@ajsaxsma: “Just get it on the page” I think is the most destructive advice for writers just learning storytelling, it creates frustration and abandoned novels #writing #storytelling #writingtips #justgetitonthepage

LittleMissLibby :

This might be a cringe confession, but I found something that could potentially be helpful to other beginners. I've been similarly frozen on my original story idea for almost 10 years now. Every time I wrote something, nothing ever sounded right. My character relationships always felt forced. and whatever growth my MC has somehow gets overshadowed by the trauma they have to go through. There's been too many times I'll abandon and return to it. So I've accidentally adopted something of a odd approach: Earlier this year I ironically found myself getting inspired to write a fanfic within a large and well-established franchise, full of lore I have to be mindful of. I found the fanfic process to be extremely good practice with having to write my MC's journey within the confines and rules of an established universe, especially since I'm keeping it canon-compliant. With this practice I've been able to plan out my original concepts better than any other method, thus far. Kicker is, I haven't actually written a first draft yet for the fanfic. I literally don't have it written on the page 😂 However I have tons of organized notes and source docs planning out each arc as well as how my MC is to realistically interact with the world and any established canon characters they may come across. I genuinely think I could reasonably adapt the core themes of my fanfic into an original work, if I wanted. That’s saying something given that my original story idea isn't similarly ready yet, despite the progress I've made! I've found out most of the involved fanfic characters I've written are also OCs, with only a couple substantial canon characters that are a constant. Even then I don't consider the canon characters to have a huge presence in their own franchise. At least, not compared to others. In any case, this fanfic is more or less ready for a first draft. I think the key is to find a franchise you have an obsessive amount of interest in, and practice your storytelling within their universe first. Afterwards you can take what you have learned and apply them to your original works. It seems like the long way around, but I've never seen so much personal progress for myself!