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What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

Kjbartolotta

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I have to write a sword fight. Feels like I have as much research as I need (tho if anyone has any links on rapier fighting that would be fine thx), but oh boy is it stressing me out.
 

BenPanced

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I'm beginning to wonder if I should just completely take over the dining table where I currently have my workstation from The Day Job™ and just write on the other end of the table. I rent studio space that's offered by a local book arts and literacy group but with the current restrictions, it'd be foolish for me to even think about going; hell, I won't even think about going to The Day Job™ because I have to take the bus everywhere. So for now, I haven't really done too much writing. Been thinking about doing some writing, sure, but actually doing any? Har.
 

Kat M

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Spring Break starts on Saturday—and part of me is looking forward to writing and writing and writing for nine days straight, and the other part of me is worried I'll die of cabin fever.

Thankfully I live within walking distance of the park. The ducks and I are going to get very well acquainted, methinks. Hope they like listening to half-generated story ideas.
 

Lakey

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The other day I finished my last submission for a class in which I had to draft six 1000-word stories in six weeks. I really enjoyed the class, and the discipline it forced on me to do the readings each week, critique my classmates' work, and above all produce my own. I'm terrible at cranking out drafts, and even worse at showing people things that I do not think are perfect. It's a huge win for me to prove that I can come up with that many different story ideas and execute them at least well enough that I don't die of mortification (is that redundant?) when other humans see them.

What's on my mind now is how I carry that discipline forward, and keep finding time each week for writing, especially given how difficult and anxious life has become lately. I have a lot of things I can do -- revise two stories that have done well in contests but not yet won or been published; work up one or more of the stories I wrote for this class into something submissible; return to my novel and put some more concentrated energy into that. But I'm not sure how to find the discipline to pick one and buckle down on it, without the class deadlines to keep me in line.

:e2coffee:
 

indianroads

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I cleaned my desk this morning - preparing for the start of my next novel by clearing away the detritus from my last one.

Last novel is due back from my editor mid next week - afterward I have to wait on the opening in my cover artists schedule (May 1), after that it goes out.
A round of applause please... thank you, thank you very much.

I've started in on the outline for my next book, which will be the last in the series of 5 novels about what lies ahead for our species in terms of evolution / extinction. The plot is roughed in, characters (those that have shown up thus far) have been identified and their arcs defined. Still have some work on the plot - and I have some work to do before starting in on the 1st draft.

Feeling good otherwise.

No covid-19 in my house - my oldest daughter, along with her husband and kids came down with it awhile back; I was told it was rough, but after a couple of days it passed and they're fine now.
 

Nina Kaytel

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I am worried about my novel I am querying for. Last night because I couldn't sleep I was reading some threads in the Arkymn Asylum and one that caught my attention was an author pulling her novel due to backlash. Now, I don't have social media so I won't see the twitter fire, but what worried me was some of the people association of white hero savior complex, and the language I use to match the time period ( E.X. the clinical term in 1970s was mental retardation, of course is 2020 that is changed (side note the use of the term is a distinguish between some of the characters) alarms went off for me. Though my female hero is a bad ass, she is a female in a male world, lesbian in the 1970s, but both times she is going to die she is saved. One time she is stabbed and near death when saved and the other time she facilitates her escape and rescues another character but at the door she is caught into the cross fire between the guy trying to kill her and the one saving her ... now I am thinking 'oh shit do I have an issue here." Now, in the first book no one knows who this hero is. I know however, it is a white male. Now, I am worried. The book is not YA, by any means.
 

Sonya Heaney

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I'm rethinking my writing schedule completely. Publishers and editors are rapidly changing what they're interested in buying at the moment, so I've decided to set some manuscripts aside and finish those with happier themes first.

As a writer, I don't mind the travel and separation restrictions at all. I'm getting a lot done.

I'm getting a lot done, too. But our state government just announced we're going to be in lockdown for at least three more months, and cancelled our city's events all the way through to October, so I'm not sure I'll be feeling that great about it soon ...
 

Nina Kaytel

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That right there is where you made your mistake, I think ;)
Granny fusses at me about changing my writing due to what other people want -- in basic terms rules like 'show not tell' are nonsense and destroy not strengthen. I thought the articles posted supported her argument. Still scary.
 

indianroads

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I am worried about my novel I am querying for. Last night because I couldn't sleep I was reading some threads in the Arkymn Asylum and one that caught my attention was an author pulling her novel due to backlash. Now, I don't have social media so I won't see the twitter fire, but what worried me was some of the people association of white hero savior complex, and the language I use to match the time period ( E.X. the clinical term in 1970s was mental retardation, of course is 2020 that is changed (side note the use of the term is a distinguish between some of the characters) alarms went off for me. Though my female hero is a bad ass, she is a female in a male world, lesbian in the 1970s, but both times she is going to die she is saved. One time she is stabbed and near death when saved and the other time she facilitates her escape and rescues another character but at the door she is caught into the cross fire between the guy trying to kill her and the one saving her ... now I am thinking 'oh shit do I have an issue here." Now, in the first book no one knows who this hero is. I know however, it is a white male. Now, I am worried. The book is not YA, by any means.

