Tib’s Corner – Plagues of the Writer

Hey y’all! Tib here with a little misc post about stuff that regularly plagues the common writer. This will go through the most common things that can happen, such as simple grammar mistakes that make you explode in an unjoyful way. Here we-a go!

The Simple Things:

your welcome and you’re welcome
This is common, is it your welcome or you’re welcome? Well, when someone thanks you, it’s not your welcome, you use “you’re welcome” as in “You are welcome”. Your welcome is when you say something like “You’ve over stayed your welcome.” Your is possessive, you’re isn’t. This is common, I see this a lot in writing and I even make the mistake. Just think, before you write your welcome or you’re welcome, think, “If I’m thinking them, I have to use you’re not your like ‘You are welcome’.”

There, Their, and They’re

This is probably more common then your and you’re. There, Their, and They’re are always misused. [WORDS LIKE THESE ARE WHY ENGLISH IS SO GOD D*MN CONFUSING!]
There is a simple way to remember There, Their, and They’re
-There: Refers to Location “Look at Rimmer over there, he probably passed out from too much of my vindaloo”
-Their: Is possessive, refers to someone or something, “Look at Rimmer passed out again, someone can’t handle their vindaloo.”
-They’re: Shortned version of “They Are”, “Look at Krytie making Rimmer another vindaloo, they’re making a big mistake.”
This is so common yet so preventable.

The dreaded *thunder crash* WRITER’S BLOCK!!

Merriam-Webster classifies writer’s block as “the problem of not being able to think of something to write about or not being able to finish writing a story, poem, etc.” [“Writer’s Block.” Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, 19 Oct. 2013.]But can you actually lose the ability to produce work? Or is it temporary?
Now we all go through writer’s block such as we all go through puberty [gross fact, but it’s true] It happens when we’re tired, when we’re depressed, so that brings me to the first trigger of writer’s block, emotion.

Let’s play make believe, you just came home from school, you failed a test, your girl broke up with you, the language arts teacher was especially mean to you today, and it rained on the walk home. You’re depressed now, you just want to crawl into bed and sleep away, but you promised the members of your game you will post today, you go to the computer, tablet, ipod whatever, and get on the OW site. You can’t post, you just can’t think of anything, so you put it off until tomorrow. This has happened to us before, all of us, we all have bad days. You’re occupying your thoughts more with the fact that today sucked and you want nothing else to do with today, with the clouded thoughts, you go to bed and call it a day.

The biggest overall might be the fact that we run out of ideas so darn fast. Games work like a roller coaster’s construction, it will have it’s twists and turns, it will have it’s big ups but then it will have it’s downs but will eventually pick up. So it’s like a roller coaster that never ends. Let’s say your game is really picking up, new members, everyone is posting, and the story is flowing like crazy. You want to post, post, post. But then you have nothing to post and the well’s run dry. This is the most common trigger to writer’s block.

So how can you stop it? How can you fix it? HOW CAN YOU MAKE IT STOP?!?!
Well, you can’t completely stop writer’s block from ever happening again, but you can prevent it. Here’s a few tips I use that work and you could use too,

-Write a journal on ideas: Just think of a few ideas and write them down

-Write a journal as a character: I just introduced this in my game “Nova Lux.” Pick a character, any of your characters, and write a journal summarizing their feelings on the current situations happening in the story. It will open up a new aspect for your character and your game and could give you some ideas.

-Work on a joint post: Find a member of the game and write a post joining two characters that you both can write by email or other ways of communication.

-Take a Break: Just take one, you don’t have to write every single waking minute

-Find a video or movie that relates to your game: If your game is based of off a tv show, movie, etc. why not watch some of it to get some ideas?

Hope this all helps you with the Plagues of the Writer and gives you a new outlook that we all make mistakes!

Until then, Keep Calm and Keep Ongoing! Tib out!