What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

indianroads said:

I'm writing the last few chapters of my first draft -

My younger daughter brought her new puppy to our house and she's tearing up the place.

My younger daughter's family - grand daughter + plus husband and his entire family (they're Mormons... so... yikes) are invading our house on Xmas eve. I plan to hide in my office and write.

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Good luck surviving the puppy and Christmas ever, if there's enough family maybe they won't realise you're missing?

Will Collins said:

I know a lot of people aren’t keen on prologues when they could be chapter one instead, but I feel if there’s a huge time jump between the prologue ad chapter one a prologue works better. What does everyone else think?

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I don't mind a prologue but I've had a few misleading ones which kind of annoyed me, even towards the end of the book. I think they can work really well though. I've never used one (but then I've not opened a lot of novels).


Myself, I've finished rewriting the first part of the book I started last year (as I mentioned, changing from first person to third). I've managed to work in some more description and flesh out what I had already. I have realised that the plotting I've done is totally out of sync with the number of pages I have. So it's looking more novella, unless I find some more plot somewhere. Not sure how or what though.

I'm really unsure as to whether or not my opening's too slow. It shows the mother struggling to stay awake after getting IV-high and her boy trying to talk to her about his toys and his fantasy story. I think it's emotional (though I am biased, haha) but I also realise that all we know so far of the MC is that she is too addicted to pay proper attention and the kid might come off as overly-needy?

I might just be overthinking this. I should just keep writing. Blegh.

Elfriede: Oh, ack, writing openings... So many thoughts. Mostly in the 'run away, run away,' realm. Good luck, Elfriede.

Will: Prologues seem very common in published SFF. Some agents and pitch wars mentors have a blanket policy against them, but there must be a reason they exist and succeed. I like prologues personally, Will. Of course, there are good ones and bad ones. They feel like a compass to me, to get a bearing before launching.

SciSarahTops--isn't word count a funny thing? It sounds like you are good with the story going either way.

On my mind: Trying to convince myself to get back to writing new words. January first is the deadline to do so, but with a week between now and then I wonder if I should at least try to reread the existing words--which I haven't looked at since summer. There's about 12,000 of them. Or I could finish the snowflake I started... I'm up to step nine, the scene-by-scene spreadsheet. I think I need to make a commitment and do it. The old nail-myself-to-the-couch-and-write approach. I'm scared to look at the thing, though. Because I know how much effort I put into the first novel. Time, effort, hiring editors and whatnot.

So maybe I'm overthinking this, but I keep wondering why I would invite that kind of marathon effort into my life again. Because now I have a better idea of what a long process it is. And yet, it can be really fun to write. Maybe I need to focus on how fun it can be.

Anyway, 'writing new words' is on my mind.

I gave myself a week off—some idiot scheduled the last week of school and the Messiah on the last full week before Christmas, so I had to focus on wrapping presents, cycling cookies through the oven, decorating, administering finals and pretending to teach math, and singing melismas ("FOR unto us a child is bo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-orn!"). Christmas break, lounging on my parents' couch, I could spend some proper time writing and make up for lost time.

But I caught cold and now I can barely think without my head throbbing.

I will write this damn thing, by hook or by crook.

My characters need to be smarter than I am for anything I want to write to work and I don't know how it's possible to write people smarter than I am.

I'm writing about the love between a man and a meter sized mechanical self-aware spider. Beat that for weird... and fun.

My characters need to be smarter than I am for anything I want to write to work and I don't know how it's possible to write people smarter than I am.

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All my characters are smarter and better people than I am. Writing them is like wishing I could be like that.

indianroads said:

All my characters are smarter and better people than I am. Writing them is like wishing I could be like that.

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Admirable, though that's not going to work with mine. They're smarter than me, but they're not better people.

Not horrible people, but not exactly paragons of morality and goodness either.

Reservoir Angel said:

Admirable, though that's not going to work with mine. They're smarter than me, but they're not better people.

Not horrible people, but not exactly paragons of morality and goodness either.

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I doubt that anyone is a true paragon of morality and goodness - we mask ourselves and hope that no one calls our bluff.

