This is to all the people who manage to write over 100k on their wips: You're amazing, but wtf, who did you sell your soul to? keep being amazing

I'm not sure I can express this sentiment strongly enough, but I'm going to try via the medium of large bolded text.

Write what the fuck you want.

Write what makes you happy. Write what makes your soul sing. Write what fucks you up and makes you cry. Write what comforts you. Write what distracts you. Write what you want to read. Write what you want to watch.

Write what you want to dream about tonight.

Write what you can't get enough of. Write what you're completely obsessed with. Write what wakes you up at 4am and drags you out of bed because you can't stop thinking about what your characters are going to do next.

Write what turns you on, if that's your vibe. Write characters you're in love with and characters who inspire you and characters you want to be friends with and characters you fucking hate but oh my god they're so much fun.

Write about things you would sell your soul to do in real life and things you would never do in real life. Write about things that are happening right now and things that happened a thousand years ago and things that might happen in the future and things you wish could happen.

Write to get a publishing deal or to sell your books yourself or not to sell your books at all. Write for your friends or for strangers or for the people who reblog your posts on Tumblr and send you songs that remind them of your characters.

Write for yourself.

Fuck any system that tells you there's only one right way to create or one valid way to share your writing. Your story, the way you tell it, has so much value. Make people smile or piss people off or do both of those things because art is divisive and fascinating and beautiful.

Start writing. Keep writing. And write what the fuck you want.

I LOVE COMPLEX DATED ADVERBS. Wherein. Heretofore. Thereon. Hereunto. Whereof. Hitherward. Hereinafter. How can you look at these words and not lose your mind. They're insane. I think I'm in love.

I have two spray bottles on my dresser, both clear, similar size, etc. One is glasses cleaner, the other a glitter/mica powder body spray.

I just sprayed glasses cleaner all over my arms and legs before I realized.

Actually the worst thing in the world is alphabetical lists that put titles begining with "The" under the "T" section

Dudes, just write. Stop asking me if you should start/continue/finish what you’re writing despite having x, y, or z problem. If you want to write I am in NO WAY authorized to tell you when to stop/start. That’s up to you and always will be.

If you think “no one will ever genuinely like this” you are 100% wrong. 100%. Think about all the trash out there that has fans. I wrote stuff when I was twelve that had more genuine fans among my family/classmates than ANYTHING I never shared with another living soul. It’s impossible to write something no one will like.

If you think “I’ll never finish it so why even bother?” you’re only depriving yourself, man. That’s like saying, “I like this cookie, but I can’t eat the whole bag. Guess I won’t even try one.” ????? Just write the story, to hell with endings. Some of the best works in the world went unfinished by the author/composer/architect, yet we admire the heck out of them. Maybe, instead of thinking you’ll never finish something, tell yourself this is the one you will finish (and repeat it until you do).

If you feel “this hurts to write, I’m too close to the subject material” either set it aside or full speed ahead. You MUST know how many classics, prize winners, and life changers came from someone’s very real pain and experience. Addicts, traumatized persons, victims, quite often they find solace and healing in writing about their experiences. Most importantly, so do their readers.

If you want to write, write. Otherwise only you are standing in the way of what you want.

A more in-depth summary of my main WIP

I'm not sure how much of this might change as I write, my style is "plan it out, but don't be afraid to change it up." But I thought I'd share this and make it public, because then I actually might feel pressured to write more regularly, lol.

WDMD:

Esme is on the run with a corpse in the trunk of her car. What better place to rest than in The Hotel Idyll, a derelict luxury mission house in the middle of the California wilderness? But upon waking the next morning, the corpse is discovered not in the trunk of her car, but in Room 13, gruesomely displayed sacrifice-style. Esme knows she didn’t do it. Among the worried guests at Hotel Idyll is Meg McCrane, who introduces herself as a private investigator, and offers to help the rest of the anxious guests, uncover what happened. Meg recruits Esme to help her investigations. Esme is caught between struggling to keep clear of suspicions and trying to figure out what exactly happened. Slowly, she realizes that Meg is not only untrustworthy but more involved than Esme first thought. And she confronts her.

Meanwhile, two actual private investigators, Jack West and Ruby Gilde are following the trail of a notorious scam artist, suspected murderer, and black widow; none other than Meg McCrane. As they trace her steps, starting with the mysterious murder-suicide of a rock band and, most recently, the death of her latest, now late, husband, the trail leads them to the Hotel Idyll, where they find the latest victims of Meg McCrane’s plot…

@writeblrsupport

“WRITE IT BADLY. Write it badly, write it badly, write it badly, write it badly. Stop what you’re doing, open a Word document, put a pencil on some paper, just get the idea out of your head. Let it be good later. Write it down now. Otherwise it will die in there.”

— Brandon Sanderson on overcoming writer’s block to create a first draft as a professional author (via almost-always-eventually-right)