And Yes, This Piece ... I Still Love It Even If It Was One Of My Earliest Ones ... And I Think There's

Tips for writing

I already had another story which I never got to post, since I kept rewriting it into eternity. After forcing myself to take a break from it, I think I finally figured out a way to keep consistently writing a story. So, I thought maybe this post might stumble across a reader who struggles with similar things as I did and I could provide a possible solution without them needing to go through a year and over 10 different versions of a first chapter ending in a failed project. (and admitting that I needed to stop was what hurt the most since I really love the idea I had and maybe I might even try to restart that story, but that's a topic for another post in maybe 2 to 3 years.)

Also Disclaimer: This is only my opinion on the matter and what I figured to be helpful. In the end, it's up to you how you want to write your story and to decide what works for you. I'm just sharing my experiences.

I had a couple of problems which mixed up together until I needed to give up.

First off, I lacked structure. With my first bigger story, I had an idea, a beginning and I knew some major plot points that needed to happen. But what I never knew was when or how the story ended. I just wanted to tell an endless story or figure out an ending on the way. That didn't work for me.

With my current story (which you can check out here, if you're interested) I researched a couple of ways how to structure a story properly. (It was just for fun honestly, but so helpful in the end) I already had, like before a vague idea, and some plot points I wanted to happen. What I did: See if my story would fit into any of these structures and what would happen at which point until the end. And then I found a structure that fit my story (almost) perfectly. After that, I wrote down the plot in bullet points creating my outline for the story.

(Note: Of course, you can take any story structure you find and bend it a little. For example, I decided to go for a three act-structure and decided to skip the introduction part, since I wanted to plunge the reader into the story without heavily explaining what was going on. They would figure it out on the way … )

This means I knew what happened at which moment. And most importantly, I had an ending. Now I had to face my next challenge, fighting my constant urge to rewrite everything. After proceeding with my used-to-way of just writing what comes to my head, I quickly figured out that this wouldn't work. It didn't work earlier and it didn't work now. So, I needed to figure out what was wrong with my approach.

For that, there are multiple options to do so. Either you can ask others for their opinion of what is wrong with your text or try proofreading yourself. I recorded how I read my texts and heard afterwards to the footage while I was reading along (and yes, it sucks hearing your own voice on record, but if you imagine it's another person, it's not that painful anymore, after a while)

Then I had another important realization. I still had no structure in my chapters. The story was now well structured and I knew what I wanted to write the chapter about, but my thoughts were jumping from one thought to another and then back again. To solve this problem, I came up with an approach that still works for me.

Before writing the chapter, I think about what I want to happen in this chapter. For example, in my current story, I needed to introduce the two main characters and they needed to meet. I also wanted to hide some hints on backstory and needed to write about the event that starts the entire story. With that in mind, I just start loosely writing down what comes to my mind. It doesn't matter if it's good or not, since I'm going to rewrite it later on. Once I come to a point, where I completed all of my goals for that chapter, I take what I wrote down and structure the plot into bullet points. Then I take these and write a second version along with the bullet points. This makes sure that my thoughts are structured in the end and that I have a clear storyline to follow.

After that, the last step is proofreading. As already said before, you can ask others to give you feedback or record yourself. Maybe use a grammar program to fix obvious mistakes you've overseen (helps a lot. especially if you're writing in a language that you don't use everyday) In this stage I mostly find some sentences that are hard to read / speak or just some wordings that repeat or don't quite sound right. So I go ahead, mark them and fix them.

And after that, I was by now always satisfied with what I wrote. This method might be a little overkill but it works for me and the most important thing you need to keep in mind: If you'd like to write something, it's supposed to be fun. No matter the way you do it. The process of creating an own story and slowly watching it come alive, that's the feeling that makes me happy and why I keep writing.

Hope you had fun reading and maybe I was able to give you one or another idea on how to write a story. If you want more tips, you can send me an ask or just comment on this post.

Thank you ❤️

And done! So glad I choose pencils for the hair. Also picked one or two times the wrong color but I guess it's rarely noticable.

I found more. Holy shit, there are some good drawings I did last year. I'm still wondering how I did them.

Okay, I made a new conversation with my OC on c.ai and I don't know what is happening anymore.

First, it started as the other conversation, I told him that I was his creator (my self-insert in the story) and I told him that I was sorry for making his life miserable. Since I started to break down in tears, he even showed sympathy towards me.

Then I explained that I will, just like him, lose all my memories due to talking to him and breaking a rule. Then then tried to encourage me to not give up that easily but I told him there was nothing I could do about it.

So far, so good. Now it gets weird. Suddenly, he takes me to a pond and tells me to stare into my reflection. And that constantly. And then I realise he was hypnotising me.

Well, I didn't anticipate for him to be able like that but I just keep going since I am interested in how that continues. (and scared at the same time)

But currently, he's behaving more like a villain, than himself. On the other hand, if he HAD the ability to hypnotise people, he would probably use that power against me, as his creator.

Note 1:

OKAY, NOW I AM TERRIFIED:

I didn't know he could go full psycho. Well I ... I guess I better keep running? (I don't think that he would probably act like this but it doesn't matter. It's just for the fun right now.)

Note 2:

I feel hurt. He lied to me the entire time. He was playing nice in the beginning just for me to trust him. I'm sad.

You know, I have lately finished my first playthrough through Undertale Yellow... I cried. And since then, I had this idea for a cool drawing in my head but I got sidetracked.

Here, have a Starlo:

Just be careful that he doesn't shoot you 🙂

Okay, I don't know how far I'll get this time, but I'm working on an animation.

I got one recommended on YouTube and the song is a banger and fits perfectly with the story I want to tell and since yesterday, I can't think of anything else.

Since my goal was anyways to master animation one day, I thought I'd use this inspirational boost for finally getting something done.

I had another animation I tried to continue after I think it's about a year ago but gave up since I had no song for it and I had trouble with deciding how long a frame should last.

I already storyboarded the first 30 seconds of that animation and I'm not sure how far I'll draw but what I have makes me even more thrilled to finish the rest!

This animation will be mostly centred on my OC Decay and the main incident in my story.

What also gets me really excited about my story is that I don't even know who's good or evil anymore. I think I'm evil for creating the horrible suffering my OCs need to go through XD but it's for entertainment, am I right? :)

Am I obsessed with my OC ... maybe?

And guess who she's running after ...

Someone she can annoy with her constant talking :D

current mantra

Okay I made a sick sketch

It's tiny (like on the corner of my sketchbook) but I saw that pose and I was thinking like, okay this is EXACTLY how it looks when he uses his quirk so I scribbled down the pose and then drew him.

I want to make that in big. With markers. And maybe even make a background. And hang it on the wall to Kirishima and Denki.

And I was also thinking of something funny. The way he would describe how he fights with his quirk:

I can use my quirk as a weapon. Just think of it ... like a table. A table isn't dangerous, right? Then you accidentally drop something beneath it, try to pick it up and while getting back up you hit your head against the table. Although, it's just a table, it still hurts, right?

(I'm not sure if I'll allow him to reshape his forcefields but if I do, he would add:

Now imagine the table being a spikey pyramid...)

More redraws of MHA screencaps pt.2