Some great advice here and I agree you should never have to "suffer" for art. I have journals and notebooks next to my writing area as well. You never know when inspiration may strike.
I think you have appreciated Jeremy the most out of everyone haha, thank you. I include his magic quite a lot.
Your are not alone. Also, I wish we didn't forget our love of writing as often as we do, as it is indeed hard work. But if we didn't love it, we wouldn't keep going back to it and try to improve it/make progress. Perhaps one day I will discover how to maintain joy in the writing process, even during the hard parts. For now, I journey on and squeeze it in between work and other obligations.
Yep - I've come to the opinion that I'll truly find the joy in the whole thing when I don't need to have another means of income. If I was paid enough just to be creative then I would be joyous.
Great tips. I use Scrivener as well and it’s helped me organize finished work, prompts, scraps, and works in progress. It’s great. But I haven’t thought about keeping journals as much. I did recently buy one I thought was pretty but I’m not sure I’ll be as good keeping up with it as I do digital files.
I let out a "whoa" when I saw a certain newsletter linked at the end of this post. On the first point, I remember in college I was getting stressed over writing for creative writing classes, and it took joining a fanfic community and writing fanfic for me to remember that writing is fun. I personally find writing in transit hard, I've never done well when I try to write on an airplane.
A lot of people will say that you need to write every day, but I think the take care of yourself point is more important. Plus it's hard to create the distance needed to go back to something if you have to work on something every day. I've come to dislike anything that seems to make creative writing more mechanical.
I agree. I think that the mechanical nature of writing kills creativity, yet there must be time made for it in order to happen so it's a delicate balance. Also, perhaps a train would be better? Writing retreats look different for everyone.
I just want to take a moment to thank you for becoming a paid subscriber. I'm deeply grateful and just wanted to make you aware of that. The mention is a small token of my gratitude. Thank you for this comment and for being here!
With the mechanical comment I meant more things like strict story outlines, the kind that tell you exactly what role each scene you write has. I think I did write on a train once, but can't remember that clearly, I don't ride trains often. Definitely not going to write on the subway.
Thanks for the mention, I'm trying to make more of an effort to support other creators. I still need to catch up on the story now that I can read all of it.
If you want consistent, active feedback, I recommend looking into attending a local critique group. Not everyone has a thought to share about everything, I'm afraid. I'm actually working on an additional advice on writing post, and someone had a similar issue where they wanted more feedback. Is it that you wish to have more engagement overall? Or are you wanting people to elaborate more on what they approve of/or don't approve of in the comments?
Writing on a phone or computer is convenient because it's always with you and the words can come out faster so this makes sense. To be clear, would you like to read about someone's input on how to determine what material to share and when it's ready? Just want to make sure before I venture down that road.
Okay, I see what you're saying. In one way or another, having to choose between art and how to market art is a quandary for a lot of us so you're not a lone and this would be something a lot of people can relate to. You also bring up the point of how vulnerable it can be to share what you've made. I'd love to make a post talking about this and I've put it in my planner. Unfortunately a lot of unexpected life events have come up for me recently and it will take me a while to get to it, but it's in the que. Thank you for this idea!
Some great advice here and I agree you should never have to "suffer" for art. I have journals and notebooks next to my writing area as well. You never know when inspiration may strike.
Great post!
Thank you and especially thank you to Jeremy the wizard cat.
All this advice, which I keep telling myself all the time, is the best reassurance that I'm not doing anything wrong. And that I'm not the only one.
You have indeed released me from my mental prison. Thank you!
I think you have appreciated Jeremy the most out of everyone haha, thank you. I include his magic quite a lot.
Your are not alone. Also, I wish we didn't forget our love of writing as often as we do, as it is indeed hard work. But if we didn't love it, we wouldn't keep going back to it and try to improve it/make progress. Perhaps one day I will discover how to maintain joy in the writing process, even during the hard parts. For now, I journey on and squeeze it in between work and other obligations.
Yep - I've come to the opinion that I'll truly find the joy in the whole thing when I don't need to have another means of income. If I was paid enough just to be creative then I would be joyous.
Cats, of course, already have that...
Great tips. I use Scrivener as well and it’s helped me organize finished work, prompts, scraps, and works in progress. It’s great. But I haven’t thought about keeping journals as much. I did recently buy one I thought was pretty but I’m not sure I’ll be as good keeping up with it as I do digital files.
I let out a "whoa" when I saw a certain newsletter linked at the end of this post. On the first point, I remember in college I was getting stressed over writing for creative writing classes, and it took joining a fanfic community and writing fanfic for me to remember that writing is fun. I personally find writing in transit hard, I've never done well when I try to write on an airplane.
A lot of people will say that you need to write every day, but I think the take care of yourself point is more important. Plus it's hard to create the distance needed to go back to something if you have to work on something every day. I've come to dislike anything that seems to make creative writing more mechanical.
I agree. I think that the mechanical nature of writing kills creativity, yet there must be time made for it in order to happen so it's a delicate balance. Also, perhaps a train would be better? Writing retreats look different for everyone.
I just want to take a moment to thank you for becoming a paid subscriber. I'm deeply grateful and just wanted to make you aware of that. The mention is a small token of my gratitude. Thank you for this comment and for being here!
With the mechanical comment I meant more things like strict story outlines, the kind that tell you exactly what role each scene you write has. I think I did write on a train once, but can't remember that clearly, I don't ride trains often. Definitely not going to write on the subway.
Thanks for the mention, I'm trying to make more of an effort to support other creators. I still need to catch up on the story now that I can read all of it.
If you want consistent, active feedback, I recommend looking into attending a local critique group. Not everyone has a thought to share about everything, I'm afraid. I'm actually working on an additional advice on writing post, and someone had a similar issue where they wanted more feedback. Is it that you wish to have more engagement overall? Or are you wanting people to elaborate more on what they approve of/or don't approve of in the comments?
Writing on a phone or computer is convenient because it's always with you and the words can come out faster so this makes sense. To be clear, would you like to read about someone's input on how to determine what material to share and when it's ready? Just want to make sure before I venture down that road.
Thanks Geoffrey!
Okay, I see what you're saying. In one way or another, having to choose between art and how to market art is a quandary for a lot of us so you're not a lone and this would be something a lot of people can relate to. You also bring up the point of how vulnerable it can be to share what you've made. I'd love to make a post talking about this and I've put it in my planner. Unfortunately a lot of unexpected life events have come up for me recently and it will take me a while to get to it, but it's in the que. Thank you for this idea!