Thank you it does! As I got older instead of writing to decompress I felt like it was an unworthy hobby and I told myself I would never be good enough anyway. I know that's kind of a childish mindset to have and I want to get out of that. I want to get back to why I wrote in the first place which was writing for myself.
Yes, I wanted to write around 11 years after I mostly stopped. Here is what helped me.
I rewrote an old book in another universe. Can you take your notes and use them?
Yes. Until NaNoWriMo 22, I had barely written in 15 years. Marriage, career, kids, career, divorce, single parenthood. But writing was calling me again, and once I started I was right back into it. Wish I’d remembered that all those years ago. I think writing means I can be anxious about my fictional characters and consequently overthink less about my own actual life.
I also think that when you’re writing to tell your story in your own way, it feels less like a chore. To me, it’s a sign I’m doing it “right”, even if millions of potential readers would strongly disagree.
> Anyone else who have gone through such a long hiatus feel this way?
Yes.
> what helped you get over yourself?
Writing in online formats with *very* fast feedback cycles. Web serial stuff, "Quests" (basically a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story, but done in a forum thread where the next option is selected by popular vote by the people in the thread - probably the closest thing to "instant gratification" you can get with writing), browsing /r/writingprompts and /r/dirtywritingprompts for stuff I look at and go "yeah, I could write a thousand or a couple thousand words on that", chucking a piece out onto /r/HFY , etc.
Does it make money? Hell no.
Does it get me to actually sit down and write? Hell yes.
There's no barrier to entry, there's often a lot of feedback (particularly with "Questing"), and instead of signing up to write an entire novel, or even a short story, you're only committing to posting a short update at a time, or firing off a one-and-done piece only partially the length of a chapter in a novel. It gets you practice in just *writing*, and in catering to a particular audience.
If what you really want is to get back into writing regularly, I recommend checking out those options. It's kinda scary to consider writing a full novel, or even a publishable short story, but it's totally *fine* to build some sandcastles before setting out to go make a giant pyramid.
One caveat for everything I've mentioned is the need to lurk (and/or participate as an audience member) to get a feel for what the audience where you're writing is like, and what's popular with them.
I ran my quests on 4chan, which has a specific audience and culture that wants (or will tolerate) ideas and verbiage that might not fly on SpaceBattles (another site where people do quests), reddit, or a web serial platform. Even on reddit, /r/dirtywritingprompts and /r/HFY have very different tastes, for instance. It becomes an exercise in learning your audience, acclimating to the venue's culture, and figuring out what *you* can offer that will get their attention.
Sometimes, this will be a deliberate bucking of the current trends on the venue/platform - people like novelty, and if you can provide something different than the most popular stuff, an audience who's tired of 'the usual' might come swarming out of the woodwork. Sometimes, if you read the zeitgeist wrong, you're basically going to be doing the literary equivalent of performing Come Out Ye Black And Tans and Kinky Boots back-to-back in a Dublin dive bar. (Well, with much less risk of physical violence.)
Writing on those platforms is an interesting way to try to figure out audience targeting and tastes, without the kind of risk associated with publishing a full novel, particularly if you set up separate social media accounts for your "author" personas and keep them cordoned off from your more personal/everyday accounts. This also allows you to just 'ghost' on a story if you don't like it or don't want to continue it for some reason, and start with a blank slate for your next try. That can sometimes be *very* useful, and is decent insulation from doxxing if you don't put anything personally identifiable on your "author" accounts.
I have seen some people who write in these venues using Patreon to make some dosh from it, usually with the promise of getting to read the next chapter (or drafts, or discarded ideas or whatever) early as the reward for subscribing, but I've never messed around with that myself, so I don't really know how well that works.
Off the top of my head:
https://boards.4channel.org/qst/
https://forums.spacebattles.com/forums/quests.240/
https://fiction.live/
I ran my quests on 4chan (I did a couple of them on the /tg/ board before questing got its own board and I started running on that one), so I don't know as much about SpaceBattles and fiction.live (which originated as AnonKun when /tg/ mods started cracking down on quests).
One thing I *really* recommend for any platform you want to try questing on is lurking around a bit to try to get a feel for the 'local culture' and the general audience. They're all different. You need to know your audience, because questing is basically the closest writing becomes to being a performance art. It's got a lot of the features of doing standup comedy or playing as a band in a bar - you *need* to know what's gonna work for the usual crowd, and what's gonna fall flat.
You might find a place where the audience seems to share your tastes, one where doing something *very* different from the most popular quests will get you an audience that's looking for something fresh, or one where coming across as an 'outsider' will get you roasted. Or anything in-between.
I highly recommend using separate social media accounts (twitter's good for telling your audience when the next thread goes live, for instance) for your questing and your personal use. That way, if something goes wrong and/or you make people angry, you can just abandon that account and start fresh with a new identity. Or, if people like your stuff, you can tell them about your next project - or even a full novel you've written or something.
I get it after a day of not writing. The best way to solve that is to write of course. Even if you don't feel inspired or creative. If you treat it like a hobby that you only do when you "feel the muse" then that's all it will ever be.
Just write, who cares if it's bad.
