setting up a tiny detail in one chapter to pay it off in the next few chapters feels sooo devious like oooh i can’t wait to write the small little reference here that 70% of readers will miss but 30% of readers will cheer for
it feels so good loading the gun when you’re Chekhov
What I’ve gathered so far about writing from a few months of doing a volunteer editing job based on regular, repeated issues that people have.
You will think hmm I am writing a short story which is otherwise well-detailed and powerful but I’m not entirely sure what to put in this one bit I might just throw in a cliché or platitude THAT IS THE DEVIL TALKING!!! It ruins your immersion!
Formatting is actually so crucial for the impact it has on your content I promise it’s not just for ease of reading it upholds your content!
You need to vary your sentence structure and length you NEED TO!!! So many people don’t!!!! And even if they’ve worked out varying length they still have every sentence beginning with “I [verb]” and their stories could be so good if they just had more variety there but unfortunately it completely flattens out your writing.
Religion in fantasy worlds: Everyone believes the exact same things about Green Nature Goddess and has official rituals for her that are the same everywhere
Religion irl: Technically it’s heresy for me to worship this skeleton but my spiritual advisor said that it’s legit so I’m gonna keep giving it offerings of yogurt
Religion in fantasy worlds: We’ve gotta pour water over this statue or else the god will get angry
Religion irl: We’ve gotta pour water over this statue? Why? Idk man that’s just what you do. Just do it alright.
Religion in fantasy worlds: These are the rules. The rules are law. Nobody can break the rules.
Religion irl: Okay you say that there are “rules” but how exactly are we defining “rules” here? Like is a suggestion a rule? How are we defining suggestion? No come back. Listen. Are we going by nuance in the original language or are translations fine or-
High control religions/cults recruiting in fantasy worlds: Join us! For we shall all eat the moon! This is a legitimate position to have!
High control religions/cults recruiting irl: We have free snacks. That shirt looks sooo cute on you btw. What, you heard that we wanna eat the moon? The media is always telling lies about us you know. We may have some unorthodox opinions about the moon but, tell you what. Come get some snacks, make some new friends, maybe chat about the moon a bit. See what you think. We’ve got pizza.
Religions in fantasy worlds: We must make a sacrifice to appease the gods! *draws up a sacrifice circle and completely destroys the sacrifice*
Religions irl: We must make a sacrifice to appease the gods! *has a communal barbecue*
”I have this artistic idea but not the skills to achieve it to the standard I want.”
congrats! Now you have a motif! A recurring theme! A focus for your art! Something to haunt you!
Seventeen still lives of dandelions? Three hundred poems about grief? A sketchbook dedicated to your grandmother’s house? Two books trying to unravel the complexities of familial relationships?
Don’t let the fear of it not being perfect on the first try stop you from being Weird About It!
Excellent tensions to consider when plotting your story
responsiveness vs accountability – captain america civil war, and also all the cop shows where one partner’s a rulebreaker and the other is by-the-book.
Mad scientist who has the same relationship with mad science that many authors seem to have with writing. They don’t really seem to like mad science, and they certainly don’t appear to enjoy doing it, but once they get an idea they have to test the hypothesis, because if they just let it lie it will bother them.
Whole-heartedly BEGGING writers to unlearn everything schools taught you about how long a paragraph is. If theres a new subject, INCLUDING ACTIONS, theres a new paragraph. A paragraph can be a single word too btw stop making things unreadable
Ok So I’m getting more notes than I thought quicker than I expected! So I’m gonna elaborate bc I want to.
I get it, when you’re someone who writes a lot and talks a lot, it’s hard to keep things readable, but it’s not as much about cutting out the fat(that can be a problem) so much as a formatting issue.
You are also actively NERFING yourself by not formatting it correctly, it can make impactful scenes feel so, so much better. Compare this,
To THIS.
Easier to read, and hits harder.
No more over-saturated paragraphs. Space things out.
