estrogen-and-spite

Sylvia Lilith

@estrogen-and-spite

The implied bitch

I have no idea what I’m doing and you can’t stop me.

Author, Trans Woman, Hypno Domme, Hopeless Romantic, Sadist, newly out system.

Pronouns are She/It, perpetually happy HRT gave me titties and sad it didn’t give me tentacles.

I had shame once.

Ξ

Θ Δ

Dating: @lunasorcery

18+ only

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estrogen-and-spite
@estrogen-and-spite

From another "professional writer"

I fully agree don't do NaNo. Putting aside the organization repeatedly shitting the bed over the past 2-3 years, NaNo really doesn't teach you anything useful other than consistency, and even then it 'teaches' that in the way most likely to lead to burnout. The one time I did NaNo seriously, I got a 35k word project that I feel ill if I even think about touching again.

BUT.

Respectfully disagree with the rest of this post. The more I learn about writing, the more I've wanted to write my dream story. I've solo written 18 novels, co authored another 13, and published most of those. I love working on chonky projects not because of some industrial thing about storefronts and whatnot, but because that's what I have fun with. I like long winding stories, I like being able to write action beats that are thirty thousand words, I like being able to pause and spend an entire chapter just worldbuilding.

My biggest piece of advice would be practice to write what you want to write.

If you want to write short stories, you should do that! And enjoy doing that! Have fun!

But there's noting wrong with writing a novel, and short stories are just as much an industry as novels. More importantly, short stories and novels are different skillsets. If you want to write novels, work on writing novels. If you want to write short stories, write short stories. While some skills cross apply, overall they are different mediums to tell a story, so practice what you want to get better at.

And don't let anyone judge you or try to make you feel bad for writing the way you love. The short one-liner, the flash fiction, the poem, the short story, the novella, the play, the novel, litfic or romance or speculative fiction or fanfiction - they're all different skills and different mediums and all equally valid ways to write. Enjoy writing them the way that makes you happy, practice whatever it is you want to get better at, and if you're looking to make this your primary income - find the area where what you like intersects with what people will read and go from there.

Also, read whatever you enjoy reading the most as well. Just do what makes you happy.

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in reply to @lmichet's post:

vermis
@vermis

i think most speculative fiction novels these days are far too long, but i'm still gonna write my dream novel--without nanowrimo's help because fuck nanowrimo, 50k words isn't even a novel anyway (it's a novella)

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@verticalblank

The problem is that fledgling authors keep thinking NaNoWriMo will help them just sit down and write the damn novel, when the real reason they get the writer's block that keeps them from just sitting down and writing the damn novel is that they are not prepared. "Just sit down and write" only works if your writing style is totally improvisational stream of consciousness or if you intend to write mostly dialogue, which is what NaNoWriMo encourages. Otherwise it's just holding a shitty corporate meeting with no agenda every day with a bunch of people who don't want to be there, except you made them all up.

NaNoWriMo's emphasis on daily word count discourages the kind of meta-writing work that breaks writer's block, a process that works differently for every writer and which the writer has to figure out for themselves. I wish more writers would ask themselves: How do I get to know my characters? Do I discover them as they speak and think and act? Do I come up with a prompt so that I know where the story is broadly headed, even if the characters don't? Do I daydream some of each character's inner thoughts beforehand, so I know who they are and what they want before I attempt to communicate that to my readers? Do I take notes, write outlines and flowcharts, or does that get in the way?

That's the kind of prep work that separates a novel from a short story, IMO, and opens up the broader and more ambitious creative possibilities that a longform narrative project allows. Trying to beat a word count by cultivating daily productivity habits isn't writing a novel, it's attempting to piece together a novel one short story at a time.

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