A Letter To Creatives Not Creating…

Guide: How to Get Excited About Your Story Again

Anonymous asked: Hi! I’m really deep in my stor-stor now and I love it, but sometimes things get a little too big and overwhelming and I need to remind myself what I love about the story in the first place; what’s got me going and what keeps me going. Any tips on doing so?

1) Cast your characters, or if you’re artistic, try drawing them. If you’ve got Photoshop skills, try making a movie-style poster for your story. 2) Create a tumblr gallery filled with images that inspire you where your story is concerned. These could be images of things in your story, things you want to include in your story, or just things that make you think of your story. 3) Make a playlist of songs to serve as a soundtrack for your story. 4) Make a list of five things you love about every character, five things you love about the plot, and five things you love about the setting. 5) Write a short essay about the important themes in your story and why they matter to you. See if similar themes run through any of your other stories. 6) Get a fun and easy going friend or sibling to play “radio show” with you. Have them interview you about your story as though you were an author talking about their novel on a radio show. Try to be serious about it for as long as you can–which won’t be long because it’s super cheesy but lots of fun. 7) Try to write a poem about the plot of your story as though your protagonist was the one writing it. 8) Draw maps and floor plans of your setting and sets. Go window shopping online to look for furniture and props to fill your character’s home with. 9) Make a Wordle using words from your story. 10) Read your story out loud as if you were reading it to a group of fans. Try to imagine their reactions at different points in the story. When would their attention be the most rapt? When would they smile? When would they sniffle? When would they cheer? I hope that helps! :)

Chapters: 3/? Fandom: The Mallorca Files (TV 2019) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Miranda Blake/Max Winter Characters: Miranda Blake, Max Winter, Inés Villegas Additional Tags: Wintake, post-series 3, Canon Divergent, Feelings Realization, Series 3 Episode 4 "Water Water" Mention, Undercover as a Couple Summary:

It’s Valentine’s Day, and it’s the first one since Max broke up with Carmen six months ago. Miranda tries to cheer Max up. Also, they go undercover as a couple again.

like, the most compelling ships for me always stem out of one thing: the characters have a profound, ongoing effect on each other’s senses of selves. when they are apart, the characters’ actions are still affected by each other. the way they approach the world changes because of the other. 

which is this deeply Austenian view of ideal romantic relationships as mechanisms by which we come to know ourselves better and become better versions of ourselves. good romance, for me, is always tied in with a sense of self-actualization, and the way in which a beloved partner allows a person to know themselves better.

After I get the spark for an idea, I get bored by it. How could I work it out so I can get into it and write something? I never finished anything because it's not interesting anymore.

 Almost every author I know has had this issue.  The minute you sit down to work on a project, ten other, apparently more attractive ideas will bob to the surface.

This isn’t a quintessentially fun solution, but the answer is to build a habit of commitment.  Jot down the shiny new ideas that pop up (or devote a separate time allotment to working on them, if you work best that way), plow ahead, and finish.  If you’re overwhelmed by the length of your current projects, try shorter ones.  You don’t have to like the final result, but you’ll be a stronger writer once you get in the habit of finishing projects.

The thing about us authors is, our stories are always more cinematic in our heads.  As we’re planning them out, we’re immersed in an opulent world that we want to share, and can only do our best to convey one word at a time.  So be patient with yourself, set reasonable goals, and build that habit!

I hope this helps, and happy writing.  <3

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How to Get Motivated After a Long Break

I haven’t written in a while. I had some life stuff going on and I forgot how difficult it is to get back into writing after a long break. There’s a manuscript waiting for me to edit it and another story idea waiting for me to flesh it out. What’s the best way to approach this?

First, make a list

Start by getting everything in order. Grab your favorite notebook (or designate a new on to 2016) and starting listing what you want to work on this year. Is there anything you need to finish up? What are your goals? What do you want to accomplish by 2017? These plans don’t have to be anything grand, they can be small steps toward your goals. Be realistic and know your limits.

Focus on tying up loose ends

The first thing I’m going to do is finish up the novel I’m in the middle of editing. Do you best to finish projects first before moving on to something else. Engross yourself in that story again and try to continue where you left off. Try to reread what you already edited to familiarize yourself with where you were going. It feels great to finish things. It will get you motivated for your next project.

Get yourself excited again

It’s hard to work on something that doesn’t motivate you. If it’s been a while, try to figure out what excited you about that project in the first place. Reread old notes. Look over your story and focus on characters. Why do you like them? What motivated you to write this story? Try to tap back into your excitement and get back into the same mind frame you were in when you were writing.

Toss stale projects

Sometimes a story just doesn’t work. You lost your passion for it and you’re unable to get a back. The story feels old and it doesn’t speak to you anymore. That’s fine. Not everything is going to stick and you need to know what you should move on from. If you’ve stopped writing because you’re just not excited about your story, maybe it’s time to move on. However, if you’ve stopped writing because life got in the way, there’s a chance you can still motivate yourself to work on that story. The decision is up to you.

-Kris Noel

This website goes into more detail about using multiple POVs.

reasons to not quit writing:

your writing is a skill, not an inborn talent (unless, yeah, maybe it is). not everyone can do what you do and love

everyone says they want to write a book. everyone has what it takes to write a book. not everyone does it anyway. you be the small percentage of success you read about

your writing will always seem brickshit horrible because you wrote and read it a million times

you love this writing thingy. quitting it will be like cutting off your fingers one by one.

someone out there will want to read what you wrote.

someone out there wants to know what is on your mind. 

someone out there appreciates your art. they will share it with their friends. they will share it with their loved ones. they will share it with their future self because maybe what you wrote saved them.

if you give up now, you know you will just come back to it again, whether it’s years from now, months, or next week. you love writing, that’s why you planted the seed of thought that you are going to write this book, and whether you come back to it or not, your unwritten stories will come back to you.