Worries in Your Writing

[racheldenucci]

I worry about this with my characters as well, and I've been working on some of their stories for over eight years.... Like, I love my characters, but what if the readers, who don't know them as well as me, think they're too one dimensional or just being stupid.

This is exactly what I'm loving about this thread. It's great to be reminded that I'm not the only one worrying about these kinds of things.

[nostalgicroxas]

I love my characters being stupid though! It's soooo much fun to make them dumb. Will, for example, barely knows how to make tea because he's a noble. He trashes an entire kitchen trying to figure out how to heat up water.

[racheldenucci]

That's intentionally stupid. I meant readers looking at my babies (the characters) and thinking they're dumb because they aren't well written. Arai might seem stupid to some readers for running away, but that's because she is a dumb, sheltered little girl, and she later spends most of the story regretting that decision. What I worry about is readers not being invested enough in her to understand her more subtle aspects.

[nostalgicroxas]

Honestly, if people can invest in Homer Simpson, then you're good.

In fact, lots of stories are written with the main character being stupid or sheltered (gestures widely to Frodo Baggins as one example). And the dude who went before Frodo from that series, blanking on his name, wanted literally to just stay home and eat and drink and read a book in peace.

But also, that's not an unrealistic worry. One of my friends read a story of mine and didn't like MC1 until 50k words in, and up to that point they liked MC2 better. Motivations and what they do are essential.

[IndigoShirtProd]

I tend to write passively and I fear that might make readers not connect with the characters. My descriptions and sentences can be very long which could make reading boring and long. I fear my characters will come off as annoying or unrelatable. Or that character motivations won't make sense.

Most of all, I worry that some will read my story to completion and feel like they've wasted their time.

[Mar.Fu]

i worry that info dump is going to get to me. and that my story lacks depth or uniqueness

also @A_Username kssksk that gif

[Mar.Fu]

YES! At some point, my writing style has been heavily influenced by Eragon (TOO MUCH DETAILS AND OVER-DESCRIBING SCENES THAT THE CHARACTERS WONT EVEN TAKE TOO MUCH TIME IN). And then, i started reading more and more, and came to the conclusion that if I don't like to describe, then why do it? it's only going to end up half-assed anyway since i dont enjoy it.

and then i discovered that it wouldnt really work without descriptions sahdsfjslajfls;a

[nostalgicroxas]

You can do what I've done. I used to be victim to too much descriptions, so I started doing a few stories that would have very minimal descriptions of what people looked like, dressed in, or were even at. I'm talking like "it was a swimming pool. it was a beach. they got in the car." BLAND descriptions! It allows you to focus on dialogue, and the story moves super fast then. It was kind of fun cause then the readers could imagine for themselves what stuff looked like.

[Drewbie]

Adding on to this maybe just like tag an action to each of these to make it flow better! This definitely works if you struggle to not over-describe the scenery but still want to get a story across. maybe something like "They got in the car and headed (Next area)"

[Mar.Fu]

thats actually really great advice! thanks!

[Harajuku]

welp, that it makes no sense. I sure as FUCK dont make sense but i want people to understand what im trying to say in my wrtitng, when i want you to understand at least, :0

[ratscout]

Honestly, don't worry about writing a character with a troubled past you can't relate to. I've had trauma in my life, and I wrote a character who had my same feelings about it, and someone still tore the character to shreds and said I didn't handle it in a way they liked despite the fact that I had lived through a similar experience. You just can't please everyone.

As for my own worries, I mostly worry about continuity errors and keeping the reader entertained. I'm not the most organized person when it comes to writing, so I sometimes have to look back in my work to make sure something new I'm adding to the story is coherent with what I've already written. Keeping the reader entertained is just a hard thing to do. You never know whether you're boring someone or not, haha.

[Oso050]

Considering this was my first professional novel, its was worrying. Even now and again, I get timid. Holo 2 is right now the scariest novel to make. Holo 3 is meh, 4 seems like its gonna be a lot of fun. :3

Holo | Tapas

[OttoGruenwald]

I'm worried that my pacing is shit. Right now I'm on the fist chapter, and its a lotttt of exposition and flashbacks framed with a conversation the main character is having with a man he aims to recruit as an agent. I got all this worldbuilding and history to get out of the way and I've been trying to get it all through asides and flashbacks during the conversation rather than a giant info dump.

But I'm worried that its just too damned scatterbrained and slow.

The Trespasser and the Architects of Dreams | Tapas

[qrt]

Honestly, a lot of my worries don't seem to help my imposter syndrome.

• Story too long and trying too hard to be complicated what with 234234 subplots that becomes too much

• Too many chapters will result in a tl;dr, or eventual dropping from readers' lists because it's too much to catch up on due to disinterest or dislike

• No experience finishing stories, so worried big worry that readers will be completely unsatisfied when I eventually get there

• Because I'm updating three stories a week, that the registers are too similar and the characterizations, mood, tones might not be consistent per story