What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

[JoBird]

My character is hanging on a rope off the side of a lighthouse, and I don't know how to get him down. His foil is at the top of the lighthouse trying to pull him back up. I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall right now.

This thread is kind of nice.

 

[Honest Bill]

My character is hanging on a rope off the side of a lighthouse, and I don't know how to get him down. His foil is at the top of the lighthouse trying to pull him back up. I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall right now.

This thread is kind of nice.

Let him fall i say...

 

[JustinlDew]

I've got a great idea for a scene, but have no idea where it fits in my WiP

 

[Erin Latimer]

This thread is nice! No delete <--I'm so articulate today.

This is on my mind:

It's kind of a funny story, once I stopped frothing at the mouth. I'm on a reading/writing website called wattpad where I write for fun, as well as having one book self published (mostly for my wattpad readers who want it for their kindle). One of my readers messaged me and told me someone stole my book and was passing it off as their own. So I found him on wattpad, and he had stolen another author's ebook as well. The funny part is he clearly had no idea I was on wattpad and would find him, because he just took my ebook (none of my other stories).

After I stopped my inarticulate growling and reported him I realized it was actually sort of funny...

 

[Putputt]

As long as there isn't a technical problem that's caused by this thread not being indexed, I'm all for letting this thread remain as it is. I'm not a fan of having it closed or moved out of BWQ. When I first discovered AW, I thought this thread's pretty self-explanatory and have found it a great place for newbies and old members to come, vent their daily frustrations, and leave feeling slightly unburdened. It belongs in BWQ.

Aaanywho, what's on my mind about my writing today...My third book feels a bit meander-y. I have an overarching plot in mind, but I'm not sure how to get from the first plot point to the next one.

 

[kkbe]

Struggling through my WIP, I wish I had an outline. That would be a gift from God. It's a problem with me, details trump the big picture. So I'm laboring over Chapter 28, and have no flipping idea how I'm going to take this thing to Chapter 50 or whatever.

I just keep thinking, What would I want to read? That's what I have to write. And I can write whatever I want so what the hell is the problem?

I know, I know.

 

[WriteMinded]

Wishing I could spend the day writing instead of doing all the tedious little chores that life demands.

My character is hanging on a rope off the side of a lighthouse, and I don't know how to get him down.

Can he fly?

This thread is kind of nice.

Yes. It is.

 

[LAgrunion]

I hope this thread stays open. It's kinda nice to hear what other writers are thinking, especially since I can often relate. Plus I like the randomness of some comments. There's a serendipitous delight to that.

I’m waiting to hear back from my beta readers, while my stomach is about to implode from all the anxiety. At the same time, my spleen is wrestling my gallbladder over how to fix my crappy query, while my brain just sits there helplessly. Plus, I recently read a successful query that depressed me because it’s so good—much better than mine will ever be.

The best distraction I have now is that I’m beta-ing a novel for another member, so I’m forced to concentrate on something other than my own writing. But I still find myself drifting back to my own MS, thinking about what needs to be fixed…

 

[Persei]

I should just plan this time since I have everything set from start to finish but recently my mental health went downhill and there's a large chance that I am depressed so that might be why I think it's not even worth the effort; I'm not a good writer anyway.

 

[JoBird]

Can he fly?

Haha. No, alas. Maybe he could whistle up a giant eagle to catch him if he falls though.

 

[JustinlDew]

At this point in time I've got my Time travel novel stalled, my main wip languishing in rewrite hell, and my urban fantasy thing that's sort of imploded. Fun.

Excuse me while I mope.

 

[Ellielle]

I think this thread should stay, though if there's a better location, I wouldn't object to it getting moved. I don't drop in all the time, but this thread can be interesting sometimes. Plus, if it wasn't around, I'd be tempted to start more full threads about how much I hate my WIP, and nobody needs that.

So, yeah. I hate my WIP. I really need to start something new (duh), but I'm not quite finished, and I can't stand leaving it totally unfinished. So, I keep slogging along, cursing the characters, the plot, and myself for coming up with it all in the first place.

Also, I'm torn between two ideas for Camp Nano. One's in my usual genre of choice (fantasy), and it's slightly more developed. The other's a sci-fi, so it's not exactly a huge stretch, but it's a bit different than my usual fare. Even though I don't usually do that well with minimal planning, and I don't know if I'll have time to throw together much of an outline as well as finish the WIP of doom before April, I'm leaning towards that one...just because of my hatred of my current WIP. A change of pace could only be a good thing, I think.

