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und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87jl07 | i87qrr1 | 1,652,289,881 | 1,652,292,694 | 2 | 6 | I totally get this and it’s a big reason why one of my longest running projects has changed so much. The influence itself isn’t bad! I think you should make notes of all the things you love in a good story, because that is what will fuel you. Have a list to go to, I guess, when you’re feeling unmotivated or uninspired, but see what you can compartmentalize: if you have an idea, think of influences that would complement the original idea, or until you have a strong concept already and are confident in writing it (and you like want to weave in subplots later), then try to filter through it as much as you can. I don’t know if that makes sense, sorry. Also for me, having a sense of story structure helps me decide what ideas will be helpful to include in a story. I’m in a stage with my current project that I’ve only finished a quarter of a very short draft (just to get a feel for the book), and I’m coming up with a lot of ideas for specific scenes that I’m putting on digital notecards and labeling, etc. to have while I’m writing the rest of the draft (keeping overall story structure in mind). | What you need to do is identify your story's though line. There is something that makes the story *your story,* and it exists outside of setting, worldbuilding, and even specific plot points. This thing will often be character-driven, but it could also be a specific narrative outcome. For example, if you're writing a detective story, the through line might be that solving the mystery teaches the detective something about themselves that they didn't want to know. This story could be set in Victorian England, on a space station in the year 2150, or involve some teenage were-creatures... but the protagonist still has a lesson to learn and a mystery to solve. The through line is what makes your story coherent and compelling. Everything else just supports it. | 0 | 2,813 | 3 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87l4xs | i87qrr1 | 1,652,290,479 | 1,652,292,694 | 2 | 6 | Ah, I have the exact same problem and though I’ve managed to curb it a little, it’s still an ongoing thing sometimes so take what I’m saying here with a grain of salt. When I notice that my plot is starting to get a bit too convoluted with all these ideas that I’ve taken in, it helps to look at each theme/element and ask myself why I want to add these things? What about it do I actually like? Is it something that I actually care to write about and make my own, or is it just something that I thought was portrayed and executed really well and I want to be able to convey that to kind of depth too? So I make things really broad and then I work on narrowing it down from there. For example, the way AOT made their giant monsters is pretty cool but it’s not that I necessarily want to write about giant people that kill and eat other, smaller people. If I make it broader, what I really liked about that element is the idea of unknown, incomprehensible beings who commit atrocities for reasons not easily understood to the common man. Summed up, that’s basically the cosmic horror genre. Now start looking for ways to connect and narrow. Militarism holds the idea that a government should readily have their military well trained and on guard at all times. Maybe to fight against the cosmic horror that they know frighteningly little about? Maybe going up against that horror means guaranteed death or maybe a “fate worse than death,” a terrifying madness of the mind (another staple of cosmic horror) so people have to be drafted in to the military otherwise no one would join. Now, if the madness is so bad that people actually prefer death, think of the ramifications of someone in that state then going home and trying to raise a family just to have their children also get drafted and either die or go crazy. There’s your inter-generational trauma. Narrow even more. Maybe the crazy people are just evil doppelgängers who switched out the original people. Why do they do this? Maybe they’re looking for someone within normal society. Maybe that someone has a very particular look about them or a specific item of clothing they wear. Now fashion is included. And then just keep going until you have a very strong sense of plot and the cause-and-effect that plays within your world. I say don’t worry about too many or too small of details until it comes time to actually write. I understand it’s all easier said than done, especially when ADHD is a contributor. Again, I’m still struggling with this myself so I haven’t perfected a method or anything but going big and then working my way back down to small has really helped me. But remember, just because you like an element, doesn’t mean it has to be included in your story. If you like it enough that you want it included but it just doesn’t work no matter hard you try or you’re worried your story is just getting too messy by that point, then take it out and set it aside. It may just be meant for a different story that you’ll work on later. | What you need to do is identify your story's though line. There is something that makes the story *your story,* and it exists outside of setting, worldbuilding, and even specific plot points. This thing will often be character-driven, but it could also be a specific narrative outcome. For example, if you're writing a detective story, the through line might be that solving the mystery teaches the detective something about themselves that they didn't want to know. This story could be set in Victorian England, on a space station in the year 2150, or involve some teenage were-creatures... but the protagonist still has a lesson to learn and a mystery to solve. The through line is what makes your story coherent and compelling. Everything else just supports it. | 0 | 2,215 | 3 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87qrr1 | i877d0g | 1,652,292,694 | 1,652,285,160 | 6 | 1 | What you need to do is identify your story's though line. There is something that makes the story *your story,* and it exists outside of setting, worldbuilding, and even specific plot points. This thing will often be character-driven, but it could also be a specific narrative outcome. For example, if you're writing a detective story, the through line might be that solving the mystery teaches the detective something about themselves that they didn't want to know. This story could be set in Victorian England, on a space station in the year 2150, or involve some teenage were-creatures... but the protagonist still has a lesson to learn and a mystery to solve. The through line is what makes your story coherent and compelling. Everything else just supports it. | You have a lot going on, but it all means a lot to you. So, get it all down and try to make it into a cohesive story. | 1 | 7,534 | 6 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87qrr1 | i87947k | 1,652,292,694 | 1,652,285,849 | 6 | 1 | What you need to do is identify your story's though line. There is something that makes the story *your story,* and it exists outside of setting, worldbuilding, and even specific plot points. This thing will often be character-driven, but it could also be a specific narrative outcome. For example, if you're writing a detective story, the through line might be that solving the mystery teaches the detective something about themselves that they didn't want to know. This story could be set in Victorian England, on a space station in the year 2150, or involve some teenage were-creatures... but the protagonist still has a lesson to learn and a mystery to solve. The through line is what makes your story coherent and compelling. Everything else just supports it. | Don’t overthink it. Take the elements that you like, and make a chapter out of each one that highlights a significant piece of the story and that element. A chapter should be able to stand on its own as a solid chunk of entertainment, and so this would be like if the element was the chapter’s “main star” so to speak. Thereafter, smaller recurrences of those elements peppered into other chapters will resonate amplified by its starring chapter | 1 | 6,845 | 6 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87obwy | i87qrr1 | 1,652,291,721 | 1,652,292,694 | 1 | 6 | Ask yourself: "This this relevant to the plot right now?" If not, move on. | What you need to do is identify your story's though line. There is something that makes the story *your story,* and it exists outside of setting, worldbuilding, and even specific plot points. This thing will often be character-driven, but it could also be a specific narrative outcome. For example, if you're writing a detective story, the through line might be that solving the mystery teaches the detective something about themselves that they didn't want to know. This story could be set in Victorian England, on a space station in the year 2150, or involve some teenage were-creatures... but the protagonist still has a lesson to learn and a mystery to solve. The through line is what makes your story coherent and compelling. Everything else just supports it. | 0 | 973 | 6 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i89hwkq | i87jl07 | 1,652,319,379 | 1,652,289,881 | 4 | 2 | 1. Write your ideas down in a notebook or file/folder; only use the ones that suit this project, in this project. Save the rest for another one. It's not like this will be the only story you write. 2. Understand that a "story" is a not a world. It's not a sequence of canonical events. It's not a list of characters or places. A story is its own thing that pulls a handful of details from that surrounding world **to engage a reader on a journey through it**. Just because you have an idea you really want to be canon, that doesn't mean it belongs in this particular story. Your reader is asking you how to get to 420 Awesome Street in Cool Feelings Land, so you give them directions to that destination, maybe detouring through one or two scenic neighborhoods along the way. You don't give them a map of every street on Earth like their experience isn't your problem, nor do you send them on a wild goose chase through the national parks. You can always write additional short stories and sequels and prequels etc. in the same world, if you are really attached to these other things you didn't get to explore with the reader. But don't try to shoehorn them all into one product. 3. Use creative limitations to keep yourself in check. There are various tools for this. The one I use most often is the premise: I have a concept that makes my story interesting and **does not change no matter what**. If I change the premise, I have changed the story I am working on. Anything I consider adding that would change the premise must be set aside. For example, "Mark uses a cursed bow to hunt tree-sized boars in the ethereal forest and discovers that it's on fire, forcing him to shift from eco villain to firefighter hero." could be a premise. A theme (primary motif or moral) that spans across the body of the work and affects multiple plot points is another option. You'll use this to make decisions about what to include and leave out. If your theme for this project is "the importance of teamwork," you'll leave out that subplot about the lone wolf character who never needs help. (Note that chapters or arcs can have additional motifs and morals.) Genre can also be a helpful tool. If you know you're writing a fantasy, then leave out any sciency explanations about how this magic might work based on the physics of the real world. If you know you're writing a romance, then leave out scenes that don't develop the main couple, their relationship, or its conflicts. Mood is also helpful. For example, if you know you're going for a dark, gothic feel, you should probably not give your lead character a shocking pink blazer and clown shoes with a plot point about how happy they are working at the Chuckle Factory. Arbitrary limitations are just as fine. "This story will be under 60,000 words with a minimum of 20 contained chapters." "It will have have 4 major locations with one POV character each." "There will be an 80% female, 20% nonbinary cast of characters over 25 years old." "Every significant character's name will start with a different letter of the alphabet." Ideally, even arbitrary limits would support your theme / genre / premise / mood or a best practice, but anything that stops you from throwing everything and the kitchen sink in this story will do. This is how I approach it, anyway. Your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that if you're in the early brainstorming stage, it's totally normal and okay to have a ton of different ideas that don't clearly connect. It's by continued brainstorming -- and the making of those first few scrap outlines/drafts -- that you gradually narrow your focus. As you become more familiar with the project, you'll be better equipped to see where those threads overlap and what the story is trying to be. **One last thing**: Consider getting more familiar with plotting, outlining, and writing short stories before you dive into longer works, as a novel is just a high-stakes extrapolation of the same process. Short stories will give you rapid experience with the basics while restricting the number of plot threads you have to juggle at one time. Even within the scope of short stories, I recommend starting small and working your way up. If you can't tell a basic, single-threaded story in a paragraph, you're going to have a hard time telling a complex, multi-threaded one in 10k words. e: Sorry, Reddit doesn't want to indent this post correctly x-x | I totally get this and it’s a big reason why one of my longest running projects has changed so much. The influence itself isn’t bad! I think you should make notes of all the things you love in a good story, because that is what will fuel you. Have a list to go to, I guess, when you’re feeling unmotivated or uninspired, but see what you can compartmentalize: if you have an idea, think of influences that would complement the original idea, or until you have a strong concept already and are confident in writing it (and you like want to weave in subplots later), then try to filter through it as much as you can. I don’t know if that makes sense, sorry. Also for me, having a sense of story structure helps me decide what ideas will be helpful to include in a story. I’m in a stage with my current project that I’ve only finished a quarter of a very short draft (just to get a feel for the book), and I’m coming up with a lot of ideas for specific scenes that I’m putting on digital notecards and labeling, etc. to have while I’m writing the rest of the draft (keeping overall story structure in mind). | 1 | 29,498 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i89hwkq | i87l4xs | 1,652,319,379 | 1,652,290,479 | 4 | 2 | 1. Write your ideas down in a notebook or file/folder; only use the ones that suit this project, in this project. Save the rest for another one. It's not like this will be the only story you write. 2. Understand that a "story" is a not a world. It's not a sequence of canonical events. It's not a list of characters or places. A story is its own thing that pulls a handful of details from that surrounding world **to engage a reader on a journey through it**. Just because you have an idea you really want to be canon, that doesn't mean it belongs in this particular story. Your reader is asking you how to get to 420 Awesome Street in Cool Feelings Land, so you give them directions to that destination, maybe detouring through one or two scenic neighborhoods along the way. You don't give them a map of every street on Earth like their experience isn't your problem, nor do you send them on a wild goose chase through the national parks. You can always write additional short stories and sequels and prequels etc. in the same world, if you are really attached to these other things you didn't get to explore with the reader. But don't try to shoehorn them all into one product. 3. Use creative limitations to keep yourself in check. There are various tools for this. The one I use most often is the premise: I have a concept that makes my story interesting and **does not change no matter what**. If I change the premise, I have changed the story I am working on. Anything I consider adding that would change the premise must be set aside. For example, "Mark uses a cursed bow to hunt tree-sized boars in the ethereal forest and discovers that it's on fire, forcing him to shift from eco villain to firefighter hero." could be a premise. A theme (primary motif or moral) that spans across the body of the work and affects multiple plot points is another option. You'll use this to make decisions about what to include and leave out. If your theme for this project is "the importance of teamwork," you'll leave out that subplot about the lone wolf character who never needs help. (Note that chapters or arcs can have additional motifs and morals.) Genre can also be a helpful tool. If you know you're writing a fantasy, then leave out any sciency explanations about how this magic might work based on the physics of the real world. If you know you're writing a romance, then leave out scenes that don't develop the main couple, their relationship, or its conflicts. Mood is also helpful. For example, if you know you're going for a dark, gothic feel, you should probably not give your lead character a shocking pink blazer and clown shoes with a plot point about how happy they are working at the Chuckle Factory. Arbitrary limitations are just as fine. "This story will be under 60,000 words with a minimum of 20 contained chapters." "It will have have 4 major locations with one POV character each." "There will be an 80% female, 20% nonbinary cast of characters over 25 years old." "Every significant character's name will start with a different letter of the alphabet." Ideally, even arbitrary limits would support your theme / genre / premise / mood or a best practice, but anything that stops you from throwing everything and the kitchen sink in this story will do. This is how I approach it, anyway. Your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that if you're in the early brainstorming stage, it's totally normal and okay to have a ton of different ideas that don't clearly connect. It's by continued brainstorming -- and the making of those first few scrap outlines/drafts -- that you gradually narrow your focus. As you become more familiar with the project, you'll be better equipped to see where those threads overlap and what the story is trying to be. **One last thing**: Consider getting more familiar with plotting, outlining, and writing short stories before you dive into longer works, as a novel is just a high-stakes extrapolation of the same process. Short stories will give you rapid experience with the basics while restricting the number of plot threads you have to juggle at one time. Even within the scope of short stories, I recommend starting small and working your way up. If you can't tell a basic, single-threaded story in a paragraph, you're going to have a hard time telling a complex, multi-threaded one in 10k words. e: Sorry, Reddit doesn't want to indent this post correctly x-x | Ah, I have the exact same problem and though I’ve managed to curb it a little, it’s still an ongoing thing sometimes so take what I’m saying here with a grain of salt. When I notice that my plot is starting to get a bit too convoluted with all these ideas that I’ve taken in, it helps to look at each theme/element and ask myself why I want to add these things? What about it do I actually like? Is it something that I actually care to write about and make my own, or is it just something that I thought was portrayed and executed really well and I want to be able to convey that to kind of depth too? So I make things really broad and then I work on narrowing it down from there. For example, the way AOT made their giant monsters is pretty cool but it’s not that I necessarily want to write about giant people that kill and eat other, smaller people. If I make it broader, what I really liked about that element is the idea of unknown, incomprehensible beings who commit atrocities for reasons not easily understood to the common man. Summed up, that’s basically the cosmic horror genre. Now start looking for ways to connect and narrow. Militarism holds the idea that a government should readily have their military well trained and on guard at all times. Maybe to fight against the cosmic horror that they know frighteningly little about? Maybe going up against that horror means guaranteed death or maybe a “fate worse than death,” a terrifying madness of the mind (another staple of cosmic horror) so people have to be drafted in to the military otherwise no one would join. Now, if the madness is so bad that people actually prefer death, think of the ramifications of someone in that state then going home and trying to raise a family just to have their children also get drafted and either die or go crazy. There’s your inter-generational trauma. Narrow even more. Maybe the crazy people are just evil doppelgängers who switched out the original people. Why do they do this? Maybe they’re looking for someone within normal society. Maybe that someone has a very particular look about them or a specific item of clothing they wear. Now fashion is included. And then just keep going until you have a very strong sense of plot and the cause-and-effect that plays within your world. I say don’t worry about too many or too small of details until it comes time to actually write. I understand it’s all easier said than done, especially when ADHD is a contributor. Again, I’m still struggling with this myself so I haven’t perfected a method or anything but going big and then working my way back down to small has really helped me. But remember, just because you like an element, doesn’t mean it has to be included in your story. If you like it enough that you want it included but it just doesn’t work no matter hard you try or you’re worried your story is just getting too messy by that point, then take it out and set it aside. It may just be meant for a different story that you’ll work on later. | 1 | 28,900 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i888en2 | i89hwkq | 1,652,299,604 | 1,652,319,379 | 2 | 4 | My first (and still most successful) book didn't involve a lot of actual *writing*. I made a working miniature golf course in book form — there's a hole in the cover, you drop a ball bearing into it, and when you open to page one, the ball is sitting on "grass" (flocking), and you putt across the page with a tiny golf club, into a hole that leads to page 2 and so on. When we were developing the book, I had so many ideas I loved. Pop-up obstacles. Packaging the book with a golf pencil and scorecard. Extra pages that took you through the history of miniature golf. But the publisher was also trying to keep costs down so they could sell it for under $15. Finally, my editor said, "the fun thing about this book is that *you can play miniature golf*. It doesn't need anything else." I abandoned the pop-ups, the pencil, all the superfluous crap, and just got down to the crux of the idea: it's a miniature golf course in book form, that's enough. So, collect all your ideas, the more the better, and then figure out which ones are the mini golf course and which ones are the pencil. What actually serves your story, and what's just stuff you wanted to include because you thought it was cool? | 1. Write your ideas down in a notebook or file/folder; only use the ones that suit this project, in this project. Save the rest for another one. It's not like this will be the only story you write. 