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What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

Kerosene

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I'm split between my NaNoWriMo novel, and editing my first WIP.
Unsure about what to write about with Shade, and hesitant about exiting Advent because I know I'll be digging in and rewriting/revising/editing heavily.

I also need to start compiling ideas about my 3rd book for my series. (I'm one of those people who write the next book on the fly, not planning out the entire series before I even write the first book).
 

Escape Artist

Plotting her escape...
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I don't have my laptop right now, so I'm kind of stuck in a "feed the muse" type of phase - watching stuff like Fringe and reading all kinds of fiction because once I get the laptop back, it'll be back to writing. Of course, I know what'll happen once I get the laptop back. I'll stare at a blank page and not know where to go or where to start.

I'm in such a funk right now. I question everything I write and whether it's good enough and I just want to go back to where it was fun to write. That said, I believe I'm coming out of it and realize where I went wrong. I think I took one bit of criticism too strongly and felt the whole story was trash and I've spent the last year or so just mucking it up even worse. If I recall correctly, it was JAR who made mention of this - how new writers will often rewrite the life out of a piece, and I think that's what I've done. I've strayed so far from what I really wanted to write and am now just... Stuck. Lost. Something. I'm retracing my steps and going back to the original version of the first story I wrote and trying to stick with the vision I had for it while incorporating that criticism that was actually right on the money, but I just didn't work with it the right way.

Instead of sitting back, taking a few deep breaths, and brainstorming through all the ways I might "fix" that particular problem without damaging the rest of the work, I just said, "Well, it's all shit then," and started making major changes, and I mean major. Some of the things I changed might have been interesting, but the heart of the story was gone and therefore all the life, too.

So now, while my precious laptop is gone (I cannot for the life of me write by hand - the words just don't flow), I'm trying to make up for lost time and come up with a plan of action - stay close to the heart of the original story (using a loose outline to keep me on track), and don't meddle (in other words, let the story play out as it should, as the story dictates, not as the characters dictate, because I think, in the end, story trumps characters).
 

Silver-Midnight

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The words just aren't coming out right now. It's like I want to write, not because I really have a story to tell but just because. I mean I do have some story ideas but they aren't fleshed out that much so, they're hard, kind of, to write. I mean I can't even decide what I want to write. So, I just end up starting fresh and trying again only to want to write something different. I think I just need to stick to my writing break. I need time to....I don't know, think, clear my head, not think about it. Who knows?
 

71writer

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I know that I'm OCD. Maybe that's part of my problem. :)
I have 2 WIPs that I've been on now for years. Well one has been years the other about a year. I am facing up to the fact that I want to write more than I actually DO write.
I think about my works all the time. I have ideas for others also but refuse to start anything new until I get through these.
Earlier this year I set my goals and one of those goals was to finish my novel by December. Lol. Yeah right. I have just reworked the first chapter!
I do much better under pressure and I don't like leaving things unfinished. So I'm going to tackle the YA and try to finish it by the end of December.
If I can, then I will have something to work with and to submit. Otherwise I am looking at going back to work full time. I have been blessed to not have to but the extra money would be nice and I sure haven't made anything off writing.
 

DragonHeart

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Just sat down and pounded out the first draft of Deathwalker, the first in a series of short stories I've been contemplating for awhile now. I had planned on finishing my current project first but I simply got to the point where I could no longer push this aside. Revising will be a pain but it feels good to sit down and put out over a thousand words in less than two hours.
 

Hankleton

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I'm trying to decipher how many characters I need. My MC is agoraphobic, so I'm thinking this will limit the number of characters I need to incorporate. So far I have my MC, her love interest, two best friends, parents, a grandmother, and a therapist. Is that enough though? I guess I will see at the end how many words I have. I am currently sitting on 12k
 

kkbe

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I've been discombobulated due to various circumstances. Working on my NaNo thingie in fits and starts, and aye-dub's Christmas Creepy Contest thingie (which I may or may not submit), critting and/or commenting on various AW threads to contribute something worthy to the cause, chewing my nails while I wait for a select group of talented and generous people to finish reading--or start reading--various manuscripts. . .

Discombobulated whilst in a holding pattern.
 

devilsjunkshop

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I changed a few things about my wip whilst I was writing the bulk of it during nanowrimo. So now the beginning doesn't really link up properly with the proposed ending (character priorities, background details, etc). I've probably got another 10 or 15 thousand words of danger, excitement and final battle to go before the story ends, but...

I'm wondering should I go back and repair the disconnect now, or just write the ending as it should be and fix all the linkages when I do a redraft later.

The net result of this is me thinking about the writing whilst not doing any writing. Blah.
 

Sunwords

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Struggeling with editing/rewriting my WIP. It needs at least one more POV - I started out with one, it would work, but it just needs more life - and I have to add lots of stuff about the common history of two MCs, who don't know at first that they are about to meet again. First love ... and now more or less on opposite sides.

