How do you write as a Lazy Author?

[gaylolis]

I think I'm really lazy when it comes to writing. Can't really be bothered to research things I'm not interested in, and just do things at my own pace.

I did enjoy writing, but wish to know how to get the most mileage while still being lazy as fuck.

Any fellow lazy bums willing to share their tips? :D /

 

[CL]

Writing scenarios and events from experience doesn't require much research (if any).

 

[XianPiete]

Write fanfiction.

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

Meh, too tired to write advices. Just write what pops up in our mind and basically wing it. Either they like it or not, i ain't gonna explain sht where i have to write a long text to explain what i'm writing.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Just write at your own pace but write about it in the story summary

 

[NotaNuffian]

Create summaries for 20 plus chapters, then fail to even churn out more than 5 chapters, then go back to writing the short porns from you wank fests, then notice why those are just shorts as the plots make shitting sense. Then go back to write more summaries of the story, then fail to write out one entire chapter because you can already see it as a fluke, then go back to that porn again, deluding yourself into posting it on MachineSlicedBread or something.

 

[AliceShiki]

Well, if you're too lazy to do research, then the easiest way to do it is to set yourself to do as little research as you can~

Like... Modern day stories usually require less research than medieval ones because you already live in the modern day and know more about it and stuff.

... Or just go with your whims without caring for research at all! XD

 

[Jemini]

Despite how incredibly complex and well-researched my novel is, the research I've done explicitly for the story actually consists of about 5 google searches, and those were just to get a name right or go down a list of all the different types and variations of a creature I already knew existed.

1. Find the list of all human-animal hybrid creatures in mythology. (Harpies, Fawns, Centaurs ext...)
2. A little bit of information on Norse Dwarves.
3. A little bit of information on German Dwarves.
4. The origin of Gomes. (I strongly recommend anyone do this one, you will be shocked at how OP the original Gnomes were.)
5. The name of the "Blue Dragon" from the 4 beasts of Chinese lore.

I actually knew all of the content around the subject ahead of time, I just wanted to use Google to check myself to make sure I was getting it right. Thing is, I was a little bit of a lore buff going into my writing, so I didn't have to research a lot in order to write. For the bulk of what I do write, I just use prior knowledge. It really helps that I like to sit and watch Youtube videos, and one of the things on my viewing list is Shadiversity which gives a lot of information on Medieval life, especially weapons and combat. In fact, it WAS Shadiversity that inspired me to write at such a high level of information in the first place.

So, contrary to popular belief, you don't actually have to be doing a lot of research while you are writing. The detail-heavy stories like mine are actually supplied by a pre-existing knowledge base, and that pre-existing knowledge base is developed due to the passions of the writer picking up information that they just find naturally interesting and alluring, something they would be researching even if it wasn't needed for their story.

The question is not so much buckling down and doing the research. No amount of diligence will allow a person to write credibly on a subject they are not passionate about and haven't become absorbed in of their own accord before ever opening up a word document. The people who DO write effectively on a subject are people who don't really need to do the research in the first place, because they already know because they are writing their passion. You don't need to do research, you just need Google for a quick fact-check.

So, the recommendation I would give is to just stick to your passion when it comes to writing. Just find a subject you already have a lot of background in.

(Also, I will tell you a secret. Most successful people are really lazy, they are just effective in their laziness. If I'm doing a job, I don't want to have to be told to do it over again and have someone yelling at me, so I will make sure to do it perfect the first time so I can just forget about it and move on and hopefully get a good period of sit-down time somewhere during my shift at work. Inventors are just people who are trying to come up with a better way for them to be lazy. You can actually get a lot farther than you think while being lazy.)

 

[gaylolis]

^
well said! :D I did have several topics I'm passionate about, but when I wrote it, it just made me lazy, guess I don't have to rush it then.

it just made me wonder if Tolkien wrote the concept of LOTR as a pastime while taking a coffee break from his college work, that's why it took so many years iirc.

 

[AkaGin]

20% of the time, I write outlines first and with the remaining 80, I just wing it (The outlines help so much, though). What I enthusiastically do though is thinking about what will.be the content of my next ten chapters so I won't hit a wall. Planning the title of the chapter sometimes makes me get what the content will be. I do so little research and lets ideas come out while I write. If big brain doesn't want me to write, then I won't, but there are certain times in the day where my mind actually works properly. Also, sometimes procrastinating helps me brainstorm. Sometimes.

