Community highlights Monthly "Would You Read This?" Thread votes • comments Monthly "Would You Read This?" Thread Monthly "Promote Yo' Self" Thread votes • comments Monthly "Promote Yo' Self" Thread I don't really worry about writing cliches too much, since a lot of them don't pertain to how I write... but I feel like how you start a story is pretty important. I tend to start writing at the point that the character is introduced to a major plot element (a setting, a person, whatever), and once I have a solid idea of which elements are important to the story, I may cut that opening and get right into the action. What I'm writing right now, however... the inciting incident occurs about halfway through an otherwise normal work day, in which the protagonist is training a new employee. To establish the characterization I want and lay down a couple plot threads before just throwing them into the fire, I don't see any way to avoid a "start your day" opening. How do you feel about stories that start this way? Faced with this, would you fight to try to avoid such a stock standard opening, or would you just ignore the fact that it's a cliche and admit that it might just be what's best for your story? * I refused to edit, revise, or even re-read until the first draft was done. No matter how badly I wanted to go back and read what I’d written so far, I denied myself that. I considered it a reward I could only earn by finishing the draft. At the start of each writing session, I’d glance back over whatever the previous paragraph was and go from there. To this day I think I’ve read the book like twice. * I read obsessively. I probably spent more time reading than writing. I would read for inspiration, for sentence structure, for how to construct scenes, to learn new ways to say things, and to ground myself in the rhythm of modern storytelling. I exclusively read new traditionally published books (last five years) and almost all of them were debuts. * I got in and out of scenes as fast as possible. There was not a ton of description, transit, or stage directions. I started every scene at the exact moment the scene became interesting, and I ended every scene at the exact moment it stopped being interesting. * Before I started writing, I wrote the pitch. I’d just had a book die in the query trenches after 101 pitches. I’d read maybe a thousand agent bios and Publisher’s Marketplace deal announcements. I wanted to use all that intel to handcraft a home run premise from the word go. I think getting an agent is like 50% having a great premise, 25% having a great pitch, and 25% being a great writer. * I exercised. I spent time with friends. I took my wife on dates. I did my chores. I took the dog on long walks down the canal trail. This allowed me to come to every daily writing session refreshed, relaxed, and most importantly, not feeling as if there was anything else I needed to spend my time on. These are things that helped me. They may help you as well.

[These are not commandments. You don’t have to do any of this if you don’t want to. Other things work for other people.] Ok, I can't be the only one who has this: You start writing your book or saga and you start out LOVING IT. You think about it every day, love writing it, adore the characters, all that. And then, suddenly, towards the Mid-Point or maybe exactly at that point you stop because you've hit a roadblock. I personally have encountered that problem 3 times now. Once with a planned Duology, that I can't seem to write the second book of, then with a Stand-Alone Novel and now with a Quadrology, with two books already written. For the Duology and Quadrology I might say it's because I planned to do a sort of timeskip/new location to not make it feel stale, but this can't be it since with my stand-alone Novel it's the same problem! (Though MAYBE it's because at the Mid-Point I have a fight scene I can't seem to wrap my head around, but then again I probably could but for some reason, I just can't seem to get back my passion for the project.) I've been in this slump now for half a year and I hate it as someone who wrote about 21.000 Words a MONTH for about two years because I do want to finish these stories and I have plans for everything but I just can't seem to get a hold of all of it and write it! What would you say, can one do to fix that issue or get back into the motivation for writing? Best of Reddit in Portuguese Best of Reddit in German Reddit, Inc. © 2026. All rights reserved. Join the most real place on the internet By continuing, you agree to our User Agreement and acknowledge that you understand the Privacy Policy .