Here’s the last of a writing essays series. I meant to post this years ago, but kept putting it off and left the draft hanging around.
The full series of Writing Tips includes:
Sharing and Stealing like an Artist
How to Write Good Descriptions
I still have writing essays on the blog, but now they’re inspired by the Legend of Zelda games. So, let’s see what I was thinking way back when I started self-publishing.
Originally written in 2018, updated and finally posted in 2025.
Take Your Inspiration from Strange Sources
I’ve discovered something about inspiration and how it can come at you out of nowhere. You almost have to go looking for it, only you don’t know what it is or where you’ll find it.
I’m not just talking about brainstorming, which I consider the fun side of the job. There’s also the more mundane part of writing, which includes the editing and the ‘what makes a story good’ bits. How do you figure out how-to-write good stuff? Because it’s one thing to just do your writing and then bang out 10,000 words of a story, only then you discover you’ve spent the last few days or weeks or months, and the writing is a terrible rough draft.
The cut-slash-strikethrough part of editing hurts my heart. I have resorted to putting everything in a cut-scenes document. That way, I can retrieve my hard work, but I can also know that all my work has not been a complete waste. (Or so I try to convince myself).
Character
Characters need character.
That is the conundrum
That’s why I sometimes have a love/hate relationship with the side-characters. I love them because you don’t see them as much, but that makes them harder to write about.
But that’s the fun with writing, isn’t it? Having conversations with your characters, listening to them, and figuring out their stories. The characters are what make a story move. Sure, the plot is important, but loving a character makes the story last longer. When I look through old lists, my Goodreads account of books, and I see a story I’ve read, but I can no longer remember it. I read that book. What was it about?
Then, there are other ones.
Oh, that was the Australian one about the teenager who was basically Sherlock Holmes, and the girl in the story was his Watson. See, memorable. Of course, comparing a character to Sherlock Holmes will automatically make your character more compelling and easier to remember. Sherlock Holmes is iconic for a reason.
Any Final Advice?
Here I am posting this seven years later. I could go into detail about why it’s so late, but I’m going to take my own advice and go write a story now. Sometimes – okay, I do this all the time – I avoid my writing by procrastinating and instead write about writing. Just go write the story, silly bear!