What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

Miss Strawberrii said:

I found that what I'm reading influences what I want to write about. o.o

Recently it was fantasy, and so I really want to write a fantasy, though I have no ideas. Instead it's urban fantasy, and while I bought a book to help motivate me, I can't seem to read anything at the moment. It's weird.

Click to expand...

This happens to me all the time. In fact, when I'm reading Stephen King, my writing takes on a darker tone and deeper POV's. When I'm reading Robin Hobb, my writing gets longwinded and descriptive. I have to really be in control of myself because I'm highly influenced with what I'm reading at the moment.

Not sure if this is a trait many writers share, or just us. But all the same - I feel ya!

Haha, at least I'm not alone!

I have to be careful on what I put in this book since my best friend was quite strict on certain matters. XD

And now I got encouraged to go back to the high fantasy one I was writing, but I already planned on it being a game... But but but...

Gah.

Hope the fantasy goes well, Strawberii.

And tri, you'll love track changes once you get used to it. It makes editing so much easier. Effort well spent, I promise.

CathleenT said:

Hope the fantasy goes well, Strawberii.

And tri, you'll love track changes once you get used to it. It makes editing so much easier. Effort well spent, I promise.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Cathleen. It doesn't seem too bad. Just accept or reject. Or rewrite sentences right into the text, I think. Once I get used to it, it should become second nature once I learn how to manipulate the controls for each editorial change.

Blinkk said:

This happens to me all the time. In fact, when I'm reading Stephen King, my writing takes on a darker tone and deeper POV's. When I'm reading Robin Hobb, my writing gets longwinded and descriptive. I have to really be in control of myself because I'm highly influenced with what I'm reading at the moment.

Not sure if this is a trait many writers share, or just us. But all the same - I feel ya!

Click to expand...

Your style or voice is a collaboration of everything you read or have read. When I try to write like Stephen King, it comes out in my own voice, no matter how hard I try to emulate him. I'm surely a solid fruit salad of Poul Anderson, Alan Dean Foster, Joe Wambaugh and Micheal Crichton only because I read them almost exclusively. I guess we are what we read.

Yes, I have to be careful when I'm writing that I don't try to copy the style and voice of one I just read. I still haven't recovered from reading the first two books of Ice and Fire. I'm 212 pages into a new manuscript and every chapter I think "No, not enough time has passed for X, Y, or Z to happen. I'm going too fast! Eddard didn't know that Danny was pregnant until page 400 whatever!"

Nothing happened today either with either writing any follow-up chapters or in re-writing what I've written in the last chapter that I wrote. Think I'm going to put this story on the back burner for a little bit, I feel a bit depressed and that's not a good thing for a writer to feel when they're writing (first the writer chuckles/laughs over the inability to read/write a thing then he/she gets annoyed and angry over not being able to write or read a thing then the depression sets in, please tell me there's no 4th phase to this!! I want to go on with this story but I can't because of this block and now all the non-nifty emotions/feelings that are associated with it).

Taylor Harbin said:

Yes, I have to be careful when I'm writing that I don't try to copy the style and voice of one I just read. I still haven't recovered from reading the first two books of Ice and Fire. I'm 212 pages into a new manuscript and every chapter I think "No, not enough time has passed for X, Y, or Z to happen. I'm going too fast! Eddard didn't know that Danny was pregnant until page 400 whatever!"

Click to expand...

This happens a lot. I think it's because brains are so good at modulating themselves during interactions with other people (when you talk to another person for a long time, it's not unusual to subconsciously adopt bits and pieces of their mannerisms, and to adjust your own mannerisms to better present yourself.)

Reading a book with a strong narrative voice is like being trapped for hours with a brilliant if somewhat overbearing conversationist; you don't get to contribute anything, but you're still absorbing a great deal, and by the end, you have been changed by it. I usually try to have a break between reading a strong voice and writing, or my brain doesn't have time to digest these changes and stabilize.

