Two Professional Writers React to YOUR Writing Advice | Part 1

[@WeRNotAlive]

Our flagship series makes its long-awaited return! But enough about Spongebob Boys, here's a link to the Two Professional Writer's playlist so you can catch up with with our delve into writing and life advice from the beginning kzbin.info/aero/PLW3Q6zalzJ8X_yZtvcYPdWqkJ1-PlyGDY

[@henrygalley2831]

To quote the evil room from 1408, we've only just begun...

[@BaobhanloreArt]

Just saying, if you are running out of communities to get writing advice from, tiktok and authortube are two cesspits of really eye opening advice on the creative process, some of the most basic shit you've ever heard, and the worst, most damaging advice you'll come across. It'd be interesting to see you duve into them.

[@kingbubbles9461]

As someone with ADHD, a piece of advice that helps me is to completely stop all technology, distractions, etc. Let yourself get bored for a few minutes. It helps clear the mind before writing and it gets creativity going.

[@WeRNotAlive]

Couldn't agree more!

[@Monica-br8pi]

Excellent tip! Dopamine fasting has really helped me with this. Once I'm bored, working becomes exciting once more. It always was! I am now just more open to noticing it.

[@darknut1223]

i find going on a walk not only greatly improves my mental health, but also my capacity to think through and organize ideas in my head. sitting in the same place all the time is a poison for the mind.

[@brendanb2982]

Listening to music really helps with that. Not necessarily lyrical music though, that can be distracting depending on if you're writing or drawing.

[@Emery_Pallas]

Also if you can, find different areas to write in and if you use music or other stuff, try different anything, I find it helps refresh hippiness thought process

[@JudahDeNose]

It finally turns onto us. The merciless sights of the professional writers.

[@jamwrightiam]

Something about devouring I'm sure

[@ariz_9156]

Ceaseless watcher, turn your gaze upon this wretched advice

[@malaizze]

@@ariz_9156 I can’t wait for the Chuck Wendig live smiting special where they disassemble him to atoms

[@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong]

@@ariz_9156 Unfortunately, the bad advice was the plan of The Web all along...

[@rowancrimes3828]

My best piece of advice is: Don’t water down a niche idea to make it more appealing to a broad audience. If you have a premise you like but you’re worried it’s too weird, taking out elements you like to avoid putting people off will make your work less personal and compelling. If you keep your strangeness in the work there will still be people who like it, and if it’s uniquely yours then it won’t just blend in with everything else and it’s more likely to be distinct and meaniful to someone, as well as to you. Additionally, writing self-indulgently like this makes it more enjoyable to go back and edit.

[@OccuredJakub12]

Go in with the mentality of "how to make my weird niche ideas be UNDERSTOOD by as wide an audience as possible." Express those ideas in palatable or visual forms, iconic symbols and memorable characters. Don't take out elements, but build on them and add more elements that fit with them.

[@Emery_Pallas]

As much as Diregentlemen tend to discuss how you shouldn’t overly worldbuild, this can in some cases actually be the best part of a work (the webcomic Unicorn Jelly comes to mind, with its extremely intense worldbuilding just hidden in “alternate universe strip” pages and its like a brief yet thorough explanation of how the laws of physics work in this weird fractal universe told as an in universe science lesson and other stuff that are just kinda fun.

[@d_camara]

have the goal in mind at all times; if you want to sell, if you're writing for a job, making a broad piece might be what you want, while writing for no profit gives you all thee freedom to write as broad or niche as you want right now

[@crossf2351]

It's much easier and much more fun to write and read about characters who want to do something, but obstacles get in the way, than characters who are forced to do something, and are dragged kicking and screaming through the story.

[@henrygalley2831]

Excellent advice!!

[@markcochrane9523]

Good writing advice I've heard before: if your character is urgently driving somewhere and you need them to not make it in time (AND you want it to be their fault), don't have them stop for a burger, instead have them break the speed limit and get pulled over for it. Both are mistakes, but the latter is understandable and consistent with their motivation, a calculated risk that didn't pay off, while the former is just stupid and would only work in a comedy where the punchline is the character's stupidity/habit of prioritizing food.

[@WeRNotAlive]

I think what's interesting about that advice is that it gives two different choices that would work for two different types of character. Another way of putting it would be, always have the setbacks characters face as a result of their own actions say something about why they are the way they are.

[@markcochrane9523]

@@WeRNotAlive The original context of the advice was "have characters that make mistakes that make sense to make, rather than turning them into idiots for the sake of the plot", but that's true too. I once commented this bit of advice on Overly Sarcastic Production's "Trope Talk: Idiot Plots" and the most interesting alternative I saw was "the character has hypoglycemia and missed lunch that day, so if they don't stop and get some sugar in their system they'll likely pass out." It's also where I got the bit about "stopping for a burger might work in a comedy".

[@peppyboi9710]

Here's a free one for you, when writing something down, you should hit that button on the top of the pen so it leaves a convenient mark showing what you wrote; that way you don't have to remember what you wrote down. Jury's out on the keyboard, and I'm not sure which button makes the marks yet.

[@coopertaunt]

Epic follow-up tip: if you hit that button a second time, you can start write invisible words to make your story more cool and mysterious! Don't press it a third time though, that arms the explosives

[@peppyboi9710]

@coopertaunt6209 ah, so those invisible words must be that "sub text" thing that I keep hearing about, I'll have to look into this more. Thanks for your epic tip.

[@Gloomdrake]

@@peppyboi9710 I've known writers who use subtext, and they're all cowards

[@StellarRetribution]

Hey! I’m the “worlds okayest dungeon master”! Thank you for featuring my tip in the video, and especially thanks for reaffirming the quality of my DMing, lol. I feel less self-conscious about it now, haha

[@ryanb5127]

Your username makes me think of another piece of advice. Writing doesn’t have to be perfect for people to enjoy it. It’s something I learned from running a weekly DND game. A format like that can really force you to just make something even if you aren’t super confident in it

[@StellarRetribution]

@@ryanb5127 absolutely, yeah! perfectionism kills projects

[@AllenVoidUTAU]

A tip from a writer/artist with autism If you struggle with hyperfocus and risk burnout from failing to feed yourself, hydrate, move around, rest/sleep etc. constantly as a result because of it, set time frames for yourself, as well as set alarms. Allow yourself time to work, yes, but make sure that you are giving yourself plenty of breaks during the day as well. I think this can apply to everyone to some extent, as the phrase "step away and come back with a fresh mind" comes into play. It can be hard to do at first, but from personal experience, I found myself being much more productive by taking those break time frames and feeling more motivated to keep going.

[@ThatGreenMach1ne]

Hey sam you should include your pronouns

[@phantomkitten73]

Parallels are a huge key to depth. If you put two different characters (especially a protagonist and antagonist) in the same, or at least similar situations, you can get a much clearer and deeper understanding of what unites them and what separates them. Take Arcane, which has characters that compare in many interesting ways, but what contrasts them the most is the trajectory of their life from growing up topside or in the undercity. And how do these characters perceive each other because of that? Or Barbarian (spoilers), which has three different male characters that are all at different levels of misogyny, with one coming off as creepy from being overly chivalrous, another who definitely assaulted a woman but doesn't really think he did because of his ego, and an incredulously monstrous snuff dungeon kidnapper. Almost like steps of a stairwell that descends further into darkness and depravity. But it's not just the big picture stuff, filling as many gaps in your story as you can with parallels and contrasting elements is what creates an incredibly deep story and world and characters, that may contain connections you as the writer didn't even consider. From the magic system to the color of your character's clothes, make thoughtful connections between them and you can make something brilliant.

[@poke5887]

This one seems pretty obvious but I've dealt with it before. Don't be afraid to reuse ideas from scrapped or shelved concepts. I have multiple characters that I've kept from multiple concepts because they work well in those settings, and I feel I've finally found a good setting for them. Obviously if a few things don't work right they can be tweaked, but it's good to still keep scrapped ideas on hand.

