What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

That I need to make more time on a daily basis for it. I try to set aside an hour every day, and even that is hard. I'd like to have a solid two hours for writing every single day but between my family, a demanding f/t job, and extended family obligations, writing time is one of the hardest things to preserve.

Aaaaaand I'm feeling like a fraud again. Is it always going to be like that?
Might trunk both WIPs. My characters are unlikable.

Raindrop said:

Aaaaaand I'm feeling like a fraud again. Is it always going to be like that?
Might trunk both WIPs. My characters are unlikable.

Click to expand...

Do they have to be likable? I go back and forth on this myself. I read The Dinner a year or so ago and I hated that book (I think) because the characters were horrible. All of them (IMHO). Yet I still am not sure I believe characters have to be likable for the book to be compelling. I think we need to be able to connect to them, empathize on some level, but like them? I don't know ... I struggle with that too.

I came up with a premise last night for a new story and I'm (finally) excited about writing again. I hope I feel like this tomorrow.

hopeful09 said:

Do they have to be likable?

Click to expand...

They better have to if that's what they're meant to be like -- I mean, I want them to be likeable. Anyway. Never mind, it's just one of those moments. I'll probably snap out of the "I suck and I'm a fraud" phase in a day or two.

I read the Dinner too, btw. I struggled to get past the first chapter because of the unreliable narrator -- and indeed, none of the characters were likeable. A strange book. I can't say I liked it... at the same time, I'm glad I read it, if that makes sense, and I got into the story eventually.

I'm feeling very frustrated with my writing/editing lately. I guess it doesn't help that I've been sick with a cold/flu (of courrrrseeee I am), which has thrown a wrench into my editing schedule, but I look at my first couple chapters and just feel like it's all awful.

Maybe I need to take a break for a week or so.

ETA:

Raindrop said:

Aaaaaand I'm feeling like a fraud again. Is it always going to be like that?

Click to expand...

Raindrop said:

Might trunk both WIPs. My characters are unlikable.

Click to expand...

Maybe there's something in the water, because this is what I've been going through the last week or so. We can do it, Raindrop! Please don't give up.

I've finally hit my stride rewriting the part I lost. Praise God! Didn't think I'd ever get there.

Raindrop said:

They better have to if that's what they're meant to be like -- I mean, I want them to be likeable. Anyway. Never mind, it's just one of those moments. I'll probably snap out of the "I suck and I'm a fraud" phase in a day or two.

I read the Dinner too, btw. I struggled to get past the first chapter because of the unreliable narrator -- and indeed, none of the characters were likeable. A strange book. I can't say I liked it... at the same time, I'm glad I read it, if that makes sense, and I got into the story eventually.

Click to expand...

Here's hoping the phase passes quickly! And yeah, I'm glad I read it too. I stuck with it, which I don't always when I get frustrated with the characters, so that's something.

Cindyt said:

I've finally hit my stride rewriting the part I lost. Praise God! Didn't think I'd ever get there.

Click to expand...

Yay!!

My WIP is coming along semi-smoothly after going through a difficult patch. I finally figured out how to correct one of the more unbelievable parts of the story early on (and potentially even shorten that section) but it's going to take some rewriting.

Also, I don't know if this is just me, but I find present tense to be occasionally frustrating to write in. Creating a montage of events--such as briefly running through the events that take place over a period of several weeks--feel much harder to write properly than in past tense. And while I'm having to make do without it, I miss being able to manipulate time more fully and gesture to future events.

Raindrop said:

Aaaaaand I'm feeling like a fraud again. Is it always going to be like that?
Might trunk both WIPs. My characters are unlikable.

Click to expand...

Don't give up hope just yet! Those moments of despair when you're in the middle of a story are always rough, but I've found they pass in time. The feeling that you're a fraud or that there is something irredeemably bad about your manuscript seems to be par for the course for many if not most writers, especially when you're still slogging through a draft.

I finished the story that I was re-writing a few days ago. Instead of going back to edit it right away, I set it to the side then went to do a "spit-polish" on the one that precedes it. I know I have a lot of work ahead of me for the one story that I re-wrote but I'm very surprised that the "spit-polishing" of the other one is going so fast. I managed to remove 273 from the first part and am now working on the second part (at the rate I'm going, I'll have this one done in a week to a week and a half then I'll be working on the next).

I was honestly expecting for the one re-worked story to take longer but it really only took 2 months and 3 days (the one I'm currently working on took just 2 months to edit/re-write). Maybe I will be doing the full-blown writing thing again this year (when I checked my document ages, I saw that most were made in February/March. One was made in December of last year).

Raindrop, some of my favorite books have had main characters who were mostly unlikeable with minor characters being too good. The weaknesses in their personalities seemed to make the story more memorable. Gone With The Wind, Wuthering Heights to name a couple. There have been some more recent ones, but I have been reading a lot of old stuff lately, sorry about that. Maybe if you find other areas of your story to tune up they will redeem themselves in your estimation.

