Advice & Tricks for my fellow Writers

Well said! Thank you for the advice, Blackwinter-witch, upvoted!

BWW

Nice. Brainstorming is just that- you can always throw away a bad idea or hone a marginal one. I would also recommend avoiding flowery language and using one's own writer's voice- unless flowery language is called for.

I used to write and record tunes but the process is similar.

Sometimes you should shut it off, do something else and come back to it with a clear head. Just my two cents.

Chestbursters!

dk

TY and yw!!

DK, Good additional points!! TY for mentioning them!!

Chesters where's my Facehuggers?

BLACKWINTER-WITCH - This is exceedingly good advice. Thank you ever so much for taking the time to present this to us! :)

Something Real

You're quite welcome!! I just thought that people might benefit from things that I have learned along the way over time, hoped to give them a head-start and save them time in figuring such things out. :)

Rick

Well as to facehuggers:

1; do eggs autocompensate for Daylight savings time?

2; the lazy little critters MIGHT have hit the 'snooze' button.
:D

Advice like this is always fun, but I wonder, what's the worst advice you think is given out there to starting writers?

Mr. Nostromo

I can't say, but I think the most common and worst thing aspiring writers get told is usually:
"Why are you wasting your time on something that's never going to happen?"

Mmm, ha ha, true. Although I always thought of that as the "you must be this big to get on this ride" disclaimer, if you don't learn how to dismiss those voices, both internally and from other people, you're probably going to have a tough time of it.

Mr. Nostromo

Exactly. Self-doubt, combined with getting those words said to you by other people...it's a tough combo to get through.
The only advice regarding such: Batten the hatches and weather the storm.

Great advice! Thank you. I actually quite enjoyed writing that, erm...thing(?), over the weekend. Despite it not being great, its something I might do more of. Practice makes perfect, right? Or practice makes less bad - and, eventually, reasonable. Lol.

Also upvoted/Liked/What-Ever-It-Is.

Great advice!!! 

I haven't written for awhile (until recently) but as an experienced songwriting musician i can tell you first draft is all about building momentum. The skills are interchangeable.

Get the creative juices flowing, brainstorm some ideas, discard some dead-end, find the styles and angles that works for you. The key is to find and lock in your own working formula    

I will one day.... finish my projects related to Alien lol

Been saying that for 3 years now though ;)

But i will take on board this Advice ;)

Ranting Xeno

TY!!
Practice, well, Perfection is an elusive goal, but Improvement is something we can all attain. :) I am looking fwd to your next works, as-and-when the Muse inspires. :)

IRaptus

Exactly!! And TY for adding to thr 'advice pool'!!

BigDave

Glad you found something here that was useful to you!

Writing, well, it happens when the Muse lends inspiration and the 'drive' effect we feel at times.
The Muse though, it works on it's OWN plan and schedule. :) Main thing is that you still have the works to pick-up-on as-and-when the Muse calls.

How can you know if a writing course going to benefit you or not? Do you think online courses are worth it?

I really like your advice about the first draft. This is something I've been trying to tell myself. Sometimes I just feel embarrassed when writing my first draft.

It reminds me of the Futurama "Scary Door" Narrator who talks like Rod Serling and says something like "You are approaching a door. Behind the door is a monster or something..." Lol. 

But, I keep reminding myself to just get the rough skeleton of the story down first, while it's fresh in my mind, then go back and add the flesh and bones.

VivisectedEngineer

Never be embarrassed about a First Draft, they're supposed to be ugly and splintery, just make sure you tell folks at the outset it's a First Draft, as that avoids a lot of problems. :)
When writing a First Draft, the MAIN thing to remember is to Get The Ideas On Paper, so to speak, don't feel embarrassed, as there's nothing to feel embarrassed about, it's basically like laying down the Primer Coat when painting a car or a wall, right? Look at it that way. :)

I'd say you have a Good mental outlook/perspective on thing, it is just the 'skeleton' and like a raw diamond, it only shines after the cutting, polishing and such, right?

Writing courses...dunno, never took one. I just studied the Published works of various authors, as I figured if that's the Published work, then that's what to study. ;)

Nice. I've been doing mad research on writing for the past 5 years pretty non stop and this pretty much covers it.

@Blackwinter-witch

"just make sure you tell folks at the outset it's a First Draft, as that avoids a lot of problems. :)"

I don't think I'm brave enough to ever show anyone my first draft of anything, lol.

@VivisectedEngineer You have to not be afraid. Some of your stuff will inevitably suck, and you have to not be afraid of that. I've already gotten five rejection letters in the past few weeks. It happens. You have to know how to suck before you know how to be good.

VivisectedEngineer

I know that feeling!

For me, my First Drafts are so messy they're pretty much unreadable, essentially just a slopping-together of 'ingredients', really.

And as IndyFront says, rejections letters and related comes with the territory, nothing to be afraid of as even the Big Name authors get rejections letters also.