[@Emery_Pallas]

Oh I did that, one of the main characters from a current work started as a secondary character from another which I thought didn’t fit in as well, modified it for a new setting and just made the protagonist

[@necrodeus6811]

I have so many refugee characters from abandoned stories XD

[@kneesturnedvelvet3725]

Regarding the tip about "don't get caught up in world building, at the expense of the story"- Well, there's one exception. I spend a LOT of time world building, and only realized recently I don't even like writing, I like world building. I like dreaming up the places, the people, the vague stories, the histories, the souvenirs, the brochures... So... If you get caught up in world building, ask yourself, do you even want to write, or do you just want to create worlds? There are other options besides writing stories, though stories can certainly be a part of world building, but if your priority is the world building, go along with that, and see where it takes you.

[@ActuallySatan]

As someone who was involved in RWBY Alt (as well as a subsequent project that kept changing its name because it couldn't figure out what it wanted to be) for an embarrassing amount of time, I will say the entire creative process was built on the question, "How can we piss off Rooster Teeth and/or RWBY fans as much as possible?" And that came from the original creator, not the other members. Everything in both projects went no further than, "This should be better," and left the understanding of why it didn't work or what we wanted to do as a byproduct. In short, they ended up doing the same thing as RWBY itself: taking a bunch of cool aesthetics that worked in things the creators liked and slapping them together in the hope that something will eventually come out of it by accident.

[@BreakfastWEggZ]

That explains so much about RWBY: Alternate. It had that sense of wanting to change so much for the sake of change, to the point where it passed the threshold where it could've benefited from switching out all names and marketing it as something original now that everything was so fundamentally different from what it was made to rewrite. You don't have to go THAT far to 'fix' RWBY.

[@ActuallySatan]

1. When you're making something inspired by works that came before it, there's usually something you find compelling that goes deeper than what's apparent at first glance. When making art, consider multiple aspects of the thing(s) you're drawing from, get advice from friends or others who like the same things, and rewatch/read/experience your inspirations. There will be substance to the stuff you're making with this approach; otherwise, you'll end up with something like Fairy Tail or RWBY that only comes to any of its points by accident when it's even coherent enough to do that. 2. Characters shouldn't all sound the same with their dialogue. A helpful way to get past this problem is to listen to others talk, be they people in your life, public figures, or characters in other media. You shouldn't mimic them verbatim, but you should get a sense of how you can add characterization through speech. 3. There's a lot of value in art meant to make people uncomfortable, but it should be done with tact and care rather than shock. The best examples of this kind of writing are grounded in something real, like a person's lack of control or an existential question with no good answer. There's a big difference between the work of Alan Moore and that of Garth Ennis.

[@polychromatiica1087]

in my opinion, whilst planning out your story before you make it is absolutely essential if you want to make a cohesive story, but if you're a really new beginner sometimes you just gotta say "screw it" and just start writing, just get yourself familiar with what writing is like instead of spending ages in the planning stage for every single project you make even if its just for practice or else you might spend too much time thinking about what to write than actually writing.

[@emilys3785]

I like to figure out the bones, just like three main bullet points (set up, confrontation, resolution). And then flesh it out from there.

[@magmanaught4532]

I’m a personal believer that as important critique is, you shouldn’t feel beholden to it. Even if it’s from someone you trust and believe is a good critic, you don’t need to fully adopt every critique you get

[@valerian_e_song]

This is advice coming from a different place from standard writing advice, since I'm primarily a text-based roleplayer and GM with a big emphasis on character writing. BUT! I've found that the fastest way to flesh out a character who's both interesting and who has coherent enough characterization to exist in a variety of unexpected situations, is to build them from their worldview first, then outward. To put it another way, characters people find interesting usually can have how they see the world brought down to one or two interesting sentences, which acts as a throughline for their characterization that makes them consistent and unique. If you're writing your typical paragon hero character, you'll get a lot more mileage out of "This character thinks it's their personal responsibility to save the world and others, even when the conflict is not their fault" than "this hero is a good person who does good things."

[@abyxunknown4043]

My favorite piece of writing advice is don’t just kill your darlings, Frankenstein them. When I started writing I found myself getting attached to ideas or characters and trying to force them into my work, even if they didn’t necessarily mesh with the rest of the story. However, that doesn’t mean these ideas are bad, just that they need to be edited. Take two boring characters with nothing to do and combine them into one more interesting character. If you have a bunch of ideas for plot points that seem good but are boring in execution, try finding a way to achieve several of them at once to create a more dynamic arc. Try out a bunch of new ideas or combinations just to see what you like. And of course, make a “recycling bin” document or notebook for all the stuff you still can’t make fit. In general, asking yourself “what am I not letting myself do and what would happen if I did it” is a great place to start to make your creative process more fluid.

[@lillianbygone8507]

I really agree with the tip that you need to legitimately love something when reworking something you think had failed in its original execution. There tends to be an observable difference (and to some extent vibe) between a work made out of spite for the original work, and a work that can strongly deviate from the original work but still respects it through its own execution, because it was made out of appreciation.

[@themightypitazita]

31:45 Thank you Henry and Gus for going over my tweet! It's such a valuable experience to be had when you meet with people for a peer review. And I like how you mentioned that having people review your work and reviewing other people's work is a great way to form new friendships! I cannot understate how unhealthy it is to surround yourself with people who always agree with you, or how unhealthy it is to make people feel like they can't disagree with you. Good writers are open-minded!

[@ThatGreenMach1ne]

Aww thank you so much for the compliments, it made my day.

[@isabeldb7043]

Thank you Gus, Henry, Meg and all the awesome people featured on this channel for creating fun and wacky videos with interesting discussions throughout my last year of high school. You probably won't see this, but it really helped (yes, even the more cursed content) so thank you 💛

[@henrygalley2831]

Good luck with whatever comes after high school!

[@sharkjumpingwalrus6744]

Before, I watch, if I happen to be in this video, I can't wait to see how disjointed my advice from previous videos comes across. But if anything, that just shows that you will always be changing towards something. Let's just hope that something is worthwhile.

[@DrSurgeonGuy]

Was helping a friend the other day with writing and this came up. If you're writing an action scene full of quick, precise combat, people dying almost instantly, make your writing reflect this. Don't fluff it up or you'll ruin the pace. You don't even need to include details like blood *sometimes*, if someone just got impaled, yeah, there's gonna be blood.

[@justjulia1720]

You know those moments when you're supposed to be inspired, but instead you feel anxiety? You feel like you're never gonna be as good, and there's no point in trying when there's other masterpieces out there. You know those moments? In those moments I remember that, usually, whether or not some piece of art is actually a masterpiece is less relevant to me as a person, and what really makes some piece of art become my favorite is how much I connect with it. If you write something that speaks to your experiences and sensibilities, you're already halfway there. Of course it's good to improve your skills, but those should be in service of your own sincerity. Don't get too caught up in making things that are technically impressive, and don't give up on writing because you can't make a masterpiece. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you should focus on getting better at being honest. So long as you do that, I promise you, you will unknowingly make somebody's life a little better. Seriously, you never know how much your dumb shit positively impacts the ppl around you until they decide to tell you. Opps, forgot to mention I am not a writer. I only write as a hobby and I got into it recently

[@thekingmakerhistories]

Thanks for the shoutout, boys!

[@henrygalley2831]

Oh my god, it's new audio drama The Kingmaker Histories!!

[@ameneko98]

My tips as a comic artist that's finished a couple comics, mostly hobbyist projects. 1. Discipline is a skill in itself, and you should practice at it. Sit down and work for a few minutes, finish small projects, learn the things that help you get motivated. A big reason why the advice "start small" is important (imo) is it lets you practice discipline and finishing projects in a more realistic, lower stakes scenario. 2. Learn to manage ambition and expectations. It's super easy to get swept up in the idea of a decades long epic, a 30 minute animated pilot, etc., etc. You need to set your sights smaller, to something you can actually manage with your skills and resources and mental health. One thing I'm going to try is setting maximums for my work (i.e. a comic with a maximum of 10 pages). I've also benefited a lot from external deadlines, like schoolwork and events with a hard limit on when the work must be done. Personal deadlines don't really work as well for me, but are an option if you can actually stick to it.

