Dive Deep into Creativity: Discover, Share, Inspire
In case anyone needs to hear this today:
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Your work is important.
You know what I don’t get? When fanfic authors apologize for long chapters. It’s like? You gave me bonus content, for free, and you’re sorry about it? Bruh. I have already named my firstborn after you. Dude.
Something I have to remind myself of a lot.
You have no idea how many people lurk on your work. No idea how many times people go back to revisit your work. How big they smile when they simply think about your work. How fast their heart beats, how excited they get when they see that you posted something.
People are shy with their feedback. Sometimes it’s because they’re simply shy. Other times it’s because they assume you already know how great and talented you are. Could be both.
My point is, even if you barely have any likes or reblogs, don’t get discouraged. You have a lot of silent fans, but they are still your fans. Keep on creating. Because there is always someone out there who will love what you have made.
Remember, you will always be growing as a writer. There is no peak, only improvement. It's a continual learning curve and you can only go up from here. So keep writing lovelies.
Your value as a person is not at all dependent upon the quantity or quality of writing you produce
Your identity as a writer is not at all dependent upon the quantity or quality of writing you produce
Your stories are still important even if they can only live in your head
You are still important even if you can’t tell your stories right now (or ever)
Having a story that fails or flops or stops or falls apart doesn’t mean that story is worthless, a waste of time, and you are not worthless or a waste of time because you couldn’t see the story through
Don’t tell yourself getting published is your capital-G Goal, and that you’re worthless until you’ve been published. The goal is to practice that art that makes you so happy. If you’re writing specifically to get published, you’re no longer writing for you.
You are still important whether you last wrote ten minutes ago, yesterday, a month ago, or three years ago.
People, your parents, society, capitalism will tell you all of these things aren’t true. Fuck them.
And please be kind to yourselves and to your writing.
Love,
A writer who has learned all these things the hard way so maybe you guys won’t have to
i know it’s been said before, but it bears repeating: a big, big part of maintaining your confidence & self esteem as a creator is fully embracing the concept of “you don’t have to be good like them. you can be good like you.”
for example, i’m not someone who’s particularly good at coming up with complex, elaborate plots or incredibly unique ideas. it’s just not how i choose to write. and it would be easy for me to look at someone with an elaborate, super unique plot & decide that because i don’t write like that, i’m not a good writer. after all, unique plots are good, and my writing lacks those, so my writing must not be good, right? well, no, actually. i just have different strengths, like taking a simple premise & digging super deep into its emotional depths. that’s what i do well & it isn’t any better or worse than people who do elaborate world building or come up with really creative and unexpected plots.
your writing is never going to be all things to all people. it just isn’t. inevitably, you’ll have to make creative choices that favor certain aspects of writing over others. there is truly no getting around that & it’s honestly a good thing, because it means you’ve developed your own style. but you’ll always encounter other creators who posses strengths that you don’t. it doesn’t mean one is better than the other or that your writing isn’t good enough.
comparing yourself like that would be like taking a piece of pizza & a cupcake & going “oh no, that cupcake is so sweet & my pizza isn’t sweet at all.” or “gosh, the garlic crust on that pizza is delicious and my cupcake doesn’t have ANY garlic.” obviously your pizza isn’t sweet. obviously your cupcake doesn’t have garlic. a food can’t have every single delicious flavor at once. the cupcake is good like a cupcake. the pizza is good like a pizza. so you don’t have to be good like them. you can be good like you.
reread your old writing
reread the scenes you’re most proud of
write something silly. it doesn’t need to be logical, or something you in your story. write something dumb
compare your old writing to your current writing. seeing how much you’ve improved can be very motivating
create AUs for your stories! explore storylines that otherwise never would make it into the story, but you would like to play around with
choose one of your least favorite scenes and rewrite it
act out your scenes
read old comments from people praising your work
create a playlist for your wip
team up with a friend, create AUs for each other’s stories
create playlists for your characters
draw your ocs/make memes of your ocs
draw/make memes of your friend’s ocs
don’t push yourself to get back into writing the thing that made you stop in the first place, you can always write something else!
write what you want to write, no matter how cliché it might be. it's okay
take a break, focus on another hobby of yours. consume other sources of media, or take a walk to clear your head
no need to write in chronological order if it isn’t working for you!
read bad reviews of books/movies/tv-shows. you will start appreciating your own writing more
create a new storyline, or introduce a new character! anything that helps bring something fresh into your story. could even be a completely new wip!
not writing every day doesn’t make you a bad writer. take a break if you feel like you need one
remind yourself to have fun. start writing and don’t focus too much of your attention on following ''the rules.'' you can get into the nitty-gritty when you're more familiarized with writing as an art. or don’t. it’s fiction, you make your own rules
get some rest. go to sleep, take a nap!
remember why you started. know that you deserve to tell the story you want to tell regardless of the skill you possess
you don’t need to write to be successful, and you don’t need to write for other people. it’s ok to write because you think it’s fun, and to keep your writing to yourself. you don’t need to be good at it, or learn every single rule there is. if it makes you happy, then what’s enough.