Tip: Just Write

It has been some time since I last posted here. Mostly, that’s because I’ve been writing my series, Creation, and also the fact that my Esports team got a HUGE boost in population as well as competitiveness.

But, that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten that I pay a good amount of money to have this place up and running. So, this is a breakdown of how my writing has expanded over time.

When I first began writing Creation, I did so with a ton of breakdowns in the plot and what was going to happen. However, the road to getting to those plot points seriously dragged me down a dark corridor and beat me mercilessly with a billy club. I kept getting stuck, writing the same sentences over and over again as I tried to come up with something better. Something more profound, if you will.

So, I changed up how I did things. No more would I follow a direct line through the plot. Instead, I write small plot points, like directions, and see where the story takes me. Sometimes, the characters in the story (I fully immerse myself as the protagonist during writing), go off in completely different directions. And that’s okay. I know I have a ton of editing ahead of me, but man, my writing just flies by now. It’s crazy fast. Is it as good of a plot without the hardcore plotting? No, and I do get a few complaints every so often. But, as I tell my students in English oh so often when they’re staring at a blank page in front of them, “Just write”.

Don’t think, Just write. It’s incredibly important, and likely the best piece of advise I can give to any author who keeps getting stuck, or any author who is trying to get started. Invent your character, your setting, and just write the shit out of it. It’s hard, I get it. But the more that you do it, the easier and better it will be. Now, after you’re done writing, go back and take a crapton of notes about what has occurred in the story. Only once have I had to delete a chapter, and I’ve now written 450k words since last July using this system.

Have fun with it, and write what YOU would want to read.

Thanks!

A.V.A.