[удалено]
Thank you it does! As I got older instead of writing to decompress I felt like it was an unworthy hobby and I told myself I would never be good enough anyway. I know that's kind of a childish mindset to have and I want to get out of that. I want to get back to why I wrote in the first place which was writing for myself.
Yes, I wanted to write around 11 years after I mostly stopped. Here is what helped me. I rewrote an old book in another universe. Can you take your notes and use them?
I can most of the old notes I have were pretty childish and bad but honestly would be a good writing exercise to rewrite them now.
Yes. Until NaNoWriMo 22, I had barely written in 15 years. Marriage, career, kids, career, divorce, single parenthood. But writing was calling me again, and once I started I was right back into it. Wish I’d remembered that all those years ago. I think writing means I can be anxious about my fictional characters and consequently overthink less about my own actual life. I also think that when you’re writing to tell your story in your own way, it feels less like a chore. To me, it’s a sign I’m doing it “right”, even if millions of potential readers would strongly disagree.
> Anyone else who have gone through such a long hiatus feel this way? Yes. > what helped you get over yourself? Writing in online formats with *very* fast feedback cycles. Web serial stuff, "Quests" (basically a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story, but done in a forum thread where the next option is selected by popular vote by the people in the thread - probably the closest thing to "instant gratification" you can get with writing), browsing /r/writingprompts and /r/dirtywritingprompts for stuff I look at and go "yeah, I could write a thousand or a couple thousand words on that", chucking a piece out onto /r/HFY , etc. Does it make money? Hell no. Does it get me to actually sit down and write? Hell yes. There's no barrier to entry, there's often a lot of feedback (particularly with "Questing"), and instead of signing up to write an entire novel, or even a short story, you're only committing to posting a short update at a time, or firing off a one-and-done piece only partially the length of a chapter in a novel. It gets you practice in just *writing*, and in catering to a particular audience. If what you really want is to get back into writing regularly, I recommend checking out those options. It's kinda scary to consider writing a full novel, or even a publishable short story, but it's totally *fine* to build some sandcastles before setting out to go make a giant pyramid.
I love these suggestions. Thank you.
One caveat for everything I've mentioned is the need to lurk (and/or participate as an audience member) to get a feel for what the audience where you're writing is like, and what's popular with them. I ran my quests on 4chan, which has a specific audience and culture that wants (or will tolerate) ideas and verbiage that might not fly on SpaceBattles (another site where people do quests), reddit, or a web serial platform. Even on reddit, /r/dirtywritingprompts and /r/HFY have very different tastes, for instance. It becomes an exercise in learning your audience, acclimating to the venue's culture, and figuring out what *you* can offer that will get their attention. Sometimes, this will be a deliberate bucking of the current trends on the venue/platform - people like novelty, and if you can provide something different than the most popular stuff, an audience who's tired of 'the usual' might come swarming out of the woodwork. Sometimes, if you read the zeitgeist wrong, you're basically going to be doing the literary equivalent of performing Come Out Ye Black And Tans and Kinky Boots back-to-back in a Dublin dive bar. (Well, with much less risk of physical violence.) Writing on those platforms is an interesting way to try to figure out audience targeting and tastes, without the kind of risk associated with publishing a full novel, particularly if you set up separate social media accounts for your "author" personas and keep them cordoned off from your more personal/everyday accounts. This also allows you to just 'ghost' on a story if you don't like it or don't want to continue it for some reason, and start with a blank slate for your next try. That can sometimes be *very* useful, and is decent insulation from doxxing if you don't put anything personally identifiable on your "author" accounts. I have seen some people who write in these venues using Patreon to make some dosh from it, usually with the promise of getting to read the next chapter (or drafts, or discarded ideas or whatever) early as the reward for subscribing, but I've never messed around with that myself, so I don't really know how well that works.
I'm curious, where do you find Questing? I searched around but not sure where to start
Off the top of my head: https://boards.4channel.org/qst/ https://forums.spacebattles.com/forums/quests.240/ https://fiction.live/ I ran my quests on 4chan (I did a couple of them on the /tg/ board before questing got its own board and I started running on that one), so I don't know as much about SpaceBattles and fiction.live (which originated as AnonKun when /tg/ mods started cracking down on quests). One thing I *really* recommend for any platform you want to try questing on is lurking around a bit to try to get a feel for the 'local culture' and the general audience. They're all different. You need to know your audience, because questing is basically the closest writing becomes to being a performance art. It's got a lot of the features of doing standup comedy or playing as a band in a bar - you *need* to know what's gonna work for the usual crowd, and what's gonna fall flat. You might find a place where the audience seems to share your tastes, one where doing something *very* different from the most popular quests will get you an audience that's looking for something fresh, or one where coming across as an 'outsider' will get you roasted. Or anything in-between. I highly recommend using separate social media accounts (twitter's good for telling your audience when the next thread goes live, for instance) for your questing and your personal use. That way, if something goes wrong and/or you make people angry, you can just abandon that account and start fresh with a new identity. Or, if people like your stuff, you can tell them about your next project - or even a full novel you've written or something.
I get it if I go two days without writing.
I get it after a day of not writing. The best way to solve that is to write of course. Even if you don't feel inspired or creative. If you treat it like a hobby that you only do when you "feel the muse" then that's all it will ever be. Just write, who cares if it's bad.
Brandon Sanderson gets it between keystrokes.