About Writing

So, I think I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I was employed as an editor, right? Well, my job profile includes a lot of writing. While I personally prefer to read more than write, I still enjoy what I've been writing. I realised one thing, though-- writing is hard.

A lot of people say that, yes. They talk about not being able to articulate themselves, or rambling off onto some other topics and so on and so forth, but the problems I faced were distinctly different. The thing is, I'm supposed to write long works. Like, really long. As in, I don't need to do a NaNoWriMo ever again long.

While it's easier for me to develop a plot and build a story around it, what I had real problems with was consistency of character development. This really becomes a problem in works which have to be in a series. I have to make the same characters, lead them into a different situation, and make sure that they do not appear to be completely different people from the earlier book in the series. 

And then there's the whole thing about letting characters go too. While writing characters, I get deeply attached to them. And then comes the time to kill them. I feel like crying every freaking time I have to do so. I don't know how Rowling did it. Fred, Severus, Dumbledore and all those characters were so close to her. They were like her horcruxes, little parts of her own soul and she had to kill them. It's really distressing and not good for mental health.

Anyway, I will end this post with a writing tip: It doesn't matter what you're going to write about, ALWAYS DO YOUR RESEARCH. If you're writing about a social cause, make sure you know a lot about it (if not everything), if one of your character has Asperger's or ADHD, make sure to research about them and then start forming the character. Research does not always mean Google. It's better if you know someone who's familiar with what you're writing about (a person with Asperger's if you're writing a character who has Asperger's). But if you do not, Google's fine too. Just make sure that you do your research carefully. Plot loopholes because of lack of research are a bitch. Seriously.  

Yours, 

~Orange