[@benjaminsuess447]

I find that inspiration can come from the most unexpected places, I'm working on a novel currently (first draft) and for the longest time, I had a setting and characters but no plot or overarching theme. Then I listen to a random heavy metal album on a whim and realized I should make it a story about revenge and self-fulling prophecy. So yeah if you find something that gives you an idea use it, take from all that you can, and Frankenstein it together.

[@MrDrewwills]

Just wanna say the point you made about the benefits of writing something short inspired me to write my first short story in ages. I just paused the video and baned out a two page horror story. I really wanna thank you guys for the inspiration, it means a lot.

[@NerdMiGerd]

Alrighty, guess I'll throw my hat in the ring. I’m Jeff Stirling, animation director and upcoming filmmaker. To give you an idea of my upbringing as a writer, I'm someone who dabbled in a lot of different mediums, but ultimately settled on screenplay due to my innate passion towards film and television, and a lot of my advice I think will reflect that. Also a lot of these are things I was taught by my college playwriting professor, who is now my advisor for a feature-length animated film I'm working alongside the school's animation department on, and is adapted from a play I wrote for my final assignment in a class. I think a big one for me is more of a pet peeve I have with most long-running shounen series, the idea that a story having "stakes" means constant life-or-death peril for your characters to have to fight past regardless if it makes any sense for said characters, or the larger story you want to tell. In fact, all of the issues series like Dragonball or My Hero face are exactly because of that, especially when you keep having to contrive bigger brick walls for your protagonist to punch through shit can lose its scope hella quick. To me, stakes aren't just "do X or you'll die or the world explodes or whatever", it's about pinpointing your characters' specific wants and needs, their deeper anxieties, and finding things that would directly challenge them. For instance, the webcomic and anime Mob Psycho 100 feels like a massive breath of fresh air for exactly that reason. The conflict in that series is never about if our protagonist can come out on top after a fight, but what core values of his are being thrown out of balance by the situations he's thrust into. When Mob is put up against Teru whether or not he can "win" the fight is irrelevant-- it's about Mob trying to hold himself to his own moral principals by not using his psychic powers as a weapon, coming from the trauma he endure as a kid where doing so put his little brother in *actual* peril. And when he fails to do that, losing control of himself and causing an *ungodly* amount of collateral damage, it absolutely destroys him. The series operates like this all throughout (except for one arc where they *do* insert a big powerful bad guy just for Mob to overcome... it's still a good arc I'll admit but definitely my least favorite), and to me that's a major reason why the series never lost sight of itself by the end. So much of its conflict was drawn not from the cheap tactic of just throwing characters into danger and that being it. When you base your story's conflict and character growth around specific values your character holds you won't run out of stories to tell with them nearly as much. (I think MHA also did a great job of this early on, until it just... fucking... decided to stop doing that partway through). Next thing I say comes directly from the mouth of my playwriting professor, that being "honesty trumps cleverness". He used a discussion he had with a student to make this point, the student telling him he got into writing because the reveal in Monsters Inc blew his mind, the whole "laughter produces energy too" which is expertly foreshadowed throughout the film. My professor told him that he's focusing on the wrong aspect of what made the film so good. That well-constructed details like that means fuckall in the face of writing a compelling story. Monsters Inc succeeded because it had an exceptional character-driven story fueled by genuine heart and pathos, and smaller details like that only feel more impressive because it's attached to such a beloved story. I would know because I also watched the fuck out of that movie as a kid, and the only reason I *always* watched it to the very end was because I genuinely cared about Mike, Sully, and Boo as characters and needed that emotional catharsis they gave Sully at the end. By that extend, too, I believe that having a cool concept can't save a lackluster story, but having a great story and characters can save a less-than-stellar premise. Not to drag on anime again but basically every young, aspiring TV and filmmakers I've talked with who use it at their main source of inspiration pitches their story premise to me the same way. They always try to give a clever idea/spin on a popular manga genre except they'd add like "but the main characters are secretly demons" or some shit like that. Nothing about the characters, main conflict, nothing. Just a cool idea for a world to be in. And whenever they do (and I 1000% guarantee this is true for everyone else they've pitched their shows to) my response isn't "Wooooah that's so cool and interesting!" like I imagine they want to hear, without fail it's always "Okay... and?". Idk man it's like how every isekai coming out now puts the cart before the horse by trying to come up with some cool, hip new spin on the formula just by having the main character get a cellphone or be a slime or a zombie or some shit instead of just... focusing on actually telling a compelling story with its premise. A big thing from my personal experience though, particularly as a film director now, is that while drawing a story from your own life experiences is extremely beneficial you can't make the whole damn thing about you and your special little "vision". Auteur work can provide some really amazing stuff, but only when it's not obsessed over to such a toxic degree. I've had moments years ago where I've pissed off the animators I've collated with because the way they adapt my writing doesn't perfectly line up with how I imagined a scene playing out in my head. But the perfect way it is "in my head" is never going to fucking happen when multiple artists are involved and that's honestly for the better. Some of the best shit in the film I'm working on now came from other artists reinterpreting my writing based on their *own* creative influences and upbringings and having those voices sing as well in my work has helped make it feel more rounded-out and realized as a whole. This goes for solo projects too though. Don't be afraid to get input from other creative people, and while you should still have your own vision for your work don't be so afraid of losing things as you let others influence it. Art is made for other people, after all.

[@omagaking7]

Never lose your inner child, go through your old drawing and writings. Even if they are dumb and childish try to give them a new life, child you didn't have all of the experience you do but saw the wonder of the world. Take that wonder and give it life you might just find that spark to get the work you have been dreaming of writing or at least smile as you remember.

[@aaa-np1hz]

If you are concerned about writing your own stories (or if you are just starting on your writing jorney), I would recommend writing faniction first. Choose an universe you like, or a story, book, movie, or series you like, and write set on that established universe first. Write about the characters or a story set hundreds or years before or afer it, doesn't matter. You have an established ruleset to work with, which (in my humble opinion) is easier to follow and climb off of than making it yourself. Furthermore, if you like elements of a story or universe, there is no shame in taking them. It's your writing, so as long as you improve (or just enjoy it, which is also fine) then off you go, writer. Also, and last one, if you ever feel bad about your writing, drafts, or anything of the sort (and also following on the To Kill A Mockingbird thing), try your best to keep going, even if you don't touch the page keyboard for a month, just keep in mind that if you persevere through this perhaps in some years another kid will have you as their favorite author. That is, in a way, is the beauty of literature and writing. (sorry for bad english)

[@packman2321]

Lockdown was actually a really useful space for actually finally getting stuff written down for me. I started captioning cartoon screen shots with jokes and trying to build consistent ongoing stories out of them years before- sending them to my brother over Skype, but I'd never really saved them. On discovering that he kept documents where he'd saved records of his own and a few of mine, I started actually keeping them and writing them into larger coherent prose sections. Predictably, it's not been very successful at creating longterm works, but just the act of doing that got me into the habit of writing a small section of something every day so we'd always have something to share back and forth.

[@RockhopperRio]

I want to say something that could add to the tip you guys went over at 19:30. I find that there’s a simple skeleton structure that can help get certain stories moving before you dive deeper into them: Character is really good at Thing A, and really bad at Thing B. In the beginning, they can do Thing A without a problem. All of a sudden, they’re faced with a situation that requires them to be good at both Thing A and Thing B. While this may not work for every story, I’ve found that this can be a simple way to make sure that a character’s strengths and weaknesses compliment one another. If you can’t come up with any reasonable story that both lets your character use their skills and also leaves them with room to grow their shortcomings, then you might want to reconsider what those skills and shortcomings actually are.

[@OptimisticAudience]

One of my favorite tidbits of storytelling: There's no reason for your characters to have perfect or correct information. When a person tells a history, they aren't telling you objective facts. You're hearing their take on history.