As the saying goes, if you try to please all, you'll end up pleasing none.

Do your best to steer down the middle of the road, but tell your story. Seems like no matter what you write there's someone out there that will object to it.

I'm currently writing SciFi - my WIP is staged 800 years in the future, and people will regard each other differently than they do now. The population I'm writing about is very narrow and interbred; some characters have dark-skin and curly hair, others are pale with red hair, still others are tan with dark eyes, and all of them are just characters. In that future people look as they do, and no one thinks much of it one way or the other. Will some readers be offended? Maybe... probably; people usually find what they look for, and if they seek offense they will find it.

IMO you should just take a deep breath, let go of your fears and write your story.
 

Kat M

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Last night because I couldn't sleep I was reading some threads in the Arkymn Asylum

That right there is where you made your mistake, I think ;)

Now, now. I love reading Arkham Asylum threads. I find it oddly thrilling.

Gearing up to query. So I typed up a rough query and synopsis. Now I have a bad query and an even worse synopsis, and no hair. It's going to be a looooooong journey . . .
 

Tepelus

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Finally working on my synopsis, little by little, after much procrastinating due to anxiety. Starting something new, no matter what it is, or restarting something I've put on the back burner does this to me. Once I get going I'm fine, as long as I don't go long periods where I don't work on the thing. The first draft of the synopsis will most likely suck, but at least I'll have something to work with rather than the scary blank page.
 

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I've written one novel, Literary Nonsense, like a modern Alice in Wonderland. I have a rough story of another one in my head and its very comedy-heavy, but I have high standards, I know the work will be intense-- primarily editing on your own, but I also felt that editing on my own completely has made me a better writer. Ultimately, I think I'm going to throw in the towel. My standards have gotten so high that it's like having two jobs with little free time, and the only way to make it professionally is usually to churn out novels when my style is to put EXTREME energy into one book, which I think maximizes your chances of better storytelling-- but seems to rarely be the path to making a living as a writer. Working on my novel has been the hardest work of my life, and I've done some years of physical labor in my life; I've done all my own editing and I started writing the book in 2008, so it's going on 12 years of on and off work. I worked so hard on editing from late December up until now, on top of a day job with occasional 12-hour-shifts, that I have developed psuedomyopia (minor nearsightedness), so that's another incentive for me to stop writing novels.. to try to get my eyesight back to normal when I'm only 31 and had no prior issues. I have a lot of respect for people who do editing professionally now, because the amount of revision I've done has given me perpetual stress and more white hairs; my hair has possibly turned whiter in this year alone than it ever has in any year prior, and I don't want to make that a lifestyle.
 
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TellMeAStory

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My story is told in third person through the main character who is observant, reserved, judgmental, and practical.

Fine.

But sometimes she gets a blind spot, and that's where my troubles begin. I need to find ways to clue my readers that their reliable source has fallen off the rails. I've tried having her go overboard, to become wildly passionate as is NOT her wont, but that doesn't seem to be enough.

So what I need is to find other ways to clue my readers about what's going on with her.

Any suggestions?
 

indianroads

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My story is told in third person through the main character who is observant, reserved, judgmental, and practical.

Fine.

But sometimes she gets a blind spot, and that's where my troubles begin. I need to find ways to clue my readers that their reliable source has fallen off the rails. I've tried having her go overboard, to become wildly passionate as is NOT her wont, but that doesn't seem to be enough.

So what I need is to find other ways to clue my readers about what's going on with her.

Any suggestions?

How about adding a mannerism when she goes off the rails - eyes widening, scratching her chin, rubbing her forehead... something like that?
 

Kat M

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My story is told in third person through the main character who is observant, reserved, judgmental, and practical.

Fine.

But sometimes she gets a blind spot, and that's where my troubles begin. I need to find ways to clue my readers that their reliable source has fallen off the rails. I've tried having her go overboard, to become wildly passionate as is NOT her wont, but that doesn't seem to be enough.

So what I need is to find other ways to clue my readers about what's going on with her.

Any suggestions?

Could she irrationally hate (not passionately) something or someone that is demonstrably good? The reader would be left wondering if they misjudged the "good" character or WTF is up with their nice reliable narrator?
 

