What's The Hardest Thing About Writing?

Yui

Yui

Active Member
Whether it's for role-play or not, what do you seem to have the most trouble with? For me, it's naming. Yeah I have trouble with plot development and world-building quite a bit, but even after I manage to get through that, I find myself stuck yet again because I have no idea what to name the heroes, villians, places, everything. I feel like this bothers me a bit too much.
 
World building is probably the biggest issue I have when it comes to writing. I have a severe case of ADHD-have had it since I was a child-and it's very much detrimental to when I want to write something. If it's more than a couple of pages then it's simply not possible for me to do it. I have fellow colleagues who can write out essays and entire worlds filled with various flora and fauna that they came up with on the spot.

I can't really do that but I still try to have fun writing regardless. I'm just not likely to be hired for scriptwriting or plotting out a video game/book anytime soon.

As for your issue, I wish you the best of luck. When I usually come up with names I try to take them from people I know in real life or the last thing I played. What I also feel helps is naming your character after some kind of pun. Dragonball is very good at this with the saiyans being puns named after vegetables. I hope this helps in someway.
 
I agree with NujabesLives. I think that world building is rather hard, especially doing so in order to keep people entertained and invested enough to do so. For me once I set up a world, making a plot or story becomes easier.
 
ChelonianCommander said:
I agree with NujabesLives. I think that world building is rather hard, especially doing so in order to keep people entertained and invested enough to do so. For me once I set up a world, making a plot or story becomes easier.
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I'm currently running a Dragonball themed world and while it's a lot of fun to see people get invested in the world you've made/crafted as your own despite it being a canon setting, it's nice and makes you feel overjoyed.

But then you have the challenge of keeping up with that enthusiasm and keeping things fresh.

I wish you the best of luck @Yui Worldbuilding is no easy task but there's no reason that a budding RPer shouldn't be encouraged to continue to hone their craft and get better.
 
ChelonianCommander said:
I agree with NujabesLives. I think that world building is rather hard, especially doing so in order to keep people entertained and invested enough to do so. For me once I set up a world, making a plot or story becomes easier.
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I tend to try and create the plot, story and character development first. I feel that it's makes the world-building a tad easier especially if you're a fantasy lover like I am. For me, at the very least, it helps me figure out the overall theme I'm going for. For example, I'm currently working on a world that mixes Japanese mythology and yokai (mostly because it's always interested me.) and typical fantasy. I have some of the world completed, but for the most part I've just been making characters.
 
Yui said:
I tend to try and create the plot, story and character development first. I feel that it's makes the world-building a tad easier especially if you're a fantasy lover like I am. For me, at the very least, it helps me figure out the overall theme I'm going for. For example, I'm currently working on a world that mixes Japanese mythology and yokai (mostly because it's always interested me.) and typical fantasy. I have some of the world completed, but for the most part I've just been making characters.
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It's pretty cool that you've managed to mix your interests with that of already pre-established mythology. I can respect that a lot. More creativity than I've had in a while that's for sure lol

I'm a bit slacking on my Japanese myths however but are you gonna incorporate the Kappa at any point?
 
I'm not sure about the Kappa, as I actually don't know anything about that particular yokai. These are what I do have however so far: The Kitsune, The Tengu, and the Kejoro. Unfortunately, there's literally only one page of info for the Kejoro, so I might just make something else entirely and just base it off of what little information I know.
NujabesLives! said:
It's pretty cool that you've managed to mix your interests with that of already pre-established mythology. I can respect that a lot. More creativity than I've had in a while that's for sure lol
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I'd say the greatest challenge I personally face as a writer is deciding when to stop planning and start writing and when to stop editing and finalize the project. I have a habit of over planning or editing my work too harshly, but that's normal for most writers. Sometimes you just got to know when to let the bird fly.
 
When it comes to what I find to be the most hardest thing about writing.....it’s the fighting scenes. No matter what, I just can’t picture what a fight looks like and describe it perfectly in words. I don’t know if it’s just me but that’s what I find hard.
 
Hardest thing about writing. For me, it's world-building. While you're building your own world, you have to do so much stuff like Language, History, The Culture, Religions, Historical Figures, Landmarks, and many more. I haven't tried it personally but even if I haven't tried it yet. It still sounds daunting and hard.
 
