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What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

WriterInChains

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On my mind today is "be careful what you wish for".

I've been busy promoting my debut novella and something I thought was great happened -- only to draw the attention of someone who wanted to attack me. :gaah

So, be careful what you wish for, folks, because it's a Monster Vision world out there: Anything can bite you in the a$$ at any time.
 
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Undercover

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I finally opened my WIP again and read the first chapter. It's at 35K right now and I am forcing myself to at least read through it again. It pains me to think I dumped it months ago. I have 2 novels on submission and it's been eating my brains away. I figure after the new year, I must pick up again instead of wallowing in wait.

I'd like a writing buddy, maybe that would help. Perhaps I'll post something in that forum again.
 

triceretops

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I just had to stop putting off my sequel and knuckle down and start hammering the damn thing out while my content site is dry. No sub responses have come in yet, and I suppose they will start after the New Year. I need to really make some gains on this thing and stop feeling depressed and sorry for myself.

tri
 

WriteMinded

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I worried at my current WIP problem long enough to decide to dissect it and reassemble - with different parts. It's on my mind to construct an outline. I always figured that with a beginning, middle, and end in mind, I was good to go. Trouble is, I was traveling all over the place, picking up debris as I went.

Letting the extraneous bits go is a battle. My mind keeps telling me you need that, you need that. No, no, no, what I need is a plot that stays on track.

"Is it cheating if I use parts of other drafts and notes that I've written before?"

At the moment I feel like I'm putting together a puzzle, not writing a book.
Cheating???? The only writing cheat is plagiarism.

All those parts I'm taking out of my WIP, I'm saving (I save EVERYTHING). I'll need them someday. When I do, they will be waiting.

Oh well, it makes me feel secure - and I've got plenty of room on my hard drive. :)
 

Stanhy59

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What's been on my mind has been several pronged.
What the next step is in my WIP.
How the progress is going with the one I have been querying agents for. (so far slow, my first querying effort).
What my evolving style seems to be.
What to do with a previous work that I have been letting percolate.
And how to avoid getting scammed someplace along the way.
I hope the poster who said they were 'attacked' meant in the verbal way, not physical. :( This world seems scarier every day.
 

adarkfox

designs books | writes books
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Trying to rally up for 2013.. planning an alcohol-infused writing session tonight. Which should be hilarious.. if I'm tipsy the characters are tipsy...
 

Atalanta

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That "jumping tension" is my literary nemesis. I'll write A, B, E -- and then tear my hair out when the narrative refuses to move. Why does it never occur to me to just go back and write C and D? *headdesk*
 

Jon M

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Was attempting to finish a 10k novelette over the course of ten days, ending tonight, but didn't quite make it. Almost, though ... ~ 8k.

(is slow ... in many ways)
 

Tepelus

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Well, I didn't finish the first draft of my novel like I had hoped by the final day of this year, but all I have left is to finish one earlier chapter and a few of the odds and ends I skipped sprinkled about, so I'm pretty gosh darn close. Haven't written crap today. A little, but not much. Just can't get into it today. Maybe better luck tomorrow.
 

Bogna

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Right now I'm thinking about the goals I've set for 2013 and hoping to get a Google doc started up so I can track my progress. I have R&R to work on but I'm scarred. :cry:
 

WriteMinded

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The outline. Where to begin. Where to go - - - from beginning to end.

Like Stanhy59, what to do with the abandoned half-finished novel. Probably another f@#!%&# outline. Moan.

Okay. New year. New beginnings. Right.
 

triceretops

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There's a heck of a lot of 50-page novels out there. You can fight your way through it. Think of subplots that might thrust the MCs into worse danger as the storyline progresses. I view it simply as a three act format:

Run your character up a tree: (present the problem he/she has to overcome).

Throw rocks at your character in the tree. (make it very difficult for you MC to solve the problem--even break a few branches, threatening their perch (subplots)

Take your character down out of the tree (let them solve the problem, but not without a lot of effort. Reward them)

Very simple and basic, I know. It's a gradual rise of tension, conflict and problem solving that leads to a crescendo/resolution.