 

[Jemini]

^
well said! :D I did have several topics I'm passionate about, but when I wrote it, it just made me lazy, guess I don't have to rush it then.

it just made me wonder if Tolkien wrote the concept of LOTR as a pastime while taking a coffee break from his college work, that's why it took so many years iirc.

Actually, what took him so long was that he created multiple custom languages word by word. He was also heavily influenced by the writings of Edward Plunkett, AKA "Lord Dunsany" (because the guy was literally a Barron of Dunsany.) Lord Dunsany actually had a VERY strong influence on fantasy and lore-crafting in the first part of the 20th century, every single bit as strong and far-reaching as what Tolkein has now. Basically, Lord Dunsany was the standard of the 1st part of the 20th century, Tolkein took over for the 2nd part of the 20th century, and then Dungeons and Dragons took up the torch from Tolkein for the first part of the 21st. And, if you look at the works of all 3 sources, you can actually see the logical progression from one to the other to the other.

Ok, I've gone off track a bit. But, this is how most highly successful writers operate. They have a preferred genre, an influencer who is a strong writer already in that genre, and their own unique passion which they bring to the genre. For Tolkein, it was his love of language crafting. His thing was that he actually made his world more real by creating a number of custom languages. He did not just make a language for the Elves. He actually made multiple dialectic variations for his Elven languages (the most well known among Tolkein fans being Tel-Quizar and Quenya, both of which actually mean "elf" in their own respective dialect or variation of the language. There are more variations than those two though, I actually do not know them all.) He also made a Dwarven language and an ancient Human language for his world. He also named most of his location names using these custom languages of his.

When you really research Tolkein and get into what he really did, it's just astounding. The reason he was able to do it is because languages are such a passion for him that he really would have created those languages whether he had a story to plug them into or not. In fact, he most likely started writing just to HAVE a world to plug those languages into.

The influences of Lord Dunsany can be seen in how he detailed the Elves and the Elven culture (both of which were very much reflections of Plunkett's work) as well as how he crafted the divinities of his world, as Lord Dunsany also really liked to get deep into the divine lore.

It is actually in this language area that a little bit of my own laziness shows. I decided to actually drop the concept of the MC automatically understanding languages because I found it unrealistic, but for the languages I was using, I ultimately just wound up ripping off the languages Tolkein already created since I really do not have the time to put in the effort to make my own custom language. I am pretty sure Tolkein's Elven is not free use yet, so I am going to have to do something about that before pushing my story much farther than I have already. I am in a little bit of a grey area right now because I am modifying the language by flipping the subjects and verbs in the sentences to place them in more of a Latin sentence-structure where Tolkein used the Germanic sentence-structure (based on English, which is also Germanic in it's sentence-structure,) but I am pretty sure that will only get me by while I'm still small-time. It's one of the big reasons I haven't tried to push for anything like an official published release yet.

(Yeah, I told you I was kinda a lore buff.)

 

[gaylolis]

^
i did have a role model but they didn't write novels, but make really enjoyable games.

as for the novels, while some are good, they're not good enough to inspire me. it's all plagued by really shitty game systems that make a regular person playing it miserable. the more novels i read, the worse they got.

having 2 billion players with such garbage mechanics? no thanks.

it all tends to happen when you want to force a poorly-thought single-player rpg to multiplayer games, as such everyone but the MC just became abandoned children or just went to suck up to the MC.

the best ones of its kind to me, is ones that aware that in the end, it's just a game and it's made for people's enjoyment. that's why the ones written by the Japanese authors are the most decent ones in my book.

the usual ones that wrote about pro players, on the other hand, i just couldn't get them taking the game too seriously at all. moreover, the game's actually just pure garbage and i don't think even watching them would be fun.

if only i could find a novel with an actually decent and fun mechanic, where you're actually encouraged to make mistakes and screw around, instead of being constrained to a lot of shit, 'cuz it's actually just isekai in disguise.

that's why i prefer video game novels to isekai, i guess. you don't really have to force yourself to make things that adhere to common sense, and just do whatever for fun.

though the ironic thing, rather than writing a novel, i could just play a game about it. so i guess the best approach was making something i want to play, but not there yet, like a full-depth VR.

 

[Yiphen]

Well, I write 1-1.5k words per chapter per week and its doing pretty well. I guess whats pulling me through is that I also think about how to continue the story when I'm free?