your bare minimum isn’t actually that bare or minimum. my dad once told me that there’s nothing in this world that’s easy and that’s true tbh. everything we do takes energy, time, and effort. even the little things. if you feel like you’re not doing enough please try to think about your circumstances and what’s currently available to you: chances are, there’s something that’s diverting or otherwise draining you. and to pull away from that and get something done regardless? well, i think that’s really admirable! please try to take pride in the things you do accomplish in a day, no matter how small or trifling you perceive them to be. you can’t be proud of your growth if you don’t notice where you already are!
If you bemoan your lack of writing talent and nothing I say will ever talk you out of that, think of it this way:
Today, you made something. You committed a creative act. Elsewhere in the world, someone killed, persecuted, defrauded, or otherwise destroyed. They increased the quantity of evil in the world. You increased the quantity of good. Just by making something. Anything. A story. A drawing. A lavender sachet. A loaf of challah. Maybe you watered a flower. Hell, maybe you spray-painted a dick on a subway car. That dick will make somebody laugh, trust me.
Creating things keeps humanity out of the void. So don’t trash-talk that story you think isn’t as great as it could be. You helped keep us out of the void today, goddamnit.
The act of creation will be our salvation. ❤ Creation as an antidote to cynicism and despair.
You say the simplest but most profound things. Thank you.
the thing isyour writing session might not be fun or easy or fruitful, but it isalways successful. every time you write, you are making progress. you’re thinking about your story, you’re thinking about your writing, and most importantly: you’re writing. just remember that, even if you don’t reach your goals, your writing session will be a success.
Sometimes it’s really lonely being an author. Because when you’re writing, you’re doing it alone, and there’s no one there to gush over silly feelings with you.
And I suppose that’s why reader comments are important to authors. It’s not about the compliments. It’s that we’ve been alone with our thoughts this whole time. It’s an awesome feeling when a friend shows up to share them with you.
if i may just add to this: sometimes writing doesn’t feel complete until someone comes to you and tells them what they think. and sometimes we don’t know if what we wrote works until a complete stranger, who knows nothing about us and the way we think, comes and tells us so. that experience of a reader telling us they get it or that they can relate to it in ways we might not have even expected? that almost makes up for the fact that writing can be so lonely and isolating.
Yesterday an author posted on reddit about how nobody showed up to his reading so Brandon Sanderson stopped in to give some kind words.
A friend of mine told me about being one of 12 people to show up to one of Douglas Adams’ first signings in America. Adams bought them all pizza and they hung out and chatted.
I think all writers need a friend who will encourage their desire to write absolute garbage. Not necessarily something that is badly written, but like, stupid self indulgent bullshit. “Cringey” aus or crossover fanfics. Aus or crossover fics of your own ocs.
Writing that stuff is fun and is great practice, but sometimes I feel like “wow, this is hardly productive, why am I even writing this, who else would ever want to read this?” The answer is your friend who encourages your trash writing, that’s who. Write it for yourself and for them.
i’ve seen a lot of fanfiction authors, including myself, worry about the redundancy of our work, either because we feel it’s been done before or someone more popular beat us to a certain plot point we thought no one else had thought of or just because writing is hard and other writers are scary.
1. fanfiction is rooted in canon, and everyone is working from the same canon you are. even if one person is writing a bakery au and the other is writing a serial killer space opera, the point of origin means there might still be elements in common. it’s okay. (this goes double for canon aus, because the closer to the canon your au is, the fewer elements there are to vary.)
2. in larger fandoms, there are so many fics! so many. the sheer number of authors means that sometimes people are going to have the same idea. you don’t read one fic and then never read any fic like it, right? just do your thing.
3. fanfic isn’t being written in a vacuum. surrounding the original canon is the matrix of fandom memes and headcanons and metas. the ones that become popular take on a life of their own. all of the other authors are exposed to the same content you are, so don’t worry if you both borrow the same things.
4. if you took two authors and gave them the same outline, with the same plot points, and told them to write, they’d still probably produce distinct works. no one can write the story in your head but you. keep writing!
ALL OF THIS
also like let’s be real, a lot of us want to read 50 versions of very similar stories lol.
This! I guarantee that it doesn’t matter that you think “popular author” has already done X trope perfectly, if I am a sucker for that trope I still want to read your fic. I want a bilion different variations of that trope. I can’t get enough of it.
Question of Smoke 