[@KittyLitterYT]

KZbin for some reason didn't notify me of this upload so I was greeted by the existential threat of a diregentlemen video I'd never seen before with fingers pointed at my face

[@skalliedA]

my advice would be: it's okay to put a project down for a while if you're stuck. Write something else in the meantime. What your conscious mind couldn't figure out at first, your subconscious will resolve eventually. Once it clicks you can go back and finish what you started. I find it's a good way to dodge writer's block.

[@christianw.4463]

I know you've mentioned doing once in the past Literature Devil writing advice reaction...and if that's where you went next with the series, I would be unbelievably hyped lol. Great episode, and congrats on all the awesome writing work as well. Can't wait to check it out!

[@NeutrallyNeutralNectarine]

Something that has helped me a lot in the past is keeping in mind your medium. What strenghts does it have? What does it lack? Whatever story and vibes you are going for, study what would be the best medium for your story, or if you are in love with a medium (comics, short films, audio dramas ,theatre) how has it been used and how can you express yourself better within it. (PD: Explore as much as you can, yo never know when something will click)

[@Aeiouaaaaaaaaa]

It’s interesting seeing the “story pyramid” around 13:00, since I tend to approach my work in exactly the opposite direction, starting from the message and ending at story. That being said, I definitely come from an artistic background and treat writing as supplementary knowledge, so it’s interesting hearing this discussed with nuance by writers. I’ve been binging this channel recently since these advice videos are so helpful (also it’s nice to listen to as I work). Great stuff!

[@VoicesInYourHeadphones]

My usual piece of writing advice to people is to remember that not every character has to be incredibly complex. Something I've found myself guilty of is just making every detail and giving every character trait a reason to exist. Otherwise you just make a web of character trivia that doesn't lean into the main focus of the story. Depending on the setting or the complexity of the story, sometimes you don't need to go that deep. Sometimes a Saturday morning cartoon villain can just be a cartoon villain because it's fun and engages the reader. Give them a reason to be evil but don't feel the need to break down and psychoanalyze your character.

[@starmaker75]

Well since I’m doing scientific writing then media writing, here my tips 1) get a second opinion: this is important as a second opinion can be important on how your story or paper will be seen. It also a good case of adoviding unfortunate implications. Granted there stuff like having too many cooks in the kitchen situation, so have a balance. There also other people discovering your grammar mistakes. 2) spell and grammar check your work. This a extended of 1, but it best check for someone to check your paper’s grammar and writing 3) your first draft is going to be the worst and that okay. You're going to have to write the same thing over and over sometimes. 4) find a balance between explaining stuff but not explain stuff too munch. It best not to repeat yourself. edit: spelling and grammar.

[@gavinfarr9381]

A bit of advice that I need to use more in my own writing: The events of the story's plot should not be the primary cause of your protagonist's failure (with some exceptions). Instead, a character's failure should stem from the internal struggle the plot is putting them through. Characters need to fail. They need to struggle. More important though, their failure and their struggles NEED to be meaningful to who they are, not just what they're doing. If I'm writing about a team of competitive ice dancers, for example, and the team leader is my main character, the team's failure shouldn't be because one of their members didn't stick the landing on his double axel. If the team's failure instead comes because the team leader's ego and drive to be the best means that she's doing all of the visually impressive and complex forms, which puts strain on her and leaves her teammates in the dust, then suddenly that failure becomes meaningful where it otherwise wouldn't be. Meaningful failure needs to kick your character's flaws square in the nuts so that they can finally recognize where the pain is coming from and excise that part of themself. I have a bad habit of being too precious with my characters. I write them winning too much, which stunts their development and squashes whatever opportunity for growth they would have had. I'm still learning to let them fail, and learning how to use that failure to the story's benefit. Every time I catch myself letting the events of my story dictate whether a character succeeds or fails, I repeat my new personal mantra: "The needs of the character outweigh the needs of the plot."

[@Lakstoties]

I write meandering story lines and other odds bits. But, one thing I've found helpful when delving deeper into characters is to ask the off-the-wall questions about them. For example: After a bloody battle, how does Mav the Mad Mage get his robes clean? When the caped crusader comes back from fighting crime and settles back into his alter ego, what is his reaction when he pours milk into his celebratory bowl of cereal... and it only fills it a third full? How does your introspective character deal when sitting at a VERY, VERY long red light alone at a remote, empty intersection? Even if these questions never manifest into the written word, it's a fun exercise to help you understand how your characters work. Sometimes it prompts fun asides in the course of a story that allows you to demonstrate character personalities via the "B-sides" of life. I mean what does your adventuring cast of character do in the off-time? Card games, trivia, a book club, and/or a euro-style board game? Come on, which one of the cast would totally try to end the game early and who would go king maker just to piss someone else off?

[@roses-coded-in-python]

the whole 'you need to let go off your work and not treat it like its precious' is really meaningful advice for me. I've had a comic that I began coming up with the characters ever since i was around 8ish years old, and while i love it so very much, i kinda have- stockholm syndrome because of it? Like i came up with the characters during really traumatic moments in my life in order to cope with my life, but looking at it as a complete thing, its not a thing i could ever really publish. Its almost retraumatizing having to look and develop it more. so i made a decision to completely scrap it and refurbish some characters and concepts into the book im writing and- im just so much happier with it now. So yeah, while its good to have things you can write and have to hold onto, definitely understand you need a layer between you and your *good* work.

[@allyrose9494]

Not sure if this applies to everyone, but when I get stuck trying to think of a story idea or a personality for a character, my favourite thing to do is think of a plot/character that I think had either major missed potential or was just poorly handled, and think of how you would change it to fix it. Don't copy and paste outside of the changes, but once I use that to get a baseline down that's usually enough to get the creative juices flowing.

[@disgruntledtoonbot1336]

My advice would be to live a bit first, go fall in love, get dumped, commit some crimes, fight in a war, basically get a varied perspective on life, to develop your voice, and to have something to say thats worth hearing

[@pleasekillyoursef]

I suggest also getting experience on not living, it works trust me

[@whatnoisedoesaclownmake7646]

On that note, I'd also recommend taking inspiration from Barbie herself and getting at least 10 years of experience in every single career path you can, just to make sure you are giving your readers the authentic experience of that field

[@marocat4749]

Or write fanfic first, helps too.

[@alejandromagnobarrasa9244]

That’s horrible advice. Sorry dude but their is not a single thing that you mentioned that would help someone find themselves. A person loses himself in all those things. from the passage of time to war and especially love you lose yourself in those pursuits. To find yourself you listen to music that you would listen to as a kid or music that your parents or grand parents enjoyed you spend time with your parents find out about their lives to contextualize your own experiences and you spend time With Jesus our Savior He is the only one who knows you inside and out past and future He is the only one who can set you on the proper path to develop your own voice and Hes the only one that cares if you become who your meant to be or just another brain dead clone of an dream and hope that never existed

[@pleasekillyoursef]

@@alejandromagnobarrasa9244 lol, got any good writing to back up that claim?

[@cortomaltese5206]

23:05 I agree, but its important to have a deep understanding of not just what works but WHY it works. Not doing that is how you end up with stuff like the Karsten Runquist short films, something made by someone who knows the classics and has a huge film knowledge, as evident by his vast letterboxd logs, but who ends up making incredibly flawed and soulless movies despite being clearly influenced by the "greats"

[@cayfire129]

Here are just a few pieces of advice that I personally find helpful: 1) Never think you need an order. Believing that you can’t start writing until you’ve fully finished your outline, or you are 100% about your story, isn’t helping. You’re just stalling for time. Do some outlining, even if you have little to work with, then go think some more, then outline some more, then maybe write some dialogue, then think some more, etc etc. the only thing stopping you from going back a step and editing more is yourself. 2) Writing isn’t a straight line. You may think that you have to write your story in the exact order of how you’re telling it, but that’s flat out wrong. If you write a scene at the beginning of your story, that may give you a good idea for the ending, which facilitates another scene earlier, and maybe that scene foreshadows something later, which involves a character from another part, so on and so forth. Always be fluid. Writing isn’t a straight line, it’s a crisscrossing web of moments that come together or make a bigger whole.

