What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

*Knock on wood* Things are starting to turn around, thanks to a couple of users on the previous page showing some much-needed support and a little kick in the butt. I have taken the novel that I trunked 200 pages in and started cleaning it up and it's coming along nicely. I'm already over 5,000 words in. Man, it feels nice to write again. I just hope I don't trunk it again and I can actually finish it and then do edits/rewrites like I used to do and get it to a point where I feel it's good enough to send out for queries.

I'm 14k+ words into discovery writing my WIP, and just now getting to the inciting incident...because I've just figured out what's going to happen and realized "Hey! this is the inciting incident!" I feel like it might be a bit late, but I also feel like it couldn't happen any sooner. But it's just a first draft so who cares? At least I know what's going to happen! And boy the sh*t is really about to hit the fan! Yay!

PamelaC said:

I'm 14k+ words into discovery writing my WIP, and just now getting to the inciting incident...because I've just figured out what's going to happen and realized "Hey! this is the inciting incident!" I feel like it might be a bit late, but I also feel like it couldn't happen any sooner. But it's just a first draft so who cares? At least I know what's going to happen! And boy the sh*t is really about to hit the fan! Yay!

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This made me smile. Totally true that you can change all your beats after your first draft is done but excellent that you're excited so much by your story! I have a few scenes atm that are just to get the characters moving forward and thinking I might need to cut later...

Just coming to the end of my Act 1 and feeling daunted by the Act 2 mountain. One more chapter to go and then it's going to be a lot of planning so I stay on track!

I'm 14k+ words into discovery writing my WIP, and just now getting to the inciting incident...because I've just figured out what's going to happen

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That's what drafts are about. Tell your story through the end, and then practice the telling until you've got it right. For me that's usually four or five times, at least. And any time I go back and try for the perfect beginning before I've finished telling the story, I end up with a really good start and no ending.

I'm trying to figure out if the hours of procrastination I've done tonight = part of my "creative process", or if I just really don't want to finish my edits.

I've written my inciting incident, but now I'm spinning my wheels because my protagonist is faced with a humdinger of a dilemma, and even though I know what he's going to choose to do, I'm as hesitant as he is about the consequences of his choice. Part of me wants to step back and do a bit of plotting to figure out where the story will go from here, but the other (stronger) part of me wants to just keep discovery writing it to see what happens.

PamelaC said:

I've written my inciting incident, but now I'm spinning my wheels because my protagonist is faced with a humdinger of a dilemma, and even though I know what he's going to choose to do, I'm as hesitant as he is about the consequences of his choice. Part of me wants to step back and do a bit of plotting to figure out where the story will go from here, but the other (stronger) part of me wants to just keep discovery writing it to see what happens.

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Definitely sounds like a keep discovering moment to me, especially while you've got the momentum (and the curiosity).

I just spent yesterday completely re-plotting my Act 2 and Act 3 but I feel so much happier with the story now. When you're lacking inspiration, I think plotting can get you going again, but if you've got the juice, don't doubt yourself!

When I'm in a groove and the story is flowing onto the screen of the computer, I have a tendency to repeat patterns in my writing, and even use a single word over and over again. I know it is best to get the story down, get something saved, but it causes a lot of headaches when I stop and read what I've got. Re-writing multiple times takes a tremendous amount of effort, but there doesn't seem to be a way around it for me.

I've had some people comment that my sentences are sometimes too long, that I add too much in one go, but I'm not fond of choppy prose. Keeping a balance in the structure of the sentences is one of my editing chores, and one I need to improve.

I'm nearly ready to abandon my current story. When I'm boring myself as I write, it's never a good thing. If I save it, I'll have to go back and create more action scenes, or more tension.

I wrote two short stories and they're getting positive attention where I posted them! I'm pleased.

I was bored yesterday and found a checklist of YA books from the nineties, and out of curiosity and nothing better to do, I clicked it.

A lot of books I read in middle school was on there, and I went to middle school in the early 10's. I was shocked. No wonder I had a hard time finding series I started in middle school once I left or my favorite authors. It's kind of sad actually, that the library mainly consisted of books twenty years old. No wonder they asked me if I had any books I wanted to add to their collection. Which, I never did.

But the nineties had the best covers with that gritty water paint style.

