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What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

Kerosene

Your Pixie Queen
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...er. With the book I'm writing, currently in multiple 3rd, should I make is a 1st person story?

...contradicts my stand on only a single first person. It's only two POVs, that I can create distinctive voices with. I could start each chapter with their names is headings, I've seen this used to clear things up.

It's just...
...I want more internal turmoil and it gets hard in 3rd if I try to push internal emotions into the narration without pushing the 3rd narrator (hidden behind the curtain) voice.
...and the characters have distinctive characteristics that play out well in the narration. I could expand that in their own voice.
...and it's YA.

Might as well do it. *Sigh* It'll be hard to get back in 1st. I wrote in it for years until I switched for multiple POVs.
 

leversandpulleys

Thick Fish; Learning About New skin
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The other week I finished converting 75k words from 3rd to first. It wasn't so bad, and it forced me to look hard at the manuscript from a slightly different perspective.

I did it for some similar reasons. If your third is so close that you can switch the prose easily from 3rd to 1st, chances are you're moving in the right direction.

Craig
 

Sam Argent

Rygel XVI
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Fine, I'll expand the prologue. I hate you, Brain. I really, really hate you.
 

Silver-Midnight

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Well, I haven't entirely been keeping to my writing schedule. However, due to my schedule with everything else, I really think that's okay. I'm still fairly busy. However, I do get a few words in, every now and then. That's something.
 

Steph

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I have no discipline or self-restraint lately. If something is tedious or boring, I don't do it. I only really feel like writing when I'm meant to be doing something else (...like at work). It makes me feel really badly and I'm getting no where.
 

aixsponsa

This is not Kelly Kapoor Story Hour
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I'm happy to be working on my novel again. A few days ago I hit 25,000 words and just lost all motivation after that. It's nice to be working on it again, because I was starting to feel bad.
 
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“You’re very pale and thin, Eva. Your eyes are quite large. From a distance, you do not even pass as a member of the human species, despite your valiant efforts. I’ve seen you walking about that zoo of a school you attend, face down to the floor as you tread over the dirt and leftover food that comes with being a caged animal. Nonetheless, your appalling fashion sense, reminiscent of a fifties schoolgirl yet to ripen, indicates that you consider yourself different from your peers, and yet you want to blend in with the filthy crowds; an old and broken vinyl record amongst MP3 players and social media addicts who spends her days mentally masturbating to delusions of a fairy godmother coming into your life and improving it. That fairy godmother, that opportunity, has now come, but with a catch: it is your choice, and still, you are hesitant, reluctant. To be as succinct as possible, you make no conscious attempt to seize something beneficial, and subsequently, you dig deeper into the abyss that you presently occupy. Hedgehog's dilemma: to come out or not to come out. You are a hedgehog if I ever saw one, Eva. What a tragedy."
Klaus Krieger, from my WIP.
 

SpinningWheel

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Sent my completed second draft round to beta readers. Now torn between excitedly expecting someone to get back to me and say they liked it, and imagining worse case scenarios where it is so bad they can't think of anything to say.
 

Almondjoy

Keep moving forward <3
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Feeling really excited about my WIP. I finally came up with a perfect beginning for it, that solves a lot of the issues I was having. Now all I have to do is finish it so I can actually start the re-write. =)
 

Tepelus

And so...
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Trying to write my main character's first time... Hard!

I'm about to head into editing the chapter where my MC has his first time, and am thinking that since he doesn't remember much of it due to drunkenness, I may fade it to black instead of keeping the details. For one, cuts down my word count which I need to do, but mostly, he doesn't remember much of it, so it would make more sense to just cut the scene from where he last remembers.
 

Saija

Your source of questionable advice
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After doing quite a few critiques, I'm noticing all of the same mistakes I've been correcting from others' writing in my own, except I can't seem to fix them. I go through cycles with how I feel about my writing, and at the moment I'm at the "I can't write a fluent sentence to save my life" -stage. Reading over my first draft of my WIP, it appears to have been written by a 10-year-old. This has led me to the decision that I might need to do a complete rewrite, which I was hoping to avoid. I am currently procrastinating with the rewrite, in part because I'm not sure the second draft will even be an improvement, anyway.

I'm also afraid to post my own query letter in SYW. :D I feel like a fraud because my WIP is no where close to being done. Ugh!

On a brighter note, I thought up a totally bad*** new plot idea for a new story.
 

Atalanta

Bring me a knitting needle.
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You are a hedgehog if I ever saw one, Eva. What a tragedy.

This was so mean, but I liked it. :D

Trying to write my main character's first time...

I had to do this in my WIP. It was awesome. I'm writing standard fantasy, so there was a fade-to-black, but only after the good stuff; i.e., the naif intellectual seducing the jaded sailor. It's good to be the author!

After doing quite a few critiques, I'm noticing all of the same mistakes I've been correcting from others' writing in my own, except I can't seem to fix them.

Why does this happen? It's like a curse or something. I just read an excerpt of a friend's work, and I'm picking out all the amateur junk -- and then there it is the next day, the same crap right in my own first draft. WTF?

Speaking of that crappy first draft... I'm still wrestling with the climax -- but I shall emerge victorious! Someday. :D
 

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW
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Well, I just decided to abandon one of my series for the moment. I like the story, but I know I haven't done it justice, and can't do it justice without going well over recommended word count. I want to write this story the way it's meant to be written.
 

WriteMinded

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Oh yes! There is always WORD COUNT, the bane of my existence -- and always on my mind.

Reminds me of a song.
 

geminirising

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What's on my mind about my writing . . . I guess I'm wondering if I want to incorporate a pretty complicated historical subplot into my MG book (ala Holes, although I would not dare compare my WIP to Sachar's work of genius!). Right now my book is completely character-driven (I'm only 4 chapters in), but the new subplot is a possibility. I guess what I should do is just keep writing and see where the story takes me. My concern is tacking on a subplot that has nothing to do with the characters and their relationships. So I'd need to figure out a way to make the subplot tie into the main plot, thematically . . . I guess my main concern should just be finishing a first draft, though!
 

Trapjaw

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This question for me should be "what's NOT on your mind about your writing?". I can't stop thinking about the (multiple) stories (standalone novels, series novels, short stories and novellas) that I'm currently working on. Even when I'm at work (the day job), most of the time I'm not paying attention and actually thinking about my characters and plot lines. I love sitting down and getting stuck in, really getting into my little fictional worlds. Writing, creating, editing, revising, critiquing, rewriting, re-editing, repeat repeat repeat repeat (I'm a perfectionist to the core and severely critical of my own work, and I keep on working on my writing until I think the final product is as polished as it can possibly be)... I LOVE the entire process. I think, to be honest, the only time that I'm not thinking about my writing is when I'm playing music (I'm a drummer too).

Got my writin' on my mind and my mind on my writin'...
 

Atalanta

Bring me a knitting needle.
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^Himself. As a minor, he wasn't fit to raise the baby, so it was placed for an open adoption. He and the gang were invited to its first birthday.

O.O

I was going to post about... something... but I seem to have misplaced the thought. Umm...

*backs quietly out of the thread*

:D
 

JustinlDew

Shortest Query Winner.
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Yeahs, I've hit a break through with editing and have sniped, pruned, or burned a good half of my WiP. There are no words for this.
 

WendyN

8-armed cyborg tree
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Currently torn between "Let's do more editing!" and "Leave the poor thing alone until your betas get back to you! You're already picked it to pieces!"