As I am a new writer, well the account is new...I am not, I'm not sure that anyone will read this. However, as some circumstances have come up to make it obvious that it's time to write, I shall account of my steps to getting ready to write and what happens when I write.

          First of all you must know that these steps are not a day to day kind of thing where I'll say 'Oh I get up and I drink coffee and I brood a little about life' but these are the steps I take to get myself and the things around me in the zone for writing. So with that said, let's get started. (This blue color will represent my personal thoughts of the topic. It'll also be enclosed in parentheses.)

1. Get it out of your head that you need to know what you're writing about.

.....Right now that is. At first it will be uncertain what you will write about and that's okay. If you have one idea go with it, you never know what you'll end up with and if it's trash, scrap it if you want and start again...start something else. Just don't stop. When I get ready to write, I often start out with one idea and it's usually very vague and I don't usually research first so it'll end up being trash...but I don't scrap my writing. I just simply save it and leave it for another day when a burst of inspiration comes. Also, I feel like if you know too much too soon, you will become a god like writer, telling too much instead of showing and growing your story. What I want you to get out of this step is...JUST WRITE. Okay?

2. If you do know what you're going to write about, research it.

....I don't mean do a research paper over it. When you see the word 'research' does it take you back to your senior year where you had to do a research paper for your Brit Lit class? Does that agonizing feeling of being forced to do a 25 page long (I think I'm over exaggerating here...I can't really remember even though I just graduated) paper with sources, a biblography, and a detalied thesis come back to you like a plague? Is it just me? I hated research in school and I still hate it now. However, unlike in school you don't have to have concrete educational research, your research can be fun! Watch how fun it can be. Okay so you want to write about school life and queenkas, kingkas, geeks, the theatre freaks (a group I was proud to be apart of), and all the cliques that live in the high school world? If you're in high school now, your research lies at your finger tips. Observe people, you will find that -while creepy to others- people watching can be insightful and telling. You will find that all cliques have problems. The Beautiful people are just as insecure as the people that they think are below them. If you're not in high school, pop in some high school movies. Although they often dramatize high school, there is some truth there. Mean Girls, Heathers, Jawbreaker are some of my favorites but you can even get some insight out of High School Musical (take out the music, the colors, the overly attractive cast, Kenny Ortega, and Disney and you'll have a normal high school dealing with that whole 'she's not good enough for him' type of crisis that happens quietly in high schools). If you're older and you don't want to  you can't remember your High School memories and don't want to put yourself through those young people movies, don't fret. Read up on today's teenage problems. You can go to your local newspaper and find something about a high school student gone wrong or a high school gone wrong, I promise. (That's not that fun for us of the younger crowd but maybe for the more distinguished crowd it would be.) All I'm saying is that research doesn't have to be stiff and boring. And don't listen to your English teacher, wikipedia can be used (just not in school...listen to them there).

3. Get rid of the distractions.

....Right now as we speak, I'm doing the unspeakable. I'm uninstalling all of my The Sims 3 games (stop crying...I know...I know). I know that The Sims 3 is a big distraction to me and my writing so I have to 86 that er and the only way I'm going to stop playing them is to uninstall them. You have to know what your distractions are and get rid of them. If the TV being on is going to bother you, turn it off or turn it to a channel that you don't watch. If Big Bang blaring in the background is going to make you want to Boom Shaka Laka all over your living room, turn it off...for a while. I'll never deprive someone of Big Bang, it should be illegal. If you know those cookies in the kitchen are going to have you getting up and down from your writing, send them to me. I have mastered the eating and drinking during writing thing...without spilling anything on my laptop thank you. If you know something is going to make you stop writing then you're going to have to get rid of it. I'm sorry but it's true. Often the internet can be a distraction to, however Internet is very important to the writing process I think so I wouldn't reccomend turning that off. Just close down your browser, unless you're writing directly on Asianfanfics...which isn't good but we'll get there later, and just write.