[@Dookieman1975]

From what I’ve seen in movies/shows, I think romances work better if they interact more like friends. Feels more casual instead of people trying to act like they’re a couple or doing what they think is normal. But then that makes me ask why not just make them friends

[@Kit-in2fd]

I love watching these videos while doing literally anything cuz they’re helpful and also easy to just listen to while I’m doing stuff

[@jeffscrungle6179]

I'm not gonna lie, my heart stopped for a second when at the end of that video I heard the stock ''ring the bell'' ding and I saw that graphic come up, scariest shit since those two youtubers died chasing that creek dude.

[@WeRNotAlive]

R.I.P. JaxOnFire. You were um legend.

[@jeffscrungle6179]

@@WeRNotAlive 🙏🪦🪦

[@randomtree7295]

7:50 oh! I haven't written any flash fiction myself but in recent years I have written quite a bit of free form poetry and I really feel it has really improved my ability to create atmosphere and my writing in general

[@girlrunningfromproblems]

One of my personal comments was from a guy that I worked at a writing internship with who told me, “you can cry and mope about the submissions that say no, but cherish the rejected submissions that tell you that it just wasn’t what they were looking for at the moment, or they had other work. People accepting submissions have hundreds to choose from, and hey as long as you were a good one in the rejection pile is good regardless.” The advice has helped me care less whenever I get rejected while still honing on making sure I make a good piece of work

[@elliart7432]

The interacting with the environment one is so true, I didn't even notice it, lol. My go to whenever I'm unsure how to continue or where to start is to pretend like I'm there and just go to town describing sensory experiences.

[@ChloeAriT]

I did a lot of writing on twitter last year and that really instilled two things in me: 1. the value of a good hook. I see a lot of people start their story with setting the scene, and no real sign of where the story is going or what it is about. especially if your audience has no idea what to expect, give them something to latch on to in your first couple of sentences. doesn't have to be super elaborate, just something interesting. some kind of question or thematic statement. 2. making your pacing and formatting fit your medium. if you're writing for twitter, every tweet is a beat, and you need to know how to write with that in mind. if you're writing a screenplay, think of the camera, the actors, the scenery. if you're writing a novel, make sure your chapters have a nice flow to them and aren't too long or too short in odd ways.

[@ariboehm115]

Research, research, research. Especially with settings, as it helps create a more fleshed out world. You will often find yourself down a rabbit hole and find so many ideas to choose from, and these ideas can be manipulated into the story however you see fit. Also keeping track of your ideas by some means is a must-do.

[@IsaacMayerCreativeWorks]

I’m more a composer than a writer but I’ll say that one bit of composing advice that has worked really well for me is to sit at a piano and goof around/improvise for at least ten minutes. If you come up with a theme that you find yourself coming back to, then do a real bare-bones recording of it on a voice memo app. Then stop and get lunch. After that, transcribe the theme onto whatever composition software you use (I’m basic and use Finale). Once you have the thematic material down then the development and arrangement is miles easier.

[@sharkjumpingwalrus6744]

One advice that I will always stand by is rules of writing are tools of writing. The ultimate goal is to make a story that is more interesting or more compelling to the people you are writing for, and any rule that does not do that is not a rule worth using for that story.

[@kaemonbonet4931]

Great writing advice: Always add a train.

[@Wince_Media]

When I first saw this video I was so damn excited! This is one of my favorite series from you guys! I think the "show a beta reader your story without telling them anything about it" is such a good piece of writing advice too, as well as the advice on "you can't edit a first page", so here are some writing tips from me, which I'll try to differentiate from the writing tips I've talked about previously. Note that these work for me specifically, so some may be just subjective writing preferences. -Add comments during drafting. (Something like this) //Or this to differentiate your comments from the draft. For me, it really helps me with my insecurities of a line and allows me to just move on without worrying too much. Plus, it can help with what beta readers can comment on and with your revisions since you know what you're insecure about -I feel themes will naturally occur as you write a story (but you should still be conscious of any potential themes that may arise in your work. Also, death of the author means some people can grab themes from your work that you never intended, which is cool), but if you really want to solidify the themes of your story, pretend to be a video essayist and analyze your own work (I just like doing that because its fun). Any unintended discoveries can be intentionally strengthened during revisions to get a more cohesive narrative work. -This is something called snowflake outlining since it resembles the snowflake fractal, but what I like to do for writing (whether it be plot or characters) is to start out with a base summary, then split it into beginning/middle/end, then split it again and again (so into chapters, then into scenes, then into individual lines), filling out each new branch as you go until you get a fully realized plot/character. -In order to fill this stuff out, think about each of your characters and what needs to be done into the story. If a character doesn't do anything, give them a side plot where they do something (and try to differentiate from other side plots if you can. If one side plot is similar to another, you can always compare/make parallels to each other). If something that needs to be done isn't in your story, find a vacant place or character where you can put it in. -Come up with your main twists/ending pretty early on. It's easier to flesh out a beginning/characters over time than it is to flesh out a good ending or twist, especially if you're writing a mystery. -Once you have a relatively good gist on the plot and characters/arcs, you should start writing (I feel this helps me write a more cohesive and intentional work as I know things a lot better). Sometimes a good new idea can appear during the writing process, so don't feel bad if you don't have every single thing planned out. IDK if these are praiseworthy or roastworthy lol

[@basillemmie4595]

First things first, amazing video as always! ✨ I don't have much great advice on my own, but I will say advice I've received from this channel has truly improved my inspiration. I used to be obsessed with this idea every word in the first draft had to be perfect, so much so I'd burn myself out and give up. I guess I would say for advice, try to commit yourself to something. The more stories you finish, start to end, the stronger a writer you will become. Don't obsess over the quality, you are your own worst critic. So take a step back, breathe, and just write. ❤️

[@charathedemon5939]

A writing tip from me is to challenge your writing with different genres. Think of it as leveling up the skill in a different way.

[@jamwrightiam]

First thing as a Gal both in content creation and who sold her soul to learn marketing, get that hustle King Maker, Mayfair, and Less is Morgue for the win Second and to the point I struggle a lot with the whole just writing it down part due to a lot, with mental and physical limitations, to things like being a second language English writer but almost only having clients wanting/speaking English (comms open get that hustle). So I've made a bunch of alternative ways to still get it down, but around the barrier of struggling to focus on writing. My personal most used, Speech to text. Sure it's not good, but it works for a rough draft, especially in narrative stories. And it's very nice to have a way to take what you're thinking and put it down for later. Related to that is recording yourself can be a good fast way to archive your ideas, but still doesn't quite work as writing cause of less editable ime. Event lists are also one of my favorites, Listing the story out in a simplified form helps me especially with scenes, and it allows easy way to rearrange scenes for foreshadowing/flashbacks, just for some ideas This doesn't work for everyone, but music /ambience to get in the headspace is something I work with, either just some simple background ambience to drown out distractions or curated playlist for the setting can come in handy, just don't spend too much time on making them (I def have) And related, if writing a character or dialogue try listening to audio that matches the said writing in some ways. I like to do this with characters with strong tones or accents, listening to real people talking or singing is great way of noticing patterns and distinctions to give their speech more depth. don't just copy lines but listen for details or characteristic in the media And as just one final little idea I hold dear, always try new things/styles. This may be a hot take but I think one of the most dangerous spots a creator can find is doing the same things and only that, because not only does it stop your chances of most growth, but can make you loose interest in even the stuff you originally loved. Thanks for your time and have a good one! Edit god damn I didn't realize how long this is I'm so sorry it's all here folks

[@scolek22]

Well. One of the things I've been doing is actually using videos in this series to make me write. I microdosed the 7 hour wendignightmarefest to get my latest fic done. To turn that into actionable advice, I'd say if you're having trouble motivating yourself to write, find out what motivates you. For me, it seems I require being well-fed, I work better at night, and I am driven at least in part by righteous indignation, whether that be knowing I can rise above being Chucked, or if my cat is sitting on my hand while I'm writing and I want her to know that she is just a little baby and cannot pin me down. It's silly but it works. Of course, that's just for fanfiction. I'll have to come up with something else for when I start working on some original short stories, as the reward of ao3 kudos and the arbitrary deadline of an anime character's birthday will not be there for me at the finish line. Just second draft time.

