What tips would you give new authors?

[Comrade567]

Not all bad drafts are future masterpieces, but all bad drafts have salvageable good ideas in them.

Playing bad games, watching B movies, reading amateur writing will teach you to find the diamond in the rough.

Write bad first.
Find the gold.
Polish that, drop the rest.
Repeat.

That’s a solid perspective! So it’s less about waiting for a masterpiece to emerge and more about training the eye to spot the gold hidden in the rubble. I guess that means every ‘bad’ draft is just a training ground for sharper instincts. Time to embrace the chaos and start mining!

 

[Clo]

I would change that to

1. Write. Good or bad, just write.
2. Find the gold.
3. Polish that, fix what you can of the rest and drop what you can't.
4. Review again.
5. Repeat.

I agree with the above revisions.

 

[Hsinat]

Better write garbage than use AI proficiency.

 

[dukerino]

Read your dialogue aloud to yourself to make sure it doesn't sound clunky (sotto voce if it's horny obviously)

 

[Hsinat]

ONE MORE IMPORTANT TIP :

Be humble about your work when asking for feedback.

 

[RiceballWasTaken]

What are some tips you can give to new authors here in this platform, be it in writing or financial?

stay consistnet and trian your body and lotion your hands. Don't rub your wrist directly on your keyboard because if you do so, you screw over your oxygen flow and it is going to hurt.

 

[DireBadger]

Re-read your own work if you have spent some downtime (days, weeks) between chapters to re-charge your creativity, so you can still see where your story is going.

If you can't re-read and enjoy your own work, it might be time to change work. Come back when you can enjoy it again.

 

[beast_regards]

If you are looking for feedback...

Try to find a proof-reader. A volunteer proof-reader, a person who does that in his spare time just as you do writing in yours, hopefully fixing a grammatical and stylistic errors in process.

They are obviously hard to find, since... well, it requires them to do something in their free time, for free, and not everyone would be up to a such commitment, even if temporary one.

Usually the people which are at least little invested in your story, which in turn requires you to have a story in first place.

While this is difficult, it brings considerably better result than asking "criticize my story".

 

[DireBadger]

While this is difficult, it brings considerably better result than asking "criticize my story".

Very true. Most people you will ask to criticize your story, in my experience, are much more interested in criticizing the writer, the politics, whatever axe they have to grind, your posting schedule, and whatever points they can score trying to make you look foolish and themselves look like some brilliant master debater.
One of the hazards of offering that kind of power to random people on the internet is that the ones willing to open their mouths are often the ones that have the least useful insight to offer.
The biggest tip I can give a new writer: Put your stuff on Patreon. People who are actually paying to read your work in advance have a vested interest in getting the best story that they can get out of you. They are usually worth at least listening to (even if their advice is not great, they definitely care) and are less inclined to try and score points in forum wars.

Note that the commercial book market and the free webnovel market are almost entirely unrelated. People who are willing to put their money where their mouth is are NOT the same teenaged basement dwellers that consider anime-inspired trope-riddled shlock 'fine art'. Decide who you are writing for and then READ what that demographic prefers, and WRITE for that demographic.

Or just write for yourself, bearing in mind that your mind only really matters to you. Pure hobbyists don't need any improvement since they are (hopefully) already writing what they enjoy.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

You are perfection incarnate. Just do it!

 

[unlaumy]

Keep writing.

Don't forget literary devices, keep it to the basic, AND learn analytical skill.

Don't see rules/advices you see out there as do or don't or follow or break. Some authors will tell you to not use adverbs, while others tell you to use them extensively, don't listen to them both (or me too if you feel like it, I don't mind). Consider adverbs as important and ANALYZE how every classic and SH authors use them. Stop seeing writing advices as "stupid cause that doesn't work for me" and "genius cause that works for me", and maybe you'll actually improve.

Don't stop writing.

Always ask for critiques. Learn to be thick-skinned. Criticism doesn't just mean a way to find negative aspects of your writings, but it's a good exercise for you to learn to articulate why you even write this and that in the first place. Know that the other person can't read your mind, so stop being defensive, and learn to UNDERSTAND YOUR OWN perspective instead of tragically transforming it into excuses.

Write every day even if it's just one letter on the paper.

 

[TheAmaraine]

Finish what you write, even if it means writing badly and continuing a half-done story you're not happy with. There are things you learn by finishing a story/novella/novel that you can't learn by starting several, or by rewriting before you're done, or by writing a web serial that has no intention of ending.

Then, when you *do* write a brilliant first-half of whatever-length-you-write-at, you won't be facing writing an ending for the first time, and you'll write an ending worthy of the first part.

 

[ShrimpShady]

If you hate what you're writing or are stuck with it, leave the thing alone for a couple of weeks, maybe even a month. When you come back to it, watch as epiphanies strike you from every angle and you suddenly understand exactly how you want your story to be.

But this really only works well if you're also an avid consumer and student of stories, only if you've developed a bit of a critical eye. If you've got no taste, then you'll just come back to your writing, flop around for a bit, and leave it again in frustration.

And on that note, be eclectic. Just like how only listening to radio pop makes you a vapid, unensouled individual, only reading one type of story or only appreciating a couple of artistic mediums will make you a shallow artist. Having a broad range of influences helps to mold your unique style, and being autistically obsessed with your influences will help you wield your style with confidence. Time to put down that isekai monster slave NTR system webnovel and pick up a shoujo reverse harem manga for a change.

 

[lambenttyto]

Literally just write. Even if it's terrible. Books aren't written, they're rewritten. You find it in the process of making, then you chisel off the wrong edges, like any good sculptor.

Or skip this and keep writing while trying not to make the same mistakes over and over until you get to a place where you don't need to rewrite at all. ?