4. Get Comfortable.

       Now that you have a vague or thourghly researched idea, find somewhere comfortable to write cause you might be there for a while. For me it's somewhere with a window cause natural light is best for the eyes. I usually need a cup of coffee or a water and I have to have something playing in the background, whether it's the tv or some music. I usually drown it out but I hate just sitting in complete silence. Get whatever you need to be comfortable and if you can't get comfortable don't write. That'll probably be one of the five times I say that. I find that if I'm not comfortable I'll end up forcing myself to write and when you force writing it become stiff and stiff writing is not what we want. Kay? Being relaxed is the key to flowing writing, not an extensive knowledge of writing tips (although that wouldn't hurt either) or a expansive vocabulary (again it wouldn't hurt...but it can if you use it frequently).

5. You don't scare me Microsoft Word, with your blank pages, your various fonts to choose from.

      Now it's time to start to write, and you open up Word (or Open Office, Zen Writer, whatever they use on Mac, or one of the various document programs) just to see a blank page waiting to be written on. For some of us it comes instantly just to write a first line, for the rest of us (including me) the first line is daunting and can make or break your story. It's hard to know how to start your story, and you don't want to fudge anything up by saying something as stupid as 'I love Choi Seunghyun' (although this can work...you just have to know how to couple it). Microsoft Word doesn't help you any by being all silent and wating for that masterpiece of a first sentence. How about some encouragement Word? We're dying here. Anyway, don't fret about your cold feet. It's very common and can be avoided. How? You know how. Just write. Now a days, your first sentence isn't judged as harshly as it used to be. Now while this doesn't give you the right to just put anything down, it does give you some lean way. However, that first paragraph can say everything about you, your writing style, and what your story is going to be about. Now while I can't really give you any tips on how to start a banging story, I can say that all writers had re-drafts of their stories. No one story was just a once written masterpiece (I don't think...my reading history doesn't go to far past the things that I was forced to read in school...and things that I read on my own were very modern and recently written things. No, I didn't read twlight...okay yes I did but I didn't go past twlight. I'm serious.). Your story will not be fantastic on the first try and if it is...send it to me and I'll stop writing forever and become your fan Stan for the rest of my life. Also, don't procrastinate on Microsoft. Pick a font, get to writing. Don't go through every font trying to figure out which one conveys the angst G-Dragon feels about his ever changing hair color, or maybe that's me angsting. Fonts can be a distraction too, I usually use Cushing or Helvetica but those are bought font familys. I would suggest using something like Georgia or even Times New Roman...if you don't get those agonizing feelings about your research papers from it.

 

6. I'm writing it's going nowhere, what now Ms. Keep Writing.

I'm not going to say it again. You know what I'm gonna say. If after 5 minutes I still haven't got anywhere, I stop writing because at that point it starts to become forced. Take a break, bring those distractions back in. Sometimes you have to get away from your writing a bit. If I'm writing about a gangster big bang, I might watch something light and fluffy...My Little Pony (look...it's a good show) just to take the edge out of my mind, 30 minutes to an hour later I'm back ready to shoot all the colorful ponies on the block. Okay...that came out wrong but you know what I mean. You don't have to just sit there and wallow in your writing misery. If you feel you're at a standstill then stop. I'm not that person that says that writer block always comes from unpreparedness (but sometimes it does). Writer Block can just come from you looking at your writing to long, it can come from being juiced out (that's me...all the way), and then it can come from you straying away from your plot. Look over your research. Research more. Just don't start writing again until you feel comfortable again to start it up again.

