One time I made the magic work of writing and posting at the same time and going all the way to the end with Blue Moon but I've tried it three more times and it hasn't worked. I don't like leaving people waiting for the rest of the story so, this time, my intention has been to have something done before I start posting.
That could mean I never post another story because I feel like I need the feedback I got on Blue Moon to keep me going. That sensation is hard to describe, it's like jumping off a building and wondering if you tied the bungie cord right. ::grin:: But, having landed on my keister three times now, I'm a little shy of heights.
Catch 23, the sequel.
Anyway, that's where I am and what I'm doing. I've got two stories I'm working on, long ones, plus trying to go back and work on Green Sun and Tangled Up In Pink now and again. It's summer and the nights are long and business for me doesn't pick up till the fall, usually. Well, late summer, getting ready for fall campaigns.
So, here's the pitch. Am I doing the right thing in not posting till I'm done? Or did enough of you enjoy the roller coaster of Blue Moon with me that you're willing to buy another ticket to ride knowing we may be boarding the Wile E. Coyote Express and end up with faces pressed into the rock wall of a painted-on tunnel?
Some of you, of course, are pretty up-front about not reading anything that isn't complete and I can understand that and sympathize. But frankly, how many of you don't want to ride isn't the point; it's how many of you do want a ticket that interests me.
I've got stories to tell and they want to be told but I feel they need a little coaxing. I'm not doing this for money so scheduling time to work on stuff isn't doing it for me. I've got a job, I don't need another one.
But man-o-man that roller coaster was hella fun. Two years ago I wrote 78,000 words in 90 days, making it up as I went along and making it all come out right in the end. And some of you were with me, screaming in the car as we took the whoop-de-doos and telling me when I should let loose the brake and hang on tight for the curves.
I've never felt anything else like it in the world, I'm telling you.
So, I'm working on these two new ones, trying to do what I did with Blue Moon, but doing it alone, and I can feel them dying, my interest falling. I had audiences for Green and Pink and I couldn't do it for them either. So maybe it isn't the audience, maybe it's me, maybe I only had one book like Blue Moon in me.
I hope not. I hope I can either write alone and finish a long story or -- and this would be my preferred thing to do -- write in the window here at BC where everyone can see me do it. Novel writing as performance art.
So, which do I do? Go into my writing closet and hope I can motivate myself in the long dark lonely hours to write and write until I finish something? Or do I hit the klieg lights in the BigCloset and use it as my stage to do my act?
Don't all of you boo at once. ::grin::
Let me know, I'm listening.
Donna Lamb, Flack
Comments
I recommend you post it
I for one would be more than willing to read anything you wrote chapter by chapter. I was quite late in getting to Blue Moon and Tangled Up in Pink, but after reading them I've been desperately hoping you would start writing again.
Serials are also much better accepted now than they were even two years ago, and even then they were still quite popular. I don't think you would have any trouble grabbing new and old readers' attentions, and with how good your writing is you would DEFINITELY get plenty of supportive comments.
Melanie E.
I'm pleased
I'm pleased to know that you think well