#ralu-xxa

[duffmckagans]

love ur writing (truly) n i’ve also kind of been wanting to get into it recently. this may seem like a really stupid question, bc it is lol, but like, how do u just.. do it? like make everything flow so organically, humanize the characters etc. if u have some tips to share i’d be grateful 🫶🏻

omg, thanks!! that means a lot, considering i haven't shared anything online for over a year now <3.

i don't think this is a stupid question at all! i don't know how qualified i am to answer, either. yay on wanting to get into writing, first of all! but i would disregard all writing advice for the most part until you find something you're really passionate about writing. fanfiction or original, no amount of advice and/or technique is worth a dime if your heart isn't in it. i saw this with some of my later work on the fic until i dropped off, where it was just clunky and eh (while technically "better" than anything that came before) just because i wasn't do it with the same amount of passion that i started with!

my first word of advice is to just do it, though. once you find something, just do it. writing, especially if you're just starting out, is not meant to be good, let alone great or revolutionary. you want to write, then you put words to a page, and that's that. find your story, build your characters, sketch your scenes, and write it all out with no thought for quality or cohesiveness. all of that, believe it or not, is the fun part. not easy, no, but certainly fun. you kind of just have to sit down at your computer and go at it, sort of in a trial/error sense. it may not click until it does, but once it does, you'll never want to stop.

i feel like my biggest advice, particularly on flow of plot, is to just plan. some people are natural pantsers and do better connecting dots as they go, but i'm not one of them and never have been, so i can't really speak on the merits of that method. i can say that planning the entirety of a work (not necessarily a whole series) (though it's always good to have a roadmap) is absolutely necessary if you don't plan on doing several drafts. but even for my original works, where i will draft several times, i swear by knowing every step of the way before you get there on the first round. it leaves you with less of a mess at the end. for the fic, i used to plan in patches (5-10 chapters at a time with the exception of major bullet points) due to the length, but it never spares you from plot-holes/abandoned threads/under-developed bits in some places and over-developed things in others. so for a nice flow on a larger story-sense, planning in advance and making outlines--as detailed or as not-detailed--as you please should be your saving grace. there's no rule about following it exactly, and i myself have swerved off an outline many a times whilst writing, but it's necessary to me to at least get off the ground, and to sometimes drive a book through its home-stretch.

in terms of flowing prose-wise? that's a lot more subjective? and it's a constant game of improvement. i'm in the process of rewriting things i first wrote 4.5 years ago now, and there's so much of it that i have to glaze over while i rework because it's just so unbelievably bad. so long-winded, so melodramatic, or just generally unfitting/improperly toned. it took until i wrote a novel with a stiff word count limit that i learned how to be concise and mean what i say/say what i mean, but it's been to nothing but my own benefit. my prose has definitely become more subtle and less animated as time has gone on, as well, and i say this positively. every writer is going to start out with doing Too Much, and it may make paragraphs connect in strange ways, or dialogue feel unfitting for the moment, or just too much/too little detail in certain places, but that's the fun part of writing, or growing as a writer: learning how to spot those weaker areas and mend them. you'll find your style with time, the types of figurative language you like to rely on, the things (niche or not) that you like to write about, and it will make you a "better writer," but don't discount anything you do in the beginning. after all, it will get you to some end.

on characters, that's also largely subjective. everybody has different aspects of characters that they'll wish to focus on, and whether people are interested in those same aspects is usually what will have them referred to as well-fleshed out or not. people are never objective in their evaluation of something, i mean to say. the second step is to read other people's works/watch films, etc. witness the work other people do in order to make their own characters well-rounded, pull it apart, see how it works, and implement it yourself in your own characters. all writers learn from other writers or art-makers; nobody is whole-heartedly original. for instance, i've gotten really into pinterest lately (again) and building visual storyboards, and that actually helps me humanize my characters--painting pictures that aid their aesthetics, motives, inner turmoil, etc. the amount of things i pull from just pictures is large. (example) in general, i think creating a whole profile of influences for any given thing you work on is a must. find movies, music, art, pictures, books, people, etc, and see where they can lead you!

i think it's always great to share your writing with other people, as well! daunting, but true. one thing about writing is that it becomes a really lonely, isolating hobby very quickly if you don't do this. spending all those hours cooped up with nothing but your own thoughts inside your own world, while fun and at times mentally-stimulating, is not social. plus, like, i think every writer loves feedback; just knowing their work was read, thought on, and capable of evoking of some sort of emotional reaction. giving other people your work is also a great way to improve because they'll give you criticism, good or bad. they'll tell you where you excel/where you don't, and maybe give feedback/suggestions on how to fix the latter. they may say you can better tweak your prose this way, or the character may feel more gripping/the setting more immersive/the plot more believable, if ... xyz. there's only so far you can get on any given piece before that need for a second set of eyes sets in, and what other people have to say--if it's fair and well-articulated--can be invaluable.

i'm trying to think if there's anything else i have, and...not off the top of my head? again, i'm not an expert. i have nothing published. i keep neglecting my original work to write fanfic. but i welcome questions anyway, and if you have anything more specific or if there's something you'd like me to expand on, let me know!