The SFF Writing Check-in Corner

lilyWhite said:

It's about the magical girl Papillon—or rather, the woman formerly known as the magical girl Papillon, hence the need to have a good current of backstory.

Though when one of the characters (who isn't human and doesn't fully understand human languages) learns of her alter-ego's title, she mistakenly assumes it refers to the dog breed.

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Haha. I'm human and I understand her mistake.

RobertLCollins said:

@WriteMinded
I'm trying to cut down that time to motivate me to write more, so I'll have more available. Come up with a good plot, write, then move on. I want to be always pushing myself, both to have more works out there and to try new things

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You are very prolific. Me, it takes me forever to come to the end of a first draft.

Finished the story I’ve been writing the last few weeks. It came out to 47K words, so a short novel.

I’m trying to increase how much I write & fill in time that’s been empty. I’m trying to add a third writing session each day. It went well with this project, but it’s too soon for me to know if I can stick with it. I hope I can.

Getting away from writing for a day or two, then onto the next story!

Due to personal reasons and life in general, I’ve gone through long periods of fairly regular writing and reading alternating with long periods of sporadic to no writing or reading ever since my teens (I’m 27 now). My life has finally stabilized once again, so I’m attempting to make a small dent in my backlog of novels and short stories to read. I was originally going to start fresh and begin a new short story. I decided on finishing one I mostly wrote 3 years ago and that I’m pretty proud of because it has a lot of soul (for lack of a better word) in it. Right now I’m just cleaning up the prose and working on finishing the middle and smoothly connecting it to the end. It was one of those stories where I knew the beginning and the ending right away but struggled with finishing the middle part in a way that would seamlessly connect to both the beginning and end. Unfortunately I didn’t figure it out before my creativity went dark again. My goal is to submit this story to Fireside Fiction when they re-open briefly in late August before I send it down the list.

Yesterday I finished a short story (6100 words). Before that I finished a novella (23K words). I'm taking care of another project, then I plan to get back to the world of the two recent works I've completed.

At the planning stage for next book. I'm thinking about writing a dark contemporary fantasy with touches of scifi. Story came to me in a flash, relevant to this nostalgia kick I've been on lately. I found a way to make the main character an oddball but not reveal it right off the bat. Will I pull the trigger and start this thing? Not a clue. Sure is interesting to think about though.

Anyone else find the minute they put a WIP out to dry for a while, other idea stuff instantly fills its space? I was looking forward to some down time, but no... must write all the things apparently!

CalRazor said:

At the planning stage for next book. I'm thinking about writing a dark contemporary fantasy with touches of scifi. Story came to me in a flash, relevant to this nostalgia kick I've been on lately. I found a way to make the main character an oddball but not reveal it right off the bat. Will I pull the trigger and start this thing? Not a clue. Sure is interesting to think about though.

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Sounds interesting. Who doesn't love an oddball?

millymollymo said:

Anyone else find the minute they put a WIP out to dry for a while, other idea stuff instantly fills its space? I was looking forward to some down time, but no... must write all the things apparently!

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I'm only happy when I'm writing. Sad, but true.

WriteMinded said:

I'm only happy when I'm writing. Sad, but true.

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According to my fitbit, my resting heart rate is significantly better when I’m writing.

Well its obvious I need a new fitbit. Mine's clearly broken.

The closer I come to the end of this edit, the more I worry about the wip I left midstream last year. I've told myself that I'm looking forward to getting back to it. However, I remember wondering if I'd taken one of my MC's down the wrong path, and how to get the other one disentangled from the mess he is about to make for himself. It's not a dead end problem, IMO the worst kind trouble, it's a how's this gonna play out issue.

But my heart rate is doing good.

Since my last post here I finished a few more short stories and another novella. I have one more piece ahead of me, then I’m going to have to pause to think up more story ideas.

WriteMinded said:

Sounds interesting. Who doesn't love an oddball?

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Well, as long as he is a "likable" oddball, that's all the matters!

RobertLCollins said:

Since my last post here I finished a few more short stories and another novella. I have one more piece ahead of me, then I’m going to have to pause to think up more story ideas.

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Haha. I, for one, will be glad to see you pause. I can't believe how much work you can churn out it short periods of time. What is your secret. Come on, tell.

WriteMinded said:

Haha. I, for one, will be glad to see you pause. I can't believe how much work you can churn out it short periods of time. What is your secret. Come on, tell.

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Having a schedule, a goal, and sticking to it. It took me years to figure out I needed to set a time to write. If I didn’t I’d either put it off or write too much then burn myself out. So I set a goal of 4 pages a day six days a week (about 1k words). Several years ago I upped that to 2 sessions a day. Right now, as I have the time, I’m experimenting with 3 sessions a day.

What I see now about my schedule is that it lights a fire under me. The more I write the more I finish. The more I finish the more I need to have more to write. I’ve also trained my brain to know that writing time is when I should write. I still get excited about telling stories, and that helps a lot too.

