Could use some helpful tips and advice on writing

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I've recently started the first steps in writing my first book, and it will be a partly autobiographic novel on autism and my views on future research to cause further understanding of autism. The way I am writing is sort of a translation of my mind, and how I deal with every single aspect of my life, from the point of view of someone with autism who was raised by a mother with high functioning autism (I love my mother to bits btw and I hope that causes some more respect towards aspie parents ).

I wonder if those among you who have any experience in this or writing in general, could perhaps provide me with some advice on the steps you took to make sure you kept yourself going.

I hope to be finished in about a year from now but of course no one ever knows what life will bring in the meantime

thanks in advance !

Last edited by Jonov on 02 Aug 2013, 7:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

schedule an hour or two per day for writing and plant yourself in front of your word processor during all scheduled time.

Before you write a section come up with the general outline of what you want to write in that section, keep a list of the things you want written, and as you write cross out what you have written and let the flow of sentences move you forward but try to direct the sentences to the other things you want to write.

Thanks for the advice.

I wrote a novel from last year into this year. For a while, I used a 1000 words/day goal. That seemed to motivate me. I slowed down when my legs were struck with gout or when I had to stop to do some research.

Now that I think about it, the highlight of writing the book was typing The END. That was definitely something to celebrate.

Thanks, that is actually quite a good idea to have at least a certain goal I can set my mind to, today I wrote about 1500 words so 1k-1.5k/day seems like a nice steady pace.

My biggest worry is the winter months, as I am prone to winter depressions, so I want to use the summer/fall as much as I can to make sure I can make up in advance for inevitable downtime later this year

-edit- Congrats on the book you published btw that must feel very rewarding.

Last edited by Jonov on 02 Aug 2013, 8:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thank you, I have done that a little already by using the way that my mind works, and that is in asking questions, so I've basically formulated questions for myself about the topics that want to write about, and I then slowly answer them while writing.

I've been working on my first novel for half my life....still barely into chapter 2. Between the AS, writer's block and a lack of inspiration my Knights Of Power have been mostly powerless. though I have over 100 stories plotted out and I can visualize the stories like movies I just can't seem to get the words onto paper ( and just to be clear, I tried typing and handwriting. I just get a better feel & get more done by hand than on a computer )

I'm not a great writer but I think this holds true for any artistic endeavor:

"The product of art must be entirely devoid of artifice or ulterior motive of any kind." - DT Suzuki

Thanks again for all the help so far.
The content for my book is growing steadily and my whiteboard is filled with web diagrams now for several of my subjects, not yet getting a thousand words / day, but Ill get there, at least I figured out how Ill build up my chapters today.

I'm like this also. I have at last count 59 stories with at least a premise and idea/info down about them, up to some with at least a full outline and a few chapters written out.


Overall, I find that I need to take my writing in steps. I usually start out with an idea. Then I outline. Then I divide up the outline into chunks, like sections or whatever a good word is. Then I work through each section by dividing it up into however I want it to be organized, whether it's chapters like for a book, or enough word count for a post. Then with each small part, I flesh it out, adding more detail, dialogue, character interaction, and revise until I'm done.

The problem I run into is being methodical like this, I can get burned out fairly easy. Writing was never easy for me to begin with and I'm weakest in description which jus magnifies the burnout when I struggle with it.