so, alas, you (my beautiful reader) have gotten a good idea™ and u wanna write a thing

so naturally the first thing u do is to wRITE THE FIRST CHAPTER RIGHT NOW RIGHT???

FALSO

thats 20000% percent the best way to totally murder an idea

trust me, ive done it hundreds of times. //shudders so many scrapped one shots with only 1 paragraph,,,,

you cant just get an idea and write it twenty minutes later. there must be more thought put into it

once you get an idea, immediately start jotting them down. make notes.

i cannot stress how important it is to plan. some people can just like,,write but its hard. not having plans and not knowing what to do next is a good way to get writers block.

when i get an idea, i sit on it. for months. i brainstormed nfh for weeks on end before i even wrote a word. time and commitment are necessary if you seriously wanna be an author.

remember on spongebob, when they were trying to make marble sculptures and spongebob did that whole crazy ritual thing and then he just tapped the rock and it become a work of art? that's kinda like it

imagine your idea as a pretty skirt strolling down the street. you, an aspiring author, are like "mmmmnn thats a pretty lady"

so you just drop down on one knee and marry that sucker. just like that

you get home with that wife and then youre like "oh crap,,,,she believes the moon landings were faked and she hates the terminator" and its super awkward and you have no idea what to talk about. the relationship sizzles and dies.

realistically, you wont marry a woman you just met. same with ideas. you gotta,,,date the idea. get to know it. work out the ins and outs of the thing. for example, you educate that fine lady and and show her the terminator is true art.

but, seriously, you gotta plan. before you write, the general rule for me is you gotta know your beginning, and your end. when you go on a roadtrip, you dont just jump in the car with no idea where your destination will be.

so, yeah, you gotta just take a while to brainstorm and think of everything you can do with your book. knowing what youre gonna do next is good for doing foreshadowing!

preparation is key for me. how i plan is that i make make separate google doc (since that's what i write on) and make a big ole bulleted list of the points i wanna do. for example:

-mc walks through the door
-lady stands there, laying on the desk. she looks cool
-mc is surprised, asks what's she doing here
-lady smirks and stays quiet
-mc realizes something is amiss

i have done entire novels in this format. it works.

planning and thinking about your book eliminates the type of writers block that stems from not knowing what the heck youre gonna do next

SO DATE THE MARBLE