What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

Punk28 · Aug 20, 2017

Noticed an inconsistency with chapter 11. Aldiria is said to be the daughter of Kamiki and Eunxyll, who are sister and brother-in-law to RosolVile's father, thus making her Rosol's cousin instead of first-cousin (the child of a cousin). Tonight's the last night I'm working on chapter 11. I just feel I need to work on the next two chapters before getting down and dirty with going through 1-13 all over again (a simple polishing, nothing serious).

underpope · Aug 20, 2017

Realized that the MC in my short story is an ex-Marine, and she's a bad ass.

rwm4768 · Aug 20, 2017

My depression is on my mind. I have barely written anything this month, and I can't keep doing that.

Undercover · Aug 21, 2017

Working on book #6. I fight through depression too, so I can relate. Some days are unbearable. I try to keep a daily routine up. Lately I've been doing pretty good. In the back of my mind though, I'm always afraid I'll drop the ball, cause sometimes I do. I'm not a robot. No one is. Don't beat yourself up, rwm. We all get those days.

M.C.Statz · Aug 21, 2017

Harlequin said:
^Nerd.

I just did a check for today's and it read 1337. I would not make this stuff up.

To reply to the titular question, I fucking suck. I'm writing mindless scenes connecting point A to point B so I can proclaim my first draft done. I know most of what I write will be relegated to the abyss of the cutting room floor, as it should be.

I tell myself I may have one or two more moments of composition I appreciate before the draft is done, and even if I don't, the writing is practice enough. But I fear I will never be able to pull those meaningful moments together in one real piece of art.

I do believe that I will never build this road unless I lay the first cobblestone, or build the house until I install the first footing, but I fear I will never amount to much more than a pretty good cobblestone layer and footing installer, and never be a road builder or home builder.

underpope · Aug 21, 2017

rwm4768 said:
My depression is on my mind. I have barely written anything this month, and I can't keep doing that.

My sympathies. I know how hard it is to write when depression is biting at you.

Harlequin · Aug 22, 2017

M.C.Statz said:
I just did a check for today's and it read 1337. I would not make this stuff up.

To reply to the titular question, I fucking suck. I'm writing mindless scenes connecting point A to point B so I can proclaim my first draft done. I know most of what I write will be relegated to the abyss of the cutting room floor, as it should be.

I tell myself I may have one or two more moments of composition I appreciate before the draft is done, and even if I don't, the writing is practice enough. But I fear I will never be able to pull those meaningful moments together in one real piece of art.

I do believe that I will never build this road unless I lay the first cobblestone, or build the house until I install the first footing, but I fear I will never amount to much more than a pretty good cobblestone layer and footing installer, and never be a road builder or home builder.

If it's any consolation, you have the right attitude. I completed my first MS last december and it was so bad I'm surprised my critique partners didn't haemorrhage from the first five hundred words. I'm not saying it's "good" by now, but it is less bad for sure.

My (limited experience) observation of writers is that it often comes down to attitude: how well you take and incorporate criticism, how realistically you view yourself, how much perseverance you put in. Luck is always an element, but not those things so much.

1337 indeed.

Taylor Harbin · Aug 22, 2017

Finally got a sf short finished that'd been bugging me for ages, now I can get back to writing my children's fantasy novel. I find a lot of my short story ideas are requiring more and more research.

bin_b0x · Aug 22, 2017

Happy. Got some feedback from beta readers and my writing, overall, appears to have improved. Getting others to look at your work really does open your eyes to flaws you never could have seen yourself.

Mad Broom · Aug 22, 2017

I impulsively decided to write a short thing where a few characters from my last NaNoWriMo story go to America to see the eclipse. It was supposed to be like one or two chapters, but I wrote about 4 so far, and they just went on the airplane, and suddenly they're spending a few days in Colorado too. This might take a while to write.

Punk28 · Aug 22, 2017

Didn't do anything on chapter 12 last night. I just didn't feel like working on it (an after-effect from working on chapter 11, I believe). I'll try to work on the chapter today, but I'm not going to push myself or cause damage to what I'm doing because I "feel" like it must be done but don't have the stamina to do it.

rwm4768 · Aug 23, 2017

Yesterday was my most productive day in a long time. I wrote 2,200 words, and I made it through 19% of my third draft for The Shadowed Land in one day. I also should have a cover reveal for The Shadowed Land pretty soon, so that's exciting.

underpope · Aug 23, 2017

I forgot various technical things (it's technical), I couldn't work on "Anamet" during my lunch break this afternoon, so I opened Scrivener and began to work on Padma. Then I had a crisis of confidence regarding that novel, and so now I'm writing this post instead of any fiction.

