• Basic Writing questions is not a crit forum. All crits belong in Share Your Work

What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

Cindyt

Gettin wiggy wit it
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 14, 2016
Messages
4,826
Reaction score
1,954
Location
The Sticks
Website
growingupwolf.blogspot.com
Finished transferring the latest version of the historical to WORKS so I can go over it and then print it up during the awful few days when I'm waiting for an internet rehook. (I'm moving tomorrow.) I'm hoping by that time my beta reader with have feedback for me.
 

iszevthere

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 12, 2016
Messages
320
Reaction score
15
Is it bad to admit on a writer's forum that ever since my schooldays I've hated reading poetry?

Me too, except for Poe, and occasional poems that I read out loud.

In re: my own writing, I am reading a wonderful book written by a British woman. I realized I write from an incredibly American perspective, my world has been rocked in a bad way which is good for personal growth, and when I finish my current play, I will desperately need a very patient Brit-picker. (What an unwieldy sentence.)
 
Last edited:

Atalanta

Bring me a knitting needle.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 1, 2012
Messages
936
Reaction score
178
Location
New York State
Website
ajaxkallistrate.com
@Harlequin
@blackcat777

You two have got my brain buzzing. Bonus: I now know what extradiegetic means.

All five of these characters are losers (by my definition). The story gives them each a chance at redemption. Who doesn't lie to themselves about something, especially something shameful? The idea that all five are lying would take the pressure off the primary character. There has to be a way to pull this off. I love flawed characters, and these are all flawed characters.

The crux of the story is that the MC has a cursed object she has to return. In theory, she gets these four people to help her do it by telling them they're going to STEAL the object, which is valuable. So she either has to hide the object from them (and the reader) or tell them it's something else.

I still don't know how it ends, beyond betrayal, of course. It's not a serious story, more of an adventure. At least now I have some ideas bouncing around. Thanks for the inspiration. :)
 

DanielSTJ

The Wandering Bard
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 3, 2017
Messages
5,410
Reaction score
368
Age
34
Location
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
I'm thinking about incorporating the best snippets from your real life into your fiction to accentuate its purity, its authenticity: its power.
 

Punk28

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 25, 2015
Messages
456
Reaction score
6
Location
Dinwiddie, Va
Stopped writing the fanfiction after deciding to get serious on it. Now, I'm wondering if I shouldn't just go back to the more important story that I'm writing, finish the editing of it, before going back to the fanfiction. I really *do* want to finish Duru's Memoir, dangit!
 

Simpson17866

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
503
Reaction score
59
Stopped writing the fanfiction after deciding to get serious on it. Now, I'm wondering if I shouldn't just go back to the more important story that I'm writing, finish the editing of it, before going back to the fanfiction.
That's what I'll be doing ;)

I've written the first installment of a 4-part Doctor Who fic, and I'm 62k words into my first original novel. Once I finish my second book, I'll start working on the second Who story alongside the third original one :)
 

Atalanta

Bring me a knitting needle.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 1, 2012
Messages
936
Reaction score
178
Location
New York State
Website
ajaxkallistrate.com
One of my losers went from a one-word description -- "nobleman" -- to instantly having a backstory so funny and pathetic I could write an entire novel about just him. His story popped out in complete form, like Athena from Zeus's forehead. I'm not writing his story though. Not in its entirety anyway. I have two left now, and no ideas. I guess I have to spend more time thinking about what makes someone a loser. Haha.
 

Reservoir Angel

Angelic by name, fiendish by nature
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 22, 2011
Messages
6,257
Reaction score
453
Location
Jolly old England
Watching too much of the CW's Arrowverse lately has given me the urge to write urban fantasy superhero-style stories but where the superheroes use magical forces rather than science-based superpowers.

Like I don't have enough on my plate right now.
 

Atalanta

Bring me a knitting needle.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 1, 2012
Messages
936
Reaction score
178
Location
New York State
Website
ajaxkallistrate.com
Not even sure anyone will like my stuff.

I know for a fact that nobody likes mine, but I'm still writing. I've had to pull back from my goal of getting published and, frankly, it's done me a world of good. I wrote my last novel strictly for myself and it's the best thing I've ever written. Now I'm writing another one and I'm flinging fun ideas around like finger-paint. It's awesome. I may never get published but I'm having a damn good time.
 

williemeikle

The force is strong in this one.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
3,735
Reaction score
669
Location
Canada
Website
www.williammeikle.com
My eye for what will be successful when it comes to my writing is terrible - a blind spot if you like.


Case in point, my SIGILS AND TOTEMS idea.

BROKEN SIGIL, which was my first entry in what I hoped would be a breakout idea for me, was pretty well received, but it's been a case of diminishing returns with the rest of the works since then. PENTACLE and THE JOB slipped quickly into obscurity, and my big hope, the novel SONGS OF DREAMING GODS, has similarly sunk without much of a trace with only a couple of fairly lukewarm reviews to show for its passing.

Some of the short stories using the concept have fared better, but on the whole, I think what I have now is a dead duck. I have a longish list of ideas to stretch the concept in different directions, but unless something changes, and I don't think it will, they'll never get written. As a full time writer, I can't afford to drop any more effort into something that's not selling.

Which is a shame, as I really, really, thought I was on to something.

Shows you how much I know.
 

Reservoir Angel

Angelic by name, fiendish by nature
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 22, 2011
Messages
6,257
Reaction score
453
Location
Jolly old England
At this point I'm considering just picking an idea at random from the huge, overflowing bucket of random ideas that I keep stored in the dark corner of my mind and just start writing it, pantster style. Just to actually get myself back in the flow of trying to write rather than just being constantly paralysed by indecisive planning details.
 

Simpson17866

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
503
Reaction score
59
The longest work that I have completed is a 63k word Doctor Who fanfic.

Today, my Urban Fantasy WIP just beat that :)
 

Kjbartolotta

Potentially has/is dog
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
4,197
Reaction score
1,049
Location
Los Angeles
Thanks. Painful not for lack of words but dredging up the worst parts of myself.

"A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us."
-Kafka

Just having a horrible time finishing the thing I started for NaNo. Maybe I put too much pressure on myself that it needs to be good, maybe I shouldn't have used the exercise for the thing I most wanted to work on. Maybe it's fine and writing is hard work.

I'm having a lot of stress over the 'then I did this, then I did that,' at work. The MC just drifts along, asking questions, moving from one place to the next, at some point they'll get where they're going, but not because they did anything beyond put one foot in front of the other. It's disconcerting.
 

J.T. Marsh

intemperate
Registered
Joined
Oct 7, 2017
Messages
43
Reaction score
3
Location
Canada
Website
www.jtmarshauthor.com
Hard at work finding distractions from being hard at work. This internet thing, I'm not so sure it'll take off. A deadline in forty days and I just know I'll get 90% of the work that's yet to be done in the last weekend.
 

J.T. Marsh

intemperate
Registered
Joined
Oct 7, 2017
Messages
43
Reaction score
3
Location
Canada
Website
www.jtmarshauthor.com
I know for a fact that nobody likes mine, but I'm still writing. I've had to pull back from my goal of getting published and, frankly, it's done me a world of good. I wrote my last novel strictly for myself and it's the best thing I've ever written. Now I'm writing another one and I'm flinging fun ideas around like finger-paint. It's awesome. I may never get published but I'm having a damn good time.

This has been my experience as well. It wasn't until I started writing strictly for myself that I came to realize the ability to bring projects through to completion, as opposed to endlessly tinkering with them until something else caught my mind's eye.
 

DanielSTJ

The Wandering Bard
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 3, 2017
Messages
5,410
Reaction score
368
Age
34
Location
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Considering how to use the immersive beauty of paintings in order to influence my descriptions.

Carefully considering this.
 

Atalanta

Bring me a knitting needle.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 1, 2012
Messages
936
Reaction score
178
Location
New York State
Website
ajaxkallistrate.com
I realized that my last novel was an exercise in modeling positive relationships. All the characters reinforced each other's better selves. I don't know if this has improved my writing, but I don't care. I think it's awesome and I want to do it again. Maybe the five losers in my next story will redeem each other.
 

Simpson17866

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
503
Reaction score
59
I realized that my last novel was an exercise in modeling positive relationships. All the characters reinforced each other's better selves. I don't know if this has improved my writing, but I don't care. I think it's awesome and I want to do it again. Maybe the five losers in my next story will redeem each other.
Showing what healthy relationships are supposed to look like is always a good thing :D and that's what I'm doing with my WIP too :)

Not the part about redeeming – my protagonists are sociopathic drug dealers with appalling amounts of innocent blood on their hands – but the three friends love each other so much that they'd be willing to die for each other, and their friendship with each other is stable enough that they're able to have adult arguments that address their problems instead of escalating or avoiding.

So much of what they do makes them role models for what not to do, but I'm also trying to mix that in with pieces of what people should be doing more of :)