Painting yourself into a corner is common and difficult to fix sometimes. Back up a scene or two, or chapter, and start over there, going in a different direction. No need to trunk the whole thing. Fight your way through.

tri
 

Rufus Coppertop

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What's on my mind is that I suck.

I have a completed and revised manuscript. I badly want to rewrite the beginning and I can't. I didn't think writers' block existed but it does.

There's also the feeling which I just cannot shake that no agent will ever want to read past page one so there's no point anyway.
 

scribofelidae

New(ish) kid, be gentle!
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Lately, it's been thinking about and worrying over my local face-to-face writing group. We may be spiraling down. These folks have become my close friends, too, which is making it worse.
 

DragonHeart

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Hmm, the next short story I will be writing seems like it would work best in first person. I don't usually write in first--prefer third.

I also need to read more short stories since I plan on writing a few.
 

kkbe

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What's on my mind is that I suck.

I have a completed and revised manuscript. I badly want to rewrite the beginning and I can't. I didn't think writers' block existed but it does.

There's also the feeling which I just cannot shake that no agent will ever want to read past page one so there's no point anyway.

Rufus, I can relate. This is when you need to be kind to yourself, right? So give yourself a break. Read. Crit some. Do other things you like doing. This too shall pass.
 
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buz

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I want to give up on my current WIP. Lost some of it to a computer crash and I started rereading to get myself back in the flow of things and orient myself for rewriting, but the more I read it, the more I hate it, the less I want to see it anymore, the less I want to add to it...

Bleah. I'd start working on something else--I want to--but--if I stop now, I worry that I won't ever pick it up again.

Because that's what I do. Finishing a first manuscript was almost miraculous, except that miraculous is much too strong a word. What's something less than miraculous but still kind of amazing? ;)

But. Anyway.

This too shall pass.

Pretty much :D

Just feel like I need a good whine.

(/whine over)
 

triceretops

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Wow, a lot of doom and gloom on these WIPs. Here's one of my really old posts, which is pretty awkward and full of metaphor and simile, but it might shed a little light on your problem:

Abandoning Your Book?



I liken my current WIP to a date. I owe it to her and myself to have a good time and leave with her after the party is over. I chose her for a reason; I was attracted to her; I wanted to hear what she had to say. I wasn't preoccupied with what she might offer. I only wanted to take that small adventure in time with her and appreciate the ride. Oft times a flirt comes along and tries desperately to get my attention, calling out to me with wind songs and coy invites. I'm dancing right now--I can't be bothered to see what's greener on the other side of the mountain.

If I'm too fickle, I'll never enjoy my date all the way through to completion, but instead have an array of disconnected flirtations with something that I end up fantasizing about. The flirtations are cheap time and flashes in a Kodachrome minute. My real date is solid and a very much worthwhile journey. I owe myself the dignity of a having a quality date and seeing it through to the end. Else, I'll hurt her feelings and waste my time.

Do this: try and recapture that mood you had in the moment of conception--when the idea sparked and lit your mind on fire. It sounded pretty good then, didn't it? IT WAS FABULOUS. Unless you were drunk or hopped up on pills. What's really changed? Nothing has changed. You're letting seeds of doubt burst into nasty little buds and begin to take root. You're talking yourself out of it. Asking questions and giving yourself negative answers. You're warming to failure and cooling to success. Or are you making excuses because you believe you're truly blocked? Or are you just lazy right now? Procrastinating? Have you just read a book where the writing, plot and premise totally blew you away, and you're unconsciously comparing yourself to that author?

Get real. Climb down out of that tree (the one you climbed when something spooked you) and plant your feet on solid ground. The story hasn't changed--you have. You've derailed your creative muse, stuck pins in your own voodoo doll. Cease and desist. Unless you truly believe with all your heart that you've made a huge error and this story has no chance because EVERYBODY says so besides you.

Get right back on that baby and give her a whirl around the floor! Don't you know she's waiting for you?
 

Davarian

WARNING: INEXPERIENCED BOOK WRITER
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I only have one WIP. I finally started to write a book last year after entertaining the thought for several. It's been going really slow... Also, I have no idea how many words it is (I also didn't know you were supposed to keep track, lol). The good thing is, everyone who has read it thinks very highly of it, and I don't feel pressure to write when I don't feel like it, because I never promised a due date.