[@unremarkablechannel8194]

Writing tip from someone who's been looking over a lot of their old stories lately: If there's a story you wrote as a kid or teenager, odds are that there will be a character that is suspiciously similar to how you were when you started writing it, and that character will be, if not the protagonist outright, in a very prominent role. Ask yourself: Should that character really be the star of the story, or are there more interesting characters that could make better protagonists? Should that character even be in the story at all? Be honest with yourself. Author Avatar-type characters are, as I see them, often a tool for new writers who can't quite write in any perspective but their own yet. Unless that perspective truly enhances the story, put the character out to pasture and try another one. Know that there's pieces of yourself in all of your characters anyway, because they're yours, and revel in the differences you can create between yourself and your writing. I will say that Author Avatars can be used well, and if any of you start throwing Mary Sue accusations around, even if it's at your own writing, I W I L L F I N D Y O U.

[@jasperthecrab2661]

two nuggets of advice from me: 01. sometimes it helps to be working on more than one story/project at once because for adhd heads like me, sometimes it gets boring to work on only one at a time, and you never know what ideas might offshoot from working on more than one at a time 02. every once in a while, do something else. no seriously, part of writing comes from doing something else other than writing. this is where you get your inspiration--from things you read, watch, the things you see around you, to even the smallest day-to-day things could get the gears in your head turning. stories are made from actually writing the thing and everything else that feeds into writing the thing.

[@Soberhamster11001100]

Catalogue turns of phrases you like. I’ve been going through Lovecraft’s stories, and found “the eternity of an hour” from his short story Celephais.

[@Emery_Pallas]

As for a some Writing Advice. I am more an artist then a writer and have a penchant for worldbuilding but to give my own two cents. I came up with 6 pieces of advice, for anyone who needs, it. Having some of these written down for the first time ever, I will definitely be using these in future, 1. World-building is a very good thing to have as long as it benefits the story being told. To use an example from the video, Soil composition is a useful thing to know when it comes to agriculture as it can infer what plants can grow thus is an major element in developing settings, but if what a place can grow doesn’t matter to what your writing or this information can’t be delivered in your story in some way (be it literal or metaphorical), then it’s just pointless. 2. In creating settlements (towns, cities ect.) in any project involving worldbuilding, there are 5 main things you need to keep in mind. Consumption (how do they get their food, water and other resources), Communication (what places do they communicate with, why and how) Defence (how do they defend themselves if at all), Exretion (how they expel of waste, be it excrement or rubbish), and Culture (Both Historical and Modern, and how they intermingle, along with other miscellaneous stuff. What it means to live here). Though don’t forget point zero, “GEOGRAPHY” This is point zero because this is mandatory to all aspects here. Now this may seem a lot but the best point of advice I can give on this I got from the tumblr advice video, “the limp and the eyepatch”, though instead of taking it to characters, take it to setting. Find interesting hooks in how your settlement deal with these questions that will make this setting stand out. Avatar does this all the time with around 1 to 2 traits, for example: Omashu is defined by how it transports resources around the city, Northern Water Tribe is defined by its Canals and Ice based architecture, Ba Sing Se is defined by its class structure, ect. For an example from my own work, one of the island regions in my setting use Olive Oil for fuel, as it grows plentifully in the region and thus olive trees being considered sacred, with priestesses acting as gardeners all across the island. And through that, you get a very vibrant setting with not a lot of work done 3. I’m paraphrasing a bit but Socrates said “there is only one thing I know, and it is that I know nothing”. I’ve chosen to interpret this as “always question if you know what your on about and always second guess your preconceptions. At best this will allow you to break apart your preconceptions and see the world in a whole new light, and at worst will give you a better understanding of how the pieces work. Either is good for getting ideas. I also feel a lot of awful people’s worse trait is the inability to accept that they can simply just be wrong. 4. If you go far back enough all human innovation and creativity is based on Nature and the experience of Life itself, from shark-based swimsuits to Pride and Prejudice. When writing, remember to think as much about this world we live in, as you do the fictional settings that inspire you, as your experiences will help develop your unique voice, and make you both a better writer, artist, and overall a better human being. 5. It’s important to make sure your writing is efficient, though don’t forget that more can often be more efficient then less when it comes to stories. Long drawn-out sentences can created a mood which short snappy sentences can’t, and figuring out when you feel each works best is important. 6. When designing characters, the little things they do, act or say that aren’t directly relevant to the plot are really important. They provide a sense that your characters exist outside of what your saying, and if you can figure out how to intertwine the plot with these traits, the better. Some of my characters have traits like these, such as “Collects Rocks” or “uses primitive audio recordings in place of writing because they have really bad dyslexia and thus needs to find alternative ways to do things like jotting notes down”. To use another bit of my own advice, the latter is based on a friend. Sorry if this went on a lot, I tend to get very long on these sorts of things to try and get everything out, if any of y’all want more I am willing to go into further detail in replies.

[@Crystal_959]

Some advice I’ve come to appreciate: if you’re really struggling to write and get anything down on the page, try writing with a friend. Sometimes these big projects can be absolutely mind numbing to work on alone, and having someone to bounce ideas off of can make a world of difference, make the writing experience more fun, and improve the quality of the work as a whole

[@m1zz613]

one piece of advice i personally find helpful is that characters should have an elevator pitch of sorts. one should be able to explain the core of their character or their core so you know where they start and where theyre going. this has to be done in relation to other character building work. but its a good tool to help me keep my focus. (just like world buidling sickness theres character developing/building sickness as well)

[@icewinerose1718]

One that helps me when I get stuck writing in circles or having no idea where to go in a scene is to figure out an end point. Either to the scene, the chapter, the story, whatever. You don’t ever have to arrive there, but having a goal to deviate from can be helpful if you get stuck in ruts.

[@elliart7432]

20:00, I feel like a great example of this is the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A lot of people criticize the fact that they have these cool magic flashy powers instead of just being ninjas, but the conflict remains balanced because, well, it turns out just _having_ insane amounts of power doesn't actually translate into _skill._ So they actually end up getting their asses handed to them quite a lot in the beginning because no weapon is incredible enough to make up for lack of experience. Then when they do get good, their opponents up their game too. besides it always just really funny to watch a character accidently beat themselves up with magic nun-chucks, or fire up their new flashy turbo weapon just to immediately go flying into a wall.

[@plagueonhumanity7413]

I... I made the soil map. It was for an agriculture project... it was the only thing I knew how to do....

[@bananajewell8846]

My advice (for episodic stories): If a certain chunk (about 20-30%) of your fanbase figures out your upcoming twist, that's a good thing. It means you laid out things in a manner that is clear enough for people to piece things together, but just vague enough for interpretation and discussion. If a majority of fans figure it out, or if only one or two people figure it out, there's a problem.

[@TheCatBehind]

This one is very much based on my current 4 year-ish writer's block, but: Improv. I have not been able to write or come back to writing that I have managed to put down in years, but doing improv (through dnd) has let me have an outlet for creativity and writing. And this helps with my main 2 issues I have - perfectionism and over explaining. I am lucky enough to be both a player and a dungeon master in 2 different games, and both help me in very different ways, but most importantly they keep me going as someone who has been stuck for so long.

[@kenisu-of-dragons5766]

Here's my tip. It seems like the influx of online reviewing lingo and tv trope buzzwords have made writers more insecure about what they want to put out. They feel the need to be meta and completely unpredictable, as if to backpedal on their true intentions. That can work just as well, but don't be afraid to be as genuine as you want either. It takes balls to have a heart.