2. Understand that a "story" is a not a world. It's not a sequence of canonical events. It's not a list of characters or places. A story is its own thing that pulls a handful of details from that surrounding world **to engage a reader on a journey through it**. Just because you have an idea you really want to be canon, that doesn't mean it belongs in this particular story. Your reader is asking you how to get to 420 Awesome Street in Cool Feelings Land, so you give them directions to that destination, maybe detouring through one or two scenic neighborhoods along the way. You don't give them a map of every street on Earth like their experience isn't your problem, nor do you send them on a wild goose chase through the national parks. You can always write additional short stories and sequels and prequels etc. in the same world, if you are really attached to these other things you didn't get to explore with the reader. But don't try to shoehorn them all into one product. 3. Use creative limitations to keep yourself in check. There are various tools for this. The one I use most often is the premise: I have a concept that makes my story interesting and **does not change no matter what**. If I change the premise, I have changed the story I am working on. Anything I consider adding that would change the premise must be set aside. For example, "Mark uses a cursed bow to hunt tree-sized boars in the ethereal forest and discovers that it's on fire, forcing him to shift from eco villain to firefighter hero." could be a premise. A theme (primary motif or moral) that spans across the body of the work and affects multiple plot points is another option. You'll use this to make decisions about what to include and leave out. If your theme for this project is "the importance of teamwork," you'll leave out that subplot about the lone wolf character who never needs help. (Note that chapters or arcs can have additional motifs and morals.) Genre can also be a helpful tool. If you know you're writing a fantasy, then leave out any sciency explanations about how this magic might work based on the physics of the real world. If you know you're writing a romance, then leave out scenes that don't develop the main couple, their relationship, or its conflicts. Mood is also helpful. For example, if you know you're going for a dark, gothic feel, you should probably not give your lead character a shocking pink blazer and clown shoes with a plot point about how happy they are working at the Chuckle Factory. Arbitrary limitations are just as fine. "This story will be under 60,000 words with a minimum of 20 contained chapters." "It will have have 4 major locations with one POV character each." "There will be an 80% female, 20% nonbinary cast of characters over 25 years old." "Every significant character's name will start with a different letter of the alphabet." Ideally, even arbitrary limits would support your theme / genre / premise / mood or a best practice, but anything that stops you from throwing everything and the kitchen sink in this story will do. This is how I approach it, anyway. Your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that if you're in the early brainstorming stage, it's totally normal and okay to have a ton of different ideas that don't clearly connect. It's by continued brainstorming -- and the making of those first few scrap outlines/drafts -- that you gradually narrow your focus. As you become more familiar with the project, you'll be better equipped to see where those threads overlap and what the story is trying to be. **One last thing**: Consider getting more familiar with plotting, outlining, and writing short stories before you dive into longer works, as a novel is just a high-stakes extrapolation of the same process. Short stories will give you rapid experience with the basics while restricting the number of plot threads you have to juggle at one time. Even within the scope of short stories, I recommend starting small and working your way up. If you can't tell a basic, single-threaded story in a paragraph, you're going to have a hard time telling a complex, multi-threaded one in 10k words. e: Sorry, Reddit doesn't want to indent this post correctly x-x | 0 | 19,775 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i89hwkq | i89fzm1 | 1,652,319,379 | 1,652,318,537 | 4 | 2 | 1. Write your ideas down in a notebook or file/folder; only use the ones that suit this project, in this project. Save the rest for another one. It's not like this will be the only story you write. 2. Understand that a "story" is a not a world. It's not a sequence of canonical events. It's not a list of characters or places. A story is its own thing that pulls a handful of details from that surrounding world **to engage a reader on a journey through it**. Just because you have an idea you really want to be canon, that doesn't mean it belongs in this particular story. Your reader is asking you how to get to 420 Awesome Street in Cool Feelings Land, so you give them directions to that destination, maybe detouring through one or two scenic neighborhoods along the way. You don't give them a map of every street on Earth like their experience isn't your problem, nor do you send them on a wild goose chase through the national parks. You can always write additional short stories and sequels and prequels etc. in the same world, if you are really attached to these other things you didn't get to explore with the reader. But don't try to shoehorn them all into one product. 3. Use creative limitations to keep yourself in check. There are various tools for this. The one I use most often is the premise: I have a concept that makes my story interesting and **does not change no matter what**. If I change the premise, I have changed the story I am working on. Anything I consider adding that would change the premise must be set aside. For example, "Mark uses a cursed bow to hunt tree-sized boars in the ethereal forest and discovers that it's on fire, forcing him to shift from eco villain to firefighter hero." could be a premise. A theme (primary motif or moral) that spans across the body of the work and affects multiple plot points is another option. You'll use this to make decisions about what to include and leave out. If your theme for this project is "the importance of teamwork," you'll leave out that subplot about the lone wolf character who never needs help. (Note that chapters or arcs can have additional motifs and morals.) Genre can also be a helpful tool. If you know you're writing a fantasy, then leave out any sciency explanations about how this magic might work based on the physics of the real world. If you know you're writing a romance, then leave out scenes that don't develop the main couple, their relationship, or its conflicts. Mood is also helpful. For example, if you know you're going for a dark, gothic feel, you should probably not give your lead character a shocking pink blazer and clown shoes with a plot point about how happy they are working at the Chuckle Factory. Arbitrary limitations are just as fine. "This story will be under 60,000 words with a minimum of 20 contained chapters." "It will have have 4 major locations with one POV character each." "There will be an 80% female, 20% nonbinary cast of characters over 25 years old." "Every significant character's name will start with a different letter of the alphabet." Ideally, even arbitrary limits would support your theme / genre / premise / mood or a best practice, but anything that stops you from throwing everything and the kitchen sink in this story will do. This is how I approach it, anyway. Your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that if you're in the early brainstorming stage, it's totally normal and okay to have a ton of different ideas that don't clearly connect. It's by continued brainstorming -- and the making of those first few scrap outlines/drafts -- that you gradually narrow your focus. As you become more familiar with the project, you'll be better equipped to see where those threads overlap and what the story is trying to be. **One last thing**: Consider getting more familiar with plotting, outlining, and writing short stories before you dive into longer works, as a novel is just a high-stakes extrapolation of the same process. Short stories will give you rapid experience with the basics while restricting the number of plot threads you have to juggle at one time. Even within the scope of short stories, I recommend starting small and working your way up. If you can't tell a basic, single-threaded story in a paragraph, you're going to have a hard time telling a complex, multi-threaded one in 10k words. e: Sorry, Reddit doesn't want to indent this post correctly x-x | Have the same problem, thanks op for actually asking and thanks all for the answers. | 1 | 842 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i877d0g | i89hwkq | 1,652,285,160 | 1,652,319,379 | 1 | 4 | You have a lot going on, but it all means a lot to you. So, get it all down and try to make it into a cohesive story. | 1. Write your ideas down in a notebook or file/folder; only use the ones that suit this project, in this project. Save the rest for another one. It's not like this will be the only story you write. 2. Understand that a "story" is a not a world. It's not a sequence of canonical events. It's not a list of characters or places. A story is its own thing that pulls a handful of details from that surrounding world **to engage a reader on a journey through it**. Just because you have an idea you really want to be canon, that doesn't mean it belongs in this particular story. Your reader is asking you how to get to 420 Awesome Street in Cool Feelings Land, so you give them directions to that destination, maybe detouring through one or two scenic neighborhoods along the way. You don't give them a map of every street on Earth like their experience isn't your problem, nor do you send them on a wild goose chase through the national parks. You can always write additional short stories and sequels and prequels etc. in the same world, if you are really attached to these other things you didn't get to explore with the reader. But don't try to shoehorn them all into one product. 3. Use creative limitations to keep yourself in check. There are various tools for this. The one I use most often is the premise: I have a concept that makes my story interesting and **does not change no matter what**. If I change the premise, I have changed the story I am working on. Anything I consider adding that would change the premise must be set aside. For example, "Mark uses a cursed bow to hunt tree-sized boars in the ethereal forest and discovers that it's on fire, forcing him to shift from eco villain to firefighter hero." could be a premise. A theme (primary motif or moral) that spans across the body of the work and affects multiple plot points is another option. You'll use this to make decisions about what to include and leave out. If your theme for this project is "the importance of teamwork," you'll leave out that subplot about the lone wolf character who never needs help. (Note that chapters or arcs can have additional motifs and morals.) Genre can also be a helpful tool. If you know you're writing a fantasy, then leave out any sciency explanations about how this magic might work based on the physics of the real world. If you know you're writing a romance, then leave out scenes that don't develop the main couple, their relationship, or its conflicts. Mood is also helpful. For example, if you know you're going for a dark, gothic feel, you should probably not give your lead character a shocking pink blazer and clown shoes with a plot point about how happy they are working at the Chuckle Factory. Arbitrary limitations are just as fine. "This story will be under 60,000 words with a minimum of 20 contained chapters." "It will have have 4 major locations with one POV character each." "There will be an 80% female, 20% nonbinary cast of characters over 25 years old." "Every significant character's name will start with a different letter of the alphabet." Ideally, even arbitrary limits would support your theme / genre / premise / mood or a best practice, but anything that stops you from throwing everything and the kitchen sink in this story will do. This is how I approach it, anyway. Your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that if you're in the early brainstorming stage, it's totally normal and okay to have a ton of different ideas that don't clearly connect. It's by continued brainstorming -- and the making of those first few scrap outlines/drafts -- that you gradually narrow your focus. As you become more familiar with the project, you'll be better equipped to see where those threads overlap and what the story is trying to be. **One last thing**: Consider getting more familiar with plotting, outlining, and writing short stories before you dive into longer works, as a novel is just a high-stakes extrapolation of the same process. Short stories will give you rapid experience with the basics while restricting the number of plot threads you have to juggle at one time. Even within the scope of short stories, I recommend starting small and working your way up. If you can't tell a basic, single-threaded story in a paragraph, you're going to have a hard time telling a complex, multi-threaded one in 10k words. e: Sorry, Reddit doesn't want to indent this post correctly x-x | 0 | 34,219 | 4 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i89hwkq | i87947k | 1,652,319,379 | 1,652,285,849 | 4 | 1 | 1. Write your ideas down in a notebook or file/folder; only use the ones that suit this project, in this project. Save the rest for another one. It's not like this will be the only story you write. 2. Understand that a "story" is a not a world. It's not a sequence of canonical events. It's not a list of characters or places. A story is its own thing that pulls a handful of details from that surrounding world **to engage a reader on a journey through it**. Just because you have an idea you really want to be canon, that doesn't mean it belongs in this particular story. Your reader is asking you how to get to 420 Awesome Street in Cool Feelings Land, so you give them directions to that destination, maybe detouring through one or two scenic neighborhoods along the way. You don't give them a map of every street on Earth like their experience isn't your problem, nor do you send them on a wild goose chase through the national parks. You can always write additional short stories and sequels and prequels etc. in the same world, if you are really attached to these other things you didn't get to explore with the reader. But don't try to shoehorn them all into one product. 3. Use creative limitations to keep yourself in check. There are various tools for this. The one I use most often is the premise: I have a concept that makes my story interesting and **does not change no matter what**. If I change the premise, I have changed the story I am working on. Anything I consider adding that would change the premise must be set aside. For example, "Mark uses a cursed bow to hunt tree-sized boars in the ethereal forest and discovers that it's on fire, forcing him to shift from eco villain to firefighter hero." could be a premise. A theme (primary motif or moral) that spans across the body of the work and affects multiple plot points is another option. You'll use this to make decisions about what to include and leave out. If your theme for this project is "the importance of teamwork," you'll leave out that subplot about the lone wolf character who never needs help. (Note that chapters or arcs can have additional motifs and morals.) Genre can also be a helpful tool. If you know you're writing a fantasy, then leave out any sciency explanations about how this magic might work based on the physics of the real world. If you know you're writing a romance, then leave out scenes that don't develop the main couple, their relationship, or its conflicts. Mood is also helpful. For example, if you know you're going for a dark, gothic feel, you should probably not give your lead character a shocking pink blazer and clown shoes with a plot point about how happy they are working at the Chuckle Factory. Arbitrary limitations are just as fine. "This story will be under 60,000 words with a minimum of 20 contained chapters." "It will have have 4 major locations with one POV character each." "There will be an 80% female, 20% nonbinary cast of characters over 25 years old." "Every significant character's name will start with a different letter of the alphabet." Ideally, even arbitrary limits would support your theme / genre / premise / mood or a best practice, but anything that stops you from throwing everything and the kitchen sink in this story will do. This is how I approach it, anyway. Your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that if you're in the early brainstorming stage, it's totally normal and okay to have a ton of different ideas that don't clearly connect. It's by continued brainstorming -- and the making of those first few scrap outlines/drafts -- that you gradually narrow your focus. As you become more familiar with the project, you'll be better equipped to see where those threads overlap and what the story is trying to be. **One last thing**: Consider getting more familiar with plotting, outlining, and writing short stories before you dive into longer works, as a novel is just a high-stakes extrapolation of the same process. Short stories will give you rapid experience with the basics while restricting the number of plot threads you have to juggle at one time. Even within the scope of short stories, I recommend starting small and working your way up. If you can't tell a basic, single-threaded story in a paragraph, you're going to have a hard time telling a complex, multi-threaded one in 10k words. e: Sorry, Reddit doesn't want to indent this post correctly x-x | Don’t overthink it. Take the elements that you like, and make a chapter out of each one that highlights a significant piece of the story and that element. A chapter should be able to stand on its own as a solid chunk of entertainment, and so this would be like if the element was the chapter’s “main star” so to speak. Thereafter, smaller recurrences of those elements peppered into other chapters will resonate amplified by its starring chapter | 1 | 33,530 | 4 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i89hwkq | i87obwy | 1,652,319,379 | 1,652,291,721 | 4 | 1 | 1. Write your ideas down in a notebook or file/folder; only use the ones that suit this project, in this project. Save the rest for another one. It's not like this will be the only story you write. 2. Understand that a "story" is a not a world. It's not a sequence of canonical events. It's not a list of characters or places. A story is its own thing that pulls a handful of details from that surrounding world **to engage a reader on a journey through it**. Just because you have an idea you really want to be canon, that doesn't mean it belongs in this particular story. Your reader is asking you how to get to 420 Awesome Street in Cool Feelings Land, so you give them directions to that destination, maybe detouring through one or two scenic neighborhoods along the way. You don't give them a map of every street on Earth like their experience isn't your problem, nor do you send them on a wild goose chase through the national parks. You can always write additional short stories and sequels and prequels etc. in the same world, if you are really attached to these other things you didn't get to explore with the reader. But don't try to shoehorn them all into one product. 