Right now I'm trying to figure out how to restructure things. There's a rather long sequence of depressing events, but my narrator is a naturally optimistic person. I think not only does it paint a semi-inaccurate picture of her, but it's also a pain to slog through so much sad stuff. Not sure how I'm going to do that yet though, because the sad stuff is both very important in terms of advancing the plot, but also, it reveals a lot about her job and the world that I didn't fit in elsewhere. So hopefully I'll have that worked out soon!

hopeful09 said:

Do they have to be likable? I go back and forth on this myself.

Click to expand...

They don't have to be likeable as in you want to be friends and hang out with them, but they do need to be compelling. I hate Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones, but George RR Martin crafts enough of a compelling backstory for her--you understand why she wound up where she did in life--that I find her fascinating to follow. Yeah, it'll end in a trainwreck--there's really no other way for it to end for Cersei--but it will be a glorious, spectacular trainwreck.

So again, you can write horrible fiction about horrible characters doing horrible things, but give the reader something compelling about them. Maybe an entertaining voice or a great backstory or make them funny. Whatever you do, just don't make them the boring, bland everyday assholes that you read fiction to escape from. Fiction has to be larger than life.

I don't like structure, so I outlined the remaining chapters in PART FOUR: STRANGER WITHIN THE GATES.

Removed 96 words from The Door In the Mist's second part, will work on part 3, which consists of 8 chapters, tomorrow and will probably work on some of part 4 tomorrow too.

So it turns out that a minor character, that only appeared in one chapter at the beginning and helped establish the flavour of the setting, is actually a big petal in the unfurling mystery. Shame they have to die before the penny drops, but it does give me the opportunity to write the word 'BANG', and what's not to like about that.

WriterDude said:

So it turns out that a minor character, that only appeared in one chapter at the beginning and helped establish the flavour of the setting, is actually a big petal in the unfurling mystery. Shame they have to die before the penny drops, but it does give me the opportunity to write the word 'BANG', and what's not to like about that.

Click to expand...

I have one that started out being just a coachman and now he's an integral part of the story.

Worried my MC is too unlikable. I'm trying to show that he's a good person that makes bad decisions... lol Also struggling with an epic end to my first chapter.

MJLowry said:

Worried my MC is too unlikable. I'm trying to show that he's a good person that makes bad decisions... lol Also struggling with an epic end to my first chapter.

Click to expand...

Have your MC do something to endear readers. He's a bad butt, but he rescued a dog from an abuser or a child from drowning or fed a homeless person.

This thread of late is challenging my somewhat comfortable assumption that my characters are naturally likeable. I hadn't considered that they might not be for a second. Bugger.

I suppose there is the gobby salesman that brags about how his woman takes him, loudly, in public and in her presence, but he's meant to be brash and annoying. I just haven't worked out what loathsome product he peddles with his greasy hands.

I do need more bad guys though, most of my antagonist turnout to be good, but working to a difficult and incompatible agenda to the MCs.

I've been writing more poetry lately, even though I should probably focus on my novel. But when the poetry itch happens, I just can't help but scratch it. I might even post some of them here.

Emermouse said:

Whatever you do, just don't make them the boring, bland everyday assholes that you read fiction to escape from. Fiction has to be larger than life.

Click to expand...

This is a great piece of advice. I've struggled with this "make them likable" thing for a long time, and this helps me think about it in a different way. I wrote a novel years ago and queried many agents with it. One of them was really interested, but she said she knew she wouldn't be able to sell it because readers wouldn't like my MC. I couldn't figure out how to fix it because the character was realistic; the story was a horrible story and she'd been conditioned to be who and what she was. Now I think maybe that was the problem. Why would people want to read a book about something so tragic that happens in real life that really has no redemptive qualities? I've wanted to revisit (and revise) that book for a long time, but couldn't figure out how to go about it. This really might help. Thanks!

MJLowry said:

Worried my MC is too unlikable. I'm trying to show that he's a good person that makes bad decisions... lol Also struggling with an epic end to my first chapter.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the club!

On the plus side, I'm super-excited about my WIPs again. Especially the shitty first one (Incubus). As in, I don't think I've EVER been *that* excited about it, except maybe just after I finished the first draft.

Raindrop said:

I'll probably snap out of the "I suck and I'm a fraud" phase in a day or two.

Click to expand...

I feel like this often--it seems to come and go in cycles. I often feel like an imposter and started doubting my talents and my ideas. Like I'm a fraud and who do I think I'm kidding with this? But then someone reads my writing and tells me it's not as hopeless as I think it is, and all is well in the world again. So, hang in there. I think that 'I'm a fraud' feeling comes and goes for the majority of us.

Thinking about plot lines, juicy new ones that are cropping up in my four part series.
I'm like you with the whole wanting to go back and read it over, especially if it caught my fancy. I'll read it over a bunch, then it'll hurt to read it again after that, you know, a feeling like my writing is so terribly horrible that I can't look at it : p ouch...

Meno