I think the best advice is to experiment with different approaches and find what works best for you. I’ve been working on a novel for ~7-8 years in my spare time, and I’m probably only ~25-33% done, so maybe take my advice with a pinch of salt.

The problem when I was starting out was inertia – I had a clear idea of what I wanted to write, and made copious notes about the plot, characters, and other elements. Once I’d finished that part, I came to a realisation that it would just take too much of my time, and I already had other priorities with my work and personal life. My thinking was that I’d need to set myself a strict schedule, abandon other interests entirely, commit to writing x paragraphs per day, and set a deadline to finish it. Due to my other commitments at the time, that wasn’t viable for me, so I felt the project was already a failure.

It took a while to get over that, but once I’d started, I found myself continually re-wording sentences and paragraphs, focussing too much on grammar and vocabulary choices than actually progressing the story. So I sat back and realised that I needed to change my approach again. I know my writing style and quality probably isn’t going to be the greatest for a first draft of a first novel, so rather than attempting perfection sentence-by-sentence, I let the quality slide a bit and pressed on. Now, I just leave myself hints to go back and re-work the problematic sections later – for me, I compartmentalise by highlighting those sections in a gaudy yellow. Only when I’m happy with the changes will I take the highlighting off.

Regarding pacing, the thing that works best for me is to set aside a specific time of day for writing, maintain that, and try to remove any distractions for that period. It definitely helps keep momentum, and if it’s a day when I’m not up to writing anything ‘new’, I can go back to the highlighted sections and fix them, or add more planning notes about the following chapters. Progress is progress, regardless if the ‘word count’ isn’t going up, and consistency matters more than intensity.

I also experimented using text-to-speech, but found it wasn’t a good fit for me. My typing speed is good enough, and text-to-speech seems to work better when you don’t ‘um’, ‘err’, and correct yourself as much as I do. I suppose I could try it again at some point, but I’d need to learn how to use it properly with editing commands like ‘go back’ or ‘delete that’. If you’re the kind of person that can speak in entire paragraphs without verbally stumbling, its worth a try.

I know everyone’s got an opinion on AI and particularly Generative AI these days, so make whatever decisions you feel are appropriate for you. I’ve experimented with local LLMs, noticed there are models that are probably more ‘ethical’ than others, and that I’d prefer a local one over something remote/cloud/subscription based. I’d be reluctant to ask AIs to “write a story about…” though. If your intention is creative writing, and you might want it published some day, then you do need to put in the work. Readers want ideas and creative effort, not regurgitated ‘slop’ that can be generated in a few seconds, and publishers have tools to detect AI-generated content. I’d also be cautious about asking AI chatbots to critique your work – most tend to be far too ‘agreeable’ out-of-the-box. Aside from that, LLMs can be useful for the writing process – You could write a prompt to ask it to paraphrase sections of your own work, or to change the tone. Maybe it’ll give you crap, just a few useful sentences, or changes that you hadn’t even thought of – it’ll be up to you if you want to use some/all/none of it.

As I said earlier, what works for me might not work for you, and you’ll probably want to experiment with different approaches. Don’t be afraid to pivot to something else if it’s not working or not sustainable.

I’m a professional writer for video games - not exactly the same, but hopefully still relevant enough!

A couple of things that you might find helpful:

1: Loosen up with freewriting

There are guides online, but essentially it’s about setting a time limit (e.g. 10 mins) and then writing whatever comes to mind until the timer ends. You can use pen & paper or a computer.

The single most important thing is that you do not stop writing; even if it’s total gibberish or repeating the same word over and over. Do not stop. Do not go back and edit. Keep writing. Early on, you might fail at this and realise you’ve stopped writing or gotten distracted. Don’t beat yourself up if it happens, just acknowledge and then keep going.

Only after the timer ends can you then go back and review what you’ve vomited onto the page. Most of it will be crap, but there will be some flashes of light: a gem of an idea, or a nice line of dialogue. Highlight those things (I like to put an asterisk in the margin). If there’s nothing at all, don’t sweat it - that’s part of the process too.

Try to do this once a day like a routine; for me it works best as a way to warm up each morning. I sometimes prompt myself with a random word, or a writing problem I’m trying to solve that day, but it doesn’t matter if you ignore the prompt. The whole point is learning to let go and just put some words - any words - on the page.