@s1ld3n4f1l WAIT WAIT WAIT SO TRUE LITERALLY LITERALLY
the ADHD writer’s guide to actually finishing a draft (no, seriously) 📝
okay, tumblr, writers… we need to TALK about how to actually finish a damn draft when your executive functioning decided to pack its bags and leave for a permanent vacation in the bahamas.
i’m not here to give you that basic “just set a timer!” advice that makes me want to throw my laptop into the sun. we all know those productivity hacks that work for neurotypicals make us want to scream into the void. (been there, screamed that.)
so here’s the ACTUAL guide from someone who’s written three novels while her brain was actively trying to sabotage her the entire time.
FIRST: accept that linear writing is a capitalist construct designed to torture us.
i’m serious. whoever decided writers should start at chapter 1 and proceed neatly to THE END clearly didn’t have dopamine playing hide-and-seek in their prefrontal cortex.
write whatever scene has your brain chemicals SINGING today. that climactic fight scene that’s six chapters away? the tender moment between your characters that happens in the middle? WRITE IT NOW while your brain is actually interested. i have finished entire novels by writing them in chunks and stitching them together like the beautiful frankenstein’s monster they are.
SECOND: the 10-minute lie (that actually works???)
tell yourself you’re only going to write for 10 minutes. that’s it. no pressure. your adhd brain can handle anything for 10 minutes, right? the secret is that once you start, momentum becomes your best friend. sometimes you’ll actually stop at 10 minutes (congrats, you still wrote something!) but often you’ll look up and realize it’s been two hours and you’ve written 2,000 words. and yes i’ve seen this a lot, like everywhere, where they tell you “set a timer for 5, and by the time you realize it’s 2 hours” i’ve seen this many times before, and it actually works. at first i thought it didn’t but boy, i was wrong.
THIRD: use your hyperfixation powers for good, not evil.
we all know that adhd comes with the superpower of becoming obsessed with random things for unpredictable amounts of time. WEAPONIZE THIS. create artificial urgency around your project. tell people about your deadline. make elaborate aesthetic pinterest boards. create a spotify playlist that you only listen to while writing this specific project. trick your brain into making your WIP the shiny new hyperfixation.
FOURTH: body-doubling saved my writing career and it can save yours too.
find another writer friend (or any friend who needs to do focused work) and sit together - virtually or physically - while you both work. something about having another human witnessing your work process bypasses the executive dysfunction. i swear it’s actual magic. discord writing sprints, zoom sessions with cameras off but mics on - whatever works.
FIFTH: embrace the chaos of your natural writing cycle.
some days you’ll write 5,000 words in a frenzy at 3am. other days you’ll stare at the document for an hour and write “the.” BOTH ARE VALID WRITING DAYS. the only consistency we need is returning to the document, not some arbitrary daily word count.
SIXTH: create external accountability that doesn’t make you want to die.
deadlines from publishers? great. deadlines you set for yourself? your brain laughs and says “or what?” find the sweet spot - maybe it’s a writing buddy you check in with, maybe it’s a public progress tracker, maybe it’s promising your sister you’ll take her to dinner when you finish a chapter.
SEVENTH: the frankendraft approach.
your first draft DOES NOT need to be good, coherent, or even make sense. it just needs to exist. leave yourself notes like [FIGURE OUT HOW SHE GETS FROM THE CASTLE TO THE BEACH LATER] and keep moving. your adhd brain will thank you for not getting stuck in research rabbit holes for six hours.
EIGHTH: find your optimal writing environment through shameless trial and error.
maybe you need complete silence. maybe you need to be in a coffee shop with specific ambient noise. maybe you need to write standing up. maybe you need to dictate your novel while pacing around your apartment. there is no wrong way to get the words out.
i personally write best when i’m slightly uncomfortable (weird, i know) so i often end up writing while sitting on my kitchen floor with my laptop balanced on a chair. whatever works, bestie. a finished messy draft is infinitely more valuable than the perfect novel still trapped in your head. your adhd brain is simultaneously your greatest challenge and your greatest asset as a writer. the connections you make, the unique perspectives, the creativity - all of that comes from the same place as the struggles.
you’ve got this. now go write something, even if it’s just for 10 minutes. i believe in you. ✨ -rin t.
