill @sirensplayhouse @sparklingself @starnightlover @sutheworld @godofmanifesting @gorgeouslypink @lavender--fairy @littlemissprettyprincess @cinefairy @celestial-heartbeat @voidsuccessarchive @venchyl @voidsuccess @vesora @blushydior @neobora @nakedbibi333 @mysticbewitched

[irenespring]

Due to so many people's lovely comments on "Experiment," I am tentatively planning on writing House's parents' visit, featuring Wilson plotting war (and having no idea how to be aggressive after years of being a people-pleaser and endlessly patient) and House being in love with Wilson + letting his father see it, culminating in Scary Immunology Intern's party, and the (targeted) armageddon she plans to unleash.

Once again, I am intending for it to be shorter than previous projects (hahaha I have no control over how long it will be, The Fic will decide).

Once again, I can't make any promises regarding timeline of writing because the semester starting and the trials and tribulations of being on the spectrum mean my ability to write daily may vary.

Also I would like to reiterate how grateful I am to the people who left comments either on AO3 or in the reblogs of the Tumblr post. It really makes my week and is an extremely powerful motivator to write! I am still struggling with how to not sound stilted and overly formal online but thank you all so much. And please continue if you feel like you can/you liked the story!