Are there parts of your novel that you haven't put as much effort into as others?

I would say that beginning is always hard for me.

I have an idea of plot, and concept, and no idea who my characters are. I'm stuck with a bunch of people whose names I might know, but am too unfamiliar with to strike up a conversation.

Its like going with your wife to a cocktail party with all her coworkers, and she leads you in the front door and points down the hall. "That's where all the husbands are. Go make friends. I hear one of them enjoys baseball."

And you walk in, and everyone is just standing there awkwardly, not wanting to be THAT guy. You know, the dude who starts drinking a little too early, and too quickly, and before he knows it, wakes up in the car, half way home with an angry spouse?

Yeah. Thats pretty much how starting my books go. I don't think I hit any kind of stride until at least 15-20K words in.

I typically run into problems like that at the "transitional" parts of the story - where a major "thing" has happened, and now I have to start building up/towards the next major "thing" - and I always want to just jump to the "thing" and forget the transition!

I think at those points, what helps me get through is forgetting that there's more story coming, and just concentrate on what's in front of me - how can I make it interesting for me? By doing that, I maintain my interest and (hopefully) it keeps it interesting for the reader as well.

Thats interesting that you guys have problems with transitions. I am not sure if I do either. Typically I just allow for a passage of time, with a throw away line in the next chapter.

Example:

The blizzard had ended, but another would soon come. This was their one and only shot. They would have to get moving if they were ever going to cross the mountain pass and survive.
End of Chapter

New chapter.
It had taken days of arduous climbing and hellish weather but they'd finally reached the new camp. Bosephus McShiftyBritches gazed at the lush green ground and the gentle flowing brook which sat adjacent, his mind contrasting the image with the nightmarish winter he'd left behind only a few hundred miles ago.


Something like that.

in addition, I have 7 major transitions in my last WIP. At each transition, I inserted a 2 page flash back. Not sure if thats good or bad.

Current WIP? LOL takes place over 48 hours. Almost no slush time at all!


*Note: The above examples I just typed. They are NOT from a WIP!

The ending usually doesn't get the same attention as the start, but usually it doesn't need it.

Chris P said:

Awww. You mean I can stop googling Bosephus McShiftyBritches? (typed that without the f at first).

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Yeah, him, Ebenezer O'LooseStool and Alphonso Von Douchenstein are actually not real characters.

Pedro Alejandro Martinez Alvarez De BorderCrosser is a real name.

Why are you hurrying to finish it while you're 18?

I agree though, I definitely have times when I just want to get it done and so I put less effort in. However, I've learned that it's totally worth it to go back and REALLY take the time to polish and perfect every part of the story. Otherwise I end up reading it over and thinking, "Most of this is crap. Utter crap." And then I get depressed.

Then again, you said you're not as into your story now as you used to be. Maybe you took a wrong turn somewhere? Maybe it's not the tale you envisioned? Maybe you just straight up don't feel any passion for the concept anymore, and if so, why would you continue forcing yourself through it? I could be totally off-base, but it's always something to consider.

As they said in "Galaxy Quest" -- "Never give up! Never surrender!" It's always worth fighting it out with every single scene to get it the way you want it to be. That said, there are parts of my novels that don't get as much effort, but that's simply because, for whatever reason, they turned out the way I wanted on the first or second go. If it ain't broke ...

lucidzfl said:

I would say that beginning is always hard for me.

I have an idea of plot, and concept, and no idea who my characters are. I'm stuck with a bunch of people whose names I might know, but am too unfamiliar with to strike up a conversation.

Its like going with your wife to a cocktail party with all her coworkers, and she leads you in the front door and points down the hall. "That's where all the husbands are. Go make friends. I hear one of them enjoys baseball."

And you walk in, and everyone is just standing there awkwardly, not wanting to be THAT guy. You know, the dude who starts drinking a little too early, and too quickly, and before he knows it, wakes up in the car, half way home with an angry spouse?

Yeah. Thats pretty much how starting my books go. I don't think I hit any kind of stride until at least 15-20K words in.

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You should ease into it with a prologue, maybe.

willietheshakes said:

You should ease into it with a prologue, maybe.

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I admit to laughing audibly at this. Or as the youngsters call it "lol".

There are, because different parts require different amounts of effort to be successful.

lucidzfl said:

I admit to laughing audibly at this. Or as the youngsters call it "lol".

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Good! That was my intent.

Yes, I've done that before. Sometime for me, it's that the excitement of starting something new has worn off. Then I just need to push through. Othertimes, I find I'm havin difficulty with some detail about the story. When this happens my writing slows down to a crawl, I start procrastinating...at these times I have to stop and figure out what the problem is.

Kindness said:

And are there any published authors who have just left things as they are? Even after editing?

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I always leave things as they are, if I can't think of a better way to write them. But if I know something is wrong, I find a way to fix it.

The last thing I want is any strecth, and scene, where an editor can't get into it.

But I think I know what you mean. I don't have to liek a story I'm writing, I can be bored to tears with it, etc., but if the editor side of my brain says it's fine, I leave it.

I only change things when the editor says they need changed, not when my emotions do.

There are certainly some parts of my books which took more effort than others. The majority of the scenes flowed out nicely the first time, but some were very difficult to write the first time, or, even worse, ended up needing rewritten for some reason. I've lost track of how many times I've rewritten or changed the first 4 chapters of my first novel. Undoubtedly the hardest four chapters I've ever written, or probably ever will write (I say 'ever will' because I have the experience to never make so many dumb mistakes ever again, I hope). But yeah, those opening chapters . . . harder than I ever imagined 20,000 words could be. They're great now, though, so all that work paid off (at least in satisfaction, publishing's another matter).

I know all about some parts of a book reading better than others too, though this happened to me because I have multiple books which were written over a long period of time (as much as 4 years). Trying to make it so a scene I wrote when I was brand new to writing and another scene I wrote last week match ain't easy.

I don't know what to say about not feeling 'into' your story anymore. I don't expect to be totally into my writing every single moment, but I've never permanently lost interest in a project which wasn't fatally flawed. Maybe you just need a break. I work on multiple projects and find that a few weeks away from a given book does wonders to renew my interest in it. I think sometimes my characters and I just get sick of each other, lol.

Kindness said:

sometimes I find that either I can't get 'into' a part of my story, or the scene NEVER feels right, or I'm absolutely fed up and just want to get through it.

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If you don't like a scene and you've diddled with it a while and you still don't like it --
kick it out of the manuscript and write something else.

Nothing HAS to be in the plot. Fill it with stuff you love. It's your story.

And ...
'Fed up' is part of the process. You just keep working at the manuscript. Send out for pizza or something.

I hate the transitions, too! I have enough to write still that I can avoid them in detail for now, but Oy. And the perfect beginning. That's going to be hard.

I solved that problem with the rewrite. All I wanted to do was skip ahead to the scenes I was dying to get out, but the few times I did that I had to scrap them anyway because the transition added a twist I wasn't expecting. So I wrote it out with minimal effort for the transitions (but enough to keep the essence of what I wanted) and then during the rewrite I went back and found a new love for the transitions. Those I still hated I scraped and changed drastically, but the rest just got a face-lift.

Are there parts of your novel that you haven't put as much effort into as others?

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No.

When I reach a part I don't want to write because it'll be boring, I insert a space break instead. If what happens during that skipped time is necessary to understanding the plot, I might give it a single-paragraph summary after the space break--and sometimes not even that. Readers are smart and will figure it out.