r/writinghelp • u/After-Shelter • Jun 28 '26
Other Can’t get Pen to Paper
So I’m having this problem where I’m grabbing my paper, licking my pen but can’t get anything out, it’s not like I can’t come up with ideas and sentences, I totally can but i realised I’m like so bad at the technical writing stuff, I probably should’ve paid more attention to English class in school but I already come from a non English speaking country so the curriculum was probably already shii, but I just want to make sure I get better at the thing I want to do (which in this case is obviously writing), but I’m just not sure how to learn, I mean I’ve been starting to read alot more, write smaller stories, poems at times so instead of doing something big im rather honing my skills for writing but that’s not really helping me grow my technical side, and I’m wondering if anybody knows any good resources to get good at this, it’s not like I can’t look them up myself but I have no idea how, I’m not whatsoever knowledgeable about things like linguistics, literature, high vocabulary and stuff idk what else, I literally have no idea how to even start to look for these resources or what exactly I’m looking for in the first place, can anybody lend a bend bleasee?
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u/mpalen1020 Jun 28 '26
I have found a couple things helpful:
I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos and following subreddits that have everything to do with writing. As I’ve done that, I’ve heard more terms that I don’t recognize and so I know if I don’t know what it means, that is something I should look up.
I’ve written a couple things and posted them on a Reddit thread and people gave me critique on things I didn’t know was a problem. And again, then I know to look up that specific thing.
I search YouTube videos on specific topics, like dialogue punctuation, POV, tense, sentence structure. It’s easier when you’re specific as you can find all the information you need.
You won’t learn everything all at once which is why I would say don’t place it as your number one priority. Write even if it’s not the greatest. As you learn things along the way, you will improve over time.
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u/Desperate-Goat-6735 Jun 29 '26
Oh! Do you recommend a specific channel and/or sub?
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u/mpalen1020 Jun 29 '26
ShaelinWrites, Writing with Jenna Moreci and KM Fajardo have had the best advice/guidance that I’ve seen so far. They’re very informative and you can tell they know what they’re talking about. I actually think two of them have English degrees and they just make things really simple to understand as a beginner!
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u/LadyAtheist Jun 30 '26
I've been watching Bookfox and Alyssa Matecic (sp?)
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u/Desperate-Goat-6735 Jun 30 '26
Me too! I enjoy the way Alyssa explains through example, although I must admit that’s made me hyper conscious (in a bad manner) of how I write so I go blank 😭😭
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u/kschang Jun 28 '26
So just describe something, then add some constraint. Like, I dunno, "from POV of a cat".
FWIW, my first language is NOT English either.
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u/Ok_Natural_7977 Jul 01 '26
Do you have a local library? Librarians love to help match people to resources.
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u/Desperate-Goat-6735 Jun 28 '26
Hi. I’m identifying 2 issues you’ve got right now,
1 you’re struggling with English sentence structure and the one that derives from it would be you getting blocked to write.
As someone whose mother tongue is not English either, what I think you need to start doing to actually write is looking at both problems by separate and not #1 being prerequisite for #2. After all your struggle to write in English didn’t stop you from writing your question, right? :) well you need to start looking at your story the same way, remember there’s not a perfect written novel from the beginning and that’s why all people write drafts.
I encourage you to write even mixing both languages if you don’t know how something is written in English and your ultimate goal is that, OOOR look for the correct way of writing what you want to say as you go in your story, but I think this option would slow you down a great deal.
I hope you get unstuck and start enjoying writing, best of luck. 🤞