And here we are, another month has gone by, and this time I'm officially a year older. After I do my usual stuff for this journal entry, I wanted to give a bit of practical writing advice, so if you want to skip to that or not read it at all, it will be after the, '...' but before that I wanted to mention a little change to my own personal policy of interaction here on FA. I actually decided on the change in March, and meant to mention it in my April journal... But forgot to, whoops.

Anyway, the change is to when I leave shouts on people's pages to thank them for stuff. You may have noticed that before I liked to do it for each and every favorite and such, to show my appreciation. While I still appreciate each and every favorite, I really do, out of a feeling of... Well, for lack of a better term, 'cringe', I've decided that I will not leave a shout to thank someone for a favorite if there is already another shout from me still on their profile page. Back when I started here it didn't bother me, but over time it started feeling kind of awkward. (You can see on the page of my main regular reader, destiny667, the shout feed is still almost entirely me. >_>) Point is, I just wanted everyone to know that's why I'm not always leaving shouts anymore, like I was before. (I still intend to leave shouts for someone adding me to their watch list even if there's a previous shout from me still there, though. I feel those are a little more important, so.)


Alright, so how did this last month go for me? Well, not great, writing wise. I only got one story uploaded, 'Of betrayal and love', which has an around average amount of views and favorites. So why only one upload? Not only did it take me longer after the story before it to really get started, the story itself ended up a bit long, and real life was making it difficult for me to really spend a lot of time on it, with some days where I couldn't get any progress in on it at all. (Besides Saturdays, which I don't write on regardless.) It also doesn't really help that I had almost a week between uploading it and really being able to get started on the next story, for which I don't even have the outline finished for yet. (I probably will get it finished later tonight though.)

Well then, how do I expect this coming month to go? As always, I hope for better, and this time I do have some reason to think it should actually be better. Right now, as I'm typing this, I'm still on some time off for my birthday, and I don't have to go back to work until the 4th. In addition to that, I'm actually going to have the 15th through the 21st also off. While I don't intend to dedicate all of that time to writing, as I have other things I'd also like to do with that free time, I do think that I should be able to get more writing done during that time off than I would between work days. Will it be enough for me to maybe even upload three stories this coming month? I feel like... Probably not. First up will be the Seventh Old Wager, and while I don't think it will necessarily be a really long one, I don't think it will be especially short either. After that of course will be a requested story, for which I can't currently make a guess at how long it might take. The real problem is the story after that though, the Eighth Old Wager, which I know will be a long one, so I highly doubt that I'll be able to finish it after two other stories this month, even if both of the other stories don't take long. I do hope that I'll at least have it already started though, so I hope to have two stories uploaded this month.

...

So, I thought I'd add a little bit of practical writing advice here on this journal entry. Specifically, some things I've found for that one problem that I'm sure everyone who has tried to write before has run into. You're sitting there, writing app of choice open. You know the story you want to write; you've been brainstorming it for the past week, if not longer... And you're just staring at the blank page, your mind stuck on what to start writing.

Yes, in other words, how do I deal with the dreaded Writer's Block? I have found in my experience that there are three key things to do to combat Writer's Block. Having an outline, having the right mood, and having momentum, which I'll go through one at a time here.

First, having an outline. Now I know what you may be thinking, "I have the whole thing in my head, why would I need an outline? It's just like writing the thing twice; it's a waste of my time." I know because I used to think like that too, and dismissed the idea of using outlines, until I saw someone else's advice about using one. I thought about it, and decided I'd go ahead and try it out, at least once, to see if it really made a difference. (You can see that first instance of me using an outline here on Fur Affinity; my first story, 'Becoming more than friends', is the first time I ever wrote with an outline.) Man, let me tell you, it turns out it makes a big difference. Using an outline was like finding the secret Easy Mode option for writing I didn't know existed; it doesn't just help me when I'm first starting a story either, but helps me resume writing on a story after setting it down too. Now, there's no one right way to make an outline; if you look in my scraps you can see all of the outlines I made for my own stories, but you don't have to copy my outline style if there's a different way you'd like to do it. What I can tell you is, think of the outline as being for the story what an initial sketch is for a traditional artist's finished work. The two aspects you need for an outline is to have it be simple, and readable by yourself. Have it have the information you need to recollect your own ideas to yourself. Don't worry about making it all fancy and perfect, because it doesn't need to be, nor should it have to be. Yes, writing an outline takes some time that you could have spent already starting on the story itself, but in my experience, the amount of time and effort my outlines have saved me in the long term has more than made up for it.

Second, having the right mood. This one is, perhaps obviously, very subjective for exactly what works, but basically if you're finding that you're really struggling in actually feeling motivated to write, you probably need to change the mood. The main thing I recommend is music, as that's usually the easiest to change; for myself personally, it's calm and relaxing tracks, sometimes with added rain ambiance or such, specifically without lyrics, as I find those distract me from my writing. However, I know very well that just because that's what works for me, doesn't mean it works for everyone. Don't be afraid to experiment with different genres or such if what you're currently trying isn't working; or perhaps what used to work for you might someday stop working, and you'll have to find something else. If what works for you is heavy metal, or podcasts about alien conspiracies, then that's what works for you.

Third, having momentum. I have found that just like moving physical objects, writing has momentum to it. Basically, if you're already writing, it's easy to continue writing. However, if you're not writing, then it can be difficult to start writing. So how do you fix this? Start writing. I know, "easier said than done," right? Well I mean, literally start writing anything. Whether it's some completely nonsensical thing a character starts doing that they would never would normally, jotting down ideas for other stories, starting a critique for something you recently watched, what you're thinking about at that moment, whatever, just start writing down something. You can go back and delete it later, so don't worry about whether it fits; alternatively, if you're on a desktop or laptop, just open up a different text document to start writing your nonsense on. The point is you've just got to get into the flow of putting words on the screen, and once you have, you should find that starting to actually write your story again is much easier than it was before you wrote down your unrelated thing.

I hope that maybe that advice helps anyone else with their difficulty with writing, or getting started on writing. =)


Alright, that's my monthly journal entry/ramble complete. If you read through the whole thing, then thank you, and I hope you have a good May. If you didn't read through the whole thing, that's okay, I still hope you have a good May anyway. =)