Reservoir Angel said:

My characters need to be smarter than I am for anything I want to write to work and I don't know how it's possible to write people smarter than I am.

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Research their passions and expertise? Sure you don't need to go the whole hog but just knowing the tip of the iceberg of their speciality could help you show them as a genius or what have you.

Reservoir Angel said:

My characters need to be smarter than I am for anything I want to write to work and I don't know how it's possible to write people smarter than I am.

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Heh, I had this problem with my first book, where my MC was a genius. I’m nowhere near as smart as her, so I had real trouble writing her. What helped was to think of slowly and carefully about how she could get herself out of sticky situations and then have her figure it out within moments in the book. Or have her foresee what would happen and out-maneuver the baddies. Basically, what took me days to figure out would take my MC seconds, which elevated her intelligence far beyond mine.

With the current meltdown in Romancelandia and leaving/not renewing my RWA membership on the horizon, I feel like ONCE AGAIN I am losing my sense of community and belonging. Yes, I know I'll always have AW and the online connections and blah blah blah woof woof and shit like that there, but this is IRL. This is something in meatspace I'm losing ONCE AGAIN and I am pretty fucking fed up with it. Every goddamned time I think I've found "my tribe" and I can be with people who share a common interest or something like that, I either wind up leaving or it gets yanked out from under me. Other times it's happened, it's been without explanation and...just happens. This time is all the more eerie and distressing because I know what's going on but there's no fucking way I can prevent it from happening. I've only been going to my local RWA chapter for just over a year now, and I hate to lose out on it but with the way the organization's board has handled everything lately, I honestly can't stay with them when it's all gone against everything they've said they're doing, not to mention the timing and circumstances are just janky as all hell.

I don't know what I'm going to do in the future. Again, I know I have the online community but it's not the same as what I've been trying to accomplish in the physical world. I've either left or had too many in-person communities disappear/yanked out from under me, and I'm just so fucking tired of it all. I just can't deal with it.

Have you inquired around at your RWA chapter? Maybe other writers feel the way you do, and would be up for forming a non-RWA writing group? You can't be the only one who is angry about what's going on at RWA, but would really miss the relationships you have formed in real life.

I have nothing constructive to suggest (other than to +1 frimble3's suggestion, assuming that's legwork you can/want to do), but I'm so, so sorry.

BenPanced said:

I don't know what I'm going to do in the future. Again, I know I have the online community but it's not the same as what I've been trying to accomplish in the physical world. I've either left or had too many in-person communities disappear/yanked out from under me, and I'm just so fucking tired of it all. I just can't deal with it.

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I am from a small town with few like-minded individuals and understand the isolation you feel when you think you found a good spot to settle and then turns out it wasn't all it was boosted up to be. Honestly with it being the cold season and all I wish you the best of luck hunkering down and growing a thick shell for now until it's warmer and you're able to start the search for a new IRL group.

frimble3 said:

Have you inquired around at your RWA chapter? Maybe other writers feel the way you do, and would be up for forming a non-RWA writing group? You can't be the only one who is angry about what's going on at RWA, but would really miss the relationships you have formed in real life.

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Kat M said:

I have nothing constructive to suggest (other than to +1 frimble3's suggestion, assuming that's legwork you can/want to do), but I'm so, so sorry.

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Darron said:

I am from a small town with few like-minded individuals and understand the isolation you feel when you think you found a good spot to settle and then turns out it wasn't all it was boosted up to be. Honestly with it being the cold season and all I wish you the best of luck hunkering down and growing a thick shell for now until it's warmer and you're able to start the search for a new IRL group.

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Thank you for the encouragement, everybody. I've posted a message on the local chapter's forum asking if there's going to be any sort of discussion or a formal statement from the group. With all of the promises made and broken in the short time I've been part of the organization, I don't really feel safe at the moment; many other marginalized folk have expressed the same concern, so I'll have to see what's up.

Well, the big shutdown is over now, that's great. Right now I'm trying to juggle what I want to write, versus what will actually make me money, lol. I just finished a short story, and now I have to put it together and edit it, then try and submit to a magazine.

