fb

Backspace

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #142524
    ShadowWriter161
    @shadowwriter161

    How do you stop yourself from mashing the backspace button after every sentence or paragraph? Is it just me?

    I keep wanting to delete everything and start over no matter how many times I’m told that it’s good.

    Help. Thanks.

    #142528
    K. A. Grey
    @k-a-grey

    @shadowwriter161 Yesss! I have the exact same problem. I have so many unfinished stories because of this.

    I want it to be perfect. It is perfect in my head, but seeing my pitiful attempts to put it into words just makes me want to give up.

    But I’ve slowly come to realize that writing can never be perfect. You can always find something you can tweak or edit or nitpick about. But then you lose the joy of writing.

    I started doing something recently that’s helped a little. I started a story called “Completely Senseless Random Story.” At least, that’s how I have it saved in my computer. 🙂 And I just sit down and write whatever nonsense first comes to my head. I don’t let myself hit backspace. The important thing is to keep going because this is a story that no one is gonna see anyway, it’s just for practice. And it actually is turning out to be pretty entertaining!

    I don’t know if this helped, I’m still struggling too, so someone please chip in and help us out.😂

    #142529
    K. A. Grey
    @k-a-grey

    @shadowwriter161 Also, totally random, but the fox in your profile picture is so cuteeee!!

    • This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by K. A. Grey.
    #142532
    ShadowWriter161
    @shadowwriter161

    @k-a-grey

    Thank you! It’s so good to know I’m not alone. The words seem to sound better in my head then they do on the page. I get so caught up in wondering if people will like it that I forget why I’m writing in the first place 🙈

    I love your idea about making a random story just for fun, mind if I copy you? 😜

    Oh! Thank you ☺️ Foxes are my all time favorite animal 😁

    #142533
    ShadowWriter161
    @shadowwriter161

    @k-a-grey

    P.S no, I didn’t draw it, lol, but I wish I had!

    #142534
    K. A. Grey
    @k-a-grey

    @shadowwriter161 Not at all, go right ahead! Glad you can use the idea!

     

    #142535
    Rose
    @rose-colored-fancy

    @shadowwriter161

    Ooh, I think most writers have struggled with this at one time or another. (I know I have XD)

    I’ve often found myself writing a single sentence over and over, and staring blankly at the screen, trying to remember the exact right word. And then writing becomes outright painful XD

    Just remember, you’re not trying to write something good. That’s entirely irrelevant. You just need to write. Get comfortable with the idea that it’s going to be a hot mess XD

    Whenever I get writer’s block, I often sit down with the thought “I’m going to write the worst trash that has ever existed and it’s going to be terrible!” *Said with great enthusiasm and glee* XD

    You don’t need to write anything good at this point. Write something terrible and fix it later. A first draft only needs to exist. It’s just you stammering your story to the void, and I’ve often taken comfort in the thought that nobody will have to read this. It’s just a first draft. Your second draft will be better, and your third one better yet. If your first draft exists, it’s completely fulfilling its purpose!

    Besides that, don’t read what you’ve written. Get your start, and then just write as you’re thinking, even if that means it’s bad prose or you repeat the same thing multiple times and your dialogue goes in circles. (One of my first draft trademarks XD)

    And if you’re the kind of person who works best with some external motivation, you might look into writing sprints! They’ve helped me in times of inspirational drought. You just set a time period between 5 and 20 minutes, and try to write as many words as you can in that time. The external pressure of a ticking clock (and the comfort that I only have to write so many more minutes before I can take a break) has often helped me. You won’t want to delete anything since you want to get your word count as high as possible.

    And if you’re like me and frequently forget very obvious words, instead of googling them and breaking your concentration, just all-caps the word and describe it, for yourself to catch later. For example, if I was looking for the word “latch” I might write “LOCK SLIDE THING” (Not an exaggeration, that’s how I think XD) or all-caps it in the language I remembered it in. Then just move on! You’ll get it later, and trust me, you’ll amuse yourself later XD

    The same goes for characters that need names. Names are a massive rabbit hole, so I often just type NAME and move on to fix later.

    In short, stop trying to write anything decent. Just write inconsistent gibberish and enjoy it! Besides that, in those times of self-doubt, we often underestimate ourselves. I’ve often found that things that I thought of as trash are actually fairly decent a few days later.

    I know it’ll get easier, and I know you can do it! 🙂 I hope this helped some, best of success with your writing!

    (Also, your fox is very adorable <3)

    Without darkness, there is no light. If there was no nighttime, would the stars be as bright?

    #142536
    ShadowWriter161
    @shadowwriter161

    @rose-colored-fancy

    Thank you so much! This has helped me more then I can say.

    I keep forgetting that it doesn’t have to be perfect on the first try. And the thought of anyone actually reading my work gives me anxiety, haha.

    Any other tips -big or small- would be much appreciated ☺️ Thanks again.

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • The forum ‘General Writing Discussions’ is closed to new topics and replies.

Pin It on Pinterest