3. Use creative limitations to keep yourself in check. There are various tools for this. The one I use most often is the premise: I have a concept that makes my story interesting and **does not change no matter what**. If I change the premise, I have changed the story I am working on. Anything I consider adding that would change the premise must be set aside. For example, "Mark uses a cursed bow to hunt tree-sized boars in the ethereal forest and discovers that it's on fire, forcing him to shift from eco villain to firefighter hero." could be a premise. A theme (primary motif or moral) that spans across the body of the work and affects multiple plot points is another option. You'll use this to make decisions about what to include and leave out. If your theme for this project is "the importance of teamwork," you'll leave out that subplot about the lone wolf character who never needs help. (Note that chapters or arcs can have additional motifs and morals.) Genre can also be a helpful tool. If you know you're writing a fantasy, then leave out any sciency explanations about how this magic might work based on the physics of the real world. If you know you're writing a romance, then leave out scenes that don't develop the main couple, their relationship, or its conflicts. Mood is also helpful. For example, if you know you're going for a dark, gothic feel, you should probably not give your lead character a shocking pink blazer and clown shoes with a plot point about how happy they are working at the Chuckle Factory. Arbitrary limitations are just as fine. "This story will be under 60,000 words with a minimum of 20 contained chapters." "It will have have 4 major locations with one POV character each." "There will be an 80% female, 20% nonbinary cast of characters over 25 years old." "Every significant character's name will start with a different letter of the alphabet." Ideally, even arbitrary limits would support your theme / genre / premise / mood or a best practice, but anything that stops you from throwing everything and the kitchen sink in this story will do. This is how I approach it, anyway. Your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that if you're in the early brainstorming stage, it's totally normal and okay to have a ton of different ideas that don't clearly connect. It's by continued brainstorming -- and the making of those first few scrap outlines/drafts -- that you gradually narrow your focus. As you become more familiar with the project, you'll be better equipped to see where those threads overlap and what the story is trying to be. **One last thing**: Consider getting more familiar with plotting, outlining, and writing short stories before you dive into longer works, as a novel is just a high-stakes extrapolation of the same process. Short stories will give you rapid experience with the basics while restricting the number of plot threads you have to juggle at one time. Even within the scope of short stories, I recommend starting small and working your way up. If you can't tell a basic, single-threaded story in a paragraph, you're going to have a hard time telling a complex, multi-threaded one in 10k words. e: Sorry, Reddit doesn't want to indent this post correctly x-x | Ask yourself: "This this relevant to the plot right now?" If not, move on. | 1 | 27,658 | 4 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87wn8k | i89hwkq | 1,652,295,023 | 1,652,319,379 | 1 | 4 | Write all these down and pick out 3-5 things that can be blended and flow smoothly. | 1. Write your ideas down in a notebook or file/folder; only use the ones that suit this project, in this project. Save the rest for another one. It's not like this will be the only story you write. 2. Understand that a "story" is a not a world. It's not a sequence of canonical events. It's not a list of characters or places. A story is its own thing that pulls a handful of details from that surrounding world **to engage a reader on a journey through it**. Just because you have an idea you really want to be canon, that doesn't mean it belongs in this particular story. Your reader is asking you how to get to 420 Awesome Street in Cool Feelings Land, so you give them directions to that destination, maybe detouring through one or two scenic neighborhoods along the way. You don't give them a map of every street on Earth like their experience isn't your problem, nor do you send them on a wild goose chase through the national parks. You can always write additional short stories and sequels and prequels etc. in the same world, if you are really attached to these other things you didn't get to explore with the reader. But don't try to shoehorn them all into one product. 3. Use creative limitations to keep yourself in check. There are various tools for this. The one I use most often is the premise: I have a concept that makes my story interesting and **does not change no matter what**. If I change the premise, I have changed the story I am working on. Anything I consider adding that would change the premise must be set aside. For example, "Mark uses a cursed bow to hunt tree-sized boars in the ethereal forest and discovers that it's on fire, forcing him to shift from eco villain to firefighter hero." could be a premise. A theme (primary motif or moral) that spans across the body of the work and affects multiple plot points is another option. You'll use this to make decisions about what to include and leave out. If your theme for this project is "the importance of teamwork," you'll leave out that subplot about the lone wolf character who never needs help. (Note that chapters or arcs can have additional motifs and morals.) Genre can also be a helpful tool. If you know you're writing a fantasy, then leave out any sciency explanations about how this magic might work based on the physics of the real world. If you know you're writing a romance, then leave out scenes that don't develop the main couple, their relationship, or its conflicts. Mood is also helpful. For example, if you know you're going for a dark, gothic feel, you should probably not give your lead character a shocking pink blazer and clown shoes with a plot point about how happy they are working at the Chuckle Factory. Arbitrary limitations are just as fine. "This story will be under 60,000 words with a minimum of 20 contained chapters." "It will have have 4 major locations with one POV character each." "There will be an 80% female, 20% nonbinary cast of characters over 25 years old." "Every significant character's name will start with a different letter of the alphabet." Ideally, even arbitrary limits would support your theme / genre / premise / mood or a best practice, but anything that stops you from throwing everything and the kitchen sink in this story will do. This is how I approach it, anyway. Your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that if you're in the early brainstorming stage, it's totally normal and okay to have a ton of different ideas that don't clearly connect. It's by continued brainstorming -- and the making of those first few scrap outlines/drafts -- that you gradually narrow your focus. As you become more familiar with the project, you'll be better equipped to see where those threads overlap and what the story is trying to be. **One last thing**: Consider getting more familiar with plotting, outlining, and writing short stories before you dive into longer works, as a novel is just a high-stakes extrapolation of the same process. Short stories will give you rapid experience with the basics while restricting the number of plot threads you have to juggle at one time. Even within the scope of short stories, I recommend starting small and working your way up. If you can't tell a basic, single-threaded story in a paragraph, you're going to have a hard time telling a complex, multi-threaded one in 10k words. e: Sorry, Reddit doesn't want to indent this post correctly x-x | 0 | 24,356 | 4 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i88as4s | i89hwkq | 1,652,300,541 | 1,652,319,379 | 1 | 4 | Sounds like to me, you're the kind of writer that needs to treat yourself like a werewolf. Cage yourself away, a month or two? Spend the time that you would watch TV and read instead working on your story. Lock the story in and insulate it. Then let yourself out of the cage. | 1. Write your ideas down in a notebook or file/folder; only use the ones that suit this project, in this project. Save the rest for another one. It's not like this will be the only story you write. 2. Understand that a "story" is a not a world. It's not a sequence of canonical events. It's not a list of characters or places. A story is its own thing that pulls a handful of details from that surrounding world **to engage a reader on a journey through it**. Just because you have an idea you really want to be canon, that doesn't mean it belongs in this particular story. Your reader is asking you how to get to 420 Awesome Street in Cool Feelings Land, so you give them directions to that destination, maybe detouring through one or two scenic neighborhoods along the way. You don't give them a map of every street on Earth like their experience isn't your problem, nor do you send them on a wild goose chase through the national parks. You can always write additional short stories and sequels and prequels etc. in the same world, if you are really attached to these other things you didn't get to explore with the reader. But don't try to shoehorn them all into one product. 3. Use creative limitations to keep yourself in check. There are various tools for this. The one I use most often is the premise: I have a concept that makes my story interesting and **does not change no matter what**. If I change the premise, I have changed the story I am working on. Anything I consider adding that would change the premise must be set aside. For example, "Mark uses a cursed bow to hunt tree-sized boars in the ethereal forest and discovers that it's on fire, forcing him to shift from eco villain to firefighter hero." could be a premise. A theme (primary motif or moral) that spans across the body of the work and affects multiple plot points is another option. You'll use this to make decisions about what to include and leave out. If your theme for this project is "the importance of teamwork," you'll leave out that subplot about the lone wolf character who never needs help. (Note that chapters or arcs can have additional motifs and morals.) Genre can also be a helpful tool. If you know you're writing a fantasy, then leave out any sciency explanations about how this magic might work based on the physics of the real world. If you know you're writing a romance, then leave out scenes that don't develop the main couple, their relationship, or its conflicts. Mood is also helpful. For example, if you know you're going for a dark, gothic feel, you should probably not give your lead character a shocking pink blazer and clown shoes with a plot point about how happy they are working at the Chuckle Factory. Arbitrary limitations are just as fine. "This story will be under 60,000 words with a minimum of 20 contained chapters." "It will have have 4 major locations with one POV character each." "There will be an 80% female, 20% nonbinary cast of characters over 25 years old." "Every significant character's name will start with a different letter of the alphabet." Ideally, even arbitrary limits would support your theme / genre / premise / mood or a best practice, but anything that stops you from throwing everything and the kitchen sink in this story will do. This is how I approach it, anyway. Your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that if you're in the early brainstorming stage, it's totally normal and okay to have a ton of different ideas that don't clearly connect. It's by continued brainstorming -- and the making of those first few scrap outlines/drafts -- that you gradually narrow your focus. As you become more familiar with the project, you'll be better equipped to see where those threads overlap and what the story is trying to be. **One last thing**: Consider getting more familiar with plotting, outlining, and writing short stories before you dive into longer works, as a novel is just a high-stakes extrapolation of the same process. Short stories will give you rapid experience with the basics while restricting the number of plot threads you have to juggle at one time. Even within the scope of short stories, I recommend starting small and working your way up. If you can't tell a basic, single-threaded story in a paragraph, you're going to have a hard time telling a complex, multi-threaded one in 10k words. e: Sorry, Reddit doesn't want to indent this post correctly x-x | 0 | 18,838 | 4 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i89046x | i89hwkq | 1,652,311,209 | 1,652,319,379 | 1 | 4 | Wooo Mandela Catalogue! | 1. Write your ideas down in a notebook or file/folder; only use the ones that suit this project, in this project. Save the rest for another one. It's not like this will be the only story you write. 2. Understand that a "story" is a not a world. It's not a sequence of canonical events. It's not a list of characters or places. A story is its own thing that pulls a handful of details from that surrounding world **to engage a reader on a journey through it**. Just because you have an idea you really want to be canon, that doesn't mean it belongs in this particular story. Your reader is asking you how to get to 420 Awesome Street in Cool Feelings Land, so you give them directions to that destination, maybe detouring through one or two scenic neighborhoods along the way. You don't give them a map of every street on Earth like their experience isn't your problem, nor do you send them on a wild goose chase through the national parks. You can always write additional short stories and sequels and prequels etc. in the same world, if you are really attached to these other things you didn't get to explore with the reader. But don't try to shoehorn them all into one product. 3. Use creative limitations to keep yourself in check. There are various tools for this. The one I use most often is the premise: I have a concept that makes my story interesting and **does not change no matter what**. If I change the premise, I have changed the story I am working on. Anything I consider adding that would change the premise must be set aside. For example, "Mark uses a cursed bow to hunt tree-sized boars in the ethereal forest and discovers that it's on fire, forcing him to shift from eco villain to firefighter hero." could be a premise. A theme (primary motif or moral) that spans across the body of the work and affects multiple plot points is another option. You'll use this to make decisions about what to include and leave out. If your theme for this project is "the importance of teamwork," you'll leave out that subplot about the lone wolf character who never needs help. (Note that chapters or arcs can have additional motifs and morals.) Genre can also be a helpful tool. If you know you're writing a fantasy, then leave out any sciency explanations about how this magic might work based on the physics of the real world. If you know you're writing a romance, then leave out scenes that don't develop the main couple, their relationship, or its conflicts. Mood is also helpful. For example, if you know you're going for a dark, gothic feel, you should probably not give your lead character a shocking pink blazer and clown shoes with a plot point about how happy they are working at the Chuckle Factory. Arbitrary limitations are just as fine. "This story will be under 60,000 words with a minimum of 20 contained chapters." "It will have have 4 major locations with one POV character each." "There will be an 80% female, 20% nonbinary cast of characters over 25 years old." "Every significant character's name will start with a different letter of the alphabet." Ideally, even arbitrary limits would support your theme / genre / premise / mood or a best practice, but anything that stops you from throwing everything and the kitchen sink in this story will do. This is how I approach it, anyway. Your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that if you're in the early brainstorming stage, it's totally normal and okay to have a ton of different ideas that don't clearly connect. It's by continued brainstorming -- and the making of those first few scrap outlines/drafts -- that you gradually narrow your focus. As you become more familiar with the project, you'll be better equipped to see where those threads overlap and what the story is trying to be. **One last thing**: Consider getting more familiar with plotting, outlining, and writing short stories before you dive into longer works, as a novel is just a high-stakes extrapolation of the same process. Short stories will give you rapid experience with the basics while restricting the number of plot threads you have to juggle at one time. Even within the scope of short stories, I recommend starting small and working your way up. If you can't tell a basic, single-threaded story in a paragraph, you're going to have a hard time telling a complex, multi-threaded one in 10k words. e: Sorry, Reddit doesn't want to indent this post correctly x-x | 0 | 8,170 | 4 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i877d0g | i87jl07 | 1,652,285,160 | 1,652,289,881 | 1 | 2 | You have a lot going on, but it all means a lot to you. So, get it all down and try to make it into a cohesive story. | I totally get this and it’s a big reason why one of my longest running projects has changed so much. The influence itself isn’t bad! I think you should make notes of all the things you love in a good story, because that is what will fuel you. Have a list to go to, I guess, when you’re feeling unmotivated or uninspired, but see what you can compartmentalize: if you have an idea, think of influences that would complement the original idea, or until you have a strong concept already and are confident in writing it (and you like want to weave in subplots later), then try to filter through it as much as you can. I don’t know if that makes sense, sorry. Also for me, having a sense of story structure helps me decide what ideas will be helpful to include in a story. I’m in a stage with my current project that I’ve only finished a quarter of a very short draft (just to get a feel for the book), and I’m coming up with a lot of ideas for specific scenes that I’m putting on digital notecards and labeling, etc. to have while I’m writing the rest of the draft (keeping overall story structure in mind). | 0 | 4,721 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87947k | i87jl07 | 1,652,285,849 | 1,652,289,881 | 1 | 2 | Don’t overthink it. Take the elements that you like, and make a chapter out of each one that highlights a significant piece of the story and that element. A chapter should be able to stand on its own as a solid chunk of entertainment, and so this would be like if the element was the chapter’s “main star” so to speak. Thereafter, smaller recurrences of those elements peppered into other chapters will resonate amplified by its starring chapter | I totally get this and it’s a big reason why one of my longest running projects has changed so much. The influence itself isn’t bad! I think you should make notes of all the things you love in a good story, because that is what will fuel you. Have a list to go to, I guess, when you’re feeling unmotivated or uninspired, but see what you can compartmentalize: if you have an idea, think of influences that would complement the original idea, or until you have a strong concept already and are confident in writing it (and you like want to weave in subplots later), then try to filter through it as much as you can. I don’t know if that makes sense, sorry. Also for me, having a sense of story structure helps me decide what ideas will be helpful to include in a story. I’m in a stage with my current project that I’ve only finished a quarter of a very short draft (just to get a feel for the book), and I’m coming up with a lot of ideas for specific scenes that I’m putting on digital notecards and labeling, etc. to have while I’m writing the rest of the draft (keeping overall story structure in mind). | 0 | 4,032 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87l4xs | i877d0g | 1,652,290,479 | 1,652,285,160 | 2 | 1 | Ah, I have the exact same problem and though I’ve managed to curb it a little, it’s still an ongoing thing sometimes so take what I’m saying here with a grain of salt. When I notice that my plot is starting to get a bit too convoluted with all these ideas that I’ve taken in, it helps to look at each theme/element and ask myself why I want to add these things? What about it do I actually like? Is it something that I actually care to write about and make my own, or is it just something that I thought was portrayed and executed really well and I want to be able to convey that to kind of depth too? So I make things really broad and then I work on narrowing it down from there. For example, the way AOT made their giant monsters is pretty cool but it’s not that I necessarily want to write about giant people that kill and eat other, smaller people. If I make it broader, what I really liked about that element is the idea of unknown, incomprehensible beings who commit atrocities for reasons not easily understood to the common man. Summed up, that’s basically the cosmic horror genre. Now start looking for ways to connect and narrow. Militarism holds the idea that a government should readily have their military well trained and on guard at all times. Maybe to fight against the cosmic horror that they know frighteningly little about? Maybe going up against that horror means guaranteed death or maybe a “fate worse than death,” a terrifying madness of the mind (another staple of cosmic horror) so people have to be drafted in to the military otherwise no one would join. Now, if the madness is so bad that people actually prefer death, think of the ramifications of someone in that state then going home and trying to raise a family just to have their children also get drafted and either die or go crazy. There’s your inter-generational trauma. Narrow even more. Maybe the crazy people are just evil doppelgängers who