As a late-in-life diagnosed ADHDer, this is exactly what I needed to see exactly when I needed to see it. (And let’s not even talk about the menopause brain fog, because, just, no.)
“is it rude if I politely ask a writer if they use ai or chatgpt on their works because I’m almost certain they do?”
yes, it is rude. no matter how polite you are being when you ask them this.
you say you are almost certain. so you are not absolutely certain.
unless you are absolutely, undoubtedly certain — with actual proof — that their writing is ai generated,never ever ask an artist if their work is ai generated.
I know several writers who would stop writing and delete all of their works if they were ever accused of using ai. so it doesn’t matter if you are polite when you ask them this, you are suggesting that their works are ai generated, that they didn’t create the works they could have spent hours, days, weeks, months or years working on.
ai and chatgpt are trained on real humans’ works, they are trained to mimic the way real humans write. so if you say a genuine writer’s work “looks ai”, I’m gonna have to ask you what you think ai was trained on.
a writer whose English isn’t their first language may also write in a way that “looks ai” to some, if they write in English and have to rely on translator.
using em dash isn’t a sign of ai. I do it all the time. my fellow writers all love em dash.
having long paragraphs with “overly described scenes” isn’t a sign of ai. I do it all the time, and so do my fellow writers.
all the “ai signs” are actually just what most writers actually do. they get mistaken for “ai signs” because sometimes the way writers write or describe a scene in a fanfic or an original work is different than the way people talk or text. because they’re writing a fic and describing a scene, not chatting with a friend. the way I talk is different than the way I write my fics.
if you suspect a work was ai generated, but are not 100% sure, you can always just stop reading said work without saying anything.
if someone does use ai to write, they will either a.) deny and continue using ai to write or b.) admit because they see nothing wrong with it and continue using ai to write.
if a genuine writer was wrongly accused of using ai, they may stop writing altogether.
asking a writer if they use ai or chatgpt to write will always do more harm than good. witch hunting will always do more harm than good.
you are not “fighting against ai” by throwing around such accusations. you are harming genuine writers and artists.
It isnt an accusation. Its a fucking question. One that protects the very communities and artists that this post claims to defend.
all of the fanfic writers, whom I personally know, say the same thing that they would feel discouraged and might delete all their works if they were asked this.
it’s not “hey do you like x or y” question. it’s a subtle implication that your work looks like it was written by a robot within a minute. if you personally don’t find that offensive, that’s cool. but I know a lot of writers do. and they have the rights to be discouraged by it.
also we are talking about fanfic writers who write as their hobby, getaway or safe place, writers whose works you read for free. not writers who sell their works and are making profit from what they write. fanfic writers don’t owe you anything.
This just came across my dash. I’m going to be blunt.
Asking a writer or artist if they “use AI” is an accusation, no matter how you dress it up. It’s not neutral. It implies you think their effort, style, or voice is artificial. It implies that their human work doesn’t look human enough for you.
You don’t protect the community by policing people who are actually creating from scratch. You protect it by supporting human creators, reporting confirmed AI misuse when there’s evidence, and learning the difference between this sounds different than what I’d write and this is machine-generated.
Writers—especially fanfic authors—already pour their time, emotion, and identity into what they share for free. They don’t owe anyone proof of authenticity on top of that. And if your question makes someone want to quit writing, it’s not protecting the community. It’s shrinking it.
If you’re not 100% sure, just scroll. AI ethics don’t need to turn into public inquisition season.
“And if your question makes someone want to quit writing, it’s not protecting the community. It’s shrinking it.”
rephrasing a sentence to avoid having the same word twice in a row literally feels like adjusting yr stride so you step on the pavement cracks the right way
