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Is it always the beginning of writing a story that's the hardest? Forcing yourself to lay down the words that you want to tell, only to find later as you edit it over that that part is now easier to do then the first time while looking endlessly at a blank screen or piece of paper? Hell even when you had some words down it was hard to continue as you fought the urge to edit what you had.
Afraid that once you commit it, you couldn't or wouldn't want to kill 'precious' many times over as you slog through endless process only to find yourself going in a different direction you intended to go, even after having plotted out the story? Knowing that if you opened an older versions that you saved, you were sorely tempted to go back and be swayed as you allowed the creative juices to flow once more as you type out more trivial content wondering how much farther it will go before it ends? Wondering if that piece would even survive.
I'm amazed at those who commit themselves to write, saying their goal is to 50, 60 or 70'000 words, no more, no less, without ever having committed one word to paper.
How do they know how large its going to be? I remember Robert Jordan saying he envisioned only one or books would be done only to find that he ended up doing 13 with one written by another writer (which he ended up making into two) before his death.
I admit I have rushed some, okay most as I have ADD which is a problem in itself and a part of me wanted to continue as I tried to stay focused.
And I don't mean doing the discovery of letting the characters tell the story.
Ibi
_________________
I may be losing my memory, but so is my height.
Comments
It's...
It's the ending or last few chapters that are the hardest for me to put down on paper.
Once I know how my story ends, I kinda lose a little steam.
If that makes any sense? :)
-- Sleethr
Totally
I will always know the ending and so far I've not changed it.
I do this
Starting is easy and fun, because everything is new. then I figure out what's going on and well it's just not as fun.
You know nothing Jon Snow.
Err... seemed appropriate. :)
How long did it take me to write those last couple chapters of Glass? Too freakin' long, for certain. And its exactly the problem you point out here. Most of my writing has been for myself and once it has revealed itself to me... the 'fun' is over and all is left is the 'work' of putting it on the page.
Sitting down in front of the computer is easy...
putting your fingers on the keys is just as easy, getting them to move and put what's in the head on the screen, often is difficult for me. Then there are the distractions, email, pets, phone calls, Facebook, all of them singing their siren songs of "pay attention to me" while your document sits, waiting patently in a windows now pushed into the background.
Every bit of writing advice I've heard from other authors has been "No editing until the book is done". "The Book" meaning your draft. Small corrections, a wrong word, a dropped word, a typo, can be fixed if you find one when re-reading the draft. BUT! you must resist the temptation to do wholesale cuts, ripout and rewrite, until the whole draft is completed. Because somewhere along the line between Chapter one and "The End", the characters in your neatly plotted out story line can make a left turn, run through a game trail into that place in your storyverse that's labeled "here be dragons", while you trail along, trying to keep up. That has happened to me in every one of the stories that are posted on another free read sight and the free read on my website.
When you go back to do your editing, cut what you need to cut, then save that block in a new document, you'll never know when you might be able to use that block in a different story.
Letting characters run wild is the funnest part
When writing I might have a few things planned, but largely it's stream of conscious writing. So I've had depressing stories turn into comedies when the characters decided they wanted to have fun, and action stories become horror when the villains kept pushing the limits.
Here be dragons means here be adventure and excitement.
That's why I love the blank page.
ikr
I know what you mean.
Whisper started out as a Spiderman Retcon and look where it ended up?!?!
Crazy!
-- Sleethr
Whisper
needs more, that is a great read.
Stupidity is a capital offense. A summary not indictable.
Wow
Having read Whisper I find that hard to believe.
But I can't say much, Tink started off as an alienation, body horror story. Then she told me if I kept going she would hurt me very badly.
Not likely....
Heh... I hear that a lot. I wish I could follow it. I don't intentionally stop to edit, but I have a hard time putting anything on the paper until its at least close to what I'm hearing in my thought-caves. So I'm a lot slower than many writers on the draft stage... but my editing cycle compensates quite a bit.
Good Writing Is Bloody Hard Work
The trouble is, everyone thinks they can be a writer. It's not like learning to play a musical instrument, you just press the keys and the words appear on the screen. If you make a mistake, you can put it right and no one is any the wiser. And with the magic power of the Interweb it's possible to publish those words free of charge, then sit back and see what people make of them.
Which, I hasten to add, is a very good thing.
The problems start when you want to create genuine literature. It's at this point that you begin to realise just how gifted prominent authors really are. And that they've spent years paying their dues by experiencing and overcoming the same problems you're faced with.
Technique can be taught....
First person POV, Third person limited, Omniscient POV, character building, world building, story engineering, all of that can be taught in class, learned from books. But what can't be taught is the fresh view at looking at the world, seeing all of infinity in a drop of rain, capturing the essence of love, or of beauty, and placing it gently on a page to where others can see it, sniff it, experience it the way the character does.