switched out the original people. Why do they do this? Maybe they’re looking for someone within normal society. Maybe that someone has a very particular look about them or a specific item of clothing they wear. Now fashion is included. And then just keep going until you have a very strong sense of plot and the cause-and-effect that plays within your world. I say don’t worry about too many or too small of details until it comes time to actually write. I understand it’s all easier said than done, especially when ADHD is a contributor. Again, I’m still struggling with this myself so I haven’t perfected a method or anything but going big and then working my way back down to small has really helped me. But remember, just because you like an element, doesn’t mean it has to be included in your story. If you like it enough that you want it included but it just doesn’t work no matter hard you try or you’re worried your story is just getting too messy by that point, then take it out and set it aside. It may just be meant for a different story that you’ll work on later. | You have a lot going on, but it all means a lot to you. So, get it all down and try to make it into a cohesive story. | 1 | 5,319 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87l4xs | i87947k | 1,652,290,479 | 1,652,285,849 | 2 | 1 | Ah, I have the exact same problem and though I’ve managed to curb it a little, it’s still an ongoing thing sometimes so take what I’m saying here with a grain of salt. When I notice that my plot is starting to get a bit too convoluted with all these ideas that I’ve taken in, it helps to look at each theme/element and ask myself why I want to add these things? What about it do I actually like? Is it something that I actually care to write about and make my own, or is it just something that I thought was portrayed and executed really well and I want to be able to convey that to kind of depth too? So I make things really broad and then I work on narrowing it down from there. For example, the way AOT made their giant monsters is pretty cool but it’s not that I necessarily want to write about giant people that kill and eat other, smaller people. If I make it broader, what I really liked about that element is the idea of unknown, incomprehensible beings who commit atrocities for reasons not easily understood to the common man. Summed up, that’s basically the cosmic horror genre. Now start looking for ways to connect and narrow. Militarism holds the idea that a government should readily have their military well trained and on guard at all times. Maybe to fight against the cosmic horror that they know frighteningly little about? Maybe going up against that horror means guaranteed death or maybe a “fate worse than death,” a terrifying madness of the mind (another staple of cosmic horror) so people have to be drafted in to the military otherwise no one would join. Now, if the madness is so bad that people actually prefer death, think of the ramifications of someone in that state then going home and trying to raise a family just to have their children also get drafted and either die or go crazy. There’s your inter-generational trauma. Narrow even more. Maybe the crazy people are just evil doppelgängers who switched out the original people. Why do they do this? Maybe they’re looking for someone within normal society. Maybe that someone has a very particular look about them or a specific item of clothing they wear. Now fashion is included. And then just keep going until you have a very strong sense of plot and the cause-and-effect that plays within your world. I say don’t worry about too many or too small of details until it comes time to actually write. I understand it’s all easier said than done, especially when ADHD is a contributor. Again, I’m still struggling with this myself so I haven’t perfected a method or anything but going big and then working my way back down to small has really helped me. But remember, just because you like an element, doesn’t mean it has to be included in your story. If you like it enough that you want it included but it just doesn’t work no matter hard you try or you’re worried your story is just getting too messy by that point, then take it out and set it aside. It may just be meant for a different story that you’ll work on later. | Don’t overthink it. Take the elements that you like, and make a chapter out of each one that highlights a significant piece of the story and that element. A chapter should be able to stand on its own as a solid chunk of entertainment, and so this would be like if the element was the chapter’s “main star” so to speak. Thereafter, smaller recurrences of those elements peppered into other chapters will resonate amplified by its starring chapter | 1 | 4,630 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i888en2 | i877d0g | 1,652,299,604 | 1,652,285,160 | 2 | 1 | My first (and still most successful) book didn't involve a lot of actual *writing*. I made a working miniature golf course in book form — there's a hole in the cover, you drop a ball bearing into it, and when you open to page one, the ball is sitting on "grass" (flocking), and you putt across the page with a tiny golf club, into a hole that leads to page 2 and so on. When we were developing the book, I had so many ideas I loved. Pop-up obstacles. Packaging the book with a golf pencil and scorecard. Extra pages that took you through the history of miniature golf. But the publisher was also trying to keep costs down so they could sell it for under $15. Finally, my editor said, "the fun thing about this book is that *you can play miniature golf*. It doesn't need anything else." I abandoned the pop-ups, the pencil, all the superfluous crap, and just got down to the crux of the idea: it's a miniature golf course in book form, that's enough. So, collect all your ideas, the more the better, and then figure out which ones are the mini golf course and which ones are the pencil. What actually serves your story, and what's just stuff you wanted to include because you thought it was cool? | You have a lot going on, but it all means a lot to you. So, get it all down and try to make it into a cohesive story. | 1 | 14,444 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i888en2 | i87947k | 1,652,299,604 | 1,652,285,849 | 2 | 1 | My first (and still most successful) book didn't involve a lot of actual *writing*. I made a working miniature golf course in book form — there's a hole in the cover, you drop a ball bearing into it, and when you open to page one, the ball is sitting on "grass" (flocking), and you putt across the page with a tiny golf club, into a hole that leads to page 2 and so on. When we were developing the book, I had so many ideas I loved. Pop-up obstacles. Packaging the book with a golf pencil and scorecard. Extra pages that took you through the history of miniature golf. But the publisher was also trying to keep costs down so they could sell it for under $15. Finally, my editor said, "the fun thing about this book is that *you can play miniature golf*. It doesn't need anything else." I abandoned the pop-ups, the pencil, all the superfluous crap, and just got down to the crux of the idea: it's a miniature golf course in book form, that's enough. So, collect all your ideas, the more the better, and then figure out which ones are the mini golf course and which ones are the pencil. What actually serves your story, and what's just stuff you wanted to include because you thought it was cool? | Don’t overthink it. Take the elements that you like, and make a chapter out of each one that highlights a significant piece of the story and that element. A chapter should be able to stand on its own as a solid chunk of entertainment, and so this would be like if the element was the chapter’s “main star” so to speak. Thereafter, smaller recurrences of those elements peppered into other chapters will resonate amplified by its starring chapter | 1 | 13,755 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i888en2 | i87obwy | 1,652,299,604 | 1,652,291,721 | 2 | 1 | My first (and still most successful) book didn't involve a lot of actual *writing*. I made a working miniature golf course in book form — there's a hole in the cover, you drop a ball bearing into it, and when you open to page one, the ball is sitting on "grass" (flocking), and you putt across the page with a tiny golf club, into a hole that leads to page 2 and so on. When we were developing the book, I had so many ideas I loved. Pop-up obstacles. Packaging the book with a golf pencil and scorecard. Extra pages that took you through the history of miniature golf. But the publisher was also trying to keep costs down so they could sell it for under $15. Finally, my editor said, "the fun thing about this book is that *you can play miniature golf*. It doesn't need anything else." I abandoned the pop-ups, the pencil, all the superfluous crap, and just got down to the crux of the idea: it's a miniature golf course in book form, that's enough. So, collect all your ideas, the more the better, and then figure out which ones are the mini golf course and which ones are the pencil. What actually serves your story, and what's just stuff you wanted to include because you thought it was cool? | Ask yourself: "This this relevant to the plot right now?" If not, move on. | 1 | 7,883 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i888en2 | i87wn8k | 1,652,299,604 | 1,652,295,023 | 2 | 1 | My first (and still most successful) book didn't involve a lot of actual *writing*. I made a working miniature golf course in book form — there's a hole in the cover, you drop a ball bearing into it, and when you open to page one, the ball is sitting on "grass" (flocking), and you putt across the page with a tiny golf club, into a hole that leads to page 2 and so on. When we were developing the book, I had so many ideas I loved. Pop-up obstacles. Packaging the book with a golf pencil and scorecard. Extra pages that took you through the history of miniature golf. But the publisher was also trying to keep costs down so they could sell it for under $15. Finally, my editor said, "the fun thing about this book is that *you can play miniature golf*. It doesn't need anything else." I abandoned the pop-ups, the pencil, all the superfluous crap, and just got down to the crux of the idea: it's a miniature golf course in book form, that's enough. So, collect all your ideas, the more the better, and then figure out which ones are the mini golf course and which ones are the pencil. What actually serves your story, and what's just stuff you wanted to include because you thought it was cool? | Write all these down and pick out 3-5 things that can be blended and flow smoothly. | 1 | 4,581 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i877d0g | i89fzm1 | 1,652,285,160 | 1,652,318,537 | 1 | 2 | You have a lot going on, but it all means a lot to you. So, get it all down and try to make it into a cohesive story. | Have the same problem, thanks op for actually asking and thanks all for the answers. | 0 | 33,377 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i89fzm1 | i87947k | 1,652,318,537 | 1,652,285,849 | 2 | 1 | Have the same problem, thanks op for actually asking and thanks all for the answers. | Don’t overthink it. Take the elements that you like, and make a chapter out of each one that highlights a significant piece of the story and that element. A chapter should be able to stand on its own as a solid chunk of entertainment, and so this would be like if the element was the chapter’s “main star” so to speak. Thereafter, smaller recurrences of those elements peppered into other chapters will resonate amplified by its starring chapter | 1 | 32,688 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87obwy | i89fzm1 | 1,652,291,721 | 1,652,318,537 | 1 | 2 | Ask yourself: "This this relevant to the plot right now?" If not, move on. | Have the same problem, thanks op for actually asking and thanks all for the answers. | 0 | 26,816 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87wn8k | i89fzm1 | 1,652,295,023 | 1,652,318,537 | 1 | 2 | Write all these down and pick out 3-5 things that can be blended and flow smoothly. | Have the same problem, thanks op for actually asking and thanks all for the answers. | 0 | 23,514 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i89fzm1 | i88as4s | 1,652,318,537 | 1,652,300,541 | 2 | 1 | Have the same problem, thanks op for actually asking and thanks all for the answers. | Sounds like to me, you're the kind of writer that needs to treat yourself like a werewolf. Cage yourself away, a month or two? Spend the time that you would watch TV and read instead working on your story. Lock the story in and insulate it. Then let yourself out of the cage. | 1 | 17,996 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i89fzm1 | i89046x | 1,652,318,537 | 1,652,311,209 | 2 | 1 | Have the same problem, thanks op for actually asking and thanks all for the answers. | Wooo Mandela Catalogue! | 1 | 7,328 | 2 | ||
tnbw04 | writing_train | 0.84 | I read my writing for the first time after 6 months. I have been battling depression. I want to get back. But I don't know how. I feel so conflicted over writing a story that I am unable to complete because I lose hope so quickly about my future. Everything is hard, and just the thought of putting my thoughts into words is like rubbing salt into my wounds. I have lost my passion, but I can't help but feel like I'm wasting potential. I have impulses to write but I'm so scared it's for nothing or that i will never be able to sustain it. I don't know if this is the place to rant, but I'm a long time lurker that just feels the need to share. I've been so stuck in my own head, I haven't heard what other people have to say about it. It's a gut wrenching feeling. | i20s2sq | i20oths | 1,648,178,697 | 1,648,177,090 | 2 | 1 | If you're just looking to get back in the swing of things, I suggest warm up pieces. They can be ANYTHING. Worldbuilding scraps, a journal about the past day or so, rants about whatever you're currently feeling passionate about, anything. So long as your fingers get moving, you WILL find the itch. I promise | I’m a little confused. Are you saying you have depression, and you write stories that are related to depression? Bad ideas. My suggestion is to write horrors, and write characters who fight like hell to survive. I have depression too, and I always feel so much better after writing one of these stories. | 1 | 1,607 | 2 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7spp22 | i7s5434 | 1,652,018,126 | 1,652,004,364 | 10 | 5 | Perfect is the enemy of good. One of my favorite quotes. Readers don't want perfect. It doesn't exist. They want interesting and all the interesting stuff happens in the imperfections. Even the best authors suffer from imposter syndrome. They just force themselves to keep writing regardless. Remember, there is a huge difference between 1st drafts and published works. Keep writing and don't be too hard on yourself. | Who are "the others", out of interest? Who are you writing for? n.b. these are not semi-rhetorical questions to make some pithy point about *writing for yourself*. It's about the connection between audience and purpose in writing | 1 | 13,762 | 2 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7s7dve | i7spp22 | 1,652,006,347 | 1,652,018,126 | 3 | 10 | It is understandable that at some point our works WILL be read, not to be morbid, after we are gone. I also think on these things. The best advice I can give is to preface your work with a disclaimer or author’s note of sorts that explains your feelings or thoughts behind your story. Remind people that may chance to read it that you are creating the truest work of fiction but has no bearing on your own character or person. On the flip side write it for yourself all the while thinking it is yours and yours alone. I also feel like I am wasting my time when I am not writing but I haven’t written in years because I enjoy other vices just a little more. I still have that nagging in my brain that won’t go away though. | Perfect is the enemy of good. One of my favorite quotes. Readers don't want perfect. It doesn't exist. They want interesting and all the interesting stuff happens in the imperfections. Even the best authors suffer from imposter syndrome. They just force themselves to keep writing regardless. Remember, there is a huge difference between 1st drafts and published works. Keep writing and don't be too hard on yourself. | 0 | 11,779 | 3.333333 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7s8gho | i7spp22 | 1,652,007,258 | 1,652,018,126 | 2 | 10 | To be honest, I think most writers go through some variety of this, so you can rest assured that you're not alone. Sadly, there is no quick one size fits all fix. What I did manage for myself was a different writing formula. I start writing a summary, the background behind the scene I want, and slowly let myself add more detail. To be honest, it's more of a "don't stop writing" kind of thing. Now, there's always more to these things. Later on I have to come back and write the small connections between scenes, not to mention my writing comes out way batter when I do it on the notes app on my phone, because the stakes feel way smaller So, you know, experiment. Trial and error, that's how it's bound to be. Just don't give up on your writing if it's something you really want to have for yourself | Perfect is the enemy of good. One of my favorite quotes. Readers don't want perfect. It doesn't exist. They want interesting and all the interesting stuff happens in the imperfections. Even the best authors suffer from imposter syndrome. They just force themselves to keep writing regardless. Remember, there is a huge difference between 1st drafts and published works. Keep writing and don't be too hard on yourself. | 0 | 10,868 | 5 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7spp22 | i7sm0z3 | 1,652,018,126 | 1,652,016,249 | 10 | 2 | Perfect is the enemy of good. One of my favorite quotes. Readers don't want perfect. It doesn't exist. They want interesting and all the interesting stuff happens in the imperfections. Even the best authors suffer from imposter syndrome. They just force themselves to keep writing regardless. Remember, there is a huge difference between 1st drafts and published works. Keep writing and don't be too hard on yourself. | I struggle with the same thing. The book I am currently writing is extremely dark and sometimes I'm embarrassed to think my family is going to read it. It took me a long time to even tell them that I am writing this piece because there is rape in it... And even though the story is about overcoming what happens after I'm still afraid they are going to get the wrong impression. And it's a really tough topic so I do worry about what other rape victims are going to take from it... Will this story ruin my career and become that author everyone avoids? So my advice is to write it for yourself first. Cliche I know. But while you're writing it hold onto the belief that if you love your story, others will too. The world is full of so many different types of people with different kinds of opinions and there will always be haters. But there will be plenty just like you who will love the story you're writing. | 1 | 1,877 | 5 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7s7faz | i7spp22 | 1,652,006,382 | 1,652,018,126 | 1 | 10 | It is understandable that at some point our works WILL be read, not to be morbid, after we are gone. I also think on these things. The best advice I can give is to preface your work with a disclaimer or author’s note of sorts that explains your feelings or thoughts behind your story. Remind people that may chance to read it that you are creating the truest work of fiction but has no bearing on your own character or person. On the flip side write it for yourself all the while thinking it is yours and yours alone. I also feel like I am wasting my time when I am not writing but I haven’t written in years because I enjoy other vices just a little more. I still have that nagging in my brain that won’t go away though. | Perfect is the enemy of good. One of my favorite quotes. Readers don't want perfect. It doesn't exist. They want interesting and all the interesting stuff happens in the imperfections. Even the best authors suffer from imposter syndrome. They just force themselves to keep writing regardless. Remember, there is a huge difference between 1st drafts and published works. Keep writing and don't be too hard on yourself. | 0 | 11,744 | 10 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7s8w3h | i7spp22 | 1,652,007,615 | 1,652,018,126 | 1 | 10 | Why not get creative with something embarrassing? Maybe you can make up a love interest you'd be embarrassed for liking if you were more like the MC? Like maybe the love interest is younger (but still age appropriate) and around the same height? It's not you who likes them but the MC. The love interest can be older and taller than you but younger than the MC so you still like them but understand it's embarrassing for the MC And it's good to want to do your best and care about how your story comes out. Before even writing a draft make sure the outlines are perfect. That means character outlines and chapter outlines too | Perfect is the enemy of good. One of my favorite quotes. Readers don't want perfect. It doesn't exist. They want interesting and all the interesting stuff happens in the imperfections. Even the best authors suffer from imposter syndrome. They just force themselves to keep writing regardless. Remember, there is a huge difference between 1st drafts and published works. Keep writing and don't be too hard on yourself. | 0 | 10,511 | 10 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7sq8yn | i7s7dve | 1,652,018,404 | 1,652,006,347 | 5 | 3 | Dear OP, I agree with you. You are overthinking before you even start writing.
