Every time I read a book it seems that the writer can go on and on with interesting paragraphs.
It always looks like their paragraphs are thick. That there's so much in there!
And I start thinking to myself "How can they write so much???" They always have a lot of information that flows around and narrates about the character's inner feelings and history, and then the descriptions can go on for an entire "thick" paragraph and it never bores me. And then they continue with the story.
I feel that as I try to emulate that, I never really get the feeling of flow because I've been with it since the beginning and I know every step I took. I can't read with reader's eyes.
Am I the only one who looks at their own writing and feels that you need to fill it with more stuff?
I just feel that my story is snappy, that there's almost no time to think.
And I feel that it needs to slow down, but I don't know with what.
I can't get into the flow in order to solve that.
I don't think this is a "write what the story asks to be written. It doesn't matter the size" issue. Or perhaps it is. I don't know.
It just seems that my story just has a lot less to offer than other novels.
I feel that it's this amateur attempt that I'm doing. It doesn't feel the same as with the novels out there.
I know it really depends on the writer, but does that sort of stuff, the thickness of paragraphs, feeling that you have to fill the book more, does it go right to the page with you, or is it something that is worked on for a long time, editing and polishing and leaving it alone and coming back 3 weeks later, and so on?
Am I thinking too much?
I know that writing a novel is not like writing a letter, but when I read something, like "Deception Point" by Dan Brown, the thing just flows and flow and flows. And I look inside the book and there's lots of thick paragraphs that ... don't look wrong in there. And then they immediately get images in my head.
I don't know if what I write creates images in people's minds. In a way I don't like being on the side of the writer, because I rarely get that feeling of flowness. Then I feel that I have to mention this and talk about this feeling and describe something from this or that character's POV. It doesn't flow. I do it bit by bit. It almost feels forced.
Another thing. I've recently stopped writing on my WIP because I really don't know what to write. The characters are on a ship. I know what sort of stuff happens to them, like a storm and things of that nature. I have scenes summarized in one sentence.
But ... the writing. I have no idea how to start. I don't know what to do with the characters. I don't know what the characters will be thinking as they react to say, a wave falling on them. I feel that if I go immediately to the big event in just one or two paragraphs it's going too fast for me. I feel that the big scene needs to come, as if interrupting a dialog that's been going on from two pages behind. This is what I mean by thickness.
Then I have no idea what the characters are going to talk about. The only things I can get the characters to talk about, is stuff that I think it wouldn't interest the reader, and I could really cut it out; it really isn't about what the story is.
The story is such a simple idea that it really can't be explored very deeply. I feel that if the characters only thought about that and how the thing affected their lives, I would run out of stuff to write about half way through, before the real story began.
It's just the whole process of moving the characters TO the scene that makes me put my head on my hands and sigh.
Urgh...
I chose to write this giant epic where the most important is the characters growth and that's precisely the place where I have more difficulty. I mean the story punches the characters around into extreme situations and yes the characters react to it in two or three sentences, but it snaps right back into crazy events again, because that's the only thing I'm good at.
I mean, it's an epic ... how can an 18 year old like me touch the reader as a human being in a way that doesn't seem amateurish or might actually make people who have gone through similar things laugh or feel insulted?
Some might say, "write simpler things/ start small". I don't want to write simpler things. That doesn't give me any thrill. I wouldn't enjoy it. I actually think I don't know how to write simple things.
I'm having a problem with too many things at the same time.
I'm sorry if you can't get what I'm trying to express. I just need to put it out there to see if someone did.
It always looks like their paragraphs are thick. That there's so much in there!
And I start thinking to myself "How can they write so much???" They always have a lot of information that flows around and narrates about the character's inner feelings and history, and then the descriptions can go on for an entire "thick" paragraph and it never bores me. And then they continue with the story.
I feel that as I try to emulate that, I never really get the feeling of flow because I've been with it since the beginning and I know every step I took. I can't read with reader's eyes.
Am I the only one who looks at their own writing and feels that you need to fill it with more stuff?
I just feel that my story is snappy, that there's almost no time to think.
And I feel that it needs to slow down, but I don't know with what.
I can't get into the flow in order to solve that.
I don't think this is a "write what the story asks to be written. It doesn't matter the size" issue. Or perhaps it is. I don't know.
It just seems that my story just has a lot less to offer than other novels.
I feel that it's this amateur attempt that I'm doing. It doesn't feel the same as with the novels out there.
I know it really depends on the writer, but does that sort of stuff, the thickness of paragraphs, feeling that you have to fill the book more, does it go right to the page with you, or is it something that is worked on for a long time, editing and polishing and leaving it alone and coming back 3 weeks later, and so on?
Am I thinking too much?
I know that writing a novel is not like writing a letter, but when I read something, like "Deception Point" by Dan Brown, the thing just flows and flow and flows. And I look inside the book and there's lots of thick paragraphs that ... don't look wrong in there. And then they immediately get images in my head.
I don't know if what I write creates images in people's minds. In a way I don't like being on the side of the writer, because I rarely get that feeling of flowness. Then I feel that I have to mention this and talk about this feeling and describe something from this or that character's POV. It doesn't flow. I do it bit by bit. It almost feels forced.
Another thing. I've recently stopped writing on my WIP because I really don't know what to write. The characters are on a ship. I know what sort of stuff happens to them, like a storm and things of that nature. I have scenes summarized in one sentence.
But ... the writing. I have no idea how to start. I don't know what to do with the characters. I don't know what the characters will be thinking as they react to say, a wave falling on them. I feel that if I go immediately to the big event in just one or two paragraphs it's going too fast for me. I feel that the big scene needs to come, as if interrupting a dialog that's been going on from two pages behind. This is what I mean by thickness.
Then I have no idea what the characters are going to talk about. The only things I can get the characters to talk about, is stuff that I think it wouldn't interest the reader, and I could really cut it out; it really isn't about what the story is.
The story is such a simple idea that it really can't be explored very deeply. I feel that if the characters only thought about that and how the thing affected their lives, I would run out of stuff to write about half way through, before the real story began.
It's just the whole process of moving the characters TO the scene that makes me put my head on my hands and sigh.
Urgh...
I chose to write this giant epic where the most important is the characters growth and that's precisely the place where I have more difficulty. I mean the story punches the characters around into extreme situations and yes the characters react to it in two or three sentences, but it snaps right back into crazy events again, because that's the only thing I'm good at.
I mean, it's an epic ... how can an 18 year old like me touch the reader as a human being in a way that doesn't seem amateurish or might actually make people who have gone through similar things laugh or feel insulted?
Some might say, "write simpler things/ start small". I don't want to write simpler things. That doesn't give me any thrill. I wouldn't enjoy it. I actually think I don't know how to write simple things.
I'm having a problem with too many things at the same time.
I'm sorry if you can't get what I'm trying to express. I just need to put it out there to see if someone did.
