“I’m finally going to write! I have a great idea!”
hey i’m super late to the party but ur friendly internet poet here to Stop This Madness before you Become The Madness.
i kind of think of the blank page of ms word as like. when you walk through a doorway into a room and are like “wtf was i even doing.” for some reason our brain sees blank and then draws a blank. and ur like. i was actually really excited about that 45 seconds ago?? come back idea we can still be friends!!
so how do you. not do that? here are some tips that i just PERSONALLY LEARNED and aren’t like. purdue university.
THE IMMEDIATE BEFORE:
don’t you dare even look at tumblr or any other site tbh just get out asap
if you have trouble detaching from reality, have an emergency Music Bin of classical music/instrumental/video game music saved on ur computer. Not the internet. not the internet. bc you type “youtube” in the url bar, goodbye cruel world. 3 AM and you’re watching compilations of cats talking. just have it saved somewhere on ur library and hit play. block out the noise of the Rest of the World.
the sound of rain/mood/white noise helps, there’s a bunch of sites for that, but tbh just download rain sounds from youtube when you’re bored one day so you don’t get lost in one of those ~calming masterposts~
if something is Immediately Pressing, try to “write” internally and do the thing at the same time – i can’t tell you how many good ideas i’ve had while making myself a sandwich. being away from the blank page and handling my hunger help.
don’t wait. write it now. NOW. now. not “after scrolling another second” no now , right now. i have left bed at 2 AM to write. you gotta #commit bc the truth is if you don’t, you have the worst anticlimax when your brain lets you down. it gave you a gift and you said you’d open it later and now it’s mad at you. don’t do that. just open the gift.
don’t fear. if it comes out bad it’s still OUT. writers live in the Void Of Self-Doubt, where sometimes we’re like “how can i do this idea justice?” and we get so tangled in being good enough for it that we never do it. who cares if you accidentally write like 3 sentences where u meant to write 16 pages. it just means that you’re concise as hell my guy. it’s always easier to build from something than nothing.
fuck everything else. if your brain is like “!!!!!!!!!!!” like mine is (24-7 my guy) it’s hard to “turn it off” how do you write when everything is crowded up there? my solution is to turn the writing up. turn up your imagination so loud it shouts down everything else. you can’t make inspiration but when you start thinking, those cogs get turning. and everything else drowns out. THE SCARY SCARY DURING:
fuck ms word. it’s so blank!!! tbh a lot of my writing gets started ANYWHERE ELSE, bc i can’t look at a blank page without getting Writer Sweats. start it at the bottom of your english essay. type it in a tumblr text box so it’s lowkey and not official. i have a saved document of just like … half-stories or story ideas and bc they’re not Official, they can be weird and painless and quick.
you gotta write bad stuff before you learn to write good stuff so who cares if it’s not poe like it’s yours just keep writing even if it doesn’t “measure up” to what you want it to exactly look like.
don’t start at the beginning, fuck the beginning. your brain started with the idea halfway, right? so you start there too. sometimes i just pick up in the middle of a sentence – “and it was good enough, at last.” who cares what happens before that, my idea starts there, so i’m gonna start there!
on that note, trust your readers. half the time i just decide – u know what, i see this world like this, and you can catch up as i go. a writer when you sit there and have to explain “in this world mice are hording your secrets and They Know,” great, now you’ve written the whole story in one sentence. just write it and let ppl figure it out. don’t waste the inspiration trying to explain the rules behind your floating city. write the city and run in it while you have the energy.
parts missing? like you just really have a setting there but wtf is the plot gonna be? or holy shit a character with bazookas for hands!! handgun guy!!! but like in what world — yeah it happens to all of us. the thing is, instead of being like “this is nothing,” remind yourself you have so much to explore because you just fucking invented something. even if you write fanfic and the world is already there and stuff like that – dang son explore everything. is there dust in the house is he allergic to cats what’s it like in the forest are there many dogs? does he like being kissed upside down how’s that desk they keep doing it on and what has it seen poor thing. and when you start that, you realize – wait! that’s the story! the desk breaks or family shows up and asks to buy it (why won’t u just sell it, laura dear, u hardly do any real work at it) – that’s where it’s all hiding. think of ur brain as giving you the whole idea every time – it’s just up to you to look.
don’t edit fuck editing you’ll get around to it eventually
“oh i changed a rule i should go back” no don’t you’ll get to it eventually, just keep writing
“does this sound natural?” who cares just write
fuck it sometimes i literally will change what i’m saying in the middle of a sentence but instead of deleting i just keep it up because then i’m not starting back at the top
grammar is a silly silly myth and you can break it with your big strong lobster claws and i even hope you do break it
meaning if you’re like me and sometimes don’t write in Caps or you start going forwards in Txt speech it literally doesn’t matter just go, heck, once i was in the flow and instead of writing a response for something i just had a character say “>:I” and it worked.
if none of the above is even helping not at all: DON’T CLOSE IT. SIT . BE GOOD. SIIIITTTTT…. SIT. stare at it. stare it down. when u give up too fast the idea is like “fine. i wasn’t good enough to fight for? bye.” i would say that the average “stare-down” time i’d give an idea before giving up on it is 15 minutes. not 15 “changing the tab to be on fb” minutes. 15 don’t you dare look at anything else minutes. bc chances are? minute 5 your brain will become Bored – and it will open up bc it’s like “fine fuck you if this is all we’re gonna focus on let’s go.” THE GRUESOME AFTERMATH:
go get water and pat yourself on the back kid
even if it went badly do that bc writing is hard and you tried your best
You may have already seen my Google Docs/AO3 post, explaining how to get around the odd formatting that occurs when you copy and paste from Docs to AO3. Here’s a guide for Word!
This will help avoid the paragraph spacing becoming messed up when you copy from Microsoft Word (2007 and later) to AO3′s Rich Text editor box. Basically, you want to only hit return ONCE when typing, regardless of your line spacing (single, multiple, etc).
I’m using 2007, but these steps and commands will work in newer versions too.
First, check if you need to change your paragraph spacing.
– Press CTRL+SHIFT+8 or click this button (found in the Home ribbon):
This will show/hide the ‘formatting symbols’, which are little symbols that tell you which buttons have been pressed (space, tab, enter, etc). You can keep it turned on if you like – none of these symbols will print, or be copied when you copy and paste.
You want one ¶ symbol at the end of each paragraph.
– If you have one ¶ at the end of the paragraph, you’re fine!
– If you have two (or more) ¶ between paragraphs, see below.
.
Now, let’s sort your paragraph spacing
– Highlight everything. CTRL + A will do this nicely for you.
– Locate the ‘Paragraph’ dialogue box.
– In the box that comes up, go to the ‘Spacing’ section.
Your best bet, aesthetically, is to change the ‘After’ value, but it’s up to you! Line spacing doesn’t matter.
– Change the ‘After’ spacing to 12pt* using the up arrow. *if your font is 18pt or larger, use 18pt spacing.
– Save the spacing as default if you like.
This will save you doing this step every time!
– Delete the extra lines. This is the sucky part. Hopefully you don’t have too much to correct! Remember: you want just one ¶ at the end of each paragraph.
– Write your thing! Now, when you copy into AO3′s Rich Text editor, the paragraph spacing will play nice.
I hope this was helpful!
If you have any questions about this, or about Word or Google Docs in general, please feel free to ask! I’m always happy to help.
Tumblr Exodus 