General Writer's Block thread

How do you teach yourself to trust in your reader’s intelligence? Like introducing a new concept they haven’t heard of.

Experience, based on trial and error, is the key here. Basically you run your ideas past a group of beta readers and see how they react.

Context might also help. Having a more experienced character explaining these things to another character won't make it off like the audience is dumb for not knowing it.

Hey, I have a new story, read the prologue here on my Tumblr blog. I’ve got the first chapter coming soon, how does it look for now?

Sorry for the double post, but the first chapter is now up.

I hate those nights when I feel like what I'm writing is just rambling gobbledygook that's going nowhere. You feel me? Luckily this usually means that if I try again the next day from a different angle it turns out better, but it still sucks to feel like everything you're putting down is just blahhhh.

I'm not sure about my writing, but I do think that I've felt something similar in other art-forms. It is, as you say, never fun. :/

It happens to me depressingly often, but usually I force myself to soldier on, because I consider that bad writing is better than no writing, and that I will be able to fix this when editing (I usually leave a comment for warning future me about this). And while sometimes it feels as if I keep producing garbage, I have found that a lot of other times I end up finally finding my pace. And I have occasionally been surprised to discover when editing that something I had considered as absolute garbage written only to attain my daily word quota was quite good, while a part I was quite proud of was completely at odds with everything else.

I've found myself having to go through the stages of rewrite, nuke, Continuity Reboot, nuke.

I'm good (not great) at the creative part, average at the writing part and am trying to get better.

To be fair, I think my biggest issue last night was that I'm writing from a secondary character's POV for the first time in ages, and I got bogged down in repeating information the audience already knows because it's new to her, as well as just sort of aimlessly rambling on because I wasn't sure what to do. I think I have a stronger idea for her scene tonight.

Currently struggling with knowing what to write...well, the thing is, i have a list of episode ideas for my slice of life series, but i don't know what words to write. Plus, i don't really want to do it. Life is already tiring and dreadful as it is.

Plus, i don't know where i can publish or post the two episodes i already made...i mean, i could post it on AO 3 or FF.net, but nobody online reads original stories, they only read fanfiction. So i'm kinda stuck in the middle of nowhere and i don't know what to do...if only life had objectives, indications and tutorials like in video games...

Edited by kinnikuniverse on Apr 28th 2021 at 4:03:56 AM

>nobody online reads original stories, they only read fanfiction

That's not at all accurate; we've got a whole index of Web Serial Novels. You just need to find your audience — obviously that's easier with fanfic, but there's entire websites for posting original fiction. I would recommend fictionpress or scribblehub... mostly just cause those are the sites I know about. There might be better ones.

Have you been posting your original fic on fanfiction.net before now? It seems like it should be rather obvious that nobody goes to that site for original fiction, so it would follow that you don't get much attention there.

Edited by wingedcatgirl on Apr 28th 2021 at 3:05:24 AM

No, i've been posting it on AO 3. And it has a grand total of...1 view. I am not kidding.

Thing is, i don't even know if people would read my stuff. I mean, my story is essentially 19th century British Simpsons/slice of life. I don't really think people would find that interesting...

Edited by kinnikuniverse on Apr 28th 2021 at 4:33:09 AM

Well, again, people don't generally go to AO3 for original fic — it's allowed, but for that purpose, it's more useful as an archive than a publication site.

If you're getting your opinion on people's preference for fanfic vs original fic from AO3, you're getting a skewed perspective.

Yeah, i guess it is skewed. Still, i genuinely like the characters and storues i created, but i never do anything with them because i'm either too tired to do anything or i'm lazy. i also wished i had enough confidence in myself to write something, anything, really.

Maybe i should try planning my stories out in advance. And by that, i mean actually writing it down instead of thinking about something in my head, then it disappears after a couple of seconds.

God, I love it when I come across a story drafting breakthrough!

Basically, my Alternate History fiction, The Abominable Admiral (the one that I've mentioned several times both in this subforum and OTC subforum, particularly The Military Thread) chronicles the story of the very first Asian-American to enter the US Naval Academy, gruelly climbing up the ranks to ultimately reach the rank of an admiral and becomes one of the most feared fleet commanders during WWII.

The problem is, the story starts all the way from 1900s and there's almost 40 years before the climactic big war arc. If the MC was an army personnel, it would've been no problem but unfortunately the US Navy didn't play very exciting role during the WWI and basically saw zero combat actions.

So I've been wrecking my brain to figure out how to have the MC do something exciting during those periods that would also massively help his career...until I realized that there were US armed officers serving as fighter pilots under Britain's Royal Flying Corps, which had members from both US Army and the Navy. I could have him become one of the only naval ace pilots of WWI.

When I thought of that, I was like, "fucking EUREKA!"

That sets him up perfectly to be on one of the Air Craft Carriers during Pearl Harbor.

Phhhhhfffffffff

Goddamn it, DM. Now the inside of my mask is completely wet.

You're welcome

Is scribblehub a good place to post stuff?

Never worry about your stories not being perfect, fully-formed beings the moment they leap out of your mind and onto the page.

Case in point: I'm a professional writer. I've been banging my head against a wall over the narrative logistics of killing one character (a resourceful team sidekick who I initially wrote in to be killed off, but has since gained a life of their own) and tormenting another to madness (the protagonist's mentor figure). There's some cool stuff I have planned based on that, but it just doesn't Feel Right yet. The sidekick doesn't really get a chance to shine, and I've held back the mentor with my expectations for their arc.

Cut to this morning when it finally clicks: Switch the two characters. Killing the mentor allows them to be their fully badass self, and torturing the resourceful sidekick allows them to become a villain — both of which are things I was afraid to do when their fates were reversed. Plus, this one simple change frees up the protagonist for some more intense personal drama (which they're already dealing with, but this heightens it) and it motivates the rest of the team in their own unique, individual ways. Basically, this all helps the story way more than the old plan.

In other words: Don't be afraid to kill your darlings. Even pros struggle with this sometimes.

I'm paradoxically too nice and too mean to my characters. I'll torture them all day long but I also feel genuinely bad when I go too far. Like, I latch onto them too much and feel bad about things, so I both love and hate writing painful scenes even though they're usually really necessary.

So I’ve got a standard superheroic setting (Astro City a huge influence). We’ve got a five-hero crew, brought together by a veteran hero.

The team isn’t composed of clueless rookies; on average, they’ve got about 4-7 years of experience in uniforms.

They’re not at perfect “well-oiled machine” levels when it comes to teamwork, but they’re not constantly making rookie/Season 1 mistakes either. What would be a decent amount of time for them to have been working together? (Or to use a television analogy, what “season” would be an appropriate point?)

6 months to a year, if they spent it in full time, intensive training. Longer, otherwise.

I had this posted elsewhere but wanted to try this thread as well:

I'm writing a story where the main character, a child, loses both of their parents and both parents lived in a wealthy estate in New York City. Does anybody know what would become of the child legally in that scenario?

Do they/can they inherit the estate with or without will? Do New York City laws prevent them from living alone, or do they receive some kind of attendant, or are they forced to relocate to a foster home with the inheritance coming to them at a certain age?

Lastly, what would happen if the child went missing. What bureau/agency would be responsible for locating said child?