You wrote: “I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems …”
You are “creating” stories which means they are fiction. You’re not writing a memoir.
Do yourself a favor and take the word “should” out of your vocabulary. I have read and enjoyed hundreds of fiction books and never once have I wondered if the author was writing from their own life experience.
Do you consider Stephen King to be a sinister person because he writes scary stories? I don’t. He’s an author with a wild imagination that has entertained literally millions of readers and movie goers. I highly recommend reading his book Stephen King, A Memoir Of The Craft On Writing.
Fiction writers can write about topics they know little about. There are resources to help such as The Emotional Would Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma by Angela Ackerman & Becca Publisi. They have also written similar guides on emotions, positive traits, negative traits, and conflicts.
Set yourself free and enjoy the ride! | It is understandable that at some point our works WILL be read, not to be morbid, after we are gone. I also think on these things. The best advice I can give is to preface your work with a disclaimer or author’s note of sorts that explains your feelings or thoughts behind your story. Remind people that may chance to read it that you are creating the truest work of fiction but has no bearing on your own character or person. On the flip side write it for yourself all the while thinking it is yours and yours alone. I also feel like I am wasting my time when I am not writing but I haven’t written in years because I enjoy other vices just a little more. I still have that nagging in my brain that won’t go away though. | 1 | 12,057 | 1.666667 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7s8gho | i7sq8yn | 1,652,007,258 | 1,652,018,404 | 2 | 5 | To be honest, I think most writers go through some variety of this, so you can rest assured that you're not alone. Sadly, there is no quick one size fits all fix. What I did manage for myself was a different writing formula. I start writing a summary, the background behind the scene I want, and slowly let myself add more detail. To be honest, it's more of a "don't stop writing" kind of thing. Now, there's always more to these things. Later on I have to come back and write the small connections between scenes, not to mention my writing comes out way batter when I do it on the notes app on my phone, because the stakes feel way smaller So, you know, experiment. Trial and error, that's how it's bound to be. Just don't give up on your writing if it's something you really want to have for yourself | Dear OP, I agree with you. You are overthinking before you even start writing.
You wrote: “I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems …”
You are “creating” stories which means they are fiction. You’re not writing a memoir.
Do yourself a favor and take the word “should” out of your vocabulary. I have read and enjoyed hundreds of fiction books and never once have I wondered if the author was writing from their own life experience.
Do you consider Stephen King to be a sinister person because he writes scary stories? I don’t. He’s an author with a wild imagination that has entertained literally millions of readers and movie goers. I highly recommend reading his book Stephen King, A Memoir Of The Craft On Writing.
Fiction writers can write about topics they know little about. There are resources to help such as The Emotional Would Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma by Angela Ackerman & Becca Publisi. They have also written similar guides on emotions, positive traits, negative traits, and conflicts.
Set yourself free and enjoy the ride! | 0 | 11,146 | 2.5 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7sq8yn | i7sm0z3 | 1,652,018,404 | 1,652,016,249 | 5 | 2 | Dear OP, I agree with you. You are overthinking before you even start writing.
You wrote: “I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems …”
You are “creating” stories which means they are fiction. You’re not writing a memoir.
Do yourself a favor and take the word “should” out of your vocabulary. I have read and enjoyed hundreds of fiction books and never once have I wondered if the author was writing from their own life experience.
Do you consider Stephen King to be a sinister person because he writes scary stories? I don’t. He’s an author with a wild imagination that has entertained literally millions of readers and movie goers. I highly recommend reading his book Stephen King, A Memoir Of The Craft On Writing.
Fiction writers can write about topics they know little about. There are resources to help such as The Emotional Would Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma by Angela Ackerman & Becca Publisi. They have also written similar guides on emotions, positive traits, negative traits, and conflicts.
Set yourself free and enjoy the ride! | I struggle with the same thing. The book I am currently writing is extremely dark and sometimes I'm embarrassed to think my family is going to read it. It took me a long time to even tell them that I am writing this piece because there is rape in it... And even though the story is about overcoming what happens after I'm still afraid they are going to get the wrong impression. And it's a really tough topic so I do worry about what other rape victims are going to take from it... Will this story ruin my career and become that author everyone avoids? So my advice is to write it for yourself first. Cliche I know. But while you're writing it hold onto the belief that if you love your story, others will too. The world is full of so many different types of people with different kinds of opinions and there will always be haters. But there will be plenty just like you who will love the story you're writing. | 1 | 2,155 | 2.5 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7s7faz | i7sq8yn | 1,652,006,382 | 1,652,018,404 | 1 | 5 | It is understandable that at some point our works WILL be read, not to be morbid, after we are gone. I also think on these things. The best advice I can give is to preface your work with a disclaimer or author’s note of sorts that explains your feelings or thoughts behind your story. Remind people that may chance to read it that you are creating the truest work of fiction but has no bearing on your own character or person. On the flip side write it for yourself all the while thinking it is yours and yours alone. I also feel like I am wasting my time when I am not writing but I haven’t written in years because I enjoy other vices just a little more. I still have that nagging in my brain that won’t go away though. | Dear OP, I agree with you. You are overthinking before you even start writing.
You wrote: “I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems …”
You are “creating” stories which means they are fiction. You’re not writing a memoir.
Do yourself a favor and take the word “should” out of your vocabulary. I have read and enjoyed hundreds of fiction books and never once have I wondered if the author was writing from their own life experience.
Do you consider Stephen King to be a sinister person because he writes scary stories? I don’t. He’s an author with a wild imagination that has entertained literally millions of readers and movie goers. I highly recommend reading his book Stephen King, A Memoir Of The Craft On Writing.
Fiction writers can write about topics they know little about. There are resources to help such as The Emotional Would Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma by Angela Ackerman & Becca Publisi. They have also written similar guides on emotions, positive traits, negative traits, and conflicts.
Set yourself free and enjoy the ride! | 0 | 12,022 | 5 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7s8w3h | i7sq8yn | 1,652,007,615 | 1,652,018,404 | 1 | 5 | Why not get creative with something embarrassing? Maybe you can make up a love interest you'd be embarrassed for liking if you were more like the MC? Like maybe the love interest is younger (but still age appropriate) and around the same height? It's not you who likes them but the MC. The love interest can be older and taller than you but younger than the MC so you still like them but understand it's embarrassing for the MC And it's good to want to do your best and care about how your story comes out. Before even writing a draft make sure the outlines are perfect. That means character outlines and chapter outlines too | Dear OP, I agree with you. You are overthinking before you even start writing.
You wrote: “I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems …”
You are “creating” stories which means they are fiction. You’re not writing a memoir.
Do yourself a favor and take the word “should” out of your vocabulary. I have read and enjoyed hundreds of fiction books and never once have I wondered if the author was writing from their own life experience.
Do you consider Stephen King to be a sinister person because he writes scary stories? I don’t. He’s an author with a wild imagination that has entertained literally millions of readers and movie goers. I highly recommend reading his book Stephen King, A Memoir Of The Craft On Writing.
Fiction writers can write about topics they know little about. There are resources to help such as The Emotional Would Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma by Angela Ackerman & Becca Publisi. They have also written similar guides on emotions, positive traits, negative traits, and conflicts.
Set yourself free and enjoy the ride! | 0 | 10,789 | 5 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7s8gho | i7s7faz | 1,652,007,258 | 1,652,006,382 | 2 | 1 | To be honest, I think most writers go through some variety of this, so you can rest assured that you're not alone. Sadly, there is no quick one size fits all fix. What I did manage for myself was a different writing formula. I start writing a summary, the background behind the scene I want, and slowly let myself add more detail. To be honest, it's more of a "don't stop writing" kind of thing. Now, there's always more to these things. Later on I have to come back and write the small connections between scenes, not to mention my writing comes out way batter when I do it on the notes app on my phone, because the stakes feel way smaller So, you know, experiment. Trial and error, that's how it's bound to be. Just don't give up on your writing if it's something you really want to have for yourself | It is understandable that at some point our works WILL be read, not to be morbid, after we are gone. I also think on these things. The best advice I can give is to preface your work with a disclaimer or author’s note of sorts that explains your feelings or thoughts behind your story. Remind people that may chance to read it that you are creating the truest work of fiction but has no bearing on your own character or person. On the flip side write it for yourself all the while thinking it is yours and yours alone. I also feel like I am wasting my time when I am not writing but I haven’t written in years because I enjoy other vices just a little more. I still have that nagging in my brain that won’t go away though. | 1 | 876 | 2 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7sm0z3 | i7s7faz | 1,652,016,249 | 1,652,006,382 | 2 | 1 | I struggle with the same thing. The book I am currently writing is extremely dark and sometimes I'm embarrassed to think my family is going to read it. It took me a long time to even tell them that I am writing this piece because there is rape in it... And even though the story is about overcoming what happens after I'm still afraid they are going to get the wrong impression. And it's a really tough topic so I do worry about what other rape victims are going to take from it... Will this story ruin my career and become that author everyone avoids? So my advice is to write it for yourself first. Cliche I know. But while you're writing it hold onto the belief that if you love your story, others will too. The world is full of so many different types of people with different kinds of opinions and there will always be haters. But there will be plenty just like you who will love the story you're writing. | It is understandable that at some point our works WILL be read, not to be morbid, after we are gone. I also think on these things. The best advice I can give is to preface your work with a disclaimer or author’s note of sorts that explains your feelings or thoughts behind your story. Remind people that may chance to read it that you are creating the truest work of fiction but has no bearing on your own character or person. On the flip side write it for yourself all the while thinking it is yours and yours alone. I also feel like I am wasting my time when I am not writing but I haven’t written in years because I enjoy other vices just a little more. I still have that nagging in my brain that won’t go away though. | 1 | 9,867 | 2 | ||
ukyig7 | writing_train | 0.8 | How can I let go of the urge to write “100% honest and true”? I haven’t written anything creative for weeks if not months already. And I think my problem that paralyses me is this: I always overthink before I even start writing. The thought of wasting plenty of my time for writing something that I won’t feel comfortable sharing scares me in an odd way. I know as a “passionate & perfect author” I should feel completely comfortable with creating stories/poems etc just for me. But honestly I don’t because it makes it feel meaningless for me. This perfectionistic kind of pressure also makes me overthink abstract things like my own feelings or whatever I’d like to put in words. And I might question things like: *”But what will the others think of me writing something like this? Will they find a connection? What if they misunderstand me and create a false image of me in their head? What if they feel weird reading this because they expected me to feel differently? Do I REALLY feel these things? What if I’m lying? Is it wrong to share this? Will they see something vulnerable in my writing that I don’t see or wouldn’t want to publish on social media?”* and so on. I either simply lack creativity, braveness or both. It almost feels like the way to my own inner peace would be not to share my writing at all; but I WANT to. I also feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m not writing. hnn Does anyone feel the same? How do you deal with it? How do you deal with perfectionism/insecurity? What are your thoughts on this? | i7sm0z3 | i7s8w3h | 1,652,016,249 | 1,652,007,615 | 2 | 1 | I struggle with the same thing. The book I am currently writing is extremely dark and sometimes I'm embarrassed to think my family is going to read it. It took me a long time to even tell them that I am writing this piece because there is rape in it... And even though the story is about overcoming what happens after I'm still afraid they are going to get the wrong impression. And it's a really tough topic so I do worry about what other rape victims are going to take from it... Will this story ruin my career and become that author everyone avoids? So my advice is to write it for yourself first. Cliche I know. But while you're writing it hold onto the belief that if you love your story, others will too. The world is full of so many different types of people with different kinds of opinions and there will always be haters. But there will be plenty just like you who will love the story you're writing. | Why not get creative with something embarrassing? Maybe you can make up a love interest you'd be embarrassed for liking if you were more like the MC? Like maybe the love interest is younger (but still age appropriate) and around the same height? It's not you who likes them but the MC. The love interest can be older and taller than you but younger than the MC so you still like them but understand it's embarrassing for the MC And it's good to want to do your best and care about how your story comes out. Before even writing a draft make sure the outlines are perfect. That means character outlines and chapter outlines too | 1 | 8,634 | 2 | ||
zjlvw2 | writing_train | 0.86 | The overwhelming urge to write Reading has been my main hobby for years, but I have never written anything fiction in my LIFE. I randomly had an idea for a story a few weeks ago and ever since I can barely think about anything else. I have an overwhelming need to get this story on a piece of paper. It’s like a fever running through me. I write bits of it every second I get a chance. I love my characters, I love their world. I go over and over scenes in my head when I’m walking around. Is this the writing bug?? Is this normal?? It is a very unusual feeling, like a primal urge to write. | izx43oc | izwqab1 | 1,670,855,491 | 1,670,848,107 | 7 | 6 | It's normal. Just sit down and write it. Be prepared for the fact that likely, you won't be able to do your story justice. That's normal, too - when it's in your head, it's pristine, imaginary. It can be anything you want it to. Once it's on paper, its limited to a dead form, put there by skills which you haven't practiced yet. When that happens, write something else. Write more things. Sooner or later, you'll pick up all the skills necessary and then, if you still feel like it, you can redo the story that got you started. Luck and Persistence! | This is how a lot of creative work is made. Totally normal. If you google something like "creativity and obsession" you will get gazillions of anecdotal stories. | 1 | 7,384 | 1.166667 | ||
zjlvw2 | writing_train | 0.86 | The overwhelming urge to write Reading has been my main hobby for years, but I have never written anything fiction in my LIFE. I randomly had an idea for a story a few weeks ago and ever since I can barely think about anything else. I have an overwhelming need to get this story on a piece of paper. It’s like a fever running through me. I write bits of it every second I get a chance. I love my characters, I love their world. I go over and over scenes in my head when I’m walking around. Is this the writing bug?? Is this normal?? It is a very unusual feeling, like a primal urge to write. | izw5qvm | izx43oc | 1,670,831,371 | 1,670,855,491 | 3 | 7 | Happened to me in my late 20s. I failed English at school and had zero interest in writing, yet I suddenly had a short story idea, felt compelled to write it and immediately sold it to a magazine. The adventure had begun! | It's normal. Just sit down and write it. Be prepared for the fact that likely, you won't be able to do your story justice. That's normal, too - when it's in your head, it's pristine, imaginary. It can be anything you want it to. Once it's on paper, its limited to a dead form, put there by skills which you haven't practiced yet. When that happens, write something else. Write more things. Sooner or later, you'll pick up all the skills necessary and then, if you still feel like it, you can redo the story that got you started. Luck and Persistence! | 0 | 24,120 | 2.333333 | ||
zjlvw2 | writing_train | 0.86 | The overwhelming urge to write Reading has been my main hobby for years, but I have never written anything fiction in my LIFE. I randomly had an idea for a story a few weeks ago and ever since I can barely think about anything else. I have an overwhelming need to get this story on a piece of paper. It’s like a fever running through me. I write bits of it every second I get a chance. I love my characters, I love their world. I go over and over scenes in my head when I’m walking around. Is this the writing bug?? Is this normal?? It is a very unusual feeling, like a primal urge to write. | izx43oc | izwg53t | 1,670,855,491 | 1,670,840,337 | 7 | 1 | It's normal. Just sit down and write it. Be prepared for the fact that likely, you won't be able to do your story justice. That's normal, too - when it's in your head, it's pristine, imaginary. It can be anything you want it to. Once it's on paper, its limited to a dead form, put there by skills which you haven't practiced yet. When that happens, write something else. Write more things. Sooner or later, you'll pick up all the skills necessary and then, if you still feel like it, you can redo the story that got you started. Luck and Persistence! | Literally iam experiencing the same thing for months now | 1 | 15,154 | 7 | ||
zjlvw2 | writing_train | 0.86 | The overwhelming urge to write Reading has been my main hobby for years, but I have never written anything fiction in my LIFE. I randomly had an idea for a story a few weeks ago and ever since I can barely think about anything else. I have an overwhelming need to get this story on a piece of paper. It’s like a fever running through me. I write bits of it every second I get a chance. I love my characters, I love their world. I go over and over scenes in my head when I’m walking around. Is this the writing bug?? Is this normal?? It is a very unusual feeling, like a primal urge to write. | izwqab1 | izw5qvm | 1,670,848,107 | 1,670,831,371 | 6 | 3 | This is how a lot of creative work is made. Totally normal. If you google something like "creativity and obsession" you will get gazillions of anecdotal stories. | Happened to me in my late 20s. I failed English at school and had zero interest in writing, yet I suddenly had a short story idea, felt compelled to write it and immediately sold it to a magazine. The adventure had begun! | 1 | 16,736 | 2 | ||
