It’s Valentine’s Day, so let’s talk about how to LOVE your own writing.
We’ll go over methods to avoid negative thinking, then write a V-day story together!
During the last stream, a subscriber requested that we go over “how to love your own writing.”
You can watch the full video here to or scroll down for notes/highlights.
How to Love Your Own Writing
- It’s Valentine’s Day, and writing is a lot like a relationship
- For relationships, at the beginning there’s a spark of love, and it’s very passionate; for writing it’s the same, you get an idea for a story, and you start writing it
- But then, in relationships, as you spend more time with your crush, the person becomes REAL, complete with all their flaws, including chewing with their mouth open, their egregious traffic cone collection, and forgetting to show up for dates that you scheduled a week ago
- And the same thing goes for writing: as you spend more time with your story, it becomes REAL, complete with all its flaws like boring sentences, cliched characters, and sections where you have no idea what will happen next
So What Do You Do?
- In order to get better at relationships, you have to go through a lot of them and learn from them, and you have to have all the phases: crush, passion, honeymoon, reality, disillusionment, honesty, breakup
- If you don’t have experience going through bad relationships, then you won’t be able to identify good ones
- The same thing goes for writing, in order to get better, you have to go through all the phases: idea, passionate writing, slower writing, writer’s block, push to end, edit, final draft
- Only by going through the full process will you learn from it
But Going Through the “Love Process” Hurts!
- However, a lot of beginner/intermediate writers have difficulty getting through their first draft because it’s not very good
- Remember: first drafts aren’t SUPPOSED to be good, they’re just the first step, like how middle school/high school relationships aren’t supposed to end in marriage
- But it can still be upsetting when what you imagined your story isn’t matching what you’ve written, just like middle/high school relationships can hurt too, and the best way to get over this is by getting experience finishing, editing, and polishing stories
- When you do that, and you can see definitive proof that you ARE capable of creating a good story, then the first drafts won’t look as bad, it will be easier to see them as just a step in the process, just like when you’re in a good relationship the past bad ones don’t feel as ba
TLDR: Finish writing stories, get feedback, and edit them. That way when you’re feeling negative about future stories, you’ll know that it’s not “you,” it’s “them,” and “they” will be fixed eventually
…that helps for future stories, what about now?
Five More Ways to Help Love Your Writing
#1. Remember that EVERY good writer goes through this
- Even Stephen King threw out the manuscript for his first book Carrie because he hated it
- The first draft of your favorite book likely looked very similar to whatever you’re working on
- You are not alone in feeling like this, and you are strong enough to get through it!
#2. Don’t be afraid to start SMALL
- Novels can be big and intimidating and take forever to get any sort of benefit from
- Instead, try writing short stories/flash fiction, which are great for boosting your confidence in telling complete stories
- Or go even smaller! Just write one sentence that you like, maybe you can put in in a larger story later
#3. Focus on the POSITIVES
- Human brains suck: one negative experience can take away a hundred positive ones
- When you’re re-reading what you’ve written, or you’re getting feedback, there will be negative thoughts/comments, but try to focus on the good parts, what makes your story cool/unique
- Focusing on those will make it mentally easier to write, and it will make your story stronger too when you edit/cut away the extraneous stuff and bring the positive parts more to light
- Keep copies of your good feedback to look at later!
#4. Don’t compare yourself to OTHERS/YOUR PAST SELF
- It can be very easy to read success stories online and get discouraged, or to think back to when writing used to be so much easier for you compared to now
- But everyone has their own paths in writing, there are no set steps to follow, and chances are there’s someone out there who’s jealous of everything YOU’VE done already!
- And when you start thinking about how writing used to be easier, that’s a good thing! It means you’re getting better: only bad writers think they’re great, it takes a good writer to realize how little they know
#5. Say out loud: “I’m writing GARBAGE, and that’s okay!”
- When all else fails, just spit it out, loud and proud! It may sound silly, but there’s something super effective about actually saying it to yourself
- Writing is like baking a Valentine’s Day cake: don’t get too hung up on the fact that your batter doesn’t look like the beautiful cake in the picture, you’re only on step one!
- Remind yourself, out loud, about the step you’re currently in, so that your brain doesn’t get ahead of you and start thinking you should be frosting when you’re still whisking eggs
– Finally, just like a loving relationship isn’t easy, loving your own writing isn’t easy
– It takes a lot of work, dedication, and conscious effort, it’s not something that just magically happens
– The more you do it, the easier it becomes, so give your writing the love it deserves… because it loves you already!
After that, chat voted that we use what we learned to push through and finish/edit a short story based on this Valentine’s Day prompt: the player character freaks out when they end up in their favorite video game, right in front of their video game character crush.
Here’s what we came up with:
Peach slumped into her room after another crappy day at school. It was bad enough being named after a video game princess, but it was even worse on Valentine’s Day when not a single note passed at school had her name written on it.
She slouched in her chair in front of her TV and fired up the one thing to make her feel better: her favorite Mario game. Even though she hated the fact that kids teased her for being named after Princess Peach, she always felt most at home while jumping on Goombas and Koopas in the Mushroom Kingdom.
