What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

I've come to a part in the story which I'm not sure how to proceed. Too much to explain on here and I'm too lazy to type it out. So I guess I'll go read something and hope the kinks work themselves out in my subconscious. It'll get figured out sooner or later (hopefully sooner).

I wrote 4,000 words today! I also figured out the biggest thing holding me back in my writing. I discard so many ideas because I worry that they're not original enough, and thus not marketable enough. Now I'm going to try to remind myself that it's not so much the idea; it's the execution of that idea.

I was also able to cut 30,000 words off the goal for my WIP because I realized I don't need a fourth POV character. I was having trouble figuring out who exactly he was, so I just got rid of him. The other three POV characters were much stronger anyways.

rwm4768 said:

I wrote 4,000 words today! I also figured out the biggest thing holding me back in my writing. I discard so many ideas because I worry that they're not original enough, and thus not marketable enough. Now I'm going to try to remind myself that it's not so much the idea; it's the execution of that idea.

I was also able to cut 30,000 words off the goal for my WIP because I realized I don't need a fourth POV character. I was having trouble figuring out who exactly he was, so I just got rid of him. The other three POV characters were much stronger anyways.

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Congrats! that's always a great feeling. It sounds like you made lots of good progress today. I know the woes of original ideas. I've gone through that mind grind. But just keep moving forward. You sound like you've got it figured out.

Trying to figure out how to turn my episodic comic book into a less episodic novel/comic hybrid.

Got up to 35000 words on my latest. Have the beginning down pat, the intro to the secondary MC (and love interest) and even the ending done. This is a totally out of order proposition going on...now I have to go through the three levels-not-levels of the tower and get that down.

Goal: 58500 and not a syllable shall be wasted.

Tepelus said:

I've come to a part in the story which I'm not sure how to proceed. Too much to explain on here and I'm too lazy to type it out. So I guess I'll go read something and hope the kinks work themselves out in my subconscious. It'll get figured out sooner or later (hopefully sooner).

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Oh, I have one of those spots too. I know what needs to happen, but I have no idea how to get there. It's making me crazy tormenting me.

rwm4768 said:

I wrote 4,000 words today! I also figured out the biggest thing holding me back in my writing. I discard so many ideas because I worry that they're not original enough, and thus not marketable enough. Now I'm going to try to remind myself that it's not so much the idea; it's the execution of that idea.

I was also able to cut 30,000 words off the goal for my WIP because I realized I don't need a fourth POV character. I was having trouble figuring out who exactly he was, so I just got rid of him. The other three POV characters were much stronger anyways.

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Haha. I'm having the same trouble with a character. Unfortunately, I can't cut him out 'cause I need him to be killed by his friend somewhere near the end of the book.

P.S. Please note: Friend killing friend. It's not an "original" idea.

Having a couple breakthroughs with the middle of my book. Working on a query and synopsis really helped clarify things. The middle has been driving me crazy, but I think this will make the story much stronger. It's amazing how tough my first book has been, the other books in my mind are far clearer. But I'm thinking this will make me a stronger plotter in the long run.

I've written about 2,000 words so far today (mostly in the last hour and a half or so). I really love my opening four chapters right now. Character 1 got the first two chapters, Character 2 got chapter three, and Character 3 gets chapter four, which I have not yet finished.

At least I have a general idea of where I'm going to end up at the end of the story. Now it's just a matter of getting there.

I need to work more on project D, but I can't stop running back to tweak C.

Then again, some of those tweaks can make a huge difference. I'd thought, for instance, that since it was an absurd story, it was okay for my villain's motives to be absurd. He did have a reason for what he did, but I wasn't too concerned with its utter and total lack of Earth logic.

This morning, while working on the query letter, I realized a tiny change to those motives cast everything else in the book in a whole new light whilst working perfectly with its theme, making the villain a little less quirky but a lot more threatening, and I only had to alter one scene and two lines in another.

Editing and afraid to look & see how bad my writing is. But, I have three more pages to do before I get back to the stupid scene I've been perpetually stuck on for a month & finish it.

But, on the bright side, I actually have a legitimate reason to finish this novel now & I'm getting more & more ideas of what to do with eventual sequels, so at least I won't be so stuck when I get there... but, I do have to get there first.

(PS: There isn't an emoticon for kicking my own ass, so this'll have to do. lol)

I just read back through my most recent chapter. I was worried it wasn't very good, but when I read it, I liked it.

As I've been revising Empire of Chains, I've realized that my antagonist is one of my favorite characters, especially now that I'm giving him some POV time. I think it really helps turn it into the story I want to be (even if it does add words to an already long story).

