What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

Just got some VERY nice feedback on my pitch/blurb for the new WIP, in a public forum... now I just need to finish the damn book!

I'm trying to figure out what a sister of a traitor and mass murdered would do if she saw him getting kicked to death. This guy conspired with the enemy, and opened the city gates for their army which resulted in the deaths of thousands. They weren't particularly close before he did this. Now, a few years later, the city he fled to is in the process of falling, and some of the survivors of his old city (if you can follow that) have cornered him. His sister is hiding, but sees her brother being kicked by a father who lost his family due to her brother's actions.

Does she run to her brother and try to save him or not? Complicating this problem, if she tries to save her bother, and fails, she will probably be killed as well.

What to do? What to do?

I will end 6 months of research on Feb 13. I want to start writing by Feb 1. With what I am stuck doing, for the time being, I doubt I will meet that start date. Feb 14th is day one, after 6 months of research. It is an acceptable date, for me, to start. I wanted to cut it under 6 months of research though. Oh well.

I've hit a rough patch in my WIP. My daily quota of 1000 words is getting harder and harder to meet.

Currently staring at a blank word doc. I've got the idea, the characters and the setting...now I'm just trying to figure out whether to use the standard First Person POV, or the Third Person POV. I've tried the Second Person POV but that didn't work for a while.


Edit: Nevermind, I'm sticking with 2nd Person. A lot easier for me right now.

So focused on laying out the path for a trilogy that I can't seem to focus on just Book One and get it underway.

Also wondering if it might be hard to make readers care about a MC if the first thing he's seen doing is contemplating and cynically talking himself out of commiting suicide.

Reservoir Angel said:

So focused on laying out the path for a trilogy that I can't seem to focus on just Book One and get it underway.

Also wondering if it might be hard to make readers care about a MC if the first thing he's seen doing is contemplating and cynically talking himself out of commiting suicide.

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Actually it could work the opposite way. You meet MC at his lowest point, and learn to care about him.

Just wrote one of the best lines ever with my MC. I didn't realize how violent/angry she is, but I kinda like it. It gives her more traits in common with the antagonist and will highlight how the antagonist fell prey to those anger tendencies while my MC rises above them. It's really cool.

And plus, who doesn't like the thought of spreading your enemy's liver on toast?

Reservoir Angel said:

So focused on laying out the path for a trilogy that I can't seem to focus on just Book One and get it underway.

Also wondering if it might be hard to make readers care about a MC if the first thing he's seen doing is contemplating and cynically talking himself out of commiting suicide.

Click to expand...

The TV series version of Lethal Weapon (Martin Riggs) does this throughout the series. The writers, through his interactions with friends and their family members, slowly convince him that he has worth and is needed.

I’ve found that lately prompts are the only thing that seem to really bump me into gear when I feel stuck. I’ve been finishing my first book and working on the next one. Only I have no idea how to get from pointA to pointB and it seems like no matter mow many times I outline or rewrite I just feel stuck. Anyone else have this problem? I feel like I’m on the verge of something amazing but I just have no idea where to go from where I am... you know? First book hit 80,000 words but this one I can’t even get 500 words a day.

On track to finish my current WIP in almost exactly five months. That's from the first word of the first draft to the last word of the last rewrite.

For a frame of reference, my last released novel took a year and a half, and the one before that, my first published (but not my first written) novel took two and a half years. I'm really proud of having refined my work habits and developed my drive to the extent that I have.

I'm trying to find the right balance between writing more consistently and not beating myself up if I don't write as consistently as I'd like. In the end, I still want writing to be fun. It's a difficult balance to achieve for me.

rwm4768 said:

I'm trying to find the right balance between writing more consistently and not beating myself up if I don't write as consistently as I'd like. In the end, I still want writing to be fun. It's a difficult balance to achieve for me.

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I feel your pain. You want it to be fun, but feel that not doing it is synonymous with not taking it seriously. I usually go for 1000 words on any story, any project. I wish I had the time of day to give 1000 words to all projects, but alas, it often doesn't work that way.

Taylor Harbin said:

I feel your pain. You want it to be fun, but feel that not doing it is synonymous with not taking it seriously. I usually go for 1000 words on any story, any project. I wish I had the time of day to give 1000 words to all projects, but alas, it often doesn't work that way.

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For me, it's just not very consistent. Last year, I came close to 1,000 words per day for the entire year, but I doubt I even wrote every other day. When I do write, I knock out big word totals. I just wish I could find a way to do that more consistently without burning out.

I'm afraid that taking a break from writing has made my prose slip. I was just doing a little practice, staring at a sentence and going, "I think there is a much better way I'd have written you before the break. I see things I don't like in your construction."

I think I should end the break and try to put together some prose I find acceptable.

It'll come back.

I'm taking a read and research break myself.
Hopefully i can control the urge to write meanwhile, because I can't do both in the same period.

Ashmash467 said:

I’ve found that lately prompts are the only thing that seem to really bump me into gear when I feel stuck. I’ve been finishing my first book and working on the next one. Only I have no idea how to get from pointA to pointB and it seems like no matter mow many times I outline or rewrite I just feel stuck. Anyone else have this problem? I feel like I’m on the verge of something amazing but I just have no idea where to go from where I am... you know? First book hit 80,000 words but this one I can’t even get 500 words a day.

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Welcome to writer's block.

Maybe how you outline is your problem. For me, I do very loose outlines. It gives me a lot of flexibility to be creative (and follow word-count restrictions I have in place, per chapter).

I love my current WIP. It's exciting but also grounded. It's a joy to read. I know that sounds self-indulgent, and it is, but if the most important thing is to write what you would want to read then I've nailed this one.

Davy The First said:

It'll come back.

I'm taking a read and research break myself.
Hopefully i can control the urge to write meanwhile, because I can't do both in the same period.

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Yeah, I think so. Not like I changed brains. That, and the fact I'm recognizing subpar sentence structure means I've still the eyes for it.

The information I share is up-to-date.

Still no love from my WIP. It's like my characters have all turned their backs on me. Losers! I mean, that's the point, they're all losers, but seriously people, give me a sign. The silence is deafening.

TOPOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE ZONES! Sorry I shouted that, a bit frustrated because while plot points/characters/scenes etc are moving along well as I write, however the map and geography of the the Island Country this takes place at has me up in the air. One of my pet peeves as a reader (in fantasy) are maps that make no sense geographically. I mean I'm not saying I can't read things with crazy maps, but I'll always stop and think 'wait, how does that work? Where are the continental plates? the ice shelf? what? WHY IS THERE A MOUNTAIN THERE?'

My debut novel WAS finished (or so I thought), but when I sent it off to my beta readers, I got a universal agreement that the voice sounds too young for a YA novel--that it would be more fitting for the MG category.

Well, a huge part of the novel is a road trip, and they all have to drive, so making it MG is simply out of the question. Besides, I really want it to be a YA novel. So, ultimately, I have to rewrite it all to make the voice sound more mature.

My English language website gets more hits off some random Russian search engine than off Google. Hmm...

Yesterday, two things happened relative to Albert: one person asked to read it, and one person rejected it. Btw, I'd sent out that query in 2015.



Maybe it's a sign.