Maybe it's time to shake things up and go do something fun that isn't writing. Or write a piece of ridiculous flash fiction. Or some self care. I'm sorry you have to deal with that. I've been dealing with it off and on for a while too. Suddenly all my passions will just seem like so much work sometimes.

Go easy on yourself.

It's tough when something you love is, well, tough. It didn't really click for me yesterday. Maybe 400 new words, and I had to scratch for them. Normally, they just flow. So I get you, GreenKri and Punk. I'm telling myself that this, too, will pass.

CathleenT said:

It's tough when something you love is, well, tough. It didn't really click for me yesterday. Maybe 400 new words, and I had to scratch for them. Normally, they just flow. So I get you, GreenKri and Punk. I'm telling myself that this, too, will pass.

Click to expand...

Indeed. I think that writing any amount is better than not writing. Hemingway wrote no more than 500-1000 words a day. It's not a race.

I wonder if I'm not writing or reading much, because right now I'm reading high fantasy and I'm using my major high fantasy story for a game instead of a novel, and I only have a select few ideas composed from dreams... They're a genre I don't think is fantasy and would be terrible at writing at since I've not read many books like it. It'd be better visually anyway.

My ideas for a book can't be completely blank. I think.

CathleenT said:

It's tough when something you love is, well, tough. It didn't really click for me yesterday. Maybe 400 new words, and I had to scratch for them. Normally, they just flow. So I get you, GreenKri and Punk. I'm telling myself that this, too, will pass.

Click to expand...

I'm going through this same thing with another genre: music. I love it so much but damn. It's a hard market. Learning the techniques and skills takes hours and months and years. Not to mention the challenges of organizing the lives of four other people into a band to all reach success together.

From music to writing - anything worth having is difficult.

Except cake.

A friend of mine suggested that I edit about 400 or so words starting from the conclusion of the final chapter that I wrote before this block happened. I've edited around 4,000 words today (of a 12,000-word chapter), not sure if this suggestion will pay off (reading from end to beginning? I've never done or heard of one doing that before) but somewhere around 4,000 words is something (it's better than nothing)

Blinkk said:

Everyone's been talking about the beta swap. What makes it so awesome, Chompers? Why is it different from the beta forum? I haven't participated in it, and I can't really tell you why. Maybe next year I will.

Click to expand...

You're guaranteed three critiques. You might potentially get some betas out of it for the full MMS, but at the very least you'll have those three.

Blinkk said:

Wow, congrats! I can do just over 100wpm but it's never 100% accurate when I type that fast. I've actually never reached 100% accuracy on those tests. 71wpm at 100% accuracy is amazing! Good for you! Congrats on the job. I hope everything goes well.

Click to expand...

I can type 200 wpm. Of course, it might be gibberish...

CathleenT said:

And chompers, I'm sorry I didn't tell you before this, but I enjoyed your WIP start in the beta project. Good luck with the Australian lingo; I haven't even attempted anything but American at this point. Unless you count the Greek guy, but even there, I'm just trying to avoid too many obvious colloquialisms. It's amazing the things I can't use. I really wanted ramrod straight, but that would be terribly anachronistic before guns and cannons.

Click to expand...

Aww, thank you! I was a little surprised someone knew what WIP I was talking about. Haha. People really pay attention. Must be careful what I say now. Haha.

I didn't set out to write about Australian stuff, but it just happened that way, so I went with it. Luckily I have a friend who's Australian, so she's been a godsend and has let me pester her with all my research questions. I've learned about Tim Tams, drop bears, and Maccas, among other stuff. Haha.

Good luck on your Greek story. Hope you figure out how best to handle your dilemma.

I'm wondering how many more roll ups I should smoke and how much longer I should browse this forum before returning to my open word document to continue writing. My problem at the moment is that I've got a load of scenes that I really like on their own, but that don't really tie into the main plot. If they weren't there, it wouldn't matter to the central story. Since this is a relatively short novella it doesn't take much to rework such elements, but it's a block for me at the moment.