I can't be the only one to get really inspired for stories that I know I can never properly publish. It's frustrating.

I've been thinking about getting personalized journal. That could be cool. I've already designed on online and it looks pretty neat. The size I've been looking at is 5X7 inches and has 75 pages. I'm just worried that is too small and lacking pages. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to order it.

A short adventure on a holiday weekend -
"Oh, I'll get donuts and coffee, settle down in a sunny corner of the donut shop, and WRITE."
"Oh, it's too sunny to be inside. I must needs drive clear out to the boonies and hike a tiny sandspit sticking out into the ocean."
"Ooh, looky, big wave!"
"Well, these socks are going to take a long time drying; might as well write."

And so scenes were written and procrastination was thwarted (on a tiny sandspit sticking out into the strait).

My socks are still wet.

I am blocked on a scene in my main project, which is why some of my other projects look a lot more promising at the moment. It does not help that my grasp of the plot is a little vague too. Why the hell are the two characters in the scene contemplating collaborating with each other? I need a better rationale for their actions. Sigh. I am going to slap the equivalent of a sticky note on the scene, plough on and hope I can make the plot gel, once I get to the later scenes.

Kat M said:

A short adventure on a holiday weekend -
"Oh, I'll get donuts and coffee, settle down in a sunny corner of the donut shop, and WRITE."
"Oh, it's too sunny to be inside. I must needs drive clear out to the boonies and hike a tiny sandspit sticking out into the ocean."
"Ooh, looky, big wave!"
"Well, these socks are going to take a long time drying; might as well write."

And so scenes were written and procrastination was thwarted (on a tiny sandspit sticking out into the strait).

My socks are still wet.

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Ha! Cute story. BTW, aren't wet socks the WORST? Oh well, at least pages were written.

So, I ordered the customized journal I was talking about. Can't wait until it gets here.

Revived my motivation for my fantasy/steampunk/vampire/dragon...whatever...thing. I've been taking a different route and doing extensive outlining (that almost borders on a very, very, VERY rough first draft at times) just so I can get the entire story worked out and down. I hit snags, but it isn't as demoralizing as hitting them while drafting. Currently trying to finish up the Act 1 outline and have about two more scenes to go. I've kind of hit a snag, and my brain is trying to figure things out. I guess I'm "discovery writing" the outline? I don't really have an ending visualized yet. I am going to go back to some exercises in The 90-Day Novel to help shake things loose in my head and get some more inspiration. But I'm optimistic. The goal is to finish a full first draft. That's all I want. And if it takes me a long time, so be it.

PamelaC said:

Revived my motivation for my fantasy/steampunk/vampire/dragon...whatever...thing. I've been taking a different route and doing extensive outlining (that almost borders on a very, very, VERY rough first draft at times) just so I can get the entire story worked out and down. I hit snags, but it isn't as demoralizing as hitting them while drafting. Currently trying to finish up the Act 1 outline and have about two more scenes to go. I've kind of hit a snag, and my brain is trying to figure things out. I guess I'm "discovery writing" the outline? I don't really have an ending visualized yet. I am going to go back to some exercises in The 90-Day Novel to help shake things loose in my head and get some more inspiration. But I'm optimistic. The goal is to finish a full first draft. That's all I want. And if it takes me a long time, so be it.

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My outlines are discovery writes too. But I find it much easier to hit a snag in an outline verses a draft where you might have to change 10,000 words verses a few bulletpoints.

I'm concerned about tense. Think that writing first person past tense takes away a bit of tension from a story -- if the narrator is telling the story, you know they lived -- but present tense jut makes yo9u end up with a lot of flashbacks. I really like the book idea, and I like the characters and I even like the overall plot points, but the tense is limiting and I think the flashbacks all become cliche. The first draft of the book was low on flashbacks but the characters felt un-fleshed out, but bringing more flashbacks also feels a bit forced. So I am rather vexed about this all at that point as I dive back into the rewrite and attempt to save it.

Woo, glad to see AW is back.

Going back and re-reading my first draft of my sci-fi. It's so awful compared to my finished UF manuscript. But much, much better than the first draft of my UF. I've probably saved myself probably 3 drafts.