writing the first 100k words of slow burn romance

oh, to be able to write something as beautiful and magical as howl’s moving castle

I wonder if that disastrous original script for the Holes movie, which was written by the guy who wrote Donnie Darko, is still in circulation on the internet. It was insane.

Like the landscape was all barren not because of a curse but because there’d been a nuclear apocalypse and subsequent plague, and Stanley went to prison camp not because he stole a pair of shoes but because he mercy-killed his own plague-riddled sister. And Pendanski sneaks the boys out to take them to a truckstop bar and buys them prostitutes. And it’s revealed at the end that the conspiracy of the camp is that they’re digging for, not buried treasure, but old nuclear warheads. And there’s a running theme about how “you can’t bury the past.”

I mean the scope and intensity of the changes made to make it more “adult” were pretty clever, but so unnecessary. The fairy tale-esque whimsy was so integral to the story and such a part of its charm that making it darker kind of defeated the entire purpose

I can only imagine the Nickelodeon execs reading this script in open-mouthed horror, and then a long silence before they went “well what if we just got the guy who wrote the book to write it”

well, turns out this is real

Writers: You Can Have as Many Fucking WIPs as You Want

Hey friends. I just wanted to throw this out there because I see a lot of posts from writers lamenting that they’re starting new WIPs without finishing the old ones. Some of this is in the form of memes and jokes, some of it is in the form of updates or confessionals, but there’s always this implication that writers are doing something wrong by starting something new before the old thing is finished, hopping from project to project, or working on multiple WIPs at once. So I just want to say this:

The writing process is not linear.

Bouncing between multiple WIPs is totally okay.

Abandoning old WIPs that you’re no longer interested in is totally okay.

Starting 10 or 20 or 30 stories for every 1 story that you finish is totally okay.

Only wanting to work on something that’s exciting to you (a new thing) and not something you’ve burned out on (an old thing) is totally okay.

I get that feeling like you’re always starting and never finishing anything is a big bummer. But it may help to remember that despite years of capitalist indoctrination, the creative process is not an assembly line.

Sometimes it takes writing 100 pages to realize that your idea is untenable, or that you’re not actually that interested in it, or that you want to take things in a completely different direction with a totally new story.

I’m a published writer and I average at least 10-15 WIPs for each one that I actually finish. It may take me two sentences to abandon it, or 200 pages. And sometimes I come back to them and finish them in the future. But after 20 years of writing my computer is full of barely-started stories that were destined, for whatever reason, to die.

If you’re turning your back on a story that really excites you and you deeply wish you could complete because you’re scared or blocked, that’s a frustrating pattern that’s totally worth trying to fix (I’ll be addressing this problem in detail in a new book I’m working on!). But for the most part, having a ton more WIPs that you actually finish is a completely normal part of the creative process and you don’t need to be so hard on yourself about it. You’re doing great, and I’m cheering for you.

me: *gets ready to write, brews tea, gets a fuzzy blanket, is super comfy and has a perfect quiet space to get work done, has tons of free time with nothing to do*

three hours later:

When you write an amazing line and can’t tell if you’re a genius or just accidentally plagiarized it from a book you read seven years ago:

me thinking about mutuals who I’ve never spoken to and admired from afar

yknow theres a lot of pressure to be successful, particularly on artsy kids whose professions are seen as useless unless theyre famous, but life is fucking hard and sometimes things dont turn out

but i think thats not bad. my dad has wanted to be a musician forever, and hes rly pretty good. but then he joined the military to get away from an abusive family, and then he got married, and then he got divorced, and a lot of horrible shit HAPPENED. he has ptsd and severe anxiety and he could never really get back on the horse. and he never made it as a musician, and now hes 53

but i grew up in a house full of instruments, and he can play all of them, and some of my earliest memories are of him playing guitar on the front porch and me thinking there wasnt a better musician in the world. so. even if you dont get to the stars, exactly, what you do isnt worthless. its not a waste of time if life is difficult and you cant make it, or if you arent famous, or if your work doesn’t influence thousands of people. it will influence someone

there are a million ways to be happy and a million ways to be a successful artist. we create what we do to enhance the human experience and relate to each other and improve ourselves. theres something to be said for just doing that,,,for the sake of doing it, yknow

This is the most comforting, warm and important piece of text I have ever read, and it is so true. No life is wasted that is spent sharing and loving.