Ah, I feel better even having typed that.

I'm just using imagination to craft one scene after another and hope that each is a complete whole within itself. I'm also watching my balance between extended narrative, dialog, description and internal monolog. I dunno, for some reason I'm striving for some type of literary balance so I don't go hog wild with anything over-done or repetitious. And yet I'm thinking that what I'm doing is rather peculiar and unnecessary to the whole--kind of like painting by the numbers or using some type of mathematical formula. Gads. Last time I checked I wasn't drunk or on drugs.

Tri

No, what you're doing sounds rather quite good to me.

I'm sitting here worrying whether my tiredness and lack of motivation to edit yesterday was because I was actually tired, or whether my manuscript is boring right there. I don't think it is. I mean, it was a fight scene and all that, and I've quite loved it in the past. Maybe I'm just impatient to read the romance bits. Maybe I'm just tired. Nevertheless, I'm worried.

One character's PoV is straight out giving me problems. Like, she's been a problem all along, and she's still a stupid problem. Too many hints, not enough substance, but if I give too much away she won't be interesting in that direction either. I'm afraid I'll end up re-writing her sections again. Why oh why did I write this stupid character to begin with?? Why is she such a problem when no one else is? I'm terribly afraid the problem is I'm not that interested in her and it shows. Unfortunately, I've yet to find a way to make myself more interested in her. And I'd drop her narrative and find a new one, but there's no one else, the story was crafted this way, with her in the middle of things. I guess I just have to, oh, I don't know, give her a deep dark secret or something. That usually does the trick with me. Like in my head I know she has a cool plot arc and stuff like that but... ugh. I'm having trouble showing it.

I did get a lovely compliment from a friend though. He said my writing was like drama popcorn--all the good bits that everyone secretly wants to read, just one after the other. I think that's his way of saying I write a good soap opera. I will take that.

I'm going to start outlining my finished manuscripts before I revise at a macro level. Previous to this, I've been pantsing all my revisions. I only make notes on my printed manuscripts and work on it page by page. I noticed I veer off wildly when I'm on the revision stage. One scene gets spruced up that the other scenes need to be drastically changed. Eventually I return to the right track, but then switch when a better idea comes.

So I'm going hybrid: Pantser by first draft, Outliner on the next draft.

Shunter said:

One character's PoV is straight out giving me problems. Like, she's been a problem all along, and she's still a stupid problem. Too many hints, not enough substance, but if I give too much away she won't be interesting in that direction either. I'm afraid I'll end up re-writing her sections again. Why oh why did I write this stupid character to begin with?? Why is she such a problem when no one else is? I'm terribly afraid the problem is I'm not that interested in her and it shows. Unfortunately, I've yet to find a way to make myself more interested in her. And I'd drop her narrative and find a new one, but there's no one else, the story was crafted this way, with her in the middle of things. I guess I just have to, oh, I don't know, give her a deep dark secret or something. That usually does the trick with me. Like in my head I know she has a cool plot arc and stuff like that but... ugh. I'm having trouble showing it.

Click to expand...

I have a similar problem at the moment myself. I came up with a great conflict for my protagonist and a great twist for my story's end. In order for them to exist I had to create this new female character. It's obviously not uncommon for characters to be created to serve a function in a plot; the problem is that this particular character just refuses to leave the first dimension. She's a seductress and an agent of a demon and that's all she is. I've managed to give every other antagonist a complex character and reasonable motivations. I even managed to make the main antagonist understandable to the point where it's easy to sympathise with her. I just can't seem to do the same for this one. Like you I just can't get interested in this character of mine, beyond the fact that her existence allows for plot twists that I really like. For days now I've been writing everything around her scenes wondering if I should just scrap her or persevere.

