What is something you learned working on your most recent story, share it here and don't forget to post a link to the story

Leyelle 2023-12-31 12:31:25 UTC #12

aye, I really agree with that, I struggle so much with this maybe imposter syndrome...? that I'm not good enough for my own ideas so I never write them...gotta force myself to ACTUALLY write them because like it or not, nobody else can create my ideas for me

Leyelle 2023-12-31 12:33:03 UTC #13

I love this, it sounds like an inspirational post. Yeah, i've been wanting to build a writing community for some time now, maybe make a club for passionate authors, it's so nice to have other people in the same lane as you to talk to

@rainwang

I think i do the same thing, my brother has to remind me to make the story actually go somewhere

R.n.P 2023-12-31 17:57:10 UTC #14

Sometimes its best to take it slow and let your comic grow naturally rather than forcing it with sub for sub systems, as long as the story is good and you have faith, just keep working hard and as time goes by you'll get loyal readers,

Leyelle 2023-12-31 18:02:22 UTC #15

I agree, marketing is good, but don't try to force it, my story just now started growing thanks to marketing, but i never do sub for sub

Leyelle 2024-01-07 13:54:36 UTC #16

This isn't my most recent, but it came out in December. I would say writing this I learned how important it is to give a lot of details when you working with a team, and also to practice patience, politeness, and to not be afraid to ask questions, even when people don't seem to want to answer them. Also how important it is to work with people who share your vision. (there's a lot more but I won't go on.)

Leyelle 2024-01-26 03:36:09 UTC #17

don't panic about trying to add filler to your story. The more you write your characters, the more you'll discover questions you want to answer/don't have answers for, and you build on those. You'll realize you want to give more detail to traits you add to their characters in passing for depth that really have a complicated backstory to them.

Example: i was worried that my novel would be too short, but as I wrote, i realized there were several more BOOKS worth of story to go into with these characters. what's up with Alicia's childhood? what's up with Kattar's dad and his mom's glamorous but actually toxic goddess-complex? xyz. It was a lot more than could fit into one book, hence: "Sun with a paper crown."

Leyelle 2024-02-21 02:40:47 UTC #18

There are so many things, i'll start with one at a time.

when working with an old idea you want to rewrite, sometimes you need to just break the plot down to it's core elements so you can figure out what to keep and what to throw away. The plot to "Hushabye Prince" was still a story I wanted to tell, but so many characters and scenes and pieces of conflict had to be dropped, characters discarded or overhauled, new characters added, and more, before it would become useable. A good idea is not defined by the draft but by the concept at it's core. Still, that sometimes mean tearing the draft to shreds so you can just get back to the core again.

Kalebell 2024-02-22 04:13:02 UTC #19

I learned that it's fine to edit your story in a different way so that it can fit as a longer series.

Leyelle 2024-03-14 19:42:37 UTC #20

Don't freak out. Developing character's isn't as hard as it feels when you just sit down and tell yourself 'flesh out a character' there is so much inspiration in the world, every character can just be bits and pieces of everything you or people you know or know of like or dislike.

Leyelle 2024-03-16 01:18:32 UTC #21

Here's a fact. Once a promotion thread is over 100 entries, it does you very little good to post in it. Look for younger ones, or ones that are more like games/discussions. People actually read through those so they'll serve you better.

Leyelle 2024-04-04 15:38:47 UTC #22

The more you write, the more ideas you'll get, so don't panic. I'll wrack my brain to plot out the book so I know what happens, and then end up adding a MAJOR plot point that will drastically alter or add to the rest of the book. I've done that for both books now. The first time was by adding Mrs. Moon as a central characters, the second was by giving Alicia's screen saver serious relevance. Neither one of these is planned, so I would tell writers, you have many more and much better ideas than you think, just let them come to you, you'll grow as you go, and realize at some point down the line that you're actually a genius. XD. Just don't fight your new ideas, it's too easy to try to make yourself stick to the plot points, but new concepts are your friend, if a scene looks like it's going to change itself, let it flow.

Mrs. Moon entered on this chapter and she never left XD:

And Alicia's screen saver is mentioned here:

Leyelle 2024-04-18 02:27:55 UTC #23

Symptoms of codeine use, meth use, and that codeine is commonly used for people with chronic back pain.

Also there are special wheel chairs designed for the beach, but I won't get to talk about that until book three

Leyelle 2024-05-15 01:08:58 UTC #24

I know this is going to sound cliche, but to trust the process. I have a tendency to get into panic mode, but I have to remember that the last time a story went well it took TIME. I haven't suddenly digressed as a writer just because this one isn't perfect at first glance.
That there's always more to learn. Writing a new story is about finding new people to fall in love with. It helps so much to remember that writing is fun and decide to make your characters people you want to get to know well, and not just try to hurry them through the story.
lastly to remember that my style of writing isn't a bad one just because not everybody likes it. It's so easy to take constructive criticism as a bad sign, but sometimes I'm just not going to be everyone's cup of tea. But that doesn't mean the way I choose to write my stories is a problem.

I sort of have an artistic people pleaser problem, and it's easy for me to lapse into wishing everybody liked what I create, but in the ends that's not the goal. I write the stories I love, and if I like them, that's how they should be written

this is available for free on my Patreon public posts for everyone to read

Leyelle 2024-06-05 15:07:31 UTC #25

Working on "A Dozen Morning Glories" has stretched my skill as a writer to write characters even more different from myself.

I thought I was good at writing people who were a lot different from me, but none of my characters have been AS different as Essence by a long shot. While many of my characters have very different life experiences from mine, most of them still respond emotionally (even if they aren't "emotional,") which plays a huge role in their lives, be it positive or negative. Even characters as unshakable as Mrs. Moon ("Damsel in the Red Dress") still have emotions under the surface that they simply control, but this is very much so not the case for Essence. It's one thing to write someone controlling their emotions, and another to write a character without them. This has been a learning curve, but I'm glad I'm doing it, as I think it's really stretching me and helping me to become a better writer altogether.

this is the teaser episode, the official first episode drops June 15th

shaleemnaveed 2024-06-06 09:16:26 UTC #26

Going from point A to point B is hard.

Leyelle 2024-06-06 15:47:22 UTC #27

It's definitely a process learning to do that. but it's much easier than trying to write straight from a to z

shaleemnaveed 2024-06-13 09:14:24 UTC #28

what do you mean by that?

Leyelle 2024-06-13 14:00:24 UTC #29

basically trying to write the story going one step at a time and planning out milestones is easier than trying to write from start to finish with only the ending planned and not a lot of plan or structure for the whole middle portion

euphridia 2024-06-13 14:11:21 UTC #30

I ended up reaching out for some professional editing on my story recently and learned a lot from it. In fact, at one point I subconciously switched styles (MC can talk to her past selves at times). It was nice to learn both my strengths and opportunities for improvement!

As a result of that, I ended up relaunching my story and I believe the work I put in is paying off!

shaleemnaveed 2024-06-14 04:09:49 UTC #31

Thankfully before writing I came up with some of the main events. So yhh, it really helps rather than if I had just started writing having my ending in mind.