Which parts of writing do you suck at and yearn to improve?

I think it’s a symptom that the novelty of the story is what excited the person more than the story itself. so when they outline they’ve already experienced the novelty so with that gone… it feels like a chore to write because only the fact the idea was new excited them not the idea itself

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That is an interesting way to outline. Maybe I should try that way.
I had no idea that you could do it that way, but whatever could help me in the process.

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That makes sense actually. Thank you! (*^-‘) 乃

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I shall come back to this later.

Yeah. Maybe not, I like to explore ideas a lot.

Most of them are a mess, and I find it hard to fit a proper book into them to be honest.

:thinking: I don’t know, maybe.

Yeah, like a “zero draft”? Mightn’t be a bad idea.

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Yearn? What is this thing called yearning?

Anyway, there’s work to do in every scene, of some sort. The issue is how much time the changes take. If I could edit as fast as I could churn out 1st drafts, I’d be published already.

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another way to think of outlining is just a bulleted list of each change (small to big) that occurs in the story/ for the characters

note could just do major changes too lol up to you.

most outlining methods have you do whats happening between the changes. as opposed to just the changes so that might be something to look into to

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That’s a good way to think of it but honestly I have rougher lists than bullet points lol. If you want to call them lists. They’re just “possible points/concepts” and “plot ideas” at that point.

Yeah might just do the major changes/points because I hate micromanaging a plot and putting so much time and effort into minutiae when I’m going to change my mind about it anyway lol.

I’m mostly a discovery writer anyway so the other details usually come later on the more I write and think about the zero draft.

Yeah that’s another thing as well. The cogs between the wheels.

mhm. well sometimes its hard to classify which changes are big and which are small. so it’s really a matter of the individual writer.
some writers the ideas are just pouring out of them and if they don’t write every unit of change down and try to classify which ones to put down and which not to well it stifles them. for others who have it pouring out of them that writing it all down overhwhelms them and having those limitations helps them

some writers don’t have it all pouring out of them and so trying to write all changes down forces them to create which they like. for others they would rather just write what comes in their head as doing more than that feels like pressure.

i think though that it sounds like just writing about things that you want to explore might work best for you. just like a list of oh i want to explore that. and working off that list. I guess if you wanted you could organize the list and the order you approached the things?

haha but it sounds like maybe you want to work on structure?
outlining in its many forms and renditions can help with structure but its not the only way to do structure.
when it comes to structure their are two schools of thought or i guess taste preferences by readers/ writers

  1. all stories should exist within a well known pre existing structure think like Freytag’s pyramid for example
  2. stories form their own structures which may or may not line up with an already existing structure like freytag

neither taste is better than oother; issue comes in when we start imposing,
if you want to do 1.
you have a few options

  • outline lol
  • read your story and see which existing structure it most closely resembles and edit to make it so
  • read the list of structures see which ones you feel best fit your story and either a edit to make it fit or b use it as a guide when writing story

if you choose
option 2.
again you can outline. but outside that its really just a matter of your skills as writer. as those improve structure inveritably improves too.

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I have a definite problem with too large of paragraphs, which I’ve been trying my best work on shortening. I’ve also noticed that sometimes–because I’m prolific–that due to this, I can sometimes get slightly off-track and stumble in my wording and descriptions.

Perfectionism is a huge pitfall I’ve had to work very hard to control, but sometimes fall fatal to. I have a tendency to “edit” first drafts by completely rewriting them instead of simply going through and editing what’s already there. Which, essentially, just reproduces a first draft over and over again and doesn’t actually encourage creative production. Recently, I’ve been trying hard to just come out with a finalized first draft and then spend time editing/remolding the texture of it. Rewriting kills me.

Writing age and maintaining that mindset is occasionally difficult, I do sometimes find myself making characters more mature then they should be, which can be a problem. But, that’s easy to rectify upon review.