Nina Kaytel

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Seeing all the inspiring stories from the pandemic helped me. My WIP is urban fantasy. There is a barrier between the Mage and Human World and as a result both are dying out. A huge plot point is the slow integration of mage power to the humans so they didn't feel threatened and band together to fight back. The antagonist gets impatient, raises a weapon to break the barrier and lay waste to the population. Somehow I forgot about everyone banding together, so it really helped me get back on track seeing all the heart-warming stories. Though, in the story it is not heart-warming and they are controlling the media to stop a Resistance from forming.

Side note: this is the story that made me want to be a writer, but when my mom found out the hero is female and a lesbian, she got right nasty and broke my laptop (which was devastating in the late 90s, it was a IBM) and burned my notes, and well, I didn't fare any better, so I changed the female lead to a male, but after a while the story caused me to have panic attacks. I stopped writing it for a long time, but this year I changed the lead back to a female and been happily plugging along.
 

frimble3

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You can control the media, but controlling people is a lot harder. Think of the days before 'media'. WWII, when all the Resistance had was radios, and coded messages in the newspapers. But they did it, by word of mouth, and small groups of people who trusted each other, and notes in secret message-spots, and whispers and catch-words and coded gestures.
Not to mention, any revolution before electricity, or social movements like votes for the disenfranchised, etc.
People don't need 'media' as much as a cause worth dying for. In the spirit of your hero, "Stonewall!"

And, congratulations on finding your way back to the story you wanted to write. Keep on going and stay strong.
 

iszevthere

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There's a story I've tried to write since I was twelve. It's wonderful to read works by people who have similar and better ideas. I tried to write the story again for a few months. I combined it with another I've been trying to write for four years, both into one story. I set aside this whole story last night. I made the framing too complicated, for myself and it never occurred to me: I have a medical phobia and I'm trying to write someone who has gone through a -lot- of what cemented my phobia in the first place. And the other principal character--when I was writing it, I deliberately put her through another terrible event I'd gone through. Somehow...I thought I'd be able to write the story and it would be so easy since both characters would have happy endings. No. I can read stories with the themes my stories have, all I want, but I am not in a place psychologically to -write- them. It's just--it's just not, and there's nothing wrong with me not writing those.

Plus I wrote a bunch of flash fiction as a way to express my angry emotions about living in a that was hit hard by Covid early on. Now, I'm onto other story ideas. It's--it's fine. I'm fine.
 

The Black Prince

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My story is told in third person through the main character who is observant, reserved, judgmental, and practical.

Fine.

But sometimes she gets a blind spot, and that's where my troubles begin. I need to find ways to clue my readers that their reliable source has fallen off the rails. I've tried having her go overboard, to become wildly passionate as is NOT her wont, but that doesn't seem to be enough.

So what I need is to find other ways to clue my readers about what's going on with her.

Any suggestions?
Depends so much on what you want to do with your story.

My most successful book featured an unreliable narrator (1st POV) but he was a very unusual chap and hid his bad narrative behind a wall of breathtaking arrogance and honesty - freely admitting to quite nasty and sneaky things. (He sounds appalling - and he was - but people loved him.) Readers may well have thought: if he's admitting to something as bad as that, I have to believe him.

Thing was, he had a very unique view of the world and completely misread something which most readers would not - and that misreading is what hid one of the two massive twists in the book.

My point is: if you want your book to have a major twist, an unreliable narrator (if you get it right) is an excellent way of achieving that.
 

The Black Prince

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As for what's on my mind about my own writing... I'm presently writing my first ever sequel, to a book being published next year. (Yes, I'm assuming there'll be demand for a sequel after the first book comes out.) I've had three previous novels published - all completely unrelated - but I always leave one or two loose threads. Partly because I hate books that wrap up too neatly, but partly because I've long realised that leaving a loose thread or two is a good way of setting up a sequel.

So, after book 1 was accepted, and having such a long lead time before publication, it occurred to me that having a second book ready to go if the first one was popular would be a good idea. So I started writing.

And not very long ago. I think if you have a strong idea in the first place it tends to breed other strong ideas, and so it has proved with my sequel. I'm just flying at the moment - pushing out prose like a wood chipper.

But I've almost reached that point where I've done three quarters of the story and am standing there with about six plot threads in my hands and wondering how best to weave them all together. But I just keep having more ideas.

It's exhausting.
 

ValerieJane

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Currently trying to figure out how to start the novel in the right place so that it does everything an opening needs to do (hook the reader, what does the character want? set up sympathy, etc), in the right order.

Where's the smiley of a person pulling their hair out?