It will feel ridiculous at first, but the more you do it, the better you get at turning that stream of consciousness into a fountain (or at least a trickle) of ideas, and it will help enormously with learning how to turn down the volume of that inner critic that tells you to constantly edit your work before it’s done.

2: Write flash fiction

If you struggle with plotting and getting things finished, don’t keep setting yourself up for failure by trying to write long stories. Lean into your strengths and write shorter ones instead.

I have a lot of fun with flash fiction, which typically runs to around 1,000 words; a story on a single page. There’s a bit of a learning curve in knowing how much you can fit into that form, but it’s a lot of fun and allows you to really laser-focus on a specific scene or conversation. It will allow you to build a vast body of work quickly, jump between ideas based on what interests you in the moment, and make you a better writer in the process.

Find prompts or a prompt generator, or join one of the many flash fiction communities online for extra support and encouragement. Read flash fiction and short stories in general to get a feel for what’s possible - I adore Hemingway and Raymond Carver.

Okay so first thing, I want you to understand that writing is hard. Finishing a writing is hard. A lot of things happen to make it so I don’t finish.

The most notable thing is that writing and whatever the subject of the writing is is often a hyper focus. So I’m obsessed with the idea for days maybe even just hours, possibly weeks. And then sometimes I never touch it again.

This is something I think medication would help with (at least for me). This is also very normal. Give yourself permission to do that. Sparks don’t last forever.

The second thing is, sometimes my ideas and my wiring are too grandiose and they kind of balloon to the point where there’s too much and I can’t seem to keep a handle on everything and I get overwhelmed.

In this instance I have found that changing the medium I’m writing the story in helps. Comics are a good example. I can’t draw very well but I can storyboard comic panels of my story. Helps me cut out the fat and the extra stuff I don’t need and make it a more clear picture in my head.

I have problems fleshing out characters, their motivations and their actions based on those motivations.

I’m not gonna lie. I got into D&D because someone offered and I was curious but the game helped me to sort through this kind of conundrum.

“What would you like to do?” Is a question I ask myself and my characters all the time and sometimes if I’m conflicted I can roll dice. This helps with decision paralysis and so on.

Shorten your stories. Challenge yourself to write a whole idea in on page. This is a writing prompt type thing I learned in college. It goes together with the other bit from college which was “ask yourself what’s taking your attention in the story”. This way you can focus on the parts your brain think need to be there. It helps me to hyper focus and get what I view as the important parts down on the page.

I’m one of those people who rereads and edits as I write but also one of those people who agree that you should have a first draft before you do major edits (spelling and punctuation and grammar are minor, changing the turn of phrase or moving bits of the story around are major).

Give yourself permission to hyper focus on other things and make a deal with yourself to come back to that thing in a specific span of time.

Have a time when you write. Like. This day from this time to this time. If nothing gets on the page in that time? Let yourself take the break. It doesn’t have to be the same day every week or even the same time. But give yourself office hours. Even if you don’t write a lick it’ll help. You can use that time to storyboard or outline or write ideas on slips of paper and put them in a fishbowl or something.

It’s okay to do a thing if you aren’t good at it right away. I am such a perfectionist that it’s hard for me to remember that. I definitely have the ADHD “if it’s worth doing it’s worth doing right the first time” mentality.

When I try to write something I do not edit anything. I just write. Editing is the issue for future me. Or someone elese. But it will be the last step. I have not decided yet. And I write short stories, such that I can finish one in an evening without pauses. All of them together form a bigger story. You do not have to write short stories but you can organize chapters to be short enough to be finished in an evening.

I have the same problem.

You’re not going to want to hear this. But local LLMs help.

Hear me out.

Before they turn into the sycophantic chatbots you know, LLMs come in an initial “pre trained” state. They can’t answer questions in multi turn format or anything, all they do continue blocks of raw text. That’s it. Pretrains are like text improv machines, basically.

So what you do is use it as glorified autocomplete, not for whole paragraphs but a few words or a sentence.

Like, let’s say you’re stuck on how to word something mid paragraph. Mash the continue button, and it will stream a plausible continuation of that paragraph, which several thousand words as co text, until you tell it to stop. It’s not always usable, but it usually knocks your brain loose, though sometimes it comes up with something you wouldn’t even think of.