7. I think I'm done with the story now. What next?

     Proofread baby. Then proofread it again. Proofread it somemore. Go to sleep, proofread it again. Send it to a friend, have them proofread it. Send it to a beta reader, let them proofread it. And then when it's perfect, scrap it and start over again. (Okay, don't scrap it. Just open it up again...and start draft two). I can't say that I always do this much proofreading but it's very essential to having a great grammatically correct, basically cliche free, mary sue free, 'I hate my life for wasting my time on this paper thin story' free, story. Have three friends, one that'll read your story and only tell you the good things about it, another that does the opposite...with no remorse, and one that'll read it and tell you how to improve it. The first friend will give you an ego boost, the second friend will bring you back down to earth and then crash your writing soul to writer's hell, and the third friend will bring you back up to where you should be and humble you and your writing. (Also if your story contains , have that ert friend that's really good at writing the ...so they can tell you what your is really supposed to be like). Bunny cakes (also the title of the book that inspired the show Max and Ruby..and also my favorite children story) , you're never done with your story. Never. Never ever. I have a story on word from 4 years ago that I'm still editing and Word has changed dramatically while I've had it (started writing it in Word '03 had a pretty old computer changed computers had '07, two computers and my laptop have all had '10 already installed on it when purchased). However, I just keep the story along and hope that one day Jonas Brother fanfics spike back up and someone will read it cause it's epic (just kidding. it's still horrible and paper thin. I keep it just to laugh and write when I don't feel like being serious). The Great Gatsby (what a beautiful story...love it...I could marry this novel) writer. F. Scott Fitzgerald was never quite satisified with the content of The Great Gatsby and died still not satisified with his book (although I thought it couldn't get any better...and if it could...man...there would have had to be a word that meant more than epic). As a writer, your work will be ever growing. You will post it to AFF (or somewhere else) and often after your first run through of it. However, as you grow as a writer you will see the potential it has to be greater and take it down. Just to put it back up as a new and improved version.

8. Okay I'm not taking it down, but people want more cause they loved it so much. So thank you for all your advice, I'm going to write the sequel.

....If you leave this blog and start writing the sequel to your stupid story that probably doesn't deserve a sequel anyway...

...Okay now that I have your attention, IGNORE THOSE PEOPLE THAT SAY 'I LOVE THIS STORY. DO A SEQUEL!' or 'I KNOW IT'S OVER BUT YOU SHOULD WRITE MORE ABOUT THIS!'. I mean it, I know they are your fans but they have no idea what you're talking about. Unless your story was written to be the first part in a saga, don't write a damn sequel. I think that when you write a story that is meant to be a stand alone that it should stand alone. Not have 4 sequels and one on the way. It's like all those damn Jason Vorhees and Freddy Kruger movies. You know exactly what's going to happen in it, and you get bored and turn the movie off. In your case, unless you're magically gifted with the art of continuity, your story doesn't need a sequel. Your story about how Yunho loves Jaejoong but can't be with him because of big bad SM that ends with Jaejoong and Yunho being together does not need another story about how they love each other so much but Yoochun comes between the two because he loves Yunho too. You want to know how that one is gonna end? Yunho and Jaejoong will be together with Yoochun very happy for them. Sequels are rarly better than the first, trust me. There are only a few that I can say work. (However, Im drawing blanks. Anyone want to help?) There are only a few genres that defy the no sequal rule. Thrillers, and that's only if the end of the first one was set up to be continued in another story. Horror, not slash though...something mental where you don't kill the killer...or you do kill the killer but there's another killer. Saw was pretty good at this, until the blood and gore count went through the roof (however saw is pretty paper thin after the first two...so maybe it's not a good example). Romance does not deserve sequels...often. If you clearly ended your story...it doesn't need a sequel. Harry Potter had to have sequels, Voldemort (who I love...maybe I'll explain my love for him...and alot of clearly bad villians in another blog) still wasn't dead, Harry still had 6 years of school left, Harry was still angsting about his parents, and I needed more Draco (cause I still had a crush on Draco on the books...and Tom Felton heightened my love for Draco Malfoy). The Clique (a series of books I enjoyed as a kid but now are almost cringly hard to read) did not.  Massie did not, okay she kind of did, change in the course of 12 books. What the hell do I need to read all of those for? After book 8 I stopped reading cause I knew what was going to happen. Sequels are the pitfalls of a writing journey and breeding grounds for the people of WTFAsianfanfics and AsianFanficFails to deem you horrible at writing (they are often right and funny). Just don't write sequels, and you still want to write one do it but don't get mad when people hate it and give you bad reviews.