If I had planned it like this, would not have been this much of a problem, but just now I am stuck with inserting hints in scenes I wrote and find the right place to insert new scenes and I don't like it, although my new ywriter seems to help some.
 

Sonsofthepharaohs

Still writing the ancient Egyptian tetralogy
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Still stewing on what to do with feedback from my agent. She wants me to write an outline for the rest of my incomplete MS, but I can't write it for thinking about it. I oscillate between two alternative directions to go in. Can't write actual word countage either while direction of travel is uncertain. Hence - :gaah
 

heyheymse

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I'm worried about just getting words on the page at this point, and I'm trying to drown out any little self-critical voice that prevents that from happening. It's hard to fight the urge to edit as I write!
 

Putputt

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Have finished reading through the first draft of my Nano book. Have finished putting together a (very long, very extensive) list of changes I need to make.

But when I think about implementing said changes, I feel like the computer's looking back at me and going: :e2moon:

Editing intimidates me. :(
 

Escape Artist

Plotting her escape...
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That I'm in a bit of a stick here lately and I'm in the process of trying to get myself "un-stuck".

Part of my being so has to do with a few things. Firstly, that I struggle with wanting to give all my characters happy endings and yet there's a deeper part of me that wants to treat my characters with indifference, as the universe does with you and I - responding only to what they do, not to who they are, and then dealing out the appropriate consequences to those actions whether pleasurable or painful. I want to write fantasy, but I want to do so in a realistic spirit, if that makes sense.

The conversation below, excerpted from the "Rationalist Trying to Write Fantasy" thread describes it well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SPMiller
But I'm not willing to contribute to the perpetuation of false belief, even if it does make people feel better.

My response was: This resonates very strongly with me as well, along with Ruv Draba's comment about feeling cheated as a reader if you are lied to, and I think what bugs me most is when I feel I'm being lied to about life in general. There is no Happy Ever After out there. There just isn't. And to be told that there is, over and over and over, tends to be... oh, what's the word? ...detrimental to my psyche. Because inevitably, you have to pull your nose out of that book. Inevitably, you have to return to the real world where good deeds are oft unrewarded and wrongs go unpunished, where good men die while evil men prosper, and it hurts. It hurts to know that life will never be what it is in the fairy tales.

I think this is why some of my favorite books are also what many people would call depressing - The Road, 1984, or any one of the many books I have read regarding the Holocaust - but I like them because they don't lie. They tell it like it is, and I love them for their honesty. [end snippet]

So I'm wanting to write true-to-life, if you will, and whether that is the source of my block or it's just my own life getting in the way, I'm in the process of trying to work out the kinks via the following (and this is a snippet from my reply to a post in Outwitting Writer's Block).

[What I've taken to doing lately is to just work on some fundamentals and my problem areas are, without a doubt, lack of tension and poor character motivation. Oh, and that I'm too easy on my characters.

So, what I'm doing is

  • Nixing any and all first-person perspectives and writing strictly in third, to give me some emotional distance from the characters because then it isn't me that these things are happening to, it's them, so maybe I can be a little crueler to them, lol.
  • Actively looking for points in the narrative that I can ratchet up the tension - I have a tendency to let my characters reveal too much, too soon, or to smooth things over when the environment is just rich with opportunity for conflict.
  • Testing my characters to see what they really and truly want for themselves, which pretty much means that they've lied to me in the past about what they want (or else they genuinely did not know) so now I do not take their word for it. If you say you are honest and loyal, you will be quizzed on it.* So that ties into motivation, I suppose.
Anyway, I am hoping that looking at this as practice (using those fave characters of mine, btw) instead of the potential impetus of my career will help unblock me. Plus, I'll not have to deal with the worst part of a block - feeling like I'm getting nothing done - because I am, in point of fact, working on problems that have plagued my writing.

*This is also something I struggle with - the so-called, "Chase your character up a tree and then throw rocks at him/her" because it feels so inorganic, so forced.]

There are some bits out of that last clip that I took out, but you get the idea, I think. Just trying to muddle my way through this block and also work on strengthening my weaknesses. The "up a tree" bit is especially frustrating when my first novel or so was like a movie in my head that I simply wrote down, and now it feels I'm having to pull stuff out of my behind and just see what sticks.
 

goshirn

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I think a lot when I write, but it's what I feel that affects the way I write.

I'm always thinking about stuff like "I'm using this word too much, I have to change it up there so I can use it here, because there's no other word that can fit right now *goes to change it* Ok, now it's better, holy crap, I know how I'll finish this part he's going to run away! Awesome"

That's what I was thinking last time I wrote on my drama, but what I was feeling? That's very complex, I was feeling a mix of emotions, when I was writing about the main character, I was feeling worthless and lost and stupid, why couldn't I control myself, I was feeling guilty too.