Punk28 · Aug 23, 2017

Decided to stop editing then go back to the start. I never made notes on what I changed, and there's bits that still need to be changed, so I can't continue until I've made them changes and then listed what I've done. I do believe I made the appropriate changes to the Prologue, but need to read them again before being happy.

RLGreenleaf · Aug 23, 2017

underpope:

You've made a few references to your work, Padma, and I am curious about it.

I am not sure, but I belive it (Padma) is a name used in one of the Star Wars movies, but it also sounds Indian, and that is what caught my interest.

I am currently in the process of expanding a novella into a full-length novel, and it takes place in ancient India.

So I was wondering if perhaps your work and mine might possibly have anything in common.

Perhaps you can give me a 25-word description, but only if you care to share. If not, that's ok, too.

Thanks!

Shoeless · Aug 23, 2017

underpope said:
I forgot various technical things (it's technical), I couldn't work on "Anamet" during my lunch break this afternoon, so I opened Scrivener and began to work on Padma. Then I had a crisis of confidence regarding that novel, and so now I'm writing this post instead of any fiction.

I'm also having a crisis of confidence right now. I was asked to contribute a short story to an anthology and I said "Geez, of course, YES! THANK YOU!"

Now I'm wondering if that was such a great idea, since whatever story I write will probably be "the worst one." I may write three, and just tell them to pick the one that sucks least.

Punk28 · Aug 23, 2017

Except for 1 sentence, the prologue of my WIP is done. This sentence is frustrating as hell, but is so key to what's happening that it has to stay, so I'm between a rock and a hard place on how to get it fixed to read right.

edutton · Aug 24, 2017

Research!

And cringing with horror at an author's note I just read on Amazon, basically saying, "This is a book about a sailor but I couldn't be bothered to do, like, any actual research, so just ignore the inaccuracies."

No.

yourgigishorrible · Aug 24, 2017

Starting to feel it again after writing a short story for a contest. I think I'm gonna try my hand at NaNoWriMo this year.

Punk28 · Aug 24, 2017

Now on chapter 2 (turned into 2 sentences that I had an issue with, but that were found to not be a problem when I read them with the entirety of the paragraph before them). The Prologue is as tight as I can get it emotionally, physically, and mentally, so it's done. I don't think I put too much change in on what's going on in chapter 2, but I'll check it over before going on to chapter 3 and so on.

rwm4768 · Aug 24, 2017

I haven't been writing, but I've been editing. Still productive, but not as exciting.

Taylor Harbin · Aug 24, 2017

Ever since the solar eclipse ended, my job has been sapping my energy. Tried to write some more on the novel after unwisely taking time to finish a short story and couldn't write a single page. I've got to expand and revamp a section I already wrote, hopefully push it from 12k to 20k. Not sure what I've done wrong, but I regret the deviation. Reading fantasy to get my mind back in the right place, but nothing's coming out...except more ideas for shorts.

Reservoir Angel · Aug 25, 2017

How do people manage to block out the voices telling you to write things you have no plan for writing?

Because my recent obsession with Dark Souls video games has given me this strong desire to write some kind of bleak, dark fantasy despite having to clue as to plot or character or...anything, really.

WriteMinded · Aug 25, 2017

edutton said:
Research!

And cringing with horror at an author's note I just read on Amazon, basically saying, "This is a book about a sailor but I couldn't be bothered to do, like, any actual research, so just ignore the inaccuracies."

No.

So what I want to know is, how many copies of the book did you buy?

Simpson17866 · Aug 25, 2017

Reservoir Angel said:
How do people manage to block out the voices telling you to write things you have no plan for writing?

Because my recent obsession with Dark Souls video games has given me this strong desire to write some kind of bleak, dark fantasy despite having to clue as to plot or character or...anything, really.

I make a note to save it for later, and maybe I'll come up with a plot or character or anything at some undetermined future point

Trust me, just acknowledging "I have an idea, but I am putting it on the back burner" is a lot more effective than trying not to acknowledge the idea

What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

Punk28

underpope

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW

Undercover

I got it covered

M.C.Statz

Little fish in a big pond

underpope

Harlequin

Eat books, not brains!

Taylor Harbin

Power to the pen!

bin_b0x

Mad Broom

Punk28

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW

underpope

Punk28

RLGreenleaf

Ummm, just one more chapter...

Shoeless

Punk28

edutton

Ni. Peng. Neee-Wom.

yourgigishorrible

Punk28

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW

Taylor Harbin

Power to the pen!

Reservoir Angel

Angelic by name, fiendish by nature

WriteMinded

Derailed

Simpson17866