zjlvw2 | writing_train | 0.86 | The overwhelming urge to write Reading has been my main hobby for years, but I have never written anything fiction in my LIFE. I randomly had an idea for a story a few weeks ago and ever since I can barely think about anything else. I have an overwhelming need to get this story on a piece of paper. It’s like a fever running through me. I write bits of it every second I get a chance. I love my characters, I love their world. I go over and over scenes in my head when I’m walking around. Is this the writing bug?? Is this normal?? It is a very unusual feeling, like a primal urge to write. | izwg53t | izwqab1 | 1,670,840,337 | 1,670,848,107 | 1 | 6 | Literally iam experiencing the same thing for months now | This is how a lot of creative work is made. Totally normal. If you google something like "creativity and obsession" you will get gazillions of anecdotal stories. | 0 | 7,770 | 6 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj90bzu | fj8yt0t | 1,583,127,564 | 1,583,126,149 | 13 | 9 | The idea that a male can't—or I've even read *shouldn't* write a female MC is absurd. How well do you know your character? That's what matters. If you know them well enough that you know how they would react in just about any situation, and you can write in their voice, then you're ready to write. As far as getting into that headspace, YouTube can be a good resource. Watch vlogs. Watch anything that your MC would watch that features a person they would relate to. Of course, you want to avoid tropes and stereotypes, unless you're using them intentionally and there will be a payoff down the road. >I’m over sexualizing the female MC That's the thing. Your character is your character. They do not have to, nor should they, fit some pre-defined idea of what a female character *should* be. If they like to flaunt some skin, then they like to flaunt skin. If they enjoy a good roll in the hay, then more power to them. Be true to who the character is. --- One thing that can help in general is to talk to women about what it's like having to deal with horny, abrasive, aggressive men all the time. Real eye opener. The stuff they have to put up with...man. | Yea, put yourself in girls shoes. Make sure to think about how many complaints youve heard about the reasons or ways a guy talks to us. Think of how sick of it we get. 9/10 guys think sending a dick pic works. Consider that. Most of the opposite sex thinks its so easy to get a woman to sleep with him he just has to show her his dick. And then think about how easily it would be to get irritated in a world like this. Im not saying that girls are always good about this shit either. They can be bad as well, but guys are insane compared to girls about it. Just imagine that every day for months and youll hit the right stride where shes slightly strong and growing stronger. | 1 | 1,415 | 1.444444 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj90bzu | fj902gx | 1,583,127,564 | 1,583,127,311 | 13 | 6 | The idea that a male can't—or I've even read *shouldn't* write a female MC is absurd. How well do you know your character? That's what matters. If you know them well enough that you know how they would react in just about any situation, and you can write in their voice, then you're ready to write. As far as getting into that headspace, YouTube can be a good resource. Watch vlogs. Watch anything that your MC would watch that features a person they would relate to. Of course, you want to avoid tropes and stereotypes, unless you're using them intentionally and there will be a payoff down the road. >I’m over sexualizing the female MC That's the thing. Your character is your character. They do not have to, nor should they, fit some pre-defined idea of what a female character *should* be. If they like to flaunt some skin, then they like to flaunt skin. If they enjoy a good roll in the hay, then more power to them. Be true to who the character is. --- One thing that can help in general is to talk to women about what it's like having to deal with horny, abrasive, aggressive men all the time. Real eye opener. The stuff they have to put up with...man. | Women are people too. Write your character like a person. In my experience, if you can change all the pronouns referring to a character and it will still make sense, then you’ve written a decent, non-sexist story. The character’s gender should have no effect on the story. If you’re still having issues, write a male MC and switch the pronouns. It will have the same effect if you’ve done it properly. | 1 | 253 | 2.166667 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj90bzu | fj90570 | 1,583,127,564 | 1,583,127,385 | 13 | 3 | The idea that a male can't—or I've even read *shouldn't* write a female MC is absurd. How well do you know your character? That's what matters. If you know them well enough that you know how they would react in just about any situation, and you can write in their voice, then you're ready to write. As far as getting into that headspace, YouTube can be a good resource. Watch vlogs. Watch anything that your MC would watch that features a person they would relate to. Of course, you want to avoid tropes and stereotypes, unless you're using them intentionally and there will be a payoff down the road. >I’m over sexualizing the female MC That's the thing. Your character is your character. They do not have to, nor should they, fit some pre-defined idea of what a female character *should* be. If they like to flaunt some skin, then they like to flaunt skin. If they enjoy a good roll in the hay, then more power to them. Be true to who the character is. --- One thing that can help in general is to talk to women about what it's like having to deal with horny, abrasive, aggressive men all the time. Real eye opener. The stuff they have to put up with...man. | Writers have had this issue for centuries. Has your own reading online or in how to write books helped you? I like looking for Writer's Digest stuff in my local library. Some of it was written a long time ago, but the fundamentals haven't changed. | 1 | 179 | 4.333333 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj95pfu | fj8yt0t | 1,583,133,239 | 1,583,126,149 | 13 | 9 | Pro-tip Don't talk about her breasts. She's a girl, she has them, we get it. Don't talk about them. Don't slip bra size in the text. Don't ascribe emotional responses, random verbs, or character attributes to her boobs. Don't do this: Jenna slipped out of bed, her bare breasts perking in the morning air. She selected a red, sexy, 34DD bra from the dresser, which fit comfortably over her hard nipples. Her breasts bounced joyously at the thought of starting her new job. That. Don't do that. | Yea, put yourself in girls shoes. Make sure to think about how many complaints youve heard about the reasons or ways a guy talks to us. Think of how sick of it we get. 9/10 guys think sending a dick pic works. Consider that. Most of the opposite sex thinks its so easy to get a woman to sleep with him he just has to show her his dick. And then think about how easily it would be to get irritated in a world like this. Im not saying that girls are always good about this shit either. They can be bad as well, but guys are insane compared to girls about it. Just imagine that every day for months and youll hit the right stride where shes slightly strong and growing stronger. | 1 | 7,090 | 1.444444 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj95pfu | fj902gx | 1,583,133,239 | 1,583,127,311 | 13 | 6 | Pro-tip Don't talk about her breasts. She's a girl, she has them, we get it. Don't talk about them. Don't slip bra size in the text. Don't ascribe emotional responses, random verbs, or character attributes to her boobs. Don't do this: Jenna slipped out of bed, her bare breasts perking in the morning air. She selected a red, sexy, 34DD bra from the dresser, which fit comfortably over her hard nipples. Her breasts bounced joyously at the thought of starting her new job. That. Don't do that. | Women are people too. Write your character like a person. In my experience, if you can change all the pronouns referring to a character and it will still make sense, then you’ve written a decent, non-sexist story. The character’s gender should have no effect on the story. If you’re still having issues, write a male MC and switch the pronouns. It will have the same effect if you’ve done it properly. | 1 | 5,928 | 2.166667 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj90570 | fj95pfu | 1,583,127,385 | 1,583,133,239 | 3 | 13 | Writers have had this issue for centuries. Has your own reading online or in how to write books helped you? I like looking for Writer's Digest stuff in my local library. Some of it was written a long time ago, but the fundamentals haven't changed. | Pro-tip Don't talk about her breasts. She's a girl, she has them, we get it. Don't talk about them. Don't slip bra size in the text. Don't ascribe emotional responses, random verbs, or character attributes to her boobs. Don't do this: Jenna slipped out of bed, her bare breasts perking in the morning air. She selected a red, sexy, 34DD bra from the dresser, which fit comfortably over her hard nipples. Her breasts bounced joyously at the thought of starting her new job. That. Don't do that. | 0 | 5,854 | 4.333333 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj919xk | fj95pfu | 1,583,128,473 | 1,583,133,239 | 1 | 13 | Try to live as your character would for a while. How bow dat? | Pro-tip Don't talk about her breasts. She's a girl, she has them, we get it. Don't talk about them. Don't slip bra size in the text. Don't ascribe emotional responses, random verbs, or character attributes to her boobs. Don't do this: Jenna slipped out of bed, her bare breasts perking in the morning air. She selected a red, sexy, 34DD bra from the dresser, which fit comfortably over her hard nipples. Her breasts bounced joyously at the thought of starting her new job. That. Don't do that. | 0 | 4,766 | 13 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj95pfu | fj93ct5 | 1,583,133,239 | 1,583,130,595 | 13 | 1 | Pro-tip Don't talk about her breasts. She's a girl, she has them, we get it. Don't talk about them. Don't slip bra size in the text. Don't ascribe emotional responses, random verbs, or character attributes to her boobs. Don't do this: Jenna slipped out of bed, her bare breasts perking in the morning air. She selected a red, sexy, 34DD bra from the dresser, which fit comfortably over her hard nipples. Her breasts bounced joyously at the thought of starting her new job. That. Don't do that. | I would say build a woman in your mind that you would like to know and wound find interesting. What qualities did you build that created that woman build off of those to give you a connection to the charater. Then give her flaws, several flaws, because she has to be relatable. | 1 | 2,644 | 13 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj95sv8 | fj90570 | 1,583,133,352 | 1,583,127,385 | 4 | 3 | Women are human beings that live in a society. So, try writing a human, then place them in a society. How do their personality traits mingle with society’s expectations of them, and how does society influence their personality? | Writers have had this issue for centuries. Has your own reading online or in how to write books helped you? I like looking for Writer's Digest stuff in my local library. Some of it was written a long time ago, but the fundamentals haven't changed. | 1 | 5,967 | 1.333333 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj95sv8 | fj919xk | 1,583,133,352 | 1,583,128,473 | 4 | 1 | Women are human beings that live in a society. So, try writing a human, then place them in a society. How do their personality traits mingle with society’s expectations of them, and how does society influence their personality? | Try to live as your character would for a while. How bow dat? | 1 | 4,879 | 4 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj93ct5 | fj95sv8 | 1,583,130,595 | 1,583,133,352 | 1 | 4 | I would say build a woman in your mind that you would like to know and wound find interesting. What qualities did you build that created that woman build off of those to give you a connection to the charater. Then give her flaws, several flaws, because she has to be relatable. | Women are human beings that live in a society. So, try writing a human, then place them in a society. How do their personality traits mingle with society’s expectations of them, and how does society influence their personality? | 0 | 2,757 | 4 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj90570 | fjagg02 | 1,583,127,385 | 1,583,172,989 | 3 | 4 | Writers have had this issue for centuries. Has your own reading online or in how to write books helped you? I like looking for Writer's Digest stuff in my local library. Some of it was written a long time ago, but the fundamentals haven't changed. | I like the precautions and considerations you are taking, but I don't like a lot of these responses to your post. Yes, the female character is human, but if you plan on her having contact with other human beings, there are things to consider. Men and women are most definitely treated differently in society. This gives them very different mindsets and interactions with people. Something you can do is speak to women who you find remotely similar to the character you are creating (personality wise) and ask "hey, what would you do/think if [thing] happened." I couldn't possibly list the entire mindset of every female but here are things to consider. A woman picks out clothes differently than a man in the morning. A woman walks down the street or in a parking lot differently. A woman socializes with other women differently. These are things to consider. | 0 | 45,604 | 1.333333 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fjagg02 | fj9ow5r | 1,583,172,989 | 1,583,155,709 | 4 | 2 | I like the precautions and considerations you are taking, but I don't like a lot of these responses to your post. Yes, the female character is human, but if you plan on her having contact with other human beings, there are things to consider. Men and women are most definitely treated differently in society. This gives them very different mindsets and interactions with people. Something you can do is speak to women who you find remotely similar to the character you are creating (personality wise) and ask "hey, what would you do/think if [thing] happened." I couldn't possibly list the entire mindset of every female but here are things to consider. A woman picks out clothes differently than a man in the morning. A woman walks down the street or in a parking lot differently. A woman socializes with other women differently. These are things to consider. | I don't understand how this question comes up so often. Like, don't you guys have mothers, sisters, grandmothers, girlfriends, wives, or even just close friends? | 1 | 17,280 | 2 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj9vohq | fjagg02 | 1,583,160,698 | 1,583,172,989 | 2 | 4 | When in doubt write her the way you’d write yourself. Sure men and women are different, but sometimes we forget that we are all human and more alike than different. :) | I like the precautions and considerations you are taking, but I don't like a lot of these responses to your post. Yes, the female character is human, but if you plan on her having contact with other human beings, there are things to consider. Men and women are most definitely treated differently in society. This gives them very different mindsets and interactions with people. Something you can do is speak to women who you find remotely similar to the character you are creating (personality wise) and ask "hey, what would you do/think if [thing] happened." I couldn't possibly list the entire mindset of every female but here are things to consider. A woman picks out clothes differently than a man in the morning. A woman walks down the street or in a parking lot differently. A woman socializes with other women differently. These are things to consider. | 0 | 12,291 | 2 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fjagg02 | fjad7gn | 1,583,172,989 | 1,583,171,100 | 4 | 2 | I like the precautions and considerations you are taking, but I don't like a lot of these responses to your post. Yes, the female character is human, but if you plan on her having contact with other human beings, there are things to consider. Men and women are most definitely treated differently in society. This gives them very different mindsets and interactions with people. Something you can do is speak to women who you find remotely similar to the character you are creating (personality wise) and ask "hey, what would you do/think if [thing] happened." I couldn't possibly list the entire mindset of every female but here are things to consider. A woman picks out clothes differently than a man in the morning. A woman walks down the street or in a parking lot differently. A woman socializes with other women differently. These are things to consider. | Don't overthink this. I feel like a lot of writers (usually men, but women too) worry about making their female characters quintessentially female. But your character isn't "all women", she's just one person, and a person can be anything. She can be smart or dumb, weak or strong, outgoing or shy. She can be driven by curiosity, or revenge, or survival, just like a male character. I think, mostly, when people say "just write a male character and make it female," this is what they mean. It's less that there are zero differences between men and women, and more that people tend to focus so much on the differences that they almost forget women are human. Just let her be a *person*. | 1 | 1,889 | 2 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj919xk | fjagg02 | 1,583,128,473 | 1,583,172,989 | 1 | 4 | Try to live as your character would for a while. How bow dat? | I like the precautions and considerations you are taking, but I don't like a lot of these responses to your post. Yes, the female character is human, but if you plan on her having contact with other human beings, there are things to consider. Men and women are most definitely treated differently in society. This gives them very different mindsets and interactions with people. Something you can do is speak to women who you find remotely similar to the character you are creating (personality wise) and ask "hey, what would you do/think if [thing] happened." I couldn't possibly list the entire mindset of every female but here are things to consider. A woman picks out clothes differently than a man in the morning. A woman walks down the street or in a parking lot differently. A woman socializes with other women differently. These are things to consider. | 0 | 44,516 | 4 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fjagg02 | fj93ct5 | 1,583,172,989 | 1,583,130,595 | 4 | 1 | I like the precautions and considerations you are taking, but I don't like a lot of these responses to your post. Yes, the female character is human, but if you plan on her having contact with other human beings, there are things to consider. Men and women are most definitely treated differently in society. This gives them very different mindsets and interactions with people. Something you can do is speak to women who you find remotely similar to the character you are creating (personality wise) and ask "hey, what would you do/think if [thing] happened." I couldn't possibly list the entire mindset of every female but here are things to consider. A woman picks out clothes differently than a man in the morning. A woman walks down the street or in a parking lot differently. A woman socializes with other women differently. These are things to consider. | I would say build a woman in your mind that you would like to know and wound find interesting. What qualities did you build that created that woman build off of those to give you a connection to the charater. Then give her flaws, several flaws, because she has to be relatable. | 1 | 42,394 | 4 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fjagajd | fjagg02 | 1,583,172,899 | 1,583,172,989 | 1 | 4 | Write a person. Like, that's literally it. Women are people. And with the exceptions of certain experiences like misogyny, a person's genitals rarely have an impact on their minute-to-minute lives, and they probably don't have an impact on your character's developmental arc unless that arc specifically centers on experiences unique to women. | I like the precautions and considerations you are taking, but I don't like a lot of these responses to your post. Yes, the female character is human, but if you plan on her having contact with other human beings, there are things to consider. Men and women are most definitely treated differently in society. This gives them very different mindsets and interactions with people. Something you can do is speak to women who you find remotely similar to the character you are creating (personality wise) and ask "hey, what would you do/think if [thing] happened." I couldn't possibly list the entire mindset of every female but here are things to consider. A woman picks out clothes differently than a man in the morning. A woman walks down the street or in a parking lot differently. A woman socializes with other women differently. These are things to consider. | 0 | 90 | 4 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj9ow5r | fj919xk | 1,583,155,709 | 1,583,128,473 | 2 | 1 | I don't understand how this question comes up so often. Like, don't you guys have mothers, sisters, grandmothers, girlfriends, wives, or even just close friends? | Try to live as your character would for a while. How bow dat? | 1 | 27,236 | 2 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj9ow5r | fj93ct5 | 1,583,155,709 | 1,583,130,595 | 2 | 1 | I don't understand how this question comes up so often. Like, don't you guys have mothers, sisters, grandmothers, girlfriends, wives, or even just close friends? | I would say build a woman in your mind that you would like to know and wound find interesting. What qualities did you build that created that woman build off of those to give you a connection to the charater. Then give her flaws, several flaws, because she has to be relatable. | 1 | 25,114 | 2 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj919xk | fj9vohq | 1,583,128,473 | 1,583,160,698 | 1 | 2 | Try to live as your character would for a while. How bow dat? | When in doubt write her the way you’d write yourself. Sure men and women are different, but sometimes we forget that we are all human and more alike than different. :) | 0 | 32,225 | 2 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fj93ct5 | fj9vohq | 1,583,130,595 | 1,583,160,698 | 1 | 2 | I would say build a woman in your mind that you would like to know and wound find interesting. What qualities did you build that created that woman build off of those to give you a connection to the charater. Then give her flaws, several flaws, because she has to be relatable. | When in doubt write her the way you’d write yourself. Sure men and women are different, but sometimes we forget that we are all human and more alike than different. :) | 0 | 30,103 | 2 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fjad7gn | fj919xk | 1,583,171,100 | 1,583,128,473 | 2 | 1 | Don't overthink this. I feel like a lot of writers (usually men, but women too) worry about making their female characters quintessentially female. But your character isn't "all women", she's just one person, and a person can be anything. She can be smart or dumb, weak or strong, outgoing or shy. She can be driven by curiosity, or revenge, or survival, just like a male character. I think, mostly, when people say "just write a male character and make it female," this is what they mean. It's less that there are zero differences between men and women, and more that people tend to focus so much on the differences that they almost forget women are human. Just let her be a *person*. | Try to live as your character would for a while. How bow dat? | 1 | 42,627 | 2 | ||
