If the writing is hard, are you doing it wrong?

Writing is hard work and it's not always going to come easy. It's great when it does but I think most of us have to sweat bullets to get it the way we want it. Even then the vision often surpasses the concrete and words on paper just don't do justice to our imagination.
Perhaps just walk away from it for a little while. Sometimes we get to a point where we're writing with something I refer to as clenched teeth because that's what it feels like to me when I do it. I'm trying too hard and getting frustrated and need to leave it alone for a week or so. It gives me time to loosen up and come back to the work refreshed and positive. You might try that and see if it works for you.
Linnea

Cranky said:

In my own defense, when I say that I'm struggling for word choice, it isn't necessarily the two dollar words I'm looking for, but exactly the right one. It's hard, because this character views the world SO differently from the way I do that I'm constantly questioning if I've gotten it right.

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You might have your answer right there. In my own WiP I have a set of characters I struggle to get across; their scenes are the hardest to write.

If you're trying to get across an alien PoV, you're doing it wrong if it's easy.

Cranky said:

I'm still torn on whether or not it's me, or if it's the story. Might try changing the POV (as SP suggested as well) or the tense and see what happens.

I know that if it's an emotional thing, it's because I'm empathizing too much, rather than not enough. I am in his POV (first person present tense) and I need to empathize with him to tell the story properly. But maybe I need a bit of distance, too. Hmmm. Maybe I should try switching over to the other MC (sort of the antagonist) for a few scenes and see what happens there, too.

Thanks!

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Yea, probably if you feel too close to your MC, switching POVs might be just the thing. I guess if that doesn't work, your closeness was good...it can be tough to maintain, though. I feel ya

Some projects are harder than others. If you are finding this project difficult, set your daily goals small. 500 words a day. And maybe intersperse the hard with a type of writing that you find fun and easy as a reward.

So I think I see two different sets of ideas/goals/methods coming out in this thread.

1) Just write. You can always fix it later. If you're thinking too hard you're probably doing it wrong. Nothing is ever wasted. If the novel is too hard for you, do it anyway, and you can fix it later; you learn to write it by writing.

2) Writing well is hard. If you're just blowing words out, you're probably doing it wrong. If it's really hard you might well be creating something fantastic. The good thing about slow writing is that the next draft is often much nicer to handle.

I've seen these two approaches more generally. Group 1 is what I call "oil-painting" types (You have to get the paint down before you can do anything interesting with it, and if it's wrong just let it dry and paint over it. Group 2 is what I call "watercolor" types. (The painting only comes down right if you know what you're doing and put down relatively slow and careful layers that build up).

I am more in group 2. Just putting words down leaves me with a blur that I pretty much have to rewrite from scratch, and my characters are flat and wrong. It puts me off editing. Editing as I go and writing slowly seems to be the way for me. But it seems destructive to my writing group members who are group 1.

So... I think the answer depends on you, Cranky. It sounds to me like you're doing it right, but if it's making you unhappy with it perhaps you're not...

To continue with what Shweta said, how I write depends on what I'm writing. When I write novels, I write quickly. I can write a novel in two months and then spend the next four polishing it. I find that if I don't write quickly, I lose the momentum and the train of thought that keeps the novel a coherent work.

When I write short stories and flash fiction, I write very slowly and choose each word with the utmost care. Each word, sentence, paragraph is crafted with the utmost care. The are different animals for me.

Writing may be hard because you're doing something wrong.

BUT it also might be hard because you're doing something right. You might be at the point of really taking your writing skills up a notch or two, and you're struggling to reach this new level. Some of what you say --- nitpicks with grammar --- make it sound like you're becoming aware of language and how it works in new way, which is a good thing. My second novel is going much more slowly than my first. But I can tell that what I am writing now is a higher order.

Cranky said:

The trick is to not get caught up in second-guessing. It undermines my confidence, and saps the soul from the story. This isn't to say that there aren't things I shouldn't be aware of, or try if I am, in fact, stuck.

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For the record, I have the same problem. I write slowly (500 words a day is a reasonable to high goal for me) and I often wonder if I'm doing something wrong when other people talk about the 50 000 words they wrote yesterday
Maybe we need to start a slow'nsteady support group

Cranky said:

That's very interesting to me, because I find that I am almost the polar opposite. Short stories and flash fiction come to me very quickly and with very little effort. I certainly do go back for a quick polish (because nothing is ever perfect the first time, in my view), but the essence of what I'm trying to say is pretty much set.

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I'm actually sort of like that with flash fiction and/or prose poetry too, but not with anything that has serious character development. If it's sort of a whole in my head I write quite fast. Otherwise... I guess there's a hole in my head I have to feel my way along the path, then.

Mostly because there is so much room to manuever, and so many possible subplots to be explored, deeper and more complex characters (for me!), that it's easy for me to lose track of the forest and see only the trees.

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Ditto.

Then you aren't doing it wrong. See, we all work differently. If slow and painstaking is what works for you, don't fight it. Just allow yourself to work at that pace.

But do reward yourself.

Cranky said:

Kinda like a diet, eh? Not a bad plan, lol! I get a slice of cheesecake for every chapter finished!

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Yeah! Man, I want on the cheesecake diet too!

Might want to put a minimum-word-limit on those chapters. I know I'd be tempted to cheat...

/channels Faulkner

My mother is a fish.

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Cheesecake time!

SPMiller said:

Might want to put a minimum-word-limit on those chapters. I know I'd be tempted to cheat...

/channels Faulkner


Cheesecake time!

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James Patterson?

nevada said:

Who said, "Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed on the paper" (something like that).

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I think the quote is "Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead."

The point of the quote is that writing is not easy.

With sincere apologies for the metaphor, I'm one of those people who sometimes suffer from writing constipation in that I really, really want to get those words on the page, but the little sods just won't come out of my head.

For me, the Exlax is to sketch out what information I have to include in the scene and then plan it as a writing exercise (e.g. I tell myself that I have to write a scene involving 2 characters, who talk about x, reveal y and finish on z). When I get to the next scene, I take the same approach and so on until hopefully I finish the damn thing.

I have tried to the 'just write it down and worry about it later' approach, but my head does not work that way. I think it's because I'm a very structured, ordered person in my 'normal' life, which translates into the way I approach my writing. As a result, I'm constantly at war with my inner editor and have to remind myself that the goal isn't to get a perfect first draft (because it's highly unprobable) but to get to something that does the job on a first reading and which I can come back to and hack away at on revisions.

I'm insanely jealous of people who manage to do thousands of words each day (on a really, really good day I'll manage a couple of thousand but usually it's a few hundred) and tell myself that it's okay to hate them.

MM