Some of us find whatever that elusive spark is, most will fail.
Writing Potholes
> I may be losing my memory, but so is my height.
Your height's losing its memory? Sorry...
There's a saying, genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Supposedly, one needs discipline to write something -- or at least to learn how to write something, or to practice enough writing so that one can write something. But ADD and self-discipline don't mix -- unless one gets into the claimed hyper-focused state of mind.
About editing: if you go back and read what you've already written, no doubt you see things that could be worded better -- relatively minor changes. In my case, I'll do it or else I'll forget. Larger things -- I really don't want to go into changing that until after my draft is written and it's back to revision. But I don't want to forget either. So I'll write something in a separate "ideas" file, or write something in the middle of things, offset from the writing.
That being said, there was a section of a certain sequel set in stone for several months. Then recently -- thanks to a side story I began and since abandoned (It helped me figure out what must have happened ten years earlier.) -- I realized I had to smash the stone and redo that section. It's still not redone. Sigh...
Another thing. I write completely out of order. I have the first part done. I also have a version of the end mostly done. And I have various incidents in the middle mostly done. No doubt I'm going to have to revise the details extensively, although I hope I won't have to smash any more stones. I'm trying to complete the first draft of the second section, and then I have much to fill in the third section and beyond, with stuff that I hope is more than mere filler.
> Is it always the beginning of writing a story that's the hardest? Forcing yourself to lay down the words that you want to tell, [...]
Perhaps it's the beginning of a scene or event, or if you've stopped in the middle of a scene, it's getting back and finishing that scene, that is most difficult.
Of course, don't discard sections you've written and abandoned. Put them in an "obsolete" file, or something of the sort.
A highly non-responsive, more or less random, response to your questions and comments.
-- Daphne Xu
first drafts
I have tried outlining, doing story boards, and all of those techniques. Sorry to say they have never worked for me. With Mother's Child I knew where I was starting; I thought I knew where I wanted go, and just headed off in that direction. My characters keep developing their own personalities and ideas of what they should be and off we go in a new direction. Sometimes I can rein them in, and sometimes I just go with it. Now I'm only generally headed where I started to go.
As to how I get there, I have an idea for each chapter and I just write, never looking back until I get to the end of the chapter with first person to third person shifts, POV shifts, past pluperfect tenses, verb tense changes sometimes in the same sentence, run-on sentences (kinda like this one) and all the other mistakes you can possibly make.
I then go back edit, rewrite, re-edit, etc 2 or 3 times, then I hand it over to my excellent editors who curse me (probably) and correct me. After a couple of cycles of this it is usually ready to post. It usually still has a few mistakes (my fault, not my editors) which I try to go back and fix when found.
Mother's Child is up to around 110,000 words and I guess that it will take another 60 or 70 thousand to complete. I originally envisioned it being about 80,000 total. One of my editor's complaints by the way is that I'm too wordy. They are right of course, but slowly painfully they are helping me become a better writer.
So far most of the commentors seem to like the end product, but that may just be because the rest are too kind to tell me what they really think.
To make a long comment short, write in whatever manner works for you. Get yourself a good proof reader, editor, or just some beta readers, and don't worry about the process. It's the story ideas that are important and unique.
Via Con Dios!
Waterdog
Finding the right place to start
I find that the first chapter is the hardest to write, no matter how clear the idea and images are to me.
The problem is finding the right place to start. I begin to write and find I'm explaining too much, or realize that I've started too far back.
I don't even count the tries. I just keep scrapping and starting over until I hit the right point.
It doesn't bother me -- I know by now that it's the process, or my process, anyway.
The idea in my head is one thing. Putting it on paper for other people to read is quite another.
I hope...
I hope that you're not discarding what you're scrapping. You might find it useful later.
If the first chapter is so difficult to write, why not start with a later chapter?
> The idea in my head is one thing. Putting it on paper for other people to read is quite another.
Indeed! Takes serious effort and serious practice.
-- Daphne Xu
Not one to keep stuff
No, I delete the unsuccessful tries. I'm just looking for the right place to begin. Once I get that, everything else follows.
For me, writing is problem-solving, or answering a few questions: Where do I begin? Where does it end? What gets in the way?
Writing the first chapter is like this: James Thurber wanted to draw a picture of his car, so he sat down in front of it and started sketching. But it all of his attempts looked like crap. An artist friend came by, and said, "You'll never do it that way." The artist moved Thurber's chair back and to the side, so he had a longer view of the car. Then the picture was easy.
The attempts to start the first chapter are the same. The first time it's lots of talk. The next time it starts with an action, but it's all clunky because it starts too far away from anything interesting. The third time it starts at the right point, but it's too silly... and on it goes until a version without (obvious) issues comes out.
Kaleigh