 

[Linda Adams]

Yay! I finally had a huge breakthrough on how to do deal with an issue I've been having trouble with. It helped me fix the scene from hell, only now I have to apply the same thing to the scene right before it. That's the work for today.

 

[geminirising]

Yay! I finally had a huge breakthrough on how to do deal with an issue I've been having trouble with. It helped me fix the scene from hell, only now I have to apply the same thing to the scene right before it. That's the work for today.

That's great, Linda! It feels sooo good when you finally work through something thorny and difficult.

What's on my mind: I'm feeling very fortunate to have an excellent, skilled critique partner. She's giving me more work , but in a good way. She's convincing me that my story should be shown in real-time, rather than starting in real-time and going into flashback for the next 7 chapters and then returning to real-time. It sounds so obvious when I type it here, ha.

 

[aixsponsa]

Being on the downhill side of the first draft of a novel is a wonderful feeling. About 80% done and I feel like I finally made it out of the jungle that is the middle!

 

[clee984]

I'm nervous of showing anything I've written to anybody. Building up my courage to ask for a beta reader....

 

[Corey LeMoine]

I'm taking a week off from my novel, having just finished a big climatic series of events that will send the heroes into proactivity. The novel is at the 70k mark which is by far the longest thing that I have ever written.

During my week off, I am writing a "steam-pulp" story set in post civil war New Orleans. I was super pumped to learn that the word parachute was coined well before this time period.

 

[SpinningWheel]

I'm waiting for my last beta reader of 7 to get back to me.
There are a couple of things a single reader picked up on that no-one else did and I'm on tenterhooks to see what this one says.
I am probably attaching too much importance to her opinion, but her advice has been truly game-changing for me in the past.

 

[EMaree]

Unless someone comes up with a convincing objection, I'm going to close this thread somewhere in the next twenty-odd messages. Why? Because we have over eight hundred messages, heading for nine hundred, that are completely unindexed. No one can know what's in it without reading the whole thing. That's less than useful.

Comments?

Throwing in another vote for 'move and keep open'.

The in-built forum search and Google search should allow users to search the content of this topic with reasonable ease, and it's a good thread and should be kept open, but it doesn't fit in the Basic Writing Questions forum.

 

[Saija]

I haven't written in like a month? Or more? I've been swamped with school work and an internship and really stressed. Mostly, though, I think it's because after looking over my first finished first draft ever, I realized it needed a total rewrite. And after doing a few critiques on AW, I started feeling extremely untalented and incapable of writing a single sentence that doesn't appear to be written by a 6-year-old. I was thinking of posting my first chapter for a critique, but then I chickened out.

My internship is ending soon so I will have more time, but I need to get out of this funk.

Edit: Oh, and about the thread being closed, personally I think this thread is an extremely nice place to vent about writing difficulties and feel less alone with them. x) If it gets closed, I hope we find another place to continue this or something like it. I don't see this thread as being useful to read so much as being useful to write in. It's a place to get things off your chest that other, non-writers might not understand. Though I have to admit, I'm not very tech savvy and I don't really understand the problem in the first place.. x)

 

[Emerald]

My brain at the moment...

"Oh god I can't believe I'm actually doing this - no wait, I'm not ready, this is gonna be cr@p, hackity hack, hack bad writing cr@p - but I'm still doing it, I'm so excited - and terrified, god what if I get slammed as just another cr@ppy Mccr@pstic fan fiction writer who 'thought' she could actually write a 'real' book - but I'm writing, and it's my own work, and it feels...good...right?"

Something like that at least. I'm not the most secure individual when it comes to my abilities or my work. Which might have something to do with why I tend to take constructive criticism as a compliment. Hmmm *ponders*

 

[Silver-Midnight]

Well, I rewrote part of a story. I think it might be better. Maybe. Hopefully. I don't know for sure though. So....yeah.

Now, I have other stuff that I need to work on and get done.

--

Also, does anyone know anything about writing "the man vs. himself" conflict? I have a lot of trouble writing that conflict, and I kind of need help with it. (In fact, I probably have trouble with conflict in general.)

 

[WriterInChains]

My last two grades were posted today and the other shoe didn't give me a concussion! I can live with a B in the class from hell, so I've been able to write a little.

It's strange (to me, maybe I'm just late to the party) just how much stress can get in the way of emotions. It's hard to write well about what the guys are feeling when I'm numbed by stress, so now I have to go back and insert the part readers really care about (the emotional, character arc-stuff) before next term starts kicking my butt. No problema!

 

[JustinlDew]

I've decided I'm going to work on my query this evening.

 

[WendyN]

Trying to come up with a new (better, less connotative) name for one of my characters.

I hate naming characters.