Then when I was writing about his wife, I just felt tired and also afraid that I stopped loving someone that needed my help and that the person that I felt in love with maybe didn't exist anymore.

There was also a bit where I wrote about their kids, it was just a paragraph or so, the main character was having a panic attack, he's a vet from a war, and I felt afraid that my dad was hurting, but also there was a familiarity with that feeling because he had been having panic attacks for months.

So yeah, when I write my brain is objective and tries to work on the technical aspect of it, but my heart goes through an emotional roller-coaster, I sometimes even cry when I'm writing.
 

Tolstoyce

The glint of light on broken glass
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Currently? Obsessing over all the worldbuilding-related tweaks I need to make to the first book in my series. I can't wait for winter break to roll around so I can make necessary changes. Plus, I'd like to cut it down by 10k words! Ugh, I want finals to be over now...
 

devilsjunkshop

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I'm worried about just getting words on the page at this point, and I'm trying to drown out any little self-critical voice that prevents that from happening. It's hard to fight the urge to edit as I write!

I've found it helps that I have a post it note stuck to the bottom of my monitor screen with No Editing written on it in large stern letters.
 

MormonMobster

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Currently, I'm frustrated because I genuinely do want to write, but I literally get bored of my ideas before I ever put them down to paper, whether worldbuilding (though that keeps my interest the longest), outlining, or even just trying to free-write. I have a total apathy with everything besides worldbuilding and knowing that I do want to write.

The words won't come, and the ideas are hitting a brick wall. I just don't know what to do in regards to writing. I'm stuck.

Oh, and whenever I try and do a scene with a character, it feels wooden and flat. Argh.
 

Atlantis

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I finished a short story a few weeks ago. It was almost flash fiction - I was so proud. I would like to do another short story but I am waiting for inspiration to strike. I do not want to think too hard about what it should be about because I'll just start sweating blood. I want to let the story evolve naturally and come to me on its own.

I've also got an idea for a blog post that I'm going to do tonight and sometime over Christmas I would like to find the energy to work on my novella.
 

eyebee14

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That sounds rough MormonMobster. I know the feeling though. The problem with me is the fact I am finish with my MS but I am doing the final editing and read through. I am frustrated. Probably the fact that I've been working on this ALL year. I know the story inside and out. I'm find that 48 hours away from my MS helps me in the end! Hang in there everyone! There is always a light at the end of the tunnel!
 

Sam Argent

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I've spent the past couple months trying to organize my writing process and it did not go well. I tried working on only one story and my head felt like a sink with the stopper in but the water still running. When I returned to writing multiple stories at a time, my output increased. I've accepted this is how my brain works, but it's not helpful when my biggest weakness is finishing books.
 

WiltRhys

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Okay, first, I'd like to say I'm glad I found this thread. I'm new to AW and this is helpful to me.

Alright, now on to what's on my mind about my writing. At the moment I'm working on a dark urban fantasy/paranormal or sci-fi romance. I'm also putting the finishing touches on a supernatural thriller with romantic elements.

Anyway, what's got me all in knots is that I have an ms out in the land of submissions. I recently asked another person to beta read it for me and I think I'm starting to obsess. I'm riding that fine line of getting too many opinions. So, that's where I am with my writing. I hope I did this the right way. :)
 

Billycourty

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I am thinking: will i ever read back a chapter and not change something? Will I ever just like it and think yep! That's as good as she gets!

My problem is I write a lot of history essays for uni, they can be anything from 1000 to 4000 words (honours level). They are trash to start with, and then as I go over and over them, they get good and I can honestly submit them and be proud of them. Its just not the same with a 80K novel.
 

Billycourty

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Anyway, what's got me all in knots is that I have an ms out in the land of submissions. I recently asked another person to beta read it for me and I think I'm starting to obsess. I'm riding that fine line of getting too many opinions. So, that's where I am with my writing. I hope I did this the right way. :)

I saw a tweet today, that linked to a site about this (sorry don't have the link) but the jist was that you should have quality not quantity beta readers and that they should understand what you want your story to be and how to help you get there, not just have their own opinion.

Made sense to me.
 

Tolstoyce

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My problem is I write a lot of history essays for uni, they can be anything from 1000 to 4000 words (honours level). They are trash to start with, and then as I go over and over them, they get good and I can honestly submit them and be proud of them. Its just not the same with a 80K novel.

Well, which one do you care about more? The essays or the novel?

The one you love will never be perfect. :Hammer:
 

randi.lee

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I'm in the middle of querying, which also means that I'm in the middle of being rejected...so I'm doing that whole "Am I good enough?" self-loathing thing I always do when I get a no.That's the only thing occupying my writing mind atm.