Writing too close to home and how to pace

Here's a question for you to ponder personally: Why are you writing this story?

My characters usually have a different sex and age from me, they live in a very different culture from the one I live in. I choose this rather than to write fiction openly based on real and difficult events in my life. Who will see your work? To what degree are you comfortable letting people know about you?

"I am writing to see where this story leads."

"I want to develop another side of the character's mental state, but do I slowly build it or keep the sudden change as a sign of his illness."

So-- you have the problem that you don't know where you're ultimately going with your story. And that's okay--- a lot of times, I'll have a rough idea where my story is heading, but no clue how to get there, and it fills itself in as long as I sit in my chair and work and not get distracted. But it's much easier to pull that kind of a thing off when you're working with a 3,000-6,000 word short story, rather than a 100,000-word novel. Because, like when you're working a maze on the back of the children's menu, it's pretty obvious to see where the dead ends are, and you know to back up and take things in the proper direction. It still surprises you, and it's nothing like the story that you had sat down to write, but everything hangs together, and it's not half-bad. But when working on a larger project, it's very easy to dedicate a good 25,000 words to a dead end... And then you end up with 25,000 words to scrap, or forcibly changing the story to make it fit.

I find it very nice and tidy to be able to put my thoughts down in an outline form whenever I'm doing a project over a long period of time. If I'm just doing something that's small and self-contained, I myself as a writer don't change much between starting on Monday and finishing on Saturday. But if I'm doing something more ambitious, I may very well change between January and September. So to get that kind of continuity--- or even remember where I was going with a certain plot point, or not to forget to include my foreshadowing, or what the solution to this complicated bit was--- it's good to write it down.

The most helpful bit is when I break things down chapter-by-chapter. What is the purpose for each of these chapters? Who gets introduced? What gets foreshadowed? Does the plot get more complicated? Do the stakes rise? Does the main character have a new problem to deal with on top of everything else going on? Figuring it out like this has two benefits: #1, I can look at it and check my pacing. My story is too straightforward; I need a subplot. Or two. Or perhaps a subplot that I thought was a really great idea doesn't quite fit, but if I adjusted it a little... Or I need to blend these three characters into one character. Or the story would be stronger and the stakes higher if I eliminated this character's role entirely. And #2, I'm able to play with things without getting married to 25,000 words' worth of dead-end. Like, "Should I introduce this element gradually or all at once?" Introducing it gradually makes the story proceed like *this*. Introducing it all at once makes the story proceed like *that*. Which one of these is the story I want to read, and I want others to read? I can usually figure it out before lunch if I just put it down in outline form.

One of the unforgivable sins a writer can commit is wasting the reader's time. In certain genres, readers will be more forgiving, but eventually, even the most loyal readers want to know where all this is going. As a writer, it's helpful to have a general idea where your characters need to be at the end, so that you can spend the middle getting them there in the best way possible.

Shadowmoo said:

I am stuck at a point where I want to start opening up another side of the character's mental state but am having a hard time deciding how to pace it so it is a slow building rather than a sudden change in mood or if I want to keep the sudden change in mood as a sign of his illness. Also have problems because I am drawing from my own experiences and worry about how much of myself to put into the novel.

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Before you devote time to writing it with the possibility of being disappointed with the result, I would sit down and write out a plan for this part of the story, just a breakdown of how you want to establish this other side of the character's mental state. This way you can tell how it develops over several thousand words. And if it's too slow or too fast, you can tweak the outline without having to rewrite and rearrange the story.

Also have problems because I am drawing from my own experiences and worry about how much of myself to put into the novel.

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This depends on the writer. For me there is little separation between the novel and the author. Regardless of the character or the premise, the act of writing a complex and unique narrative experience is inherently an autobiographical expression. It begins with honesty--understanding the purpose, the setting, the characters, the plot, and yourself in honest terms, casting them through the lens of style and genre and point of view and inventing a representation of the author that while possibly not resembling them at all is still incontrovertibly theirs and them. One creates great art by not hesitating or fearing exposing themselves; it's vulnerable, and it is revelatory, complex by nature rather than design, intricate by way of one's humanity and simple in its appeal to other's humanity.

I think that some of the most powerful writing comes from an author's personal experience. Couple that with writing for a particular purpose other than simply writing a book, and you potentially have a recipe for something special. Whenever I find myself in a predicament like yours, I give a lot of thought, trace out different approaches in my head, leave, stretch, come back and do it again. It's these emotional moments that can truly make a work great, so I hope you'll find useful advice here and knock it out of the park