fc73jv | writing_train | 0.73 | So I’m trying to create my female MC but I have a hard time writing and envisioning the story from a female perspective. What are some good tips for writing an interesting female MC that doesn’t play on tropes from a male’s perspective? I know that kind of seems silly but I have no problem writing female characters in a supporting role. The female MC I’m trying to create is pivotal to the story and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m over sexualizing the female MC (which is not my goal at all) or giving her a stern demeanor so that way she can be a strong female character. Any tips? | fjad7gn | fj93ct5 | 1,583,171,100 | 1,583,130,595 | 2 | 1 | Don't overthink this. I feel like a lot of writers (usually men, but women too) worry about making their female characters quintessentially female. But your character isn't "all women", she's just one person, and a person can be anything. She can be smart or dumb, weak or strong, outgoing or shy. She can be driven by curiosity, or revenge, or survival, just like a male character. I think, mostly, when people say "just write a male character and make it female," this is what they mean. It's less that there are zero differences between men and women, and more that people tend to focus so much on the differences that they almost forget women are human. Just let her be a *person*. | I would say build a woman in your mind that you would like to know and wound find interesting. What qualities did you build that created that woman build off of those to give you a connection to the charater. Then give her flaws, several flaws, because she has to be relatable. | 1 | 40,505 | 2 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikd4r2l | ikd4hx1 | 1,660,557,926 | 1,660,557,730 | 158 | 15 | Backstory. Clear motives based on their past. Thats how everyone functions. To make them feel real, you gotta give real motives. | The main difference between the main character and the rest of the character is their goals. And that goal is set by what they need to do in order to overcome the challenges of the plot. While for the rest of the characters, the plot happens to them, for the main character the plot is an inconvenience (usually bad one, that set the world off ballance) and wants to fix it. That's the main gist of it. Then you shroud the character in a personality, wants and needs, background, conflicts, watnot. And the mc will draw uniqueness also from there. | 1 | 196 | 10.533333 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikd3omp | ikd4r2l | 1,660,557,083 | 1,660,557,926 | 3 | 158 | All writers put some of themselves into their characters. You are different than anyone else who has ever lived. Put some of you into the character and they'll be different from other characters | Backstory. Clear motives based on their past. Thats how everyone functions. To make them feel real, you gotta give real motives. | 0 | 843 | 52.666667 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikd4hx1 | ikd4yp4 | 1,660,557,730 | 1,660,558,093 | 15 | 48 | The main difference between the main character and the rest of the character is their goals. And that goal is set by what they need to do in order to overcome the challenges of the plot. While for the rest of the characters, the plot happens to them, for the main character the plot is an inconvenience (usually bad one, that set the world off ballance) and wants to fix it. That's the main gist of it. Then you shroud the character in a personality, wants and needs, background, conflicts, watnot. And the mc will draw uniqueness also from there. | I like to imagine what my characters would do in very mundane real-life situations that build them as an individual. ie. If plans with friends fall through, how do they react? Do they wash up and rinse or leave the soap suds? How do they act at the dinner table with their family? If someone flirts with them how do they take it? I also use things like artbreeder to create visuals (not always perfect but fun practice) of their faces. You can learn interesting things about someone by creating and then looking at their face. That and character bios, it can be interesting to write down the basic premise and outline of your character, then dissect with sections like wants, fears, hobbies etc. It sounds basic but when you start thinking of the character in deeper ways, interesting things can come to you. Perhaps you discover your character really likes board games, then you can ask if they like the competition or the social aspect, their favourite piece, maybe it stems from memories of playing when they were younger, maybe they never got to and on and on. | 0 | 363 | 3.2 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikd4yp4 | ikd3omp | 1,660,558,093 | 1,660,557,083 | 48 | 3 | I like to imagine what my characters would do in very mundane real-life situations that build them as an individual. ie. If plans with friends fall through, how do they react? Do they wash up and rinse or leave the soap suds? How do they act at the dinner table with their family? If someone flirts with them how do they take it? I also use things like artbreeder to create visuals (not always perfect but fun practice) of their faces. You can learn interesting things about someone by creating and then looking at their face. That and character bios, it can be interesting to write down the basic premise and outline of your character, then dissect with sections like wants, fears, hobbies etc. It sounds basic but when you start thinking of the character in deeper ways, interesting things can come to you. Perhaps you discover your character really likes board games, then you can ask if they like the competition or the social aspect, their favourite piece, maybe it stems from memories of playing when they were younger, maybe they never got to and on and on. | All writers put some of themselves into their characters. You are different than anyone else who has ever lived. Put some of you into the character and they'll be different from other characters | 1 | 1,010 | 16 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikd71pv | ikd4hx1 | 1,660,559,678 | 1,660,557,730 | 21 | 15 | Make them like real people, each with their own thoughts, motivations, ideas, personality traits, etc. | The main difference between the main character and the rest of the character is their goals. And that goal is set by what they need to do in order to overcome the challenges of the plot. While for the rest of the characters, the plot happens to them, for the main character the plot is an inconvenience (usually bad one, that set the world off ballance) and wants to fix it. That's the main gist of it. Then you shroud the character in a personality, wants and needs, background, conflicts, watnot. And the mc will draw uniqueness also from there. | 1 | 1,948 | 1.4 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikd71pv | ikd3omp | 1,660,559,678 | 1,660,557,083 | 21 | 3 | Make them like real people, each with their own thoughts, motivations, ideas, personality traits, etc. | All writers put some of themselves into their characters. You are different than anyone else who has ever lived. Put some of you into the character and they'll be different from other characters | 1 | 2,595 | 7 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikd4hx1 | ikd7h9r | 1,660,557,730 | 1,660,559,994 | 15 | 16 | The main difference between the main character and the rest of the character is their goals. And that goal is set by what they need to do in order to overcome the challenges of the plot. While for the rest of the characters, the plot happens to them, for the main character the plot is an inconvenience (usually bad one, that set the world off ballance) and wants to fix it. That's the main gist of it. Then you shroud the character in a personality, wants and needs, background, conflicts, watnot. And the mc will draw uniqueness also from there. | I tend to differentiate my characters through mindset. What are their responsibilities, what’s the first thing on their mind whenever a problem comes up? Would they think through a problem when presented with one or try to run away immediately? Are they cynical or hopeful? Do they try to convince themselves that they are better than they are? Or maybe the opposite. Development would occur by a gradual change in mindset, like a coward character placing more importance on responsibilities rather than self-preservation after being inspired. Or a rival who places all the blame on others being forced into a situation where doing so is impossible. However, it can come naturally, like making an inference based on limited knowledge, but changing it once you learn more. Similar to gossip vs the whole story or realizing you did something stupid in the past. The problem with this is that it tends to be really subtle unless you’re writing in each character’s perspective, so it takes practice to figure out where to place these hints of different mindsets. Maybe a slight sneer at someone who differs philosophically, but does nothing vocally. Agreeing with a leader public but badmouthing them in private. Regardless, its okay to let a character blend into the background for a few scenes. So long as you keep their spotlight proportional to their importance. | 0 | 2,264 | 1.066667 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikd7h9r | ikd7e9d | 1,660,559,994 | 1,660,559,934 | 16 | 5 | I tend to differentiate my characters through mindset. What are their responsibilities, what’s the first thing on their mind whenever a problem comes up? Would they think through a problem when presented with one or try to run away immediately? Are they cynical or hopeful? Do they try to convince themselves that they are better than they are? Or maybe the opposite. Development would occur by a gradual change in mindset, like a coward character placing more importance on responsibilities rather than self-preservation after being inspired. Or a rival who places all the blame on others being forced into a situation where doing so is impossible. However, it can come naturally, like making an inference based on limited knowledge, but changing it once you learn more. Similar to gossip vs the whole story or realizing you did something stupid in the past. The problem with this is that it tends to be really subtle unless you’re writing in each character’s perspective, so it takes practice to figure out where to place these hints of different mindsets. Maybe a slight sneer at someone who differs philosophically, but does nothing vocally. Agreeing with a leader public but badmouthing them in private. Regardless, its okay to let a character blend into the background for a few scenes. So long as you keep their spotlight proportional to their importance. | IN A GENERAL CASE: (I’ll do something more specific to your predicament in a minute) I’d go the entire opposite way and set 2 ‘rules’/‘guides’. 1) let your characters be their own people. Almost think of them as a friend, and slowly build who they are, use this in making a little anthology external to your main story, a way to explore who they are, what works and what doesn’t. And 2) let them be different. Different than all the other characters you’ve made. (Gonna use this as an example as it’s something that’s bothered me quite recently after a trip down nostalgia lane of media I consumed when I was younger) So you’ve so far made 30 cis het white boys because of cis/hetero/white and male normative western culture almost setting that as the default. Force. A. Change. Put limitations on yourself; You can only make a character cis, or straight, or white or male (unless trans masc) but no more than 1 per character. Or you can only have one straight character in a cast, one white character in a cast and 1 straight character in a cast. Maybe 40% of your characters should have a disability, or neuro-atypicality. Force a paradigm shift in your character writing. You’ll probably struggle in your first... dozen attempts, but with practice and the eventual deeper understanding of diverse experiences you’ll slowly become better at making naturally interesting and original characters. By broadening your horizons like this eventually it’ll come the time where you look at a homogenous cast and go “but why tho?”. (This has started to happen to me, hence the nostalgia lane fuss) Also, a good thing to do is looking up common tropes, and then restricting yourself from using at least some of them in a story. I’m a strong proponent of avoiding the “poor misunderstood boys” character arc because it’s overdone and thus boring. (Where villain bad but sad so instant redemption and forgetting of their multiple crimes. Think all the failed attempts to clone Zuko) As for in a specific story right now? Summarise every character arc your characters are going through and then write them on... anywhere you can easily reference and add to, like a white board or something. And then when thinking of things to do with other characters, don’t allow yourself to repeat those unless absolutely necessary and if the latter then review the first use and limit as many of those points from the repeat. | 1 | 60 | 3.2 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikd3omp | ikd7h9r | 1,660,557,083 | 1,660,559,994 | 3 | 16 | All writers put some of themselves into their characters. You are different than anyone else who has ever lived. Put some of you into the character and they'll be different from other characters | I tend to differentiate my characters through mindset. What are their responsibilities, what’s the first thing on their mind whenever a problem comes up? Would they think through a problem when presented with one or try to run away immediately? Are they cynical or hopeful? Do they try to convince themselves that they are better than they are? Or maybe the opposite. Development would occur by a gradual change in mindset, like a coward character placing more importance on responsibilities rather than self-preservation after being inspired. Or a rival who places all the blame on others being forced into a situation where doing so is impossible. However, it can come naturally, like making an inference based on limited knowledge, but changing it once you learn more. Similar to gossip vs the whole story or realizing you did something stupid in the past. The problem with this is that it tends to be really subtle unless you’re writing in each character’s perspective, so it takes practice to figure out where to place these hints of different mindsets. Maybe a slight sneer at someone who differs philosophically, but does nothing vocally. Agreeing with a leader public but badmouthing them in private. Regardless, its okay to let a character blend into the background for a few scenes. So long as you keep their spotlight proportional to their importance. | 0 | 2,911 | 5.333333 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikd3omp | ikd4hx1 | 1,660,557,083 | 1,660,557,730 | 3 | 15 | All writers put some of themselves into their characters. You are different than anyone else who has ever lived. Put some of you into the character and they'll be different from other characters | The main difference between the main character and the rest of the character is their goals. And that goal is set by what they need to do in order to overcome the challenges of the plot. While for the rest of the characters, the plot happens to them, for the main character the plot is an inconvenience (usually bad one, that set the world off ballance) and wants to fix it. That's the main gist of it. Then you shroud the character in a personality, wants and needs, background, conflicts, watnot. And the mc will draw uniqueness also from there. | 0 | 647 | 5 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikd7e9d | ikdhwyn | 1,660,559,934 | 1,660,566,530 | 5 | 11 | IN A GENERAL CASE: (I’ll do something more specific to your predicament in a minute) I’d go the entire opposite way and set 2 ‘rules’/‘guides’. 1) let your characters be their own people. Almost think of them as a friend, and slowly build who they are, use this in making a little anthology external to your main story, a way to explore who they are, what works and what doesn’t. And 2) let them be different. Different than all the other characters you’ve made. (Gonna use this as an example as it’s something that’s bothered me quite recently after a trip down nostalgia lane of media I consumed when I was younger) So you’ve so far made 30 cis het white boys because of cis/hetero/white and male normative western culture almost setting that as the default. Force. A. Change. Put limitations on yourself; You can only make a character cis, or straight, or white or male (unless trans masc) but no more than 1 per character. Or you can only have one straight character in a cast, one white character in a cast and 1 straight character in a cast. Maybe 40% of your characters should have a disability, or neuro-atypicality. Force a paradigm shift in your character writing. You’ll probably struggle in your first... dozen attempts, but with practice and the eventual deeper understanding of diverse experiences you’ll slowly become better at making naturally interesting and original characters. By broadening your horizons like this eventually it’ll come the time where you look at a homogenous cast and go “but why tho?”