[@etharchildres3976]

More of a Writing Prompt but: Write a scene that describes emotions as blunt as possible and then rewrite it to make the emotions subtler. To go further rewrite it a third time and add description to the setting. This will help you get your editing gears into place for the machine to start moving.

[@BaobhanloreArt]

This is a piece of advice I heard somewhere in the authortube pocket dimension that has stuck with me: If your plot relies on fully autonomous people repeatedly being stupid, you need a stronger plot. This is an issue I have with Yor in Spy x Family. She's a grown adult who works in a deadly criminal field yet she makes the dumbest mistakes just so Anya can run away. In the pet fayre episode, she had already been abducted twice and Yor still let this literal child wander of on her own. There are exceptions to this rule, for instance a comedy or commentary on public reception, but when it comes to more serious projects your characters do need to think somewhat logically and learn from mistakes.

[@Emery_Pallas]

Ah yes, this is known as the idiot plot, where the plot would be resolved much easier if everyone wasn’t an idiot. This isn’t always a bad thing (it could even be argued that a lot of Shakespeares plays are idiot plots, but when this idiocy is not founded in the characters own flaws and stuff, it comes off as out of character and shows the strings a bit.

[@etharchildres3976]

As someone who likes that show I have to admit that it feels weird how Yor seems to have forgotten that she’s not actually married to Loid. I still think there’s a lot to enjoy but when characters have lapses in logic it can be a little much to bear with.

[@cortomaltese5206]

39:05 I deeply, deeply apreciate that roast

[@Dragonite43]

Here are my writing advice: 1. If you are a new writer, understand what writing length is expected by publishers. This will help give you an idea on if your story is too bloated or too thin. 2. When writing your story, you don't have to write in order of the first to the last chapter. Try writing the scenes you have a vivid image of first, and then work to connect those scenes. 3. If you are suffering from writers blocks, write a scene between two characters. The scene doesn't have to be high stakes. It could be as simply as two characters seating down for a drink, and the interesting back and forth that comes from the two characters interacting. The purpose is for you to relax and write whatever, instead of feeling stressed when writing. Once you are done, you could use those elements from the writing session in your story. 4. Simplify elements of the story. It is sometimes easy to make the story too complex, or introduce convoluted reasons for events happening. This will help the reader more easily suspend their disbelief, keep the story going at a steady pace, and strengthen the link between cause and effort. 5. When writing a smart or dumb character, clearly establish what aspect the character is smart or dumb in. For example, the smart character can easily do complex math problems in their head, but are terrible at science. On the other hand, the dumb character might do terrible in school, but knows the entire Star Wars lore. By establishing these flaws with lighter conflicts, it makes the reader more accepting when they appear in more dangerous conflicts.

[@j.c.2240]

A writing tip I've noticed through being a novice and a hobbyist: If you have a very nasty inner critic, like me, it may be helpful to join a social club of writers of similar skill level. Another tip that helps me is to occasionally write something that is never meant to be shared with an audience, venting frustration or other personal stuff. This helps me unclog my brain, but probably won't be helpful for anyone else

[@missmarsh1011]

My tips and tricks: -For prose authors: sidestep the whole "said is dead"/ "just use 'said'" debate by not tagging dialogue! Just have the character do or think something in the same paragraph in which they are speaking and the reader will fill in the blanks. Only use dialogue tags if it wouldn't be clear who is speaking otherwise or if the character's tone doesn't match the typical implication of the words (e.g. "'I hate you,' he cooed; 'I love you,' she snapped".) -Also for prose authors: when in a character's viewpoint, avoid "felt" words and simply describe things as the character notices them. For example, instead of "He saw the gnarled trees spreading their branches over the crypt," or "She felt a chill wind blow across the plain," write "The gnarled trees spread their branches over the crypt" or "A chill wind blew across the plain." Again, the reader will fill in the blanks and understand that the character is perceiving the thing. -For beta reading: Not all beta readers will know how to fix your story, and you as a beta reader may or may not know how to fix your friend's story, but anyone can share their reactions. All beta readers should pay attention to whenever they say "Huh?" "Yuck!" "Yeah, right!" or "Hell yeah!" --A reader says "Huh?" when they are confused by some aspect of a story. This may be a sign that the aspect is poorly explained and the author needs to make it clearer in the next draft. If the confusing aspect is supposed to be a mystery that will be explained later, you probably need to help the reader understand that by having characters notice something's off and decide it's something they'll need to figure out at some point. --A reader says "Yuck!" when they are upset or turned off by some aspect of a story *in a bad way.* There's nothing inherently wrong with shocking and challenging readers, but consider what the challenge is in service to and what kind of audience you want to cultivate. If a reader says "Yuck," that may be a sign that you need to either revise that aspect or change your target audience. --A reader says "Yeah, right!" when they fail to suspend their disbelief about something in the story. This may be a sign that something needs to be either changed or explained better. Even in the most fantastical settings, characters still need to have authentic human (or inhuman) reactions and do things for reasons that make sense to them. --A reader says "Hell yeah!" when there's something in the story they really love. When you get this reaction, great! You're on the right track. Probably do more of that! -You don't have to take all feedback to heart. Sometimes people aren't going to get what you're going for and it's okay to ignore them. Consider what's best for your actual target audience. -Don't have a beta reader look at more than one draft of the same manuscript. Their feedback on the next draft you show them will either be "Yay, you fixed the stuff I told you to fix! Good job!" or "Hey, why didn't you fix the stuff I told you to fix?" Get fresh eyes on your work.

[@armythecat]

I have a few tips as a non-professional writer myself. 1. If possible always take notes of whatever sudden burst of inspiration you feel like when you are listening to music or playing/watching something, even if it is just a single sentence or fragment of scene. At some point you can have enough of these notes to build a story plus it helps so these sudden ideas aren't lost forever, because you will probably forget them if you don't note them down 2. Keep your old projects even if they are, feel or look cringey as all hell, to have a good idea of how much you progressed and also to be able to rewrite them better in the future if you feel. 3. If you feel incapable of writing longer form stories like long books or novellas, don't be discouraged, write short scenes, page long descriptions or short scenarios that express a small story or a set of feelings you wanna share. It may not be long and it may not be a full blown book, but even doing short fragments like this you'll hone your craft and learn how to structure and come up with longer stories as time goes on, or to connect those broken scenes better and form a longer story out of them. 4. Try spacing your drafts by a while, be it a few days or weeks or whatever works for you, but give it at least a day or so. After the story isn't super fresh in your mind and you can read your draft with a bit more of new eyes, you'll probably catch wonky word choices or details that feel a bit too obtuse that you didn't realize while writing becaus the whole picture was so fresh in your head while you were writing. No matter what though, keep writing, keep sharing your ideas and keep having fun, the world will be glad to have more people sharing their messages and feelings around like this. You can and will do it if you give it enough time.

[@niallc.7612]

One thing I found helped me become a stronger writer was RP. From DnD to WOW, that form of storytelling allowed me to differentiate characters with different voices, personalities and traits and that seeps into my writing as I can better differentiate characters without making them all sound the same. Sometimes if I'm having a little trouble I like to rp a certain character with friends or just write a throwaway piece in their voice to help my distinguish what makes them different from the others.

[@teglindouglas9586]

Something that’s good to think about when writing a story with a concrete protagonist is “why are they the protagonist?” Other than the narrator or camera follows them, what does the conflict really have to do with them? Are they more reactionary to the main conflict or initiative? How does the plot and conflict change if that character wasn’t in the MC shoes?

[@mewuniverse7326]

My little bit of writing advice gained from personal experience (that I don't doubt Gus and Henry will agree with me on at least in part: Solo projects are great and all, but you should try writing and finishing a project with other people at least once. Writing with other people has helped me improve my writing style, find/develop better story ideas, develop a thicker skin for criticism, AND--most importantly--helped me learn how to write more kinds of characters. Two different authors are inherently going to write the same character or archetype in their own unique way, and each person has character preferences, so I've had my eyes opened to so many different angles for handling a character and their arc.

