this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2026
52 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

40928 readers
1931 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !uspolitics@lemmy.world


7) No Hit-and-Run questions.
Please don't delete your post for no apparent reason. If you plan on deleting a question later, say so in the post, or if you feel that you have a good reason to remove it, message a mod beforehand. It's not fair to the ones who took their time to answer, and it's not in the spirit of the community.


8) No Bots.
Posts or comments from bots, LLM's, AIs, Neural Networks, Transformers, or Marvin the Paranoid Android are not welcome in AskLemmy. Real humans only please.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] maltasoron@sopuli.xyz 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

That is basically how I wrote my bachelor's thesis right before the deadline: just sit down and write write write, then start the next day by editing the text from the previous day and again write write write. You do need to have an inkling of what you want to say, but otherwise it's a great way to keep going.

Edit: also, there are plenty of famous fiction writers who don't draft a book, but just start with an idea and see where it takes them. Obviously, this doesn't work for everyone or every book, but it's a valid way of working.

[–] Bougie_Birdie@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oh yeah, I should have been more clear: editing as you go is a totally valid way to do it. It's generally how I prefer to write (why write it twice if I can write it once?), but some people can really struggle with it.

Whether it's in the moment or retrospectively, any professional work probably should be edited. I have found that editing in the moment or even yesterday's work causes me to miss things. There's certainly something to be had by letting things percolate and then reviewing with fresh eyes.

Starting was always the hardest part for me. Editing yesterday's work was a good way to get over writer's block. Another trick I liked was when I finished for a session it was sometimes helpful to end in the middle of a sentence. Starting from nothing is hard, but even just finishing an incomplete thought can get the ball rolling.

[–] maltasoron@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 days ago

Good points!

Also, don't worry too much about the writing itself, about whether it's good in a technical sense. There are plenty of successful authors who aren't great writers, but they are great storytellers, and that's the most important part.