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A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

3 months ago

I know the title probably sounds stupid, BUT it was all I could think of at 9:30 pm after getting home from work at 7:30 and eating dinner, and I also have a headache from doing homework. Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway.....

I was wondering if there was anyone willing to be my CYS mentor and train me in the ways of proper writing. I used to be really good at writing stories, but after getting feedback for my Chaos's Game story that I'm working on, I realized that my skills aren't as up to par as I thought they were. (No surprise there, since I actually haven't written any stories in a year or two because I have had other irl things I needed to do and never pursued my love of writing much.) 

So if there is anyone out there willing to help this new CYSian and teach me, I would greatly appreciated it! I'm creative and I'm learning lots with the bits of feedback I am getting, I feel as though if someone put in effort and trained this little white raven to fly then I could soar high in the skies over CYSia. :D

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

3 months ago
Commended by Mizal on 7/5/2024 11:16:07 PM
Tbh I know it's not what you want to hear but the only way you're going to get better at writing is by doing it, and being receptive to feedback - good & bad. It seems like you've been working on that, so keep it up. It doesn't help that you haven't written much in the past few years, but if you're consistent you'll get back in the groove, as it were.

For what it's worth, there's not really a one size fits all approach to writing. Best practices, sure, but any "rule" can be broken if you have the foundation down. I think it would benefit you more to get a strong handle on grammar and story structure (start with the help and info section), write write write, and share these attempts with the masses. Most people are happy to provide their opinions, and deciding how much stock you take in it... you just have to be able to intuit for yourself. That only comes with time.

Patience with yourself is a virtue, for any skill you want to get good at. I think there's a quote from ... well, multiple people, actually, about just writing to get all the bad shit out first and learn how your personal style develops before you can write anything "good."

ETA: I'll also send you some links to some resources that I think were the most helpful for me when I was starting to write as a wee sprout later.

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

3 months ago

Thank you granolagoth! This was actually very humbling and I didn't take any offense to it. In fact, you are quite wise! I will await those links and study them! As well as write write write, as you said, Lol! XD

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago
Did you come back yet?

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago

I'd like to see what you do with a completed storygame--that will get you so much feedback from everyone here, because everyone is so eager to give a lot of thoughtful, comprehensive feedback on the new games here.  I would start there, even if it ends up not being very good.  The first million words are for practice, anyway.

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago
Oh, she basically decided to never do anything and then died.(until September?)

The breaking point was being told to pause in her literally 500 shitposts and read and comment on one of MHD's games, she just couldn't bring herself to take on such a heavy and miserable task.

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago

Ravenic mentioned working on a storygame offline which she planned to publish on September 4th. Guess we'll see whether she finishes it in a week's time. 

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago

Nice, if she doesn't deliver, I think I'll dock her even more points so she can be in the negatives :), just like Ace did for the better part of the year!

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago

And I double posted the same thing.  Oh, well. 

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago

I think Ravenic is really emblematic of how generally lazy and useless this current crop of CYS teens is. No desire to like, dig in their heels and be like no fuck you guys, I'll write a storygame and show you people. No inclination either to at least be properly catty and bitchy and get into internet catfights which is at least funny. Just whinging and cunting and asking for someone else to do the work for them. 

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago
As much as I hate to admit it, you're right. I've been getting way to lazy lately, and something's gotta change.

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago

Honestly, that's on us.  We need to be meaner, to provoke that most productive of spite-writing states.

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago
It didn't work with Ravenic. But you should check out her profile, it's hilarious.

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago

Ravenic seems to respond to meanness by tackle hugging whoever is being meanest to her and declaring them her new bff, then gushing about how cool and awesome they are. Which... I really can't say whether this strategy is working or not. I mean, people are still mean to her, but nobody's going to ban a person for being too nice. Most people generally seem to regard her as a lost cause since she only seems to get more naive by the minute and she spends more time talking about how she's totally definitely going to do some writing than she spends actually writing, but... I mean... She seems happy, so... Good for her. ^_^

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago

Oh wait, I stand corrected...

"Guess I shouldn't have tried to make friends with toxic people... They only made my life a living hell, so why should I care what they think of me anymore? Oh...don't worry...I'm still around. But you should watch your back... Just in case..."

What is she going to do to our backs? O.O

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago
Who can understand those emo lesbians, amirite?

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago

Oddly true, which is the most naive part about her. She seems to value people being nice to her, but it's seemingly not at the top of the list. She can definitely like people who don't like her at all, and some May even intentionally torment her for laughs, it just makes her seem super easy to manipulate. As others have said, it's easy to Imagine ravenic getting trafficked or something because of that character trait lol 

 

I Hope she heightens her discernment in the future to say the least. Otherwise she may be subtly taken advantage of in unfair ways. 

A Little Birdy Needs A Mentor

one month ago

I tried to fan the flames of spite in her, but I failed.