#my second word of advice for writers is to hyperfixate on something else and each blow will make you shrug and go write porn.

[astramachina]

if there is one piece of advice that i could offer writers that aspire to get traditionally published, is that when people say the industry is wholly subjective, they are 100% correct and coming to terms with this is the difference between continuing on and just breaking.

whenever i'm not getting automated rejection messages, agents who actually take the time to explain why they're passing on the manuscript (a HUGE rarity but i've been lucky this round) makes you realize real quick that it really does boil down to "actually, i just didn't vibe with it".

i keep seesawing between wanting to scrap or keep my opening chapters, and so far it's been pretty 50/50 between there's too much going on, and, there's not enough going on on most of these rejections.

the most bewildering comment i've gotten so far was that there wasn't enough worldbuilding in the opening chapters. not enough worldbuilding. in a horror novel. a contemporary horror novel. something that goes against every standard regardless of genre.

like, zoinks scoob. it's all good. i'm confused, but we're chill about it.

[chihirolovebot]

HELLO! Okay, first, just finished reading the new chapter of Sleep Awake and AAA, I loved it so so so much! HONESTLY HOW DO YOU THIS? Congrats so so much on everything!!! Happy anniversary, and to many more!

Second, ahem- so I feel awkward asking questions like this… but I honestly was kinda wondering if you have advice for writers…? Not specific advice I guess, but just tips for how to actually stay motivated and focused to write, how to make things not seem rushed, how to plan things, idk, anything. You’re just so good at writing and I have nobody else to ask (lol imagine having no friends 😀).

Enjoy your day and rest easy, you deserve it. :)

-Aiko

AHHH thank u so much!! im very happy u enjoyed!!

the truth is, a lot of my motivation comes from my adhd and the fact that i hyperfixate on stuff. when i started sleep awake, i didn't have any kind of schedule or even really a plan — my updates in the beginning were extremely frequent because i had a few goals in mind that i wanted to get to. now it's a lot more like planning a real story with arcs and an independent plot, which is why updates are much less frequent. motivation has just never really been an issue with me — but i have struggled with motivation on a lot of my other works, so i get what you mean.

for me, i stick with sleep awake because i just love it. i think it's good to have a few solid ideas to base a story around — a specific scene or plot point you want to get to, something to build the story around. maybe you want a conversation between two characters, or you want character a to do something to character b and character c to find out about it. stuff like that really kept me going and made filling out the gaps in between te scenes i want a lot easier.

i can't stress this enough — plan your story!! it can be as detailed or nondescript as you like, but at least make a skeleton. in this plan, PUT IN THE SCENES YOU WANT TO WRITE!! stuff that motivates you!! and then fill in the gaps. that's the way i do it and it's what works for me. chapter 3 of the game specifically took a lotttt of planning because it's so canon-divergent - i remember i had to write out the whole murder scene, a plan for the trial, the truth bullets. planning stuff out like this also helps immensely with setting things up so they don't seem rushed!!

i try to sort of separate my story into 'segments', aka the chapters of the game, with each segment having a different role and arc for the reader. this way i can set up what their goal is going to be ahead of time — take the reader being suspected of rantaro's murder, for example. i made a plan for this to happen around when i was writing the fourth or fifth chapter of the story, so i could begin setting up the events that would lead everyone to the conclusion of suspecting the reader (like having miu send them to the warehouse where the shotput balls are, having shuichi think they overhead him and kaede's plan to catch the mastermind, a lot of little details that ended up making them look super guilty in the trial).

planning is super essential and i am Not a writer who plans. ever. i literally didn't make a plan for this story until like chapter five. now i do it before every chapter — i establish what the reader's arc will be this chapter, how it differs and grows from the last one, how their relationships with each character will change. knowing your plot points ahead of writing them gives you so much time to set them up so they conclude satisfyingly!!

WHEW okay this got. incredibly long and most of it is word-vomit but i hope it helped a little!! and remember what works for me may not work for you. BUT i wish u a lot of luck in ur writing, and i hope this could be of some help?? at all??

i hope u have a good day too!! rest ur mind and eat well and drink water <33