Well, I actually had quite a bit to do lately, for a change, but I guess I'm pretty proud of myself for getting through another 1500 words in the past couple of days.

Unfortunately, I'm still on that damn scene...

Any ideas on how I ought to celebrate when I actually get it... he asked sarcastically.

What's on my mind - I keep almost bursting into tears while trying to plot the death scene of one of my characters, and I can't decide whether that's a good sign, a bad sign, or simply a sign that my emotional state is more delicate right now than I thought.

Undercover said:

My timeline is also messed up which means I'll have to reread the entire thing all over again. urgh! Oh well, it goes with the territory, so whatever on that.

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I have this exact same problem. I've been alternating between trying to sort out the timeline and just writing the damn thing and sorting it out later.

Faye-M said:

What's on my mind - I keep almost bursting into tears while trying to plot the death scene of one of my characters, and I can't decide whether that's a good sign, a bad sign, or simply a sign that my emotional state is more delicate right now than I thought.

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Good luck with it.


So I can't write without an outline. But then I never stick to it!!

I was meant to write a scene where two minor characters meet for a drink and maybe start to quite like each other...

They ended up getting into a fight and one of them stormed out.

I love when shit like that happens.

Gah, queries are hard. They make me want to bitch for hours. I miss my ms. It's like editing, writing and querying use three different parts of the brain–and mine is going to take while to get out of querying mode.

Although...I feel like I'm getting it. I just don't know if mine is good anymore. Maybe I just need some time from it. The synopsis isn't much fun either.

No offense, but these two methods seem kind of dated. Honestly, the first chapter is what tells me whether the story is good or not. Many queries sound so cheesy to me, yet they get the okay. Different tastes, I guess. I just hope mine someday fits an agent's.

I just recently bought Scrivener and moved my MS to it. I've added a couple of metadata fields -- POV and Timeline -- which I use to identify the obvious data on each chapter.

I've already discovered some sequencing issues, and am going to have to move a few chapters around. I'm liking the software.

Spreading out the sci-fi tech building descriptikn so it doesn't all fall as an infodump in the first few pages.

I like the NaNo I'm working on this year. I don't plan on reaching the 50k words, but I love the way my plot that I'm outlining is going.

Started Nano with a completely new story. So far, it is flowing well. Happy be done with revisions for a while but I really need to start working on editing all my short stories. I put together a list and I have more than I thought. If I could finish the edit and polish stage, I might actually have some product to get out somewhere.

Vowed I was not going to do NaNo with a new novel idea and promptly went camping all weekend to avoid plot bunnies. And...I stumbled into one just a little while ago and it's multiplying like crazy. And driving me mad. I'm supposed to be editing my current WIPs this month, not chasing the shiney new idea down a rabbit hole!

But, but...it's so shiney! And it ties back into this idea that's been rattling in my brain for decades...

I'm not officially participating in NaNo, but I am playing the home game, as I've heard it called. Not the vampire novel; my outline for that is nowhere near complete. Instead, I dashed off a half-hour outline for an idea in my idea notebook I was not particularly attached to; that way, I won't feel too bad if I get caught up in my day job or my query letter or the vampire book and don't make it through the whole thing.

I haven't written anything for a couple of days for reasons, but there is something else about my novel that I've been trying to figure out for a while in terms of my subtitle.

I decided I wanted the subtitle of each book in the series to almost be how the main POV character would describe the events of the novel- short, dark, artistic and a little bit on the melodramatic side. But, the problem is the series title is "Spirits." So, at least for the first one, I don't want the title to actually come off as a paranormal speculation/ theory/ informative work & be overlooked simply by confusion or derision. Unfortunately, I have yet to think of something that legitimately sounds good that doesn't take that route...

Getting things right on an emotional level.

I'm currently working on my second Doc Vandal adventure, and have somehow found myself writing an interracial lesbian romance as the B-story.

As a half-outliner, half-pantser, I have to start by saying I didn't plan it. My female lead character encountered another woman in a pretty dangerous situation, and as I started writing the dialogue it felt right for the character but not entirely right for the situation (based on the new character being a one-scene-and-done as originally planned). Eventually, I figured out it was romantic attraction, which created an entirely new character arc for the existing character.

So now, the hard part is making sure I'm emotionally true to these characters and their feelings. As much as possible I'm trying to focus on the two characters as individuals, rather than to try to put them under any sort of label. It also doesn't help that the POV character of the two isn't really thinking in those terms yet, mainly because sexuality has never been a big part of her life. Several other characters know exactly what's going on, but she's basically clueless. (I'm coming up on the scene where she figures things out, but it may be a bit before I can put down the paying work to get there.)