Newbie writer (i’m getting overwhelmed)

i just write. instead of trying to remember rules. practice writing with the rules in mind. little things. then, hopefully, over time you will do it as second nature. practice is the best way.

Hey, glad to see you've gotten into writing!

And honestly, my advice is just write what you find fun and entertaining. Just write something- it doesn't need to follow writing rules or be a masterpiece. It's better to get practice than to get bogged down by all these rules people have set out.

Yes, there are guidelines for a reason, but honestly just experiment and do what you want. You'll learn along the way, and if these guidelines help you later than awesome, but it's really nothing to stress about. You can always go back and edit or redo things if you want to later down the line.

I had a very similar issue when I started publishing my writing online. I completely stopped writing for a year because all those rules and "what a writer should and shouldn't do" made me dislike writing. Honestly, just write what you want to write. Ignore guidelines and rules. (you can worry about content guidelines on different platforms later ) You are the writer and you decide how you write. As long as you enjoy it, that's a good start.

Webnovel writing is a whole different ball game than traditional writing. There’s a lot more freedom to format and how long chapter can be (which on Tapas, it’s encouraged to write shorter chapters). Start writing your story, take a break, and edit a few times grammar-wise and alter the format how you like it. You could read the first chapters of some popular novels just to get reference how they did it!

I don't remember where I first heard about it, but I've read that writers can be often characterized by a spectrum where on one axis you have either a plotter (someone who needs to carefully plot and plan their work before starting) and pantsers (people who can often get stuck in a creative rut trying to plot and plan and often prefer just flying by the seat of their pants per se). More so to this situation, on the other axis we have methodological writers (these are people who are huge sticklers for rules and regulations and often have very clear methods to the way they write) an intuitive writer (people who rules, and regulations are just loose guidelines and base their storytelling off what feels right rather than what the rules say is right).

I'm more intuitive than methodological based on this scale and I've had problems because of it, particularly because of the way I treat my characters. I have been cold-shouldered out of writing groups in the past because I don't write character-driven stories - apparently breaking some cardinal rule. But this is fine, stories should be character-driven except when they're not. Junji Ito's work is a great example of this, his characters tend to be fairly flat and boring, but they can be that way because the story ultimately isn't about them, but the horrifying circumstances they find themselves in. Often the character is seen as the anchor point for a reader to engage with the story, but given a compelling enough environment, idea or otherwise, this doesn't have to be the case.

I'm going to say something that probably sounds weird: don't ignore the rules, but you don't have to sweat learning them. Something that helped me a lot is simply reading and reading a lot of everything - even a lot of works that I normally wouldn't based on my normal interests. When reading try to think about not only what you like and don't like about the piece and more importantly why that's so. Get a feel for what works in the story that might compel readers to continue. Given enough practice, you'll start getting a natural feel for what works in writing and what doesn't (basically getting a feel for the 'rules') and that can help you with your writing.

Another thing that can help is if you have an author, you particularly like, try copying paragraphs from their work. This exercise works best if you try to write the paragraph by memory and then check to see how close you were after you've finished writing. If you struggle with grammatical rules (like me!) this can help you get a feel for those (of course with the assumption the chosen author has good grammar).

I break rules with my writing, but that's okay because it works for the stories I want to tell. And as the others have said that's what matters.

This is an advice to every creative person, song/script/novel writers, comic book artists etc
Have habits, set precise goals, small and big goals, the small goals are more important in the beginning,
daily/weekly goals in the beginning.
I´ll give you an example,
writing something every day for 60 seconds is better than not writing at all.
Tomorrow morning you will set a timer and you have 60 seconds time to come up with a topic.
Then set the timer and you have 60 seconds time to write it.
Then set the timer again and you have 60 second time to correct it and refine it.
That´s already 3 minutes of writing and believe me, you will value every second of it because
it is limited. You wish you had more time to write, maybe you will stretch the time a little bit
because you are so inspired. Allow yourself 2 minutes to write in the next week. Do that every
day. You have a new habit.

I did this with really boring every day things and it works and it also works for creative things.
I´m doing this with cleaning my living area for example. I have 5 minutes for every room. Sometimes
I wish I had more but there is always the next day and you can continue.

