What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

[Jinks]

I've put it off of the last couple months while I worked on my Master's, but I think I have finally hit a point in my program that I can start writing again. I won't be able to write a lot, but I should be able to get the last act of my escape house manuscript written and once I do that, I will feel better about taking a break. I will say that my writing pause has allowed me a good opportunity to visualize a good ending.

That being said, I'll probably take a break again soon while I finish my program and once I am done with school in August, I will turn my full attention back to revising Mutt and I will begin to draft my VR story.

 

[adinaluca]

I'm sorry you're feeling this way, but I wholeheartedly agree with others: what am amazing achievement to be so close to finishing first draft! Don't worry about the changes you need to make - those are future you's problem. Right now you just need to worry about getting to "the end", then future you can take all the things you learnt in the book and figure out how you're going to take that finished draft from a steaming pile of word vomit (I'm not saying that's what yours is, but mine sure is) to something polished and structurally sound.

I'd be interested to know more about the book. I looked up the title and there were a few with that title by different authors. Would you recommend it?

Thank you SariBelleW. I did actually continue with the ending. I also think it is a bit more liberating to know your own vomit - I can write whatever now, since it's going to be changed LOL

That book is https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-NOT-Write-Novel-Published/dp/0141038543 by Sandra Newman and Howard Mittelmark. They are funny and merciless - I Love it. Yes, highly recommended also for a lough out loud.

I just wish I had read it like 2 years ago. It's the beginning that I discovered I s#'ed at, I got better as I went towards the ending, got more consistent with the action and characters. And obviously I have a middle chapter that is a total nightmare - long, slow and pointless. Anyway...

 

[Lundgren]

I'm definitely starting to get my energy back, which also means I kind of getting back into writing. Today I wrote around 650 words. Deleted them all, then wrote another 1150 words on that WIP.

In that WIP I had two scenes that I somehow felt was a bit too alike, one introducing the main character and the other introducing one of the other POV characters. However, by adding another scene where I introduce the MC before that and adding a scene or two before those I felt was too similar, I think they could work.

I'm quite sure my biggest weakness at the moment is a very low ratio of descriptions to dialogue, especially olfactory (which mainly is because my own sense of smell is pretty much non existent).

 

[nailamoonsi]

I'm currently editing my epic science fantasy book 1--after going through extensive edits by July 2023 and then my refusal to read it for several months--and am nervous about it... It's getting sturdier, but I wonder when I'll actually feel done with it?

 

[Trying To Be Good]

To quote myself.

"Some people say you should write from the most dramatic perspective in the scene, so I'm considering twice to write from the perspective of a woman, because the drama might be in keeping the other person's inner thoughts a mystery.

While also not being third person zoomed out, not hearing either person's thoughts.

Though I'll have to check my lady contracts for help so my writing is awfully terrible and risking being overly male gaze or whatever."

---

I'm also aware that there is more drama in starting a chapter after an argument and then cutting back to how it happened. If I don't think I can write a dramatic enough scene, I can just have characters vaguely remember it or refer to it.

Like think of the shoot out at the bank in Reservoir dogs, we never see that. It's referred to and we have to imagine what happened.

However, I am very bad at "head hopping" and asking for a second opinion requires me to ask for feedback... without getting upset if two people tell me to do opposite things.

 

[Trying To Be Good]

ETA:

I'm definitely starting to get my energy back, which also means I kind of getting back into writing. Today I wrote around 650 words. Deleted them all, then wrote another 1150 words on that WIP.

In that WIP I had two scenes that I somehow felt was a bit too alike, one introducing the main character and the other introducing one of the other POV characters. However, by adding another scene where I introduce the MC before that and adding a scene or two before those I felt was too similar, I think they could work.

I'm quite sure my biggest weakness at the moment is a very low ratio of descriptions to dialogue, especially olfactory (which mainly is because my own sense of smell is pretty much non existent).

I lack a mind's eye, so I load up a rough outline and then replace words or tweak things... And then I look at other people's writings for ideas or direction.

Oddly enough, I'm best at writing erotica descriptions.... Because I have no sense of mental vision, but I have a sense of mental touch (Like I can sense what it's like to touch something, but not what it looks like).