What’s more, if you use Mikupad as a UI, hover your mouse over text and it will show you the logprobs of text; basically glorified synonyms for every word in a sentence, as part of its “internal thinking”

https://github.com/lmg-anon/mikupad

I know, I know. AI.

But you can, and should, use more modestly/ethically trained use totally local models, that need zero internet. These are, in fact, basically the only ones you can use: ChatGPT literally does not work for this, for many reasons, which mostly boil down to “Sam Altman is a tech bro asshole”

It is a tool. It’s a wonderful autocomplete for ADD, to knock your brain loose. It’s helped me write hundreds of thousands of words, with zero slop and nothing leaving my PC. And most what is awful about AI doesn’t apply here.

I realized that my stories focus on events. But if you look at published stories, they focus on people, and the events are only a backdrop. So I can’t see many people caring about my stories.

I struggle with editing too much while writing too. Sometimes its not thinking of the right word, searching for it, getting distracted, then spending 30 minutes on Wikipedia. Other times its going back and editing previous paragraphs to make everything flow better. The only way I’ve been able to get around this is by writing long hand. Writing with pen on paper has forced me to get things down. Once I’m done, I’ll type it and do my first round of revisions.

As for continuity, I’m an avid outliner. I keep a notebook, and if I come up with a plot line, I’ll outline it. Sometimes it distracts from what I’m currently doing, but I don’t think of it as a distraction since I’m still writing. I have multiple, fully-outlined stories that I can pull from if stuck or try to weave into whatever I’m currently working on. When I sit down to write, I know everything that will happen. Writing becomes more about figuring out who the characters are and how they will react to the situation they’re in since the plot is already known to me.

When you take a break and struggle coming back, don’t try to catch back up. You never will. Instead, just try to move forward, get traction. This is where long hand helps me. There is a disjointedness when I step away for a while and come back. But I allow it and smooth it out in revision.

I’m not saying it will solve all your problems. This is just what has helped me get over some of the difficult humps while writing while having ADHD.

Edit: Fixed typo

On a more serious note, find a writing buddy. Make it a regular thing where you meet up once a week or even just once a month. Preferably in person, but online works too. Better yet, join a writing group.
You can proof-read each other’s script, bounce ideas off each other. It also creates deadlines (the next meeting) to activate yourself.

Inability to settle on the right words: I’ll write something and think that what I wrote could be written better or differently and then I keep on writing and deleting and rephrasing with different words. Thus making very slow progress.

editing is not writing, don’t edit before you are done writing the first version of your story, and editing gets easier after the first enarmourment for a story has worn off anyway. sounds easier than it is, but the voice in your head telling you that you are writting badly is not your friend and not helping, even if it might be right sometimes.

Problems with continuity: I might think up a somewhat long plot line. But I have to write the whole thing in one go because if I don’t then my brain will splinter the story into multiple possible story branches when I stop and I am unable to choose the path to follow.

have a look at the “snowflake method” and learn about various story structures to help plan the beats of your story. if planning far ahead is not your jam jot down some notes for what happens next, or if you can’t decide turn the possibilities into yes/no-questions flip a coin and run with whatever fate decided. in general take notes, can’t trust that brain to produce the same output twice.

Lose interest in continuing if I take a break: If I stop writing mid way and take a break from writing for an extended period of time, I am unable to find the motivation to resume. Mostly because trying to catchup with the story up to that point feels hard. I have this same tendency with video games as well where I don’t feel like picking up a game after an extended period of absence.

thats normal, if a story can’t reignite the spark that lead to starting it in the first place, that story won’t be finished. keep it somewhere you see it from time to time, it might call you someday and if it does not that’s fine, most stories are never finished. if you want to finish something badly try to set a deadline you cant easily ignore, i turned short stories into gifts (a long with a ‘real’ gift) sometimes just to have a reason why it must be done on day x. the story was not necessarily for the person i gifted it to, but i needed the pressure.

You just have to do it. People talk about writer’s block and it’s a real thing. Sometimes you have to force yourself to produce. Will it be good? Maybe, maybe not. But your objective isn’t to write good, that’s what editing is for. No matter how good you think it is, your writing isn’t good until you edit it. And nobody talks about editor’s block.