DavidMcMurdo said:

I have a similar problem at the moment myself. I came up with a great conflict for my protagonist and a great twist for my story's end. In order for them to exist I had to create this new female character. It's obviously not uncommon for characters to be created to serve a function in a plot; the problem is that this particular character just refuses to leave the first dimension. She's a seductress and an agent of a demon and that's all she is. I've managed to give every other antagonist a complex character and reasonable motivations. I even managed to make the main antagonist understandable to the point where it's easy to sympathise with her. I just can't seem to do the same for this one. Like you I just can't get interested in this character of mine, beyond the fact that her existence allows for plot twists that I really like. For days now I've been writing everything around her scenes wondering if I should just scrap her or persevere.

Click to expand...

I think the problem with my character is she has the world's most a) stereotypical and b) boring motivation: protecting her family. Booooring. Nothing inherently wrong with that, and I've got the whole spectrum of motivation across both genders, but that isn't enough to make me care about her. I'm currently toying with the idea that instead of the husband having had an affair with the murdered girl, she did. Keep everyone on their toes. Or they both did? ...Might be a bit harder to pull off, but you never know. So far the fun of this character is that for most of the book it looks like she murdered the girl. But keeping that secret involved not talking about too much and she just comes across as stifled. But if I made it sound like she murdered her in hints but openly said she'd been in love with her, that could be far more fun. Or what if she's covering up the murder because she thinks it will make for an easier divorce? ...That doesn't make much sense, though. But covering up murder in case it gets out about the love affairs... I gotta think about that. That could be going somewhere.

My problem is that I am an extreme pantser. What happens at the end of this chapter? I don't know. I don't even know what happens at the end of this conversation. It's like living life with the ability to revise. So I started writing this woman thinking 'oh stuff will come to me.' And it worked with the other four PoV's... but not with her. I hinted and hinted hoping something would pop out and it would all come together, but it never did. But she is an integral part of the plot in other ways, so I can't dump her either. She just needs more interesting motivation.

Maybe she resents her family a little for needing to protect them because it's hard, it takes away from something that is valuable to her, and then she feels guilty for that little piece of resentment in her head because she really does love her family, and would be very upset if anything happened to them.

Any kind of contradiction can make a character more interesting. Even if only you know about that part, but you could throw hints here and there too.

I always get in a bunch of trouble when I bring up Dwight V. Swain, but I'm going to do it again now . . . one of his tricks for creating multidimensional characters is to give the character (1) a shortcoming, and (2) something the character does to hide it. I always liked that piece of advice. Fights Mary Sue-ness and often brings on a characteristic attitude or gesture.

So David, in general, if the scene doesn't move the plot, it has to go. But I realized the other day that Rowling got away with it in Harry Potter. If Quidditch hadn't existed, nothing would have changed. The entire story could have been told without it. And people loved Quidditch. And Tom Bombadil, to use another example. So I guess you can get away with it, but only if it's brilliant.

And tri, FWIW, I don't think a balance between extended narrative, dialogue, description and internal monologue is pointless. If nothing else, you'll care more about the piece when it's done. And for the readers, as you well know, too much of any one thing can make them put the story down.

So I had a good writing day. 2700 words in Bellerophon yesterday, and I subbed the final version of Trojan Wargames this morning. Of course, now I'm stuck again, which is maddening. I actually wrote the scene with the bathing beauties, and my stalwart band of warriors used the distraction to catch the Solymi chieftain. They kept him as a hostage to get away again, and they're taking him and his oldest son back to King Iobates. But now I need my protag to do something more critical to the mission's success, I think. But there's only five guys. I can't write a scene where he defeats overwhelming odds in battle with a straight face. Just living through a battle while doing your part is defeating overwhelming odds as far as I'm concerned.

*sighs* Maybe I'll just skip it. That might give King Iobates a reasonable excuse to send Lero out after the chimera anyway.

I hate being stuck.