 

[jstrumski]

I just put in an extra hour of work, hoping to finish the chapter I'm currently working on before the weekend. I always worry that I'm not as careful when I'm trying to rush to hit a deadline, but I suppose there's no cure for that. All I can do is hope for the best!

 

[Bitterboots]

I absolutely LOVE that book - I re-read it often, to remind me a) how far I've come in recognising the hallmarks of bad writing, and b) that I'm hopefully now at the stage where you can actually bend the 'rules' a little bit, if you're aware you're doing it and do it well enough (or otherwise at the delusions of grandeur stage - the only proof is in the pudding!)

Seriously, I think everyone commits some of those so called 'writing sins' from time to time. The only way to know if you got away with it is to get someone else's opinion on your book - and to do that, you have to finish it

Alexp is right - you can't fix a blank page!

You are so right. I've read and loved many, many books that have challenged those 'rules'. Of course it is important to know what the rules are so if you do break them you do so with confidence in your vision.

 

[Nether]

Today I was once again thought about the fact that not one of my manuscripts' love interests has shared a name with one of my real crushes, etc. (At least, off the top of my head.) I'm not really sure whether this is common or uncommon. However, considering how much I've written, I might be starting to move into an improbability.

 

[lilysheaven]

I am currently having an existential crisis over my WIP and what garbage it clearly is. Or isn't it? Does it make sense? Is it a hack job? Should I burn it down and pretend it never happened?!

And that's how I know I'm a writer.

This sounds pretty normal to me. You're at the denial stage. Maybe negotiating. Or is it anger?

 

[Brigid Barry]

This sounds pretty normal to me. You're at the denial stage. Maybe negotiating. Or is it anger?

Bitter defeat. lol

 

[adinaluca]

Today I was once again thought about the fact that not one of my manuscripts' love interests has shared a name with one of my real crushes, etc. (At least, off the top of my head.) I'm not really sure whether this is common or uncommon. However, considering how much I've written, I might be starting to move into an improbability.

I did that twice. Not the same name, the initial only. And the character was secondary, and, turned out later, redundant - just like in real life. He had to go

 

[adinaluca]

I am starting the four days of finishing The Ending. It's Easter weekend in UK, Friday and Monday free.

The dreaded ending. I printed it out, ready to go.

Then I posted the first three sentences of the beginning of the novel. Then I read the comments - great stuff, so grateful. Now I'll go for a long run. I am not procrastinating, I am just eliminating the sources of procrastination.

 

[pebbleg]

I’m trying to outline my next novel but have basically been procrastinating by learning how to use Scrivener … (namely, changed the corkboard background to a cork board, pinned the index cards in pins, and dragged the index cards around in free form. Big achievement … yay!)

 

[alexp336]

Today I was once again thought about the fact that not one of my manuscripts' love interests has shared a name with one of my real crushes, etc. (At least, off the top of my head.) I'm not really sure whether this is common or uncommon. However, considering how much I've written, I might be starting to move into an improbability.

I try not to use names for characters from people I'm friends with in real life. Though, I've had people ask if I'll write them into a story as specific characters, at which point I generally suggest they bring that up with their therapist.

 

[Lundgren]

ETA:

I lack a mind's eye, so I load up a rough outline and then replace words or tweak things... And then I look at other people's writings for ideas or direction.

I'm quite a pantser, but I guess I better leave fleshing out the descriptions for later.

Oddly enough, I'm best at writing erotica descriptions.... Because I have no sense of mental vision, but I have a sense of mental touch (Like I can sense what it's like to touch something, but not what it looks like).

Pretty much the same for me. I can see things in a very foggy gray-scale in my mind, but I can feel things. Stepping into the character, and feel how they sit, how they lean around a corner, the resistance of pulling on something spring-loaded, doing a dance step, or whatever.

Maybe there is a reason why most of my WIPs are erotica or borderline erotica.

 

[Sonsofthepharaohs]

I try not to use names for characters from people I'm friends with in real life. Though, I've had people ask if I'll write them into a story as specific characters, at which point I generally suggest they bring that up with their therapist.

