The amount of Lemmy (previously Reddit) commenting I do has legitimately improved my writing, I think.

Vocabulary is more from reading, or listening to other people who use “big” words. Although, if you just read, you make a fool out of yourself with how things are pronounced (like I do).

Hot take, but “small” words are better anyway, unless you need technical jargon.

Right now, it’s a slow march writing a rewrite of an old Summer Camp Island fanfiction I never even finished all the parts to. It focuses on an OC as the main character of this story. That’s despite him still technically being a side character overall. Kind of like a side story for this OC to basically have his own adventures that sometimes end up coinciding with the main characters.

No need for me to really do much research outside of rewatching episodes of the show. I’ve also been trying to make my writing less bland than I usually write, which is why I am doing a rewrite instead of a continuation. That, and a later season episode set a timeframe for the show and I am trying to respect that timeframe more than I did for the original fanfic since it came out before that episode. I’m also not sure if I could say I’m copying another authors style, though, since anymore I mostly read fanfiction and manga.

I was until recently writing sci-fi short stories based on my maladaptive daydreams, but I’m trying to quit.

I keep a dream diary, and sometimes like every few months when I feel like it write a bit of some silly fanfic, & even less so write tiny portion of an essay I won’t finish & as for how I write I just kinda write without thinking about it a lot, guess I’m not WILDlY passionate about writing.

I used to write in my journal almost every morning. Did so for years but I’ve recently fallen out of the habit.

I also used to write science or fantasy fiction but haven’t done that in decades.

I do frequently write very short essays, more like in-depth blog posts, on a gaming forum. Usually how the game reflects aspects of real life on a philosophical level.

I struggle with the craft of writing and my more serious stuff gets, at best, a lukewarm reception.

Ironically, my handcrafted memes, joke posts, and quips are very popular there and I have a knack for conjuring up ‘likes’ by doing so but it doesn’t interest me on a deep level.

I journal in my free time. It’s a good practice to have, even if I don’t do it as often as I feel I should. Some is better than none. Sometimes I do it in the morning and set my goals and to do list for the day. Other times I’ll usually write how I’m feeling, what’s been going on, revisiting my notes from therapy to find what may help me at the moment. I’ve found journalling to be really helpful for quieting my mind when I’m feeling anxious or overwhelmed.

I sometimes waste uncopious amounts of time writing comments on Lemmy. I choose my words extremely carefully and fact check all the claims only to then be willfully misunderstood by someone who didn’t even bother to read what it is that I actually said.

I like to flesh out characters and describe their everyday lives. Habits, hobbies, responsibilities, I always thought those say more about a person’s personality and how or why they do things rather than putting all the weight on traumatic or otherwise heavy back/origin stories.

I write science fiction, mostly, and dip my toes into other genres of speculative fiction (horror, fantasy, alt history, etc). I read these genres extensively, which has made me realize what “works” and what doesn’t from a story/character/concept standpoint. Reading in general has also greatly contributed to my vocabulary. I definitely take a lot of inspiration from other writers - currently some of my biggest inspos are Kim Stanley Robinson, Sheri S. Tepper, JG Ballard, and Ray Bradbury - but I find that the more you read, the easier it is to interweave elements of different authors without being an obvious imitation.

I should also note that I’m not a published author, just someone who writes for fun lol

On the day-to-day, I write notes in my journal for work:

• what I’m doing
• what I need to do
• things ive learnt
• things I don’t understand
• opinions about these things

Maybe not exactly what your asking about, but it is what I write

Song lyrics. Not necessarily very good ones, but songs.

Boiled down, I’d say I write cheap porn but I get easily bored with describing the act and widening the scope and end up with more complex stories. Still cheesy as it can be but I enjoy it. Erotica with a sprinkle of bad jokes.

I don’t care about a theme. I grab an idea from thin air and allow things to carry on. I have a couple of romances, a zombie apocalypse themed story, a BDSM heavy (hardest to write for me, as I have zero contact with the practice and lifestyle) historical romance and a project that naturally forked itself from the same concept into two different stories.

Free writing is a helpful exercise.

https://writingprocess.mit.edu/process/step-1-generate-ideas/instructions/freewriting/

Most people don´t have the patience for large vocabulary. If you want to write pretentious award-bait literature, there’s different things to chase after. But most people don´t care about vocabulary or even competent prose, they just want a good story and relatable characters.

I’ve got two long-term projects I’m working on currently. One is a queer post-cyberpunk roadtrip across a post-US North America. It’s on what feels like the thousandth iteration, but I’ve got the plot outline complete and am about a third of the way through a first draft. It’s been in kind of a holding pattern for a while though because I discovered a critical plot hole that will require a full rewrite of what’s already been written and I’m not in love with the very flat style it’s developed along the way.

The other project is more nebulous. It’s sort of a philosophy-informed examination of Utopia, humanity’s innate violent nature, and the destabilizing forcing driving the split-reality-misinformation apocalypse. It will ultimately be a series of related essays on aspects of the topic, written as a web-zine survival guide.

As far as style goes, I’ve been writing long enough that I’ve developed my own style and voice. I have my own idiosyncrasies such as using hyphens to make german-style compound words and using my own lexicon for flavor, but also specificity. I never really wanted to copy anyone else’s style. I’m not super well read either, which gets in the way of my roadtrip novel quite often. I have trouble switching between narration and action or dialog so elegant, flowing prose is not something I’m great at.

For vocabulary I have a good memory for words so I generally have a smattering of compelling words waiting in the wings, but there is no shame in using a thesaurus. I’ve also asked Claude and ChatGPT for help with words as well, especially when there is a word that I know exists but can’t remember it.

I was working on a story about a war and resistance and planning and um…

Checks folder

“Last modified 2023”

But anyways I just write poetry recently, the most recent one was… oh… months ago 👀

But honestly I’m probably gonna work on a memoir next do its just… remembering.

I really want to eventually write a story that has those anime style flashbacks that are emotional af.

I like the themes of war (in fiction at least), passage of time, nostalgia. I mean Frieren style flashbacks, that type of frequency that is used. I like the contrast thing, between eras and also between countries. Like I wanna write one country about its war, and another thats insulated from whats happening, like multiple PoVs like in a ASOIAF type thing (but more ameteur cuz my garbage will never become that popular lmfao)

But poetry is when i want a short simple and emotional art, its my way of “painting” but with words.

Im probably not gonna do long stories any time soon, shorter stories, in an “anthology” format is probably more satisfying.