I've just hit my first "Wait, that doesn't make sense!" snag. I'm 18k words in, and thankfully it's just a minor issue that doesn't really impact anything beyond the scene in question. Basically, the way I was going to have my MC drain blood from a dead body was all wrong. I'm so glad I figured it out before I wrote the actual scene of him doing it. I'll have to go back and tweak some stuff leading up to the act, because he was worrying about things that it turns out he didn't need to worry about. I'm not going back right now to fix anything. I don't even want to...which is weird. Ain't nobody got time for that! Must keep writing.

starrystorm said:

I was bored yesterday and found a checklist of YA books from the nineties, and out of curiosity and nothing better to do, I clicked it.

A lot of books I read in middle school was on there, and I went to middle school in the early 10's. I was shocked. No wonder I had a hard time finding series I started in middle school once I left or my favorite authors. It's kind of sad actually, that the library mainly consisted of books twenty years old. No wonder they asked me if I had any books I wanted to add to their collection. Which, I never did.

But the nineties had the best covers with that gritty water paint style.

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That is SUCH a thing. My school's librarian is constantly trying to educate us about having current books in our classroom libraries. She does her best with the school library, which does get some school funds. But us classroom teachers have to use our own money to buy books; ergo, lots of Goodwill hauls. I went through my classroom library when the pandemic hit and was appalled at how old everything was.

. . . oh, my writing? Um, well. I suck at MG and picture books, so clearly I won't be fixing this problem by writing myself a new classroom library.

I have, however, rewritten the same scene in my new shiny about 17 times and still can't think about anything else and can't wait to stop working and write. This phase is so nice while it lasts . . .

Kat M said:

I went through my classroom library when the pandemic hit and was appalled at how old everything was.

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I have a collection of old Boy's Books and Girl's Omnibuses etc from Britain in the 1930s, 40s, 50s and a bit either side. I love them And the expectations (word choices, phrases in French or Italian, number of pages) were really telling about what was expected in reading ability from the children of the middle class.

I go back to work next week, and I'm glad I spent every day that I could writing. I'm at the 100-page milestone, but it's only going to get rougher from here. The second half of the book will involve a lot of legal stuff, namely the arraignment and trials of my suspect. There's a lot of information missing from the historical record, which means I'll have to make a lot of stuff up. Since most of the witnesses were recycled from the preliminary trial to the criminal trial, I can compress the narrative in summary, but I don't want it to be a real boring second half. Going to have to find a lawyer to help me iron this part out when it comes time to edit.

Another thought that's worming into my mind: no matter how successful I may or may not become at writing, I don't want to quit my day job. I need the structure of going out, doing places, meeting people, and reading other stories to keep my brain in shape. I've learned that much during this pandemic, and would be grateful to work with a publisher who doesn't pressure me.

The biggest thing that has been plaguing my book is the dreaded timeline. My book takes place primarily when my protagonist is eighteen, but the city he lives in and its creator, who is still alive, has a history of 400 years. There are big events in my protagonist's life that happen at his birth, at the age of twelve, and at fifteen which all lead him to the current events in his life.


I have been told by many successful authors to avoid using a Prologue at all costs and to incorporate the information in snippets throughout the book. I never realized just how difficult that can be without it still resulting in the dreaded info-dump. Also, finding places to put that material has been a nightmare.


So, I currently have my novel starting about 3/4 of the way through the book. He has been arrested for the murder of someone and is being interrogated. The officer sets down a recorder and tells him to tell his story. This sets him back to the age of twelve first. I planned to let most of the book go through the timeline in chronological order from there, leading back to the point at which he is sitting in front of the officer giving this testimony. From here (now 3/4 of the way through the actual book), he has given his testimony and the officer knows that the protagonist is not going to be given a chance at a fair trial, so he helps him escape. (I know this sounds strange, but it makes more sense with context.) The book then goes on towards the ending of the protagonist getting out of the city and back to a safe haven.


I still have to find a way to end the book properly as originally it ended closer to the point of the murder. This did not quite work out as I still have a few plot twists that take shape afterward, and this is a duology or trilogy depending on where things go from there.


Unfortunately, this has turned what I figured would be a six-month project into almost eighteen months now.

