this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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I’d like to write more but I don’t tend to like my writing for longer than ten minutes after I’ve written it. I’ve gone through the process of putting in my 10k hours in music and gone through the motions of attempting to build a professional music career, so I generally understand that the sucking phase lasts a long time. I also know a lot of it is jumping into the routine of writing every day. Just curious to see what people have to say.

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[–] RedQuestionAsker2@hexbear.net 6 points 10 months ago

It's normal to not like what you've written after you've done it.

Generally, good writers read a lot, so if you have read a lot of literature, you've likely internalized a lot of it, and that will give you a pretty good foundation alone. It will also make you judge yourself harder.

The typical advice, like you said, is to write frequently. Start small. Set a word limit or something for your writing. There are plenty of writing prompts online. After some time passes, you'll start to see patterns emerge in your writing. That's your voice. You can either decide you like it and lean in or decide that you want to go in a different direction. After some time passes, you'll still dislike most of what you write, but you'll start to notice some pieces that you do like.

That's the general advice, but my personal advice is to focus on things that interest you. Write the things that you want to read. As a musician and a writer myself, I can tell you that you really don't want writing to feel like drilling the fundamentals in music. To me, it's better to go for the things you like and want to do instead of drilling a bunch of shit you don't care about in hopes of being "good" one day.

[–] Justice@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 10 months ago

You just do it! (But for real)

[–] FumpyAer@hexbear.net 4 points 10 months ago

Don't expect to like your writing when you're a beginner, but also keep in mind that whether or not you like it has almost nothing to do with whether or not your readers will like it.

[–] GinAndJuche@hexbear.net 4 points 10 months ago

Start. The hardest is the first, the second hardest the second, so on and so forth.

Resist the urge to delete, step away, edit, and repeat.

Plot stuff out, it could simple as a sequence tree that you slowly fill out.

[–] JohnBrownNote@hexbear.net 3 points 10 months ago

for a while write stuff and don't save the file or throw it away without looking back at it.

probably not a good idea to edit yourself while you're trying to write, just keep going if you make a mistake or want to change something and fix it later if you're going to even look over it or pass it to someone else for comment.

[–] FourteenEyes@hexbear.net 3 points 10 months ago

First draft is supposed to be dogshit. Sometimes stories never get good, save them anyways and mine them for ideas later on. Slam things together, twist them around. Play to your strengths when creating stories. If you're good at conveying emotion, lean into that. If you're a good visualizer, build on that. Write things you don't plan on finishing. Set a very modest writing goal to start; Terry Pratchett set a goal of just 200 words a day. He frequently wrote a lot more than that, but 200 words is better than 0.