A bunch of resolutions for writers and people who want to try writing this year. It's in no way something you must do, these are just ideas how you can set out to improve your writing in the new year.
Try something new
Try to write something you have never written before.
Write something silly, write something serious, write in a different genre, try to write characters that you haven't explored yet.
Write consistently
Writing consistently will not only give you exercise to become a better writer, it can also keep your voice as a writer consistent.
If you have a first draft, write it down quickly and without big breaks inbetween.
Don't wait for inspiration
Waiting for inspiration to come can take forever. So don't wait for inspiration: search for it.
Make writing into a habit that comes natural to you every day, look up writing prompts, read a book you like, get yourself into the mood to write and do it!
Do your research
As a writer, you need to know about a lot of different things.
You can do research by reading books, listening to podcasts, watching movies, talking to other people, etc.
Take this year to learn something new and then tell your reader all about it.
Edit that draft
We all have that one story we wrote a while ago and then stopped at the first draft.
Take it and reread it and then rewrite it. You have a new perspective on it now and maybe this will be the year you turn your idea into a book.
Set yourself a goal
This explicitly doesn't have to be a goal about how many words or pages you write.
Your goal can be to finish something, to edit something, to write a few sentences every day, to share more of your writing or to publish something.
Don't compare
Try not to compare your writing with that of someone else.
Writing is about finding your own voice and telling a story that only you can tell. Also: other people's accomplishes don't diminish your own!
Write!
Whatever the outcome of your writing may be and whatever you want to do with it, if you want to publish it, if you want to share it with friends, or if you want to keep it to yourself: just start writing!
Do what you love to do.
To all my lovely writers, I wish you a great year, may everything work out in your favour!
- Jana
If you are asking this question, you have yet to challenge the “default” of your culture’s media. Consider that the majority of modern Western media fill their casts with white men, and when there are women or POC, they stick out conspicuously. Many people view adding diversity as tweaking some white man characters by toggling race or gender. But this assumes that “white man” is some default, standard character template.
If you feel pressured to include diversity in your writing, distance yourself from this pressure and ask yourself why you feel it. If you feel attacked when seeing campaigns for more diversity or criticism of all-white, uninclusive media, sit with the discomfort and ask yourself why those who are different from you say they need diverse media.
These are people whose voices and faces are rarely visible in entertainment. Despite this, they enjoy an adventure as much as anyone, and have become accustomed to projecting onto white characters. Yet, when the reverse is asked of white audiences to acknowledge protagonists of color, it becomes a difficult ask. These character choices are immediately questioned, discredited, fought against, and accused of being “woke” or “unrelatable.”
This resistance reflects a larger issue: the imbalance between audiences’ empathy towards the majority/“default” and empathy towards those perceived as Other.
By mostly reading about white people, they become easier to relate to. By the same token, if we are not reading media and histories from the perspective of POC, we end up with more people who literally fail to relate to POC. When we talk about hope-deficits, increased alienation and lower self-worth among marginalized populations, underrepresentation in media is a big factor. Imagine for a moment: never the beautiful princess in the tower, never the badass hero riding dragons; always the two-second sidekick.
People of color are people and want to be seen and treated as such. Not as a burden to devote your time to, but people who have a place in the world, fictional or no. Really, writing a world in your story that is all or mostly white is more unrealistic, more forced—after all, there are far more non-white people on Earth. Becoming comfortable with diversity requires unlearning White as the Default and POC as the Other. It takes setting aside feelings of pressure to emphasize, open your heart and listen.
“Diversity has gone too far!”
Diversity is for everyone.
Children and the Myth of Colorblind Youth
Those who read about aliens learn to emphasize with aliens. Those who read about wizards empathize with wizards.
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This Q&A is an excerpt from our General FAQ for Newcomers, which can be found in our new Masterpost of rules and FAQs. If you liked this post, we have more recommended reading there!
-Writing With Color
Happy book birthday to this week’s new releases! 📚
New Sketch-a-Wish for October’s Patreon vote! Featuring Xingyin and the Venerable Four Dragons from Daughter Of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan!
This request ironically was an amalgamation of the two previous DOTMG fanarts I’ve done, so I decided to take it down a different route for styling (a mix of my illustration and papercraft design). I had a super fun time creating this piece, very chaotic and clean!
And perfect timing, since the sequel Heart of the Sun Warrior comes out next week!! I was able to get a beautiful arc of this several weeks back, but my eyes and hands have been abysmally scrapped for free time to make any progress in a small pile of arcs I’ve received this year. 😭 I’m pretty much waiting for the audiobook at this point, my ears are ready!! Only a few more days! I’m so excited to revisit this world!
tysm to @thedeal-if and @spikingtheodds-if for thinking of me & tagging me !!
I'll tag @loveyoudespiteitall-if, @poll-ventures(@eggtwerp), @unshackled-if @unwilling-souls-if and @greatprotector-if 💗
here's some no context pics that explain the vibe of this IF/WIP:
this IF game is like...one of my biggest inspos , idk how i didnt find it sooner im so hyped to meet Xinyi qwq
[This is a placeholder until I finish the proper topic post.]
GotRM Demo Link | CoG Forum | My Kofi | Discord
Min He | Kaski | Qiu | An | Xinyi |
Go Ro | Hiemi | Spider | Chun |
All RO asks | World building |
Writing Updates | Demo Updates | Latest Update
Deepest apologies to the well-thought-out characters that I created but never wrote the stories for.
ME TOO
I WANT TO EAT THIS ENTIRE GAME OMNOMNOM/POS
AJSDFKLA I love the energy in both of these asks thank you so much for the kind words and apologies for your (semi)friendly neighborhood friends-to-lovers chaos gremlin😔
21 | Chinese | Autistic | Aspiring Fantasy Writer and Narrative Designer | Fae and Chinese Mythology Enjoyer | @charmycharmcharms' writeblr!
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