And about the rules, an experienced artist told me: "first you learn the rules, then you forget about
all the rules and create"
Don´t forget the fun of creating, 10% theory, 10% practice is enough, 80% fun and creation.
Create something you love with all of your heart, write something that you would love to read,
sometimes that can feel embarassing but you have to come over that feeling, be honest to yourself
and write

BIG mood :'D I'm also the sort to get overwhelmed by theories and guidelines - I remember at some point looking at a plot structure like the 3 act structure or the hero's journey or something and having to fill out the call to adventure, the refusal of the core, the climax, the darkest hours etc etc and I was like NOPE.

I guess my two cents would be:

1: Think of the rules as tools, rather than checklists
If you're making a sandwich, you don't have to get out a knife, a chopping board, a pan, a spatula, a lemon juicer, a garlic crusher and the kitchen sink from the get go. Chances are you won't need most of them and then you'd just have to pack them away for no reason.

Just start making your sandwich, and when you get stuck (oh, I need this tomato sliced), you go find a tool for the job (I know, I need a knife!).

Same with writing. I totally gave up trying to use plot structures - I just wrote whatever I wanted until I realized my story is just my characters hanging around and doing random stuff; there's no real direction or sense of progress. That's when I went online and look for a tool to fix my problem, and then I bumped into plot structures, my old enemy, but this time it came to me as a friend. And even then, I don't follow them to a T; I just kind of use them as a point of comparison when I feel like my story lacks forward momentum :]

2. It's okay to reinvent the wheel

Sometimes you read some advice but it just doesn't click with you, but them you go off and write your own thing, and you kind of rediscover the advice independently on your own. I personally find this is the best way to actually understand a piece of advice and when/why it's applicable

I use plain text and word documents and don't touch any of that fancy software I've heard people talk about (like Scrivener, WorldAnvil etc) - I get overwhelmed by the systems they use! But that doesn't mean I don't have systems; eventually I see patterns in the way I write and establish conventions that make things more organized and easier for myself. Some of my systems resemble the systems built in to writing software/common writing advice. But I only get used to them by developing them myself from the ground up.

What I do is think of writing like sculpting.

You start by blocking things out broadly, then you refine the details, and finally polish.

Write your story.

Then go over the details and refine the structures to make it clearer and better detailed.

Lastly, look for places to add polish and flair.

Don't try to do everything at once, don't try to be perfect. Just barf everything up...then you keep what's good.

Depending on where you are in the writing process, the rules might not matter much, if at all.

I really love the concept of "Shitty First Drafts" popularized by this essay by Anne Lamott (this leads to a PDF download from a university because I couldn't find it posted online):

https://wrd.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/1-Shitty%20First%20Drafts.pdf1

Basically, when writing your first draft, don't worry about the rules at all. Follow the story wherever you need, leave notes that only you'll read and be okay with things being terrible if they need to be. On the second draft or third draft you can worry about the rules and (often contradictory) advice that gets passed around.

(Or even disregard the advice altogether! Depending on your goals as a writer, it may not matter much to follow those. If you only plan to write as a hobby or post on Tapas, you get a little more freedom than if you plan to go professional or get published.)

The process is a babbling creek in a forest of the mind. It flows gently but wild, uncontrolled and unpredictable. We place rocks and logs to guide it to where we wish to go, to control what shouldn't be controlled and end up effecting the environment against us.

Find balance, choose the rules you like and ignore others and just go with the flow. Who knows where you'll end up.

Theories & "rules" are fine for honing your writing as you develop. You're at the beginning and letting fear of rules hold you back, right? But you have a story you want to tell, don't you? So... my humble advice as a novice is to do as I did. Start telling your story in whatever ways you can, whatever feels like it helps you to express your characters & their scenes. Let bits & pieces flow even if they aren't all in order yet.

Do you like to read (or read well even if you don't enjoy it greatly)? Now that you're aspiring to be an author, pick up some good books & read them to see how successful authors describe scenes & format dialog. Then maybe go back to your draft & see if anything you read may be applied to your own story-telling method.

You write on a device or word processing software, I imagine. Changing things around is then easy. Polishing the versions is a snap compared to the ways "all the great writers" had to work. Reviewers & editors are not hard to find if you feel like you need that kind of help. Especially here. Call for help when you need it or just want some assurance.

So stop reading the theories and create - that's all there is to it.

Writing is a craft that has a lot of principles, and very few rules. None of us are good when we start - if we're lucky, we're good enough. The way we get good is by writing. And some of the principles we won't understand until we've had a chance to get good through practice.

Right now, just worry about creating. You can worry about how to "get good" once you've got a handle on how you create and what you like to create.