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

What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
15,472
Reaction score
767
Location
Missouri
I need to tell myself over and over gain that I don't need to keep a ridiculous release schedule like some self-published authors. I need to write the best books I can, however long that takes.
 

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
Thanks, ya'll! :heart:

:partyguy::partyguy:

Congratulations!

Congratulations, Cindy. You deserve the success.

As far as my historical goes, I have got to quit tinkering and let it go already. I have created a new beginning, cut POVs, and brought my main plot to prominence. My goal is publication by year's end.
 

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
29,138
Reaction score
8,563
Location
Toronto
Website
ktcraig.com
Congrats! That 72 hour marathon sounds intense! Not sure I could ever do something like that. oh, and hello from Toronto. :)

It's incredible, but definitely intense. It seems there are quite a few Torontonians here. (-:
 

Taylor Harbin

Power to the pen!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
3,078
Reaction score
1,499
Location
Arkansas
Every time I finish writing for the day, I look at the manuscript piling up on my desk and have the following exchange with myself:

Me: This is going to be such a good book.

Critic: It's way too long.

Me: Huh? It's not even finished. We can always cut the fluff later.

Critic: But it'll still be too long.

Me: How do you know?

Critic: You're book's probably about 150,000+ words right now. That's more than Watership Down or any of the Redwall novels. Good luck pitching that to an agent, newb.

Me: Hey, that's unfair. It's just a first draft! I'll be done by the end of July and after I've spent some time away all of the problems will be obvious.

Critic: Yeah, that's what you said about the science fiction novella.

Me: Ok, first of all....

*put on loop*
 

rachel0d

Registered
Joined
Jun 19, 2018
Messages
36
Reaction score
3
Location
Canada
When i'm working on my writing I get easily distracted, compared to a few years ago. I used to write 10 pages a day but now I'm lucky to even jot down a sentence. It's pretty frustrating, something I had so much passion for is now so hard to carry out, but I still want to complete it.

I've ended up starting from scratch after 4 years of working on it, every time i look back on it I see so many mistakes. Loose ends.. Boring characters and poor plots. I have two other major projects i plan on revisiting and looking over. But every time I open a document I just close it.
My ideas don't flow as easily as they used to, It'd be nice if that rusty pipe would unclog but honestly i don't know why i'm sabotaging myself this way.

Who knows, maybe in another 10 years I'll have something published.
 

lejay

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 14, 2018
Messages
74
Reaction score
1
Website
lauragilfillan.wixsite.com
How I have so many ideas I want to write stories about, but it takes me so long to write each story. By the time I'm done, I have even more ideas all lined up and yelling to be the next. Life isn't long enough.
 

Marumae

Queen of Quixotica
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 12, 2010
Messages
255
Reaction score
19
Location
Fantasia
Website
www.instagram.com
Finally pushed through all those "tough scenes" to get my MC where I want her, the main setting for the rest of the novel and now that she's there, we're both kind of standing there awkwardly like *shrugs* okay what now? Super frustrating.
 

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
The North Gwinnett Voice: finished the first draft for the first July article, The Shadburn Shadow.

Dress Her In Chameleon: editing the sea voyage.
 
Last edited:

MaeZe

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 6, 2016
Messages
12,774
Reaction score
6,481
Location
Ralph's side of the island.
The North Gwinnett Voice: finished the first draft for the first July article, The Shadburn Shadow.

Dress Her In Chameleon: editing the sea voyage.

Remind me, Cindy, what topics your articles are about or what they encompass. I am fascinated by how well you are doing.
 

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
Remind me, Cindy, what topics your articles are about or what they encompass. I am fascinated by how well you are doing.
The articles are 550-word op-eds about growing up dysfunctional in a small town. I think the draw is the tragedy of my childhood wrapped in dry wit.

The paper is going weekly! That's four to five articles for me to write per month. Yikes! But it's exciting because it will mean a faster gathering of stories for the book.
 

MaeZe

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 6, 2016
Messages
12,774
Reaction score
6,481
Location
Ralph's side of the island.
I don't know why I didn't just check the link in your sig. D'oh.

Those are really good. I'm going to read them all. I wonder if the subject isn't the reason for your sister's reaction?
 

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
I don't know why I didn't just check the link in your sig. D'oh.

Those are really good. I'm going to read them all. I wonder if the subject isn't the reason for your sister's reaction?
It is. She thinks that if she can't remember something or doesn't agree with me, I'm wrong.Her daughter thinks it makes her feel better to whitewash what happened. I think part of it's jealousy. :Shrug: And thank you for your nice words.
 
Last edited:

MaeZe

Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 6, 2016
Messages
12,774
Reaction score
6,481
Location
Ralph's side of the island.
First time I really spent time planning a scene, but my action ending is working out quite well.

I wrote a pretty good action scene where my character tries river rafting and things go wrong. I was able to do that pantsing. But this was different. The elements weren't something that naturally flowed out of my brain.

But the ending, there's nothing as natural as floating the rapids about it. So I've been brainstorming bits every day. And now I have an excellent collection of steps in a perfect action scene for this ending.
 

indianroads

Wherever I go, there I am.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 4, 2017
Messages
2,372
Reaction score
230
Location
Colorado
Website
indianroads.net
Working on chapter/scene outlines. At this point it’s a sorting routine, getting plot points in order and cutting out extraneous stuff.
 

ManInBlack

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 29, 2015
Messages
633
Reaction score
30
Location
Connecticut
Website
williamsilvia.net
Just came across the pen name I had finally chosen on Amazon. I had Googled the full name, but not the combination of initials I had planned to go with. I've only used that particular combination for a single short story published in a free journal, but I'm going to need to make some quick decisions before I submit anything else.
 

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
The usual cluster-expletive of nonsense and contradictory insanity that always plagues me.

What started as a relatively simple romance story has ballooned into a sci-fi odyssey across a galaxy engulfed in civil war and I feel like this whole idea is only playing nice when I'm looking at it but is then tearing the curtains down and destroying the soft furnishings whenever I look away from it because I don't remember any point where the change from original concept to what this currently resembles happened but the changes happened regardless.
 

Emermouse

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 30, 2012
Messages
896
Reaction score
89
Age
38
Location
In America
I know you’re currently struggling, Resevoir Angel, but your post made me smile. I would love to know how a simple romance turned into a sci-fi epic set in a galaxy torn apart by a Civil War.