My mother never became a professional artist. She became a social worker, then later taught emotionally disturbed children. But our home was filled with photographs of wildflowers and wildlife. Spice racks, shelves, and other useful objects were adorned with small paintings. She taught me and my sister that we could make things beautiful, even if in small ways, and let us glue glitter and fake gems on our cheap kids furniture and make it ours. Capitalism tries to say that art isn’t successful unless it makes money. But that’s not why humans make art. We make art to convey emotion. To make an object or a moment or a story OURS. And making someone smile when they hear you sing, or look at something you made for them is as valid a reason for creating as any other.

To create means to relate. The root meaning of the word ‘art’ is ‘to fit together’.

– Corita Kent

Last Line Tag

Tagged by @writerschronicles! Thank you for the tag!

Here's the last (couple) lines from the most recent chapter my wip: XO, Ace of Hearts

sigh, tumblr did not post the full thing. it cut off my tag list for whatever reason so, here's the tags!

I'm trying something new with tags! I'm going to tag a couple new mutuals so I can learn more about you and your writing! (of course, if you dont want to be tagged, I'll make sure not to do that any more. also, dont feel pressured to do this tag :)) Tagging: @sunwornpages @alicewestwater @chloeswords @csgracewrites @cass-writings

Tips for Writing Sad Scenes

In Defense of Multiple Projects

A lot of the writing advice I’ve heard either assumes you will only work on one project at a time or tells you that you should. However, I have never found this very doable. At any given time, I have three or more writing projects going. My brain just doesn’t let me focus on one for an extended period of time.

And you know what? It does take me longer to finish a project, but I prefer that with the chance to write everyday than going spans where I don’t have the motivation to work on one single project. 

So, I’d like to give some advice on how to juggle more than one WIP.

Stagger Them

If you can, stagger when you start them. Or, if you are starting with outlining one and pantsing the other, that works, too. The goal here is that you’re in different phases for each one. If you’re drafting three or outlining four or editing two at the same time, you might drain your creative well with the monotony. Having one in the editing phases, one in drafting, and one in outlining gives you room to bounce between activities. 

Diversify Your Mediums

This might not be everyone’s path, especially if you’re already settled on the mediums of your projects, but I like to mix up exactly how I’m formatting them. Full novels, short stories, scripts, poetry, flash fiction, and everything in between and otherwise can be tossed together like a WIP salad. And again, you may be married to working on three full length novels which is fine. But if not, maybe try to switch it up. 

Set Your Genre, Aesthetics, Motive, and Themes

My projects all come from different motives. They all have vastly different genres, themes, and aesthetics. You don’t need to have them ALL be WILDLY separate from each other, but it helps if you set their separate identities. When I find inspiration for sci-fi, I work on my sci-fi project. When I find inspiration for my family, I work on my project focused on family. When I watch a Coen Brothers movie, I work on my script that was motivated by their work. So on and so forth. This way, you can funnel the right inspiration and energy into the proper channels of your work. 

Still Allow Yourself to Relax and Take Breaks

More projects doesn’t and shouldn’t mean that you sacrifice free time. Your pace can remain the same as someone working on one project. And it probably should. You don’t want to strain yourself and lose interest in 4 projects all at once. It’s a marathon and you can take time to relax and wander.

And don’t be afraid or feel bad to pause on project for a while or indefinitely. Just like any other process, sometimes you realize a certain project isn’t meant for right now. 

Organize!

Whether you use Docs, paper and pen, or something else or a mix of everything, use your organizational skills! Google Docs, Word, and Pages will all allow you to save your documents to folders specific to a project. Physical folders and files do the same. This way, you can get started quickly and easily without digging through multiple projects-worth of documents or getting distracted by another project. 

Have any other tips for managing multiple projects? Drop them below!

do i really need to write out all those words,, is it not enough to be gay and yearning,,

One thing I’ve learned about writing is ”give everything a face”. It’s no good to write passively that the nobility fled the city or that the toxic marshes were poisoning the animals beyond any ability to function. Make a protagonist see how a desperate woman in torn silks climbs onto a carriage and speeds off, or a two-headed deer wanders right into the camp and into the fire. Don’t just have an ambiguous flock of all-controlling oligarchy, name one or two representatives of it, and illustrate just how vile and greedy they are as people.

it’s bad to have characters who serve no purpose in the story, but giving something a face is a perfectly valid purpose.

This is the real heart of “show don’t tell”

what is a writer, if not a miserable little pile of ideas and half written google docs