. (This has started to happen to me, hence the nostalgia lane fuss) Also, a good thing to do is looking up common tropes, and then restricting yourself from using at least some of them in a story. I’m a strong proponent of avoiding the “poor misunderstood boys” character arc because it’s overdone and thus boring. (Where villain bad but sad so instant redemption and forgetting of their multiple crimes. Think all the failed attempts to clone Zuko) As for in a specific story right now? Summarise every character arc your characters are going through and then write them on... anywhere you can easily reference and add to, like a white board or something. And then when thinking of things to do with other characters, don’t allow yourself to repeat those unless absolutely necessary and if the latter then review the first use and limit as many of those points from the repeat. | >Potentially a strange question- It's a perfectly normal question to me. >how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'd probably look at how people differ in real life: * Personality (are they honest, funny, shy, talkative?) * Interests/hobbies (what do they care about) * Values (political views, rather idealistic or pragmatic, selfish or altruistic, etc.) * Strengths (one is good at math, one is good at art, one is a good sword fighter, etc.) * (at work) how they act when they have to do something (quick and dirty solution, that just works, try to find a solution that works under all circumstances) * motivations (what do they want to achieve, often not obvious in real life) >with some noticeably different approaches If it's noticably different approaches, it's not the same. Maybe multiple characters will argue about who would be suited better for this task, and in the end, one of them does it, and you see, if it's really the better solution here. But if your characters still feel too similar, you might consider removing some of the characters. Maybe you can turn two similar characters into just one. >do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? Not necessarily. There doesn't have to be a specific event. They might just change gradually from getting used to their new circumstances (for example after joining the main cast). They might also randomly change, maybe because of things not happening on screen, or because they don't have such stable beliefs and ideals to begin with. You don't have to explain everything. It should at least make sense to you. >I apologize for multiple questions No need to apologize. People who answer do this voluntarily, and besides that it might be helpful to other people as well. | 0 | 6,596 | 2.2 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikd3omp | ikdhwyn | 1,660,557,083 | 1,660,566,530 | 3 | 11 | All writers put some of themselves into their characters. You are different than anyone else who has ever lived. Put some of you into the character and they'll be different from other characters | >Potentially a strange question- It's a perfectly normal question to me. >how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'd probably look at how people differ in real life: * Personality (are they honest, funny, shy, talkative?) * Interests/hobbies (what do they care about) * Values (political views, rather idealistic or pragmatic, selfish or altruistic, etc.) * Strengths (one is good at math, one is good at art, one is a good sword fighter, etc.) * (at work) how they act when they have to do something (quick and dirty solution, that just works, try to find a solution that works under all circumstances) * motivations (what do they want to achieve, often not obvious in real life) >with some noticeably different approaches If it's noticably different approaches, it's not the same. Maybe multiple characters will argue about who would be suited better for this task, and in the end, one of them does it, and you see, if it's really the better solution here. But if your characters still feel too similar, you might consider removing some of the characters. Maybe you can turn two similar characters into just one. >do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? Not necessarily. There doesn't have to be a specific event. They might just change gradually from getting used to their new circumstances (for example after joining the main cast). They might also randomly change, maybe because of things not happening on screen, or because they don't have such stable beliefs and ideals to begin with. You don't have to explain everything. It should at least make sense to you. >I apologize for multiple questions No need to apologize. People who answer do this voluntarily, and besides that it might be helpful to other people as well. | 0 | 9,447 | 3.666667 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdc98u | ikdhwyn | 1,660,563,230 | 1,660,566,530 | 2 | 11 | Generally, mix and match SOME traits from people you know. | >Potentially a strange question- It's a perfectly normal question to me. >how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'd probably look at how people differ in real life: * Personality (are they honest, funny, shy, talkative?) * Interests/hobbies (what do they care about) * Values (political views, rather idealistic or pragmatic, selfish or altruistic, etc.) * Strengths (one is good at math, one is good at art, one is a good sword fighter, etc.) * (at work) how they act when they have to do something (quick and dirty solution, that just works, try to find a solution that works under all circumstances) * motivations (what do they want to achieve, often not obvious in real life) >with some noticeably different approaches If it's noticably different approaches, it's not the same. Maybe multiple characters will argue about who would be suited better for this task, and in the end, one of them does it, and you see, if it's really the better solution here. But if your characters still feel too similar, you might consider removing some of the characters. Maybe you can turn two similar characters into just one. >do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? Not necessarily. There doesn't have to be a specific event. They might just change gradually from getting used to their new circumstances (for example after joining the main cast). They might also randomly change, maybe because of things not happening on screen, or because they don't have such stable beliefs and ideals to begin with. You don't have to explain everything. It should at least make sense to you. >I apologize for multiple questions No need to apologize. People who answer do this voluntarily, and besides that it might be helpful to other people as well. | 0 | 3,300 | 5.5 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdedf9 | ikdhwyn | 1,660,564,516 | 1,660,566,530 | 1 | 11 | I actually incorporated a character not feeling unique into a character trait. She was a side character who was basically middle of the pack in every way, and I gave her a chapter exploring being the ignored/forgotten one and what an identity crisis it is for her. That was a lot of fun. | >Potentially a strange question- It's a perfectly normal question to me. >how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'd probably look at how people differ in real life: * Personality (are they honest, funny, shy, talkative?) * Interests/hobbies (what do they care about) * Values (political views, rather idealistic or pragmatic, selfish or altruistic, etc.) * Strengths (one is good at math, one is good at art, one is a good sword fighter, etc.) * (at work) how they act when they have to do something (quick and dirty solution, that just works, try to find a solution that works under all circumstances) * motivations (what do they want to achieve, often not obvious in real life) >with some noticeably different approaches If it's noticably different approaches, it's not the same. Maybe multiple characters will argue about who would be suited better for this task, and in the end, one of them does it, and you see, if it's really the better solution here. But if your characters still feel too similar, you might consider removing some of the characters. Maybe you can turn two similar characters into just one. >do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? Not necessarily. There doesn't have to be a specific event. They might just change gradually from getting used to their new circumstances (for example after joining the main cast). They might also randomly change, maybe because of things not happening on screen, or because they don't have such stable beliefs and ideals to begin with. You don't have to explain everything. It should at least make sense to you. >I apologize for multiple questions No need to apologize. People who answer do this voluntarily, and besides that it might be helpful to other people as well. | 0 | 2,014 | 11 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikd3omp | ikd7e9d | 1,660,557,083 | 1,660,559,934 | 3 | 5 | All writers put some of themselves into their characters. You are different than anyone else who has ever lived. Put some of you into the character and they'll be different from other characters | IN A GENERAL CASE: (I’ll do something more specific to your predicament in a minute) I’d go the entire opposite way and set 2 ‘rules’/‘guides’. 1) let your characters be their own people. Almost think of them as a friend, and slowly build who they are, use this in making a little anthology external to your main story, a way to explore who they are, what works and what doesn’t. And 2) let them be different. Different than all the other characters you’ve made. (Gonna use this as an example as it’s something that’s bothered me quite recently after a trip down nostalgia lane of media I consumed when I was younger) So you’ve so far made 30 cis het white boys because of cis/hetero/white and male normative western culture almost setting that as the default. Force. A. Change. Put limitations on yourself; You can only make a character cis, or straight, or white or male (unless trans masc) but no more than 1 per character. Or you can only have one straight character in a cast, one white character in a cast and 1 straight character in a cast. Maybe 40% of your characters should have a disability, or neuro-atypicality. Force a paradigm shift in your character writing. You’ll probably struggle in your first... dozen attempts, but with practice and the eventual deeper understanding of diverse experiences you’ll slowly become better at making naturally interesting and original characters. By broadening your horizons like this eventually it’ll come the time where you look at a homogenous cast and go “but why tho?”. (This has started to happen to me, hence the nostalgia lane fuss) Also, a good thing to do is looking up common tropes, and then restricting yourself from using at least some of them in a story. I’m a strong proponent of avoiding the “poor misunderstood boys” character arc because it’s overdone and thus boring. (Where villain bad but sad so instant redemption and forgetting of their multiple crimes. Think all the failed attempts to clone Zuko) As for in a specific story right now? Summarise every character arc your characters are going through and then write them on... anywhere you can easily reference and add to, like a white board or something. And then when thinking of things to do with other characters, don’t allow yourself to repeat those unless absolutely necessary and if the latter then review the first use and limit as many of those points from the repeat. | 0 | 2,851 | 1.666667 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdl591 | ikdc98u | 1,660,568,204 | 1,660,563,230 | 3 | 2 | I do a redraft specifically for every major character's voice. You go through the text and figure out does this sound right for that character? Doing it as a per character pass, without switching between characters, means you can really focus on their particular voice. | Generally, mix and match SOME traits from people you know. | 1 | 4,974 | 1.5 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdedf9 | ikdl591 | 1,660,564,516 | 1,660,568,204 | 1 | 3 | I actually incorporated a character not feeling unique into a character trait. She was a side character who was basically middle of the pack in every way, and I gave her a chapter exploring being the ignored/forgotten one and what an identity crisis it is for her. That was a lot of fun. | I do a redraft specifically for every major character's voice. You go through the text and figure out does this sound right for that character? Doing it as a per character pass, without switching between characters, means you can really focus on their particular voice. | 0 | 3,688 | 3 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdiwca | ikdl591 | 1,660,567,049 | 1,660,568,204 | 1 | 3 | if they were insepperable from within the friend group and while together, but all had major personalities at home or with their family lives which were completely different to each other's . Dress differently, possibly one with an accent.. etc | I do a redraft specifically for every major character's voice. You go through the text and figure out does this sound right for that character? Doing it as a per character pass, without switching between characters, means you can really focus on their particular voice. | 0 | 1,155 | 3 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdm00z | ikdc98u | 1,660,568,630 | 1,660,563,230 | 3 | 2 | I found it helps to connect them to music. Maybe you even just heard a song on the radio and thought "hey that totally fits my character". It's hard to explain but when you have a song that fits perfectly to a character, you just have to listen to this song and since music affects you much, it's easier to write the character afterwards. This can also help to find motives or a background story. :) | Generally, mix and match SOME traits from people you know. | 1 | 5,400 | 1.5 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdm00z | ikdedf9 | 1,660,568,630 | 1,660,564,516 | 3 | 1 | I found it helps to connect them to music. Maybe you even just heard a song on the radio and thought "hey that totally fits my character". It's hard to explain but when you have a song that fits perfectly to a character, you just have to listen to this song and since music affects you much, it's easier to write the character afterwards. This can also help to find motives or a background story. :) | I actually incorporated a character not feeling unique into a character trait. She was a side character who was basically middle of the pack in every way, and I gave her a chapter exploring being the ignored/forgotten one and what an identity crisis it is for her. That was a lot of fun. | 1 | 4,114 | 3 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdm00z | ikdiwca | 1,660,568,630 | 1,660,567,049 | 3 | 1 | I found it helps to connect them to music. Maybe you even just heard a song on the radio and thought "hey that totally fits my character". It's hard to explain but when you have a song that fits perfectly to a character, you just have to listen to this song and since music affects you much, it's easier to write the character afterwards. This can also help to find motives or a background story. :) | if they were insepperable from within the friend group and while together, but all had major personalities at home or with their family lives which were completely different to each other's . Dress differently, possibly one with an accent.. etc | 1 | 1,581 | 3 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdc98u | ikdoabh | 1,660,563,230 | 1,660,569,736 | 2 | 3 | Generally, mix and match SOME traits from people you know. | This is something I struggled with (and am struggling with) writing my first novel length story. I knew who my characters were and the role they would play in the story, but they didn't have clear personalities or backgrounds yet. What I ended up doing was accepting that dialogue in the first draft will be a bit bland and samey and just forged ahead anyways, with the characters gaining some personality as I shoved them through the story. Once I felt I knew them well enough I went back, established their backstories and personalities, cleaned up the dialogue and character interactions, and the kept going with finishing the first draft. | 0 | 6,506 | 1.5 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdoabh | ikdedf9 | 1,660,569,736 | 1,660,564,516 | 3 | 1 | This is something I struggled with (and am struggling with) writing my first novel length story. I knew who my characters were and the role they would play in the story, but they didn't have clear personalities or backgrounds yet. What I ended up doing was accepting that dialogue in the first draft will be a bit bland and samey and just forged ahead anyways, with the characters gaining some personality as I shoved them through the story. Once I felt I knew them well enough I went back, established their backstories and personalities, cleaned up the dialogue and character interactions, and the kept going with finishing the first draft. | I actually incorporated a character not feeling unique into a character trait. She was a side character who was basically middle of the pack in every way, and I gave her a chapter exploring being the ignored/forgotten one and what an identity crisis it is for her. That was a lot of fun. | 1 | 5,220 | 3 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdiwca | ikdoabh | 1,660,567,049 | 1,660,569,736 | 1 | 3 | if they were insepperable from within the friend group and while together, but all had major personalities at home or with their family lives which were completely different to each other's . Dress differently, possibly one with an accent.. etc | This is something I struggled with (and am struggling with) writing my first novel length story. I knew who my characters were and the role they would play in the story, but they didn't have clear personalities or backgrounds yet. What I ended up doing was accepting that dialogue in the first draft will be a bit bland and samey and just forged ahead anyways, with the characters gaining some personality as I shoved them through the story. Once I felt I knew them well enough I went back, established their backstories and personalities, cleaned up the dialogue and character interactions, and the kept going with finishing the first draft. | 0 | 2,687 | 3 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdc98u | ikdry76 | 1,660,563,230 | 1,660,571,403 | 2 | 3 | Generally, mix and match SOME traits from people you know. | i like to differentiate my characters by drawing back on their purpose. i don’t think any two characters should serve the exact same purpose in a story, so reminding myself of the selected roles helps develop their character in different directions. i like to develop some core values/beliefs that might change over time for each character (mapping their personal journey alongside plot map), and keep coming back to it. Regarding the last question, I think it can be good to recognize the way in which an event immediately impacts a character might not be the same as the way a character is changed a few days, weeks, months, years out from the event. Time can change things, and I think it also provides fuller characters to think about how an unrelated event might influence how a character is changed by the initial event. For example, Character A develops Quality A after their experience with Event A based on how they perceive Event A. Character A experiences Event B which changes the way they perceive Event A, and therefore might change the way they perceive Quality A within themselves. Whether this leads to the abandonment of Quality A in favor of Quality B would be up to you! This was obviously an oversimplified explanation, because you don’t need to explain all of your characters qualities through events necessarily, and drawing straight parallel lines like Quality A was caused by Event A and Quality B was cause by Event B can come off flat, and like you’re leading the reader by their nose which isn’t fun to read imo. Good luck! | 0 | 8,173 | 1.5 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdry76 | ikdedf9 | 1,660,571,403 | 1,660,564,516 | 3 | 1 | i like to differentiate my characters by drawing back on their purpose. i don’t think any two characters should serve the exact same purpose in a story, so reminding myself of the selected roles helps develop their character in different directions. i like to develop some core values/beliefs that might change over time for each character (mapping their personal journey alongside plot map), and keep coming back to it. Regarding the last question, I think it can be good to recognize the way in which an event immediately impacts a character might not be the same as the way a character is changed a few days, weeks, months, years out from the event. Time can change things, and I think it also provides fuller characters to think about how an unrelated event might influence how a character is changed by the initial event. For example, Character A develops Quality A after their experience with Event A based on how they perceive Event A. Character A experiences Event B which changes the way they perceive Event A, and therefore might change the way they perceive Quality A within themselves. Whether this leads to the abandonment of Quality A in favor of Quality B would be up to you! This was obviously an oversimplified explanation, because you don’t need to explain all of your characters qualities through events necessarily, and drawing straight parallel lines like Quality A was caused by Event A and Quality B was cause by Event B can come off flat, and like you’re leading the reader by their nose which isn’t fun to read imo. Good luck! | I actually incorporated a character not feeling unique into a character trait. She was a side character who was basically middle of the pack in every way, and I gave her a chapter exploring being the ignored/forgotten one and what an identity crisis it is for her. That was a lot of fun. | 1 | 6,887 | 3 | ||
wovdir | writing_train | 0.94 | New here and in writing !! Potentially a strange question- how do you keep your characters feel unique in their own way ? I'm aware that the characters in our stories can be as different as people irl, however how do you keep their "development" seperate without having multiple characters feel like they're one and the same ? My biggest fear is having a character that acts obviously the same as any other with some noticeably different approaches, just for the sake of him not blending to the background. Meanwhile, throughout the progress of the story- do I just keep the characters hold their current beliefs and ideals until an event arrives that affects them in some way ? I apologize for multiple questions, hope that's fine and I appreciate anyone taking their time to write any advice ! | ikdiwca | ikdry76 | 1,660,567,049 | 1,660,571,403 | 1 | 3 | if they were insepperable from within the friend group and while together, but all had major personalities at home or with their family lives which were completely different to each other's . Dress differently, possibly one with an accent.. etc | i like to differentiate my characters by drawing back on their purpose. i don’t think any two characters should serve the exact same purpose in a story, so reminding myself of the selected roles helps develop their character in different directions. i like to develop some core values/beliefs that might change over time for each character (mapping their personal journey alongside plot map), and keep coming back to it. Regarding the last question, I think it can be good to recognize the way in which an event immediately impacts a character might not be the same as the way a character is changed a few days, weeks, months, years out from the event. Time can change things, and I think it also provides fuller characters to think about how an unrelated event might influence how a character is changed by the initial event. For example, Character A develops Quality A after their experience with Event A based on how they perceive Event A. Character A experiences Event B which changes the way they perceive Event A, and therefore might change the way they perceive Quality A within themselves. Whether this leads to the abandonment of Quality A in favor of Quality B would be up to you! This was obviously an oversimplified explanation, because you don’t need to explain all of your characters qualities through events necessarily, and drawing straight parallel lines like Quality A was caused by Event A and Quality B was cause by Event B can come off flat, and like you’re leading the reader by their nose which isn’t fun to read imo. Good luck! | 0 | 4,354 | 3 |
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