It took years and I had to start small. I miss sessions every so often. But i’m at the point where, if I’m not writing at my writing time, I miss it and feel bad about not writing.

RobertLCollins said:

Having a schedule, a goal, and sticking to it. It took me years to figure out I needed to set a time to write. If I didn’t I’d either put it off or write too much then burn myself out. So I set a goal of 4 pages a day six days a week (about 1k words). Several years ago I upped that to 2 sessions a day. Right now, as I have the time, I’m experimenting with 3 sessions a day.

What I see now about my schedule is that it lights a fire under me. The more I write the more I finish. The more I finish the more I need to have more to write. I’ve also trained my brain to know that writing time is when I should write. I still get excited about telling stories, and that helps a lot too.

It took years and I had to start small. I miss sessions every so often. But i’m at the point where, if I’m not writing at my writing time, I miss it and feel bad about not writing.

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Hmmm. I guess I could try being more organized. I am a disorganized person - at least in most ways. I've always just accepted that. Maybe I can change. Even at this late stage in life.

Do you outline?

RobertLCollins said:

Having a schedule, a goal, and sticking to it. It took me years to figure out I needed to set a time to write. If I didn’t I’d either put it off or write too much then burn myself out. So I set a goal of 4 pages a day six days a week (about 1k words). Several years ago I upped that to 2 sessions a day. Right now, as I have the time, I’m experimenting with 3 sessions a day.

What I see now about my schedule is that it lights a fire under me. The more I write the more I finish. The more I finish the more I need to have more to write. I’ve also trained my brain to know that writing time is when I should write. I still get excited about telling stories, and that helps a lot too.

It took years and I had to start small. I miss sessions every so often. But i’m at the point where, if I’m not writing at my writing time, I miss it and feel bad about not writing.

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That's awesome, are you retired? I know a guy who has a crazy productive writing schedule, and that's basically his secret. Ta-da, if you don't have to go to work, you can find lots of time to write. Can't wait for it (in a few decades).

WriteMinded said:

Hmmm. I guess I could try being more organized. I am a disorganized person - at least in most ways. I've always just accepted that. Maybe I can change. Even at this late stage in life.

Do you outline?

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i do! I don’t always stick strictly to my outlines, but having some idea of how the story should go helps me write and finish. I’ve written without an outline a few times. I’d like to try that more, but for now I outline. I also like it.

Give it a try and see what happens. Good luck!

Stytch said:

That's awesome, are you retired? I know a guy who has a crazy productive writing schedule, and that's basically his secret. Ta-da, if you don't have to go to work, you can find lots of time to write. Can't wait for it (in a few decades).

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No, but I do have support.

If you don’t have lots of time to write, see if you can make the best of what time you do have. I’ve seen over and over again the point that if you write 1000 words a day, you’ll have a novel done in two to three months. Thinking that way helped me when I was starting with my schedule.

RobertLCollins said:

Since my last post here I finished a few more short stories and another novella. I have one more piece ahead of me, then I’m going to have to pause to think up more story ideas.

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Looks like you're really rockin' it. Nice job.

I'm all about schedule, and the books on improving your writing output all agree.
Get organised, get into a routine and in the beginning make every effort to push the routine hard so it gets embedded and you don't feel bad later when you miss some times and begin to instead miss the time to write.

Get from making it a chore to making it a part of life.

I'm not the best at actually achieving this, with a day job on my side as well, and kids and such. But I do find that when I consider what I could get right, even now until the kids are independent, being organised and in a routine will only help me become more productive later.

If it's a chore, don't do it. There are smarter ways to use your time, and the world really doesn't need any more books.

Writing's a privilege.

mccardey said:

If it's a chore, don't do it. There are smarter ways to use your time, and the world really doesn't need any more books.

Writing's a privilege.

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Yeah, a privilege and the only thing that keeps me somewhat sane these days.

I used to get stressed when I couldn't write, but these days I don't worry. If I can get a couple of hours in at the weekend I'm happy - no problem if I can't - and the writing gets done over time.

Concerning my writing -- I doubted it, denied that it was any kind of work worth reading, and lamented when I ultimately convinced myself I could never be successful in this field. Funny how I inevitably find myself here on absolutewrite at the age of 21, looking for feedback on my first novel in progress. Apprehension is quite a roundabout way of admitting you want something, isn't it?

astari said:

Concerning my writing -- I doubted it, denied that it was any kind of work worth reading, and lamented when I ultimately convinced myself I could never be successful in this field. Funny how I inevitably find myself here on absolutewrite at the age of 21, looking for feedback on my first novel in progress. Apprehension is quite a roundabout way of admitting you want something, isn't it?

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Sounds about right, Astari. It's good to start your journey young. Reminds me of Emerson's letter to Whitman upon receiving a copy of Leaves of Grass: "I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start."

A long foreground. Longer for some of us than others.

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Today I'm tidying up some missing parts in the first 10k of WIP #2, then I'll push forward to get the last of my POV character intros done before quitting for the weekend.