Word building is probably up there but another thing for me is just letting characters have personalities without letting them suddenly merge together or having them end up like a boring sack of potatoes. It happens more often than you think. No one lacks sacks of potatoes.
 
For me, my favourite part about writing (if I'm writing by myself, not in roleplay) is the world-building and ideation and planning, but the hardest part is starting the story ^^" I never know where to start and I end up writing and rewriting the first page a million times before I can continue with the story. With roleplays, my problem is that I have too many ideas that I'd like to do and add to the story, but some of the ideas wouldn't fit together so having to drop some of them.
 
I think the most important thing to remember for those who have problems with world building is that you only have to build as much as what serves your story. There is no sense in detailing the intricacies of the foreign culture across the sea if it will never impact the story you're trying to tell. Even if one of your characters comes from that place but is adventuring away from home, you don't have to weave every web of the culture they're from, just the parts that correlate to them as a person.

For me, the hardest thing about writing is following my own damn advice.
 
Arcane said:
I think the most important thing to remember for those who have problems with world building is that you only have to build as much as what serves your story. There is no sense in detailing the intricacies of the foreign culture across the sea if it will never impact the story you're trying to tell. Even if one of your characters comes from that place but is adventuring away from home, you don't have to weave every web of the culture they're from, just the parts that correlate to them as a person.

For me, the hardest thing about writing is following my own damn advice.
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lol I can feel you here. I always world build down to the smallest details and i'm like 'why..' XD but I love world building SO MUCH
 
the drafting i'd say is the most tasking. since i like to reread my stuff multiple times be it short story or an attempt at a small book the drafting takes forever. i do not outline and use the first draft as a brain storm, then i put it on a different screen and rewrite the whole thing with clearer plot-points and as little plot holes as possible. plus tidier language. then comes the third reread by which i'm sick of the project where i simply sweep it for grammar mistakes, send it to a friend for another check, and finally i'm done with yet another document to carry dust.​
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for anyone having issues with their world building i highly suggest my first draft method. really write what you will since no one will see that and no first draft is perfect. once you get your head sorted and finish with that rewriting comes easy since by now you've decided exactly where you want to take your story.​
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as for names sometimes searching for culturally familiar names is good to establish some familiarity in a fantasy world. elvish names, although wonderful, are a pain to read because this is all too unfamiliar. adding a character with a normal name helps this a lot. a book series i adore throne of glass covered this flaw of being difficult to relate to if one reads into it too much by pushing character flaws and giving them normal people interests. hence proving names have no value and my point is here only to say; naming your character mark is fine, and so is naming them fenrys. let names roll off your tongue and don't be stressed.​
 
The hardest thing for me is getting past the writer's block and then trying to fill the blank lines of roleplay.
 
World-building’s definitely up there on the hard scale. I really enjoy doing it, but sometimes the creative gears just don’t wanna turn. Or I’ll get caught up thinking about all of it and never actually write it down.
I also can’t write basic character actions to save my life. I can write fight scenes and everything else til my fingers bleed, but ask me to have my character sit down and suddenly I’m illiterate.
 
For me, as my background is poetry, it was without a doubt learning prosody and applying it effectively in free-verse. You may not have a meter, but rhythm is still at the core of it! Not only learning how to apply that old, more formal rhythm, but line breaks and how those factor in, using rhythm to create breaks between sections and emphasis on certain things, and so on! It took me a couple years and a lot of reading to really pin down in any actual capacity.
 
My backgrounds are scripts and theatre plays. The most difficult for me is finding a balance between describing a character's emotions and show don't tell. Usually, while writing prose I'm telling, not showing. Writing for screen or stage is so different than writing for reading! I haven't expected that before I started writing in both ways. But that's also very fascinating. The different words I can let myself to use in prose but I would never use them for a dialogue.
Another difficulty is grammar. English grammar to be precise. It's probably a problem of every person writing in a language different than their mother tongue. Also, it's still a problem for me to write fluently in English. I still lack the words and sometimes I need to stop to think what word would fit well in the context. Usually, the initial idea is leaving me during that process so I need to come up with another sentence :')
 
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