Plus, it was the only way to hang out with her crush, Mario.
He just wasn’t like other guys. The boys at school, they all had baby faces and tried to look cool in their brand name clothes. But Mario, he was his own man. He wore those plumber overalls and oversized hat loud and proud. Not only that, but he was always in a good mood. Other guys would moan and groan over their parents not letting them use their car for the weekend or whatever, but Mario never let anything get in the way of his smile. Whether he was jumping over bottomless pits, or traversing literal lava, there was always a “woo hoo” in his every step.
And that mustache. Oh lordy, that mustache. Peach liked to imagine how it would tickle her nose when she and Mario kissed in her daydreams. Not that it would ever actually happen.
But just as Peach defeated one of the Bowsers in a castle, the lights flashed in her room. They flickered on and off like strobe lights on steroids. Peach let out a small scream, and with a staticky zap, her world flashed to darkness.
When Peach opened her eyes, the world was a pixely blur. She was on the ground and someone was staring down at her. All around were black bricks and spikes and rotating firebars and—
Wait. Rotating firebars?
Peach’s vision snapped into focus. The person standing over her held out his white-gloved hand, and a smile grew underneath his bulbous nose and perfectly groomed mustache.
“Mario!” Peach yelled.
She scrambled up from the ground and threw her arms around his voluptuously rotund body, pressing her cheek against his red hat with the white “M” on it. Behind her, an open canvas bag lay where she’d been, the ones that usually contained Toad.
Peach looked around. Lava pits were bubbling, skeleton turtles marched as sentries, and large Bullet Bills slowly flew through the air. Somehow, she’d been zapped into the game she’d been playing.
No, she’d been zapped to her home.
“I can’t believe I’m here!” Peach said, finally standing up all the way and towering over Mario. Even at only five feet tall, she was twice his height. But there were too many happy tingles running through her to care.
But then, she realized what had to happen. This was just the end of one castle. Mario needed to continue on his journey to defeat Bowser and rescue the real princess. This fantasy couldn’t last.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Mario,” Peach said. “But your princess is in another castle.”
Mario stared at her, his blue eyes ebbing like ocean waves between Peach and the exit behind her. When he made a move, Peach’s heart stung.
But he didn’t walk past her. He walked up to her, and took her hands in his own.
“It’s a me,” he said in his bouncy tone. “Mario!”
Now it was Peach’s eyes that were blue like the ocean as they filled with salty tears of joy. She wiped them with her shoulder, then stood up, her and Mario’s arms linked together.
For the first time in Peach’s life, she was the real princess.
Mario showed off all his cool powers to Peach. They ate fireflowers together and threw fireballs at Cheep Cheep fish underwater. They ate leaves and grew racoon tails which they used to fly through the sky and collect coins. They rode Yoshi together, whacking him on the head and making him eat moles and piranha plants with his long, sticky tongue.
When they got to a pole at the end of a level though, Mario motioned for Peach to grab hold of it. Usually he was the one who finished the levels, so Peach didn’t understand.
She grabbed on anyway, but nothing happened. The level didn’t end. Mario stared at her, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a fistful of golden coins. He wiggled his hips, as if trying to tell Peach to do the same. Confused, Peach swayed a little.
“Yippee!” Mario said. He threw the coins at her, then reached for more, pointing his finger like an orchestra conductor at Peach, ordering her to continue dancing. Even though she was starting to feel a little uncomfortable, Peach kept shimmying around the pole.
“Yahoo!” Another round of Mario’s coins came Peach’s way. This time, he reached up and clasped one of his gloves with his fingers, slowly and seductively removing it from his hand. He gazed at Peach with smoldering eyes, letting her know that he wanted her to copy him… just not with her gloves.
Peach suddenly felt disgusted. Mario, her love for so long, having showed her his world, was now treating her like a stripper he could just throw money at!
Her heart crumpled. With Mario wiggling his eyebrows and clasping another handful of coins to throw, Peach walked away.
It was easy to walk out of the video game. All that Peach had to do was not go forward or backward, but to the side. As soon as her body touched the staticky TV, she walked right out of it like stepping through a thin film of plastic wrap.
She was back in her room, the TV still on, Mario standing in front of the pole without any sign of his coins or removed glove. He was just a little character on a small screen, someone she had loved, but now felt a little sick over.
Peach left the room. She didn’t know what her future held, but she was certain that it wouldn’t involve crushing on Mario anymore. Maybe she’d give the guys at school another chance. Or, maybe more likely, she’d go out and give fat tips to some of the hardworking strippers out there.
Once she left the room, Mario peeked outside the TV. He sighed to himself about what he’d done, but he knew it was for the best. He’d shown his love a good time, one that he’d been looking forward to as long as she had, but he knew it couldn’t last. He had to break it up between them, so she could move on in her own world without him. And with his limited vocabulary, he couldn’t express his emotions properly. He had to break her heart to do it, likely never to see her again.
“Let’s a go,” he said, sobbing into his sleeve.
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you join us on Twitch.
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Featured image: Pakutaso