My writing sucks these days. Readers are still in for the ride and I feel like I'm letting them down because of the garbage I've been putting out. 🤡🤡🤡 What do you do when you're strapped for inspiration and your only desire is to back track and redo the plot? ( Not that I'm planning to carry out that line of thought)

    Take a break and return to the story with fresh eyes. If you can't do that because of contract commitments, read the story like a reader from the beginning. The purpose is to re-fresh yourself with the context and also relive the joys you had when posting the chapters. I do this whenever I'm returning to a story from a long hiatus.

    Importantly, have confidence in your abilities. The challenge for every great writer is to squash their self-doubt and believe their story is worth being read.

      melonbread Go get a bread stick from your local bakery. Then, tie a towel around your neck like a cape and stand in front of the bathroom mirror. Raise your breadstick sword and fight for justice! Now go and write about your escapades as a pirate in a modern day world with a boat that floats through the sky and a crew where each screws up bigger than the last!!

        Wolfick Instructions unclear!!!! Breadstick stuck between my buttcheeks!! My adventure begins here - The daily life of Pirate bread in the hole JaneSilver! Thanks man.

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          I usually change the plot. I think in the most convoluted plot twist I can (e.g. 'what if they are all aliens?') And start by the point of the plot revelation. And backtrack of how it could happen, what the motivations, why people would hide it, etc. Sometimes it changes a character (someone nice turns bad, etc).
          The idea is to use what I already wrote and published as 'clues' for my NEW and just invented plot twist that was never there in the first place. I probably will spend more chapters carefully rearranging the plot as discreetly as possible. Piping the cake.
          Then I reinforce the points I want, but changing the light over it, making them return to the reader's view once again so the reader recollects having read it once and nods 'UHUM, it really happened. I noticed it was fishy when I read it! OF COURSE!'
          I call it 'Icing the cake' because it's like using the icing of a cake to amend its deformed shape.
          It never failed me to this day. I gained lots of experience doing it as storyteller in RPG sessions.
          Then TADA, the plot twist is revealed! Reader claps in awe!
          No, it wasn't there before but I used what I wrote and it minimized the bumps in the transition. The cake has a new icing!

            SrtaA I simply spent 10 hours straight today researching and writing a massive material data sheet for all the current items in my novel. A process which was only supposed to take 2 or 3 at the most...

            And now, I have a lot of source material which can be used as inspiration for more later on.

            melonbread Also, something you can do which I used to and should really do some more.

            Get a notebook and jot down ideas. A scene, a character type, a plot event, heck, even just a thought.

            One idea per line, and before you know it, you have lots of material you can look back on. I personally preferred magazines with lots of pictures to serve as inspiration.

            Also, the worst thing is the 'impostor's syndrome'.

            It's useful to have a beta reader to read your chapter aloud for you. It works for me. Every time I feel I just wrote a pile of crap (most of time when I'm stuck in a difficult part _ one that is necessary but is not flowing so well), I ask someone to read it aloud.

            If it's really bad, you will notice as soon as the person read it. But you most often discover it's good, it still makes sense... You are just being too hard to yourself.

              SrtaA I do need a beta reader. Haven't tried the reading out aloud part but I might just. I hope you're right and that I'm being too hard on myself. Somehow, despite knowing that everyone has different taste in fiction, I die inside a little when I lose a collection. And the self doubt begins there. Has my story gone down the drain? Is that why she stopped reading? Am I actually garbage and the are the other readers just humoring me because I engage with them?
              I think we're all our worst enemies.

                melonbread Well, perhaps I'm just lucky with my beta reader. She writes BL here and is a professional storyteller in libraries etc. So she has a soothing voice and lots of dramatic reading.
                I guess she makes the text shine, but it also shows when it's dull or confusing or truncated.
                When I tried to record my reading session it was so cringy because I have this nasal and monochordic voice that ...Aghh!!!
                What I mean is: it's good when someone else is reading. The better reader you can find.
                Anyway, I suffer a lot with impostor's syndrome. But I also heard that writers often do. So don't worry too much and keep writing. There are a some readers looking forward for your chapters, right? They are giving you their time, so your reading is worth.
                Trust yourself. 🎈

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                  melonbread I don't think you're letting them down! You're probably a very good author and the best thing to do to figure out a plot is to read read read! I get most of my plots between books I've read before and older folktales, fairytales, and my house is just a giant loophole for jokes so we've come up with plenty of random phrases that sound "cool" on paper...make up your own! I'm trying to inspire you to think. The best you can think is when you're bored. Bore your mind until you see unicorns hopping around in front of them! Good luck on your book! :D

                  a month later
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