[@leadheart8504]

Something I like to (because I'm a huge worldbuilding nerd) is to set up a Ladder of Conflict. The idea being that there are multiple, if not infinite levels of physical conflict, with one level being where the focus characters are in at any point, but a level above is a higher level of conflict and power while the level below is of a lesser power-level conflict. The use being to be able to utilize as many levels as deemed necessary and natural to make a grounded and dynamic situation, as well as attempting to fit a central theme in each level. For example: You have a set of main characters who come from different kingdoms who are all chasing after one person, in whatever scene a character is in they will always at least be in one level of conflict, the example one being say, fighting a group of soldiers from a kingdom. The focused level here is between the characters and this group. One level above that would be say, the leaders of the soldiers who come from a single kingdom, characters who aren't actively interacting with the characters in that scene but still actively exist, and that level of conflict is the leaders not trusting each other for one reason or another. One level below could be between the characters, the characters who have issues with each other due to the other's origins or recent events. Ladder of Conflict could make it where the characters' trust issues with each other make them have a losing battle as they aren't working together, a situation made even more chaotic by another group of soldiers from a different leader who are there to sabotage the original soldiers by any means necessary. Then at the end of the conflict, maybe the characters just barely got out or even one of them dies, leaving the rest to ruminate on the fact that if they had just worked together, the situation would not have been nearly as bad as it was and they wouldn't require time and resources to heal, as well maybe the leaders are also annoyed and further angered by each other because due to their mistrust of the other they missed out the perfect chance to finally be rid of a issue. The central level of conflict is affected by the levels directly above and below it, as well as it actively changes each level of conflict because at least one level has been drastically changed by it for the moment. For me, I love using this on every level possible because I'm trying write lore for a ttrpg I'm working on, and a large part of the fun in it is giving reasonable explanations for why everyone other then the players hate each other and are actively working against each other, despite the fact that several levels of conflict above them is a active threat at any moment. It's a fun way to add chaos and as well be able to pull in a new issue for the central focus. You don't even have to be in depth with each level except for the main level of focus, the point is that the reader or viewer knows those other levels are there and explains why chaotic or seemingly convenient things are happening in a way that feels natural.

[@TuesdaysArt]

Nothing is too precious to be changed. Even if you had the character for years, even if you really like a ship and want it to be endgame, getting overly attached to a specific thing could hurt your story. There's a project I've wanted to do for a long time that I kept dropping and picking back up because I found making the model sheets tedious. What did I do? Redesign the characters! Not only do they look more distinct, I like the new designs more-to the point I started to wonder why I held onto the old designs for so long. Just the other day (for the same project), I decided to take a sledgehammer to the ship I've fixated on and wanted to be endgame for over a year. It was painful, but I almost immediately rejoiced over what it did for my story. Instead of continuing my futile effort to keep the ship a thing for my own self indulgence (despite knowing how messy it would've been), I made the former love interest ideologically opposed to the main character in a way that would make them incompatible and the story improved tenfold. The romance aspect is still there, but it's leaning even more towards the doomed romance I was going for and it'll be even more painful for the main character because there's no salvaging it. Am I saying you need to change things for the sake of changing things? Hell no. I just know how writers can be repulsed by change. People can tell if you've taken an RP character and put them in a story without revising them because of how desperately the writers try to shape the story around the character they're sentimental over at the expense of an interesting narrative.

[@squidexist17]

I'd say something I always keep in mind while writing is the interconnection of every element in your story. Your character's childhood has a remarkable impact on their current psyche, the mind of a kid is so malleable, the smallest thing could have greatly changed your character. Connect your character arcs to your theme, reflect your theme in the mechanics of your world (for example, Arcane. The existence of piltover in itself looming above everyone else reflects the themes of elitism. Bad explanation but I can elaborate in replies ig.)

[@goldensstalos]

I'm a commissioned writer. Not exactly a big fish, but I make some money and I have some people who come back to me again and again. Here are a few things that have really helped me out on my journey: When you write something new, you're probably going to think that it's either absolutely great or totally horrible. But first impressions lie. It's usually somewhere in the middle. If you can, take a day or two between writing it and judging it. You may be surprised how your opinion changes. Writing to a schedule can be tough and daunting. Sometimes I'm on the hook for 6000-9000 words and I feel I can barely write even 100! But in times like that, you just put your head down and keep moving forward. Doing a little bit every day or every other day will get you to your word count before you know it. Just don't forget to revise later! Showing your work to others is a good idea. But always remember that it is *your* work. Don't get possessive over it and don't lock people out but you should also strike the balance. There are people - perfectly good, well meaning people - who will twist a work to be about what they want it to be about without even realising that's what they're doing. This is a tough one; it's a fine balance between knowing what your story is supposed to be and pig-headed refusal to change anything because it's already so *perfect.* But you should still try to find your balance. Or people you trust. Preferably both. Editors are amazing. Yes, as a writer, you can edit your own stuff but you'll always see what you meant to write rather than what you actually did. An editor doesn't have your biases. Plus, having two minds working on your story will always be better than just your own! I could go on for ages, but I am pretty sure you guys don't want me overloading your comment section. Hopefully even if this isn't chosen for the video, some people out there in the comment section will read it and get something out of it!

[@amethystimagination3332]

When trying to think of an idea for a plot point or a premise, it can help to just ask yourself “what if.” Go on a hike and ask yourself “what if I came across a ghost?” Get a coffee and ask yourself, what if a gargoyle was my barista.” Now, you can’t just say “what if blank” and call it a day, but it’s a great building block and it keeps your eyes peeled for potential stories out in the real world.

[@lucethedoormat81]

this is more so advice for people like me, but writing is a broad term and it doesn't *just* have to apply to character writing, world building is a fun pass time and hobby, even if it's not very well seen by many people, sometimes just making a world can be fun! just describing events disconnected from people entirely, outside of maybe a few references to political figures has always been what I find fun and interesting

[@Neilhammond64]

"A planet eater and a clan of wizards" You just described KOTOR 2.

[@cocobeebunnied7371]

I feel like one way I’ve done some “disposable” writing as a fanfic author was a book of Oneshots. I could explore ideas and stuff I never would invest time into otherwise and while almost none of it was good it gave me some good experience

[@Dragonage2ftw]

Consuming media is just as important as writing it when it comes to honing your craft.

[@cosmichal9548]

The life-changing writing tip I got was "edit as you go". Make notes about what you're changing as you write, but MOVE FORWARD. If you change your mind on something and spend time going back to fix it, you're wasting time that could have been spent moving the project along - or worse yet you'll change your mind back and have to do it all over again. Comment features are the perfect tool for this. Leave your future editing self a note, and then keep writing like you already made the change.

[@debrachambers1304]

Did you mean to write "DON'T edit as you go"?

[@ThatGreenMach1ne]

On tracing back creative lineages, I've actually been playing the remastered version of Live A Live, as it was a huge inspiration for Toby Fox, and because it's finally been released in the west.

[@domehammer]

It's the worst when my brain goes "Oh you meant to type it like that so let me fix that so you see it as that." then later I check what I wrote and just think "brain you have failed me!"

[@demonnox5829]

I don't have much advice to give but I guess al give it a try Dire Gentleman's I've always had a hard time writing consistently, but something that's been helping me lately is having a writing partner (My younger brother). The daunting task of writing for our project is made substantially easier knowing whenever I'm not actively working on it someone with the same vision as me is, even more so when they try to make up for your weakness's and communicate clearly. So yeah, if theirs anyone in your life who's also a writer that you synergize with well, it might be worth it to try working with them on something to see if that positively impact's your work flow. They still wont be as good as my bro tho, P.S. Its also good to take break's when your starting to feel yourself dragging your feet, nothing will make you hate writing more then staring at a blank page for god knows how long. ALSO SAVE YOUR SPAGHETTI I ACCIDENTALLY DELETED THIS RIGHT BEFORE FINISHING!!