9. I won't write a sequel, what about a tie in? A spin off?

      I've seen this done and it works. As long as it's two new characters, or characters that really don't get much spotlight time in the main story. One way it works was the writer, daerii, and her stories Me and My Honey...and what I think was called Keep Our Love. Me and My Honey was the main story about TOP and his OC girlfriend. I won't spoil anything. It's currently being re-done (what did I tell you about your story...you're never done with it) by the author and you can find the link at the end of the story. After the story was done, she started the next story which was about Jiyong and his love life, which gets halted by amnesia. How random...I know...accept it's not. In Me and My Honey, daerii touches on Jiyong's amnesia but doesn't develop it much. Then in KOL, she makes it a plot line. It was brilliantly subtly done and if you're going to do a spin off, this is the way you want to do it. KOL was a story that was a stand alone but it could be a companion to M&MH. When you're doing a spin off, you don't want to have to re-direct your spin off back to the main story. That's not what a spin off is about. You can make an allusion to the story every now and then but you want your new story to be able to be alone. You want a Lone Wolf story. Wolf Pack of one, that's all your story should need.

10. I don't even want to write a sequel. I just want to write another story...but I don't want it to be anything like the story I just wrote.

(Look but don't touch. Dean Winchester, not Jensen...Jensen is married unfortunatley, is mine.)

       Some people can finish one story and jump into another and have them both sound nothing like the other and be great. Now, look at the writers on AFF with long lists of stories, you know the ones I'm talking about. The popular ones that we won't mention cause they get butthurt when someone trashes their writing skills. Now, they can finish one story and get right to writing something else but read it closely. Doesn't it sound familiar? Oh yeah, it basically has the same main character from before except with shorter (or longer) hair, a few more pounds (or a few less pounds), and an affinity for another kpop idol from...you guessed it EXO (I love history...but can someone explain the appeal that they have. I mean...I can't even remember all of their names. It took me literally two years to remember everyone in Super Junior and I still choke when it comes to remembering Yesung). The plots are usually paper thin and you can guess what's going to happen next chapter, next paragraph, next sentence. Unless you've been researching another plot while writing your current one (which is incredibly hard because you can get confused), I would suggest taking a small break. Instead of writing, read. Take some time and just read other stories. Good and Bad. Good because of obvious reasons, and the bad so you can know what to do. When you've completley gotten your old story off the center of your brain start this process over, and see how much you've grown. Then write to me and tell me how much you love me. Cause I'm a writer and I love compliments.

(Give that writer a compliment. Writers love compliments.)

 

Things that you should take looks at. (Maybe some more than others.)

• IndieAFF (These are the people you want to be like. These are the stories you should read. Not everyone of the stories are instantly likeable but I think these writers are pretty good.)
• The Great Gatsby. (My love for this book and the character James Gatz knows no end. It connects with the part of you that is looking for a second chance at something. It's timeless. Read it.)
• Literary Words, or Devices (Use some of these sometimes. It'll help. Just don't try to use them at at once.)
• Bunny Cakes. (Just for the sake of beng my favorite children's read. You don't understand my infatuation with this picture book as a kid.)
• Me and My Honey.  (Great story. Read it. It's worth the wait.)
• Harry Potter (I won't link it. It's pretty known how great the stories and movies are.)

Disclaimer: I'm not the world's best writer. I actually have nothing to show for these tips on AFF right now. I'm probably pretty y. I do think I have a little knowledge to share though. You don't have to take my advice. Actually I'd advise you to take my advice with a grain of salt, cause I'm a little sarcastic and a little bit cynical. One thing though I won't do is purposely send you down the wrong path cause that's just not my MO. I would like to see everyone grow as a writer and be mainstream and indie successful. Love you guys.

...oh and I didn't run this through a spell checker. This is raw. Sorry for the horrible grammer and spelling.

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Send me PMs if you have questions...or just want to fangirl...or boy about me in private. (I won't tell.)

Or leave questions in the comments. I don't bite. Just nibble...and only occasionally. Now...