My time period would make it very difficult to use names of people I know, but my cousin once asked me to write him into my story, so I found an Egyptian name that's very close to his nickname - and made him a servant, lol

 

[MissJones89]

I am itching to get started on my next story, which I have been planning for a while. My issue is that I really want to properly finish my other novel, which I have revised twice and now need some constructive criticism on so I can start querying it.
I'm not sure how to manage several novels/WIPs at the same time. I worry I will "forget" the voice of my first MC when I start delving into a new MC in the new story... but I have been feeling particularly inspired recently.

 

[SariBelleW]

I try not to use names for characters from people I'm friends with in real life. Though, I've had people ask if I'll write them into a story as specific characters, at which point I generally suggest they bring that up with their therapist.

An author friend, who has been extremely successful writing YA, wrote our old writing group into one of her novels. It was sci fi and we were a military squad. We all died...

 

[adinaluca]

I finished the novel. What I mean: I drafted the ending in a reasonable shape and I only forgot one set of characters. I will need to figure out what happened to them. Other than that, and the fact that it is sketchy and badly written, it's done. Two more days to fill in some gaps and polish the proverbial....

It's taken me 2.5 years to get here. I need to thank you guys, had I not joined this community, I would not have got here this fast or at all.

 

[Trying To Be Good]

I can write action, like more than a little bit!

 

[StarsForScales]

I am currently having an existential crisis over my WIP and what garbage it clearly is. Or isn't it? Does it make sense? Is it a hack job? Should I burn it down and pretend it never happened?!

And that's how I know I'm a writer.

Are we not all eternally straddling the states of 'The world isn't worthy of my genius' and 'I'm a garbage hack who shouldn't even be trusted to write a shopping list'?

 

[Nether]

Currently trudging through a section of the manuscript that I know will either need to be heavily revised or outright scrapped, which is always fun. Nothing quite like it.

Long story short (since I mentioned a bunch of this in another topic), most of the issues come down to possibly suggesting something I shouldn't (because I'm planning on having that as a twist in a potential sequel). Portions of it might otherwise be usable once I pare back those other elements, and I like the characterization for the MC's sister.

Beyond that, I need to start breaking Pirate Park in half -- Pirate Park MG (a MG action/adventure where the focus is on saving a water park) and Pirate Park YA (a YA horror involving hidden treasure and the legend of a vicious crab-man monster (which might lean into some Scooby Doo parodying)).

At first, I was going to start more with the MG one, but I kinda realized the problem I'm having now is I moved away from schlockey horror in favor of something closer to urban fantasy. The early going is more squarely in the horror vibe (albeit light, other than the central premise, which is scary) but it kinda never really builds that strongly on the horror elements.

Granted, the other problem was waiting about five months to start drafting Manse where maybe things would've worked better if I'd started sooner.

Are we not all eternally straddling the states of 'The world isn't worthy of my genius' and 'I'm a garbage hack who shouldn't even be trusted to write a shopping list'?

idk, I'm both USUALLY pretty level and pretty okay with the idea of being a hack. Many of my favorite authors have been hacks. And if somebody can earn a living from hackery while entertaining readers, what's the problem? Not everything needs to be some great, original work of literary genius.

 

[adinaluca]

Now that I finished, I had time to go back and trace my steps to figure out why the middle sags. It doesn't only sag, it's from a different book altogether lol.

My MC went along up to that point then, for some reason, I forgot about her and started writing about a secondary character. Because he was more interesting? I don't know, I don't have a reason. I basically wrote what I wanted to write about instead of what the book and the characters needed me to write about. Is that a thing that happens?

Right now, in the middle of the novel, my MC sits on the side doing nothing and then poof! she shows up at the end and saves the day.

I have two options: a) turn the guy I wrote about into MC and turn my MC into a secondary character - that requires another beginning; or b) keep my MC active and write a middle that covers her actions, but I am yet to figure out what they are.

Weirdly I like b) although a) is easier because, after writing about the guy, I am no longer that interested to make him an MC.

I'll do a double plotting side by side and see which one is better for the book, rather than my whim.
I also think I have not asked myself the important questions about meaning /message/theme of the book. There is a moral dilemma in there that I am pussyfooting around.

I highly recommend finishing whatever book you are writing

 

[Trying To Be Good]

Are we not all eternally straddling the states of 'The world isn't worthy of my genius' and 'I'm a garbage hack who shouldn't even be trusted to write a shopping list'?

I’m fairly often closer to the former while having talent more befitting of the latter