I've been out of work because of the pandemic, and it's actually had a bit of silver lining, as it's given me plenty of time to work on my book.
But I was looking at a career change before lockdown, and now that I've had time to think, there's actually nothing that excites me as much as working on my writing full-time.... even if only for a year or so before re-joining the workforce as a corporate drone.

So I had the bright idea to see if there were any grants... granted... by my state government to support the arts. There's grants for visual art, for film and even for poetry (which is so close to what I'm after!) but nothing for good, old-fashioned literature. There's awards that offer cash prizes for published novels, there's "young writer's fellowships" that offer career guidance, but there's no actual grants that would let me support myself while I wrote full-time.

That kinda sucks. I wasn't expecting anything tbh, but I hoped. And hope is a dangerous thing.

kwanzaabot said:

So I had the bright idea to see if there were any grants... granted... by my state government to support the arts. There's grants for visual art, for film and even for poetry (which is so close to what I'm after!) but nothing for good, old-fashioned literature. There's awards that offer cash prizes for published novels, there's "young writer's fellowships" that offer career guidance, but there's no actual grants that would let me support myself while I wrote full-time.

That kinda sucks. I wasn't expecting anything tbh, but I hoped. And hope is a dangerous thing.

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It's not quite the same as a grant, but several Big Five branches in Australia have a prize for an unpublished author each year. (e.g. the Banjo Prize with HarperCollins - this year's prize entries close at the end of the week.)

I'm cautiously hopeful Australian publishing will recover faster than a lot of places. As long as we don't get too confident with how well we're doing with the virus ...

Trying to write a poem and ended up with a haiku about coffee.
I'll take it after a muddy day of the blahs.

I’ve been thinking about what it will feel like to finally be done with a book (or at least a draft!) With my current wip, I’m at about 62,000 words and my goal is to hit a minimum of 80,000. I’ve finally planned out my ending, and I can tell I’m getting close. I’m super excited, but worrying about keeping up the motivation to actually keep writing and finish it.

I have an idea for a new novel (which is interfering with my WIP) - dystopian world, outlaw bikers, corrupt police, rogue military outfits... sounds like a hot ball of fun!

Need to finish up my Extinction series first though.

ETA:
Thunderstorms moving through out here - lightening and thunder - and my 70 pound Norwegian Elkhound has decided that she's a lap dog.

I wrote a scene, which like so much of my writing was tortuous to write and then... Bingo! Brainwave! That earlier scene I had been musing over whether one of my other characters should be present - oh, boy! should he. I am going to change the pov to that character, too. Yep, definitley. Furthermore my female lead character is going to be eavesdropping on the scene -- she would not normally be so shameless, but reasons, and she is going to hear stuff she's not going to like. So I know where I am going and I can crank up the tension in the plot from that point on.

I've now got this stupid bloody smile on my face and I look like an idiot.

Sonya Heaney said:

It's not quite the same as a grant, but several Big Five branches in Australia have a prize for an unpublished author each year. (e.g. the Banjo Prize with HarperCollins - this year's prize entries close at the end of the week.)

I'm cautiously hopeful Australian publishing will recover faster than a lot of places. As long as we don't get too confident with how well we're doing with the virus ...

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Bookmarking that for next year. I'm halfway through my draft. No way I'll be done in time for this year.

(Though I noticed that both previous winners had stories set in Australia, starring Australians. Mine is, uh, not. My working-class Londoner protags will definitely hurt my chances, lol)

My mother's not on Facebook, but wants to keep up on how people are reacting to current events, so I've been screenshotting posts to keep her in the loop.

But first I have to crop out the tabs on my browser . . . I don't want to explain why I'm researching "replacing a violin neck" and "10 weeks pregnant symptoms," especially since I'm supposed to be quarantined and have a habit of dropping my fiddle and repairing it with superglue (which you should not do, by the way).

Do you ever get the feeling that what you’re writing just isn’t important enough to exist, that writing for entertainment is somehow wrong?

Yes. But I think it can be fixed in revision. You can add the thing you need, including whatever bits make it worthwhile. If you've not looked through The Emotional Craft of Fiction, take a look--it's got good exercises in it to make passages more emotionally satisfying. That's one way to inject something.

I'm going through the same thing right now, so it's 'on my mind' too, and I'm reading other stuff to decide what it is that makes those stories worthwhile.

I think you can fix it in revision, Taylor.