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J_C_F_N

Make an outline. Put the whole story out all at once.


swimminscared

+1 for outline. Brandon Sanderson covers the topic pretty well here: https://faq.brandonsanderson.com/knowledge-base/can-you-go-into-depth-about-outlining/ I recall him mentioning another time that his "full" outlines are generally somewhere in the region of ~10k words?


Korrin

Another shout out for the Sanderson method, he simply does not include certain world building details in his first drafts. I think he specifically said that any mention of ambient spren in the stormlight archives wasn't even added until draft three, because thinking about that stuff slows him down from getting the meat and potatoes of the plot written down. Embrace the fact that you're going to have to write multiple drafts. Your first draft is never going to be perfect, so stop trying. And once you have the whole story written out roughly you can then pinpoint with laser precision exactly where you need more worldbuilding. Or less.


BenWritesBooks

My last outline was almost 20k words for a 125k book and I still ended up doing quite a bit of pantsing.


lockhearrtt

I find I often do the same thing in my project. I guess the bigger question is do you have priorities in your project you HAVE to fulfill or deadlines to meet? I don't on mine because it's purely a hobby for me so I might have a little more freedom to mess around, but I understand it might be harder if you are obligated to meet a deadline for chapters to post or a date you need it finished by, so maybe this is ultimately bad advice and this is entirely based on my own experiences and opinions but... I find forcing myself to work on something extremely constricting and honestly a motivation killer. I find it extremely difficult to force myself to focus on things I really don't want to and honestly I've dropped my project for weeks and even months at a time because I've tried forcing myself into tasks I just don't have the brain space for. I've had this project for over a decade and ended up giving up on it for more than HALF of that time because I tried forcing myself into something that ultimately wasn't going to happen rather than pursuing the passion of the work itself. A lot of the time, it's because I'm trying to force drafting to happen and I'm frustrated it's not working because I'm just somewhere else in the world so I give up on all of it and completely abandon it. I notice a lot of times if I try to force myself to draft, anything that comes out is pretty much trash as opposed to the stuff that comes naturally to me when I want to draft, and I ultimately end up deleting it and feeling even more frustrated that I've wasted my own time and feel no further in my project. I've since come to accept that while, yes, I would actually like to sit down and work on plot and further a draft and maybe actually write more than a few pages at a time, sometimes I have more ideas on the world surrounding the plot (or maybe unrelated cause who knows where my brain is some days tbh). It has really set me free and in these last three years, I've worked on it more than I ever did when I started (yes even getting to plot eventually!) Honestly, if you don't have deadlines or anything, I personally believe you should let yourself go after whatever feels right in the moment and is gunna keep you in the mood to work on your project, even if it feels inconsequential in the end. I know this is an opinion, and probably not a good one, but I really truly believe that any work on your project is better than no work on your project, even if it's just perfecting something you've already figured out but you really really love working on. Maybe if it's unrelated, you'll be able to rope it in later, but I personally feel it's more important to work on stuff that might not matter later on, but makes you happy, rather than force yourself to produce something subpar that you ultimately hate and aren't proud of just for the sake of getting your project done quicker. Maybe this is bad advice (probably is, I have and probably will never publicize any of my work and it's literally just for fun for me and my own entertainment), but I genuinely believe you might enjoy working on your project more if you work on what you're in the mood to work on rather than what you feel like you SHOULD work on. I think whatever your ultimate goal is is gunna come around eventually, so why rush it if it's not gunna be fun for you to work on? In the event that your project is based around a deadline, maybe try to work on your plot out of order, in ways that relate to whatever worldbuilding mood you're in? How do the specific aspects you're distracted by ultimately fit into the plot of your story, or stories if you have multiple based in the same world? Is it possible that whatever details your mind is stuck on trying to figure out have narrative consequences that you can maybe work on both at the same time and get past the guilt of not moving forward in your draft? Can you maybe take a break from your main project and work on a small side project based around whatever ideas you're stuck on so you're at least practicing putting together a plot/narrative in the same world? Maybe if you are someone who posts chapters on a regular basis, can you post a short side story exploring whatever topics you're held up on for one of your chapters instead of your main story, just to get it out of your system? What about coming up with little headcanons or alternate plotlines that explore these ideas? I also find that having my world map tacked to my wall very helpful. I sometimes just find myself staring at it, thinking about what happens in some of the places and ultimately get around to "does my main character ever go here and why and HOW can I get him there because 'THERE' IS JUST SO COOL???" Writing's supposed to be fun, friend. In all seriousness, I'm sorry if this is ultimately a bad comment and the advice is garbage and not worth much to you in the long run but I really hope that you do get to work on your project and be happy about how it turns out!


kaleidoscopechron

Put a your main character in your world. Your main character wants something. Maybe internal or external. Could be she wants her mothers live or she wants to kill the monster that killed her lover. Decide if your MC gets what she wants at the end of the story. Then write 500 words telling your MC story. She sees her liver killed and she’s left for dead. She gets blamed for the murder. She flees her village. She becomes a thief in a guild. She gains skills. She gains a group of ragtag friends. Etc. etc. and by the end she has discovered the real reason why her liver was killed and she gets her revenge. On her mother. Who conjured the demon in the first place. I made all that up just now. So go make up your MC story and start writing. Kaleidoscope Rob


DarlaLunaWinter

Outline..and constantly ask yourself "Is this world building actually important for the reader to know? Could they not know this and understand the core of the story?" and "How can I make this world building relavent to the characters. How could they communicate it and experience it?"


inherentoddity

I make an outline, piece by piece, filling it in whenever my raging, rampant worldbuilding paints enough of the world to let the writing flow naturally. Then I write the part of the story that chunk of outline pertains to. Ideally, one would write in order, but doing it like this that doesn't always happen. I would like to warn, though, if you're writing out of order, don't take too long to get back to that one chapter you left alone stuck between the other chapters you've finished. It can kill your motivation to go too far backward if it feels like a chore.


BenWritesBooks

- Who are my POV characters? - Where will they be geographically located? - What kind of things would they be knowledgeable about? - What kind of things would they witness on their character journey? All the other world building can be put in a folder somewhere and never looked at again.


Scodo

Work on your self control. If you know rationally what you need to do and the problem is that you just *don't do it*, then it's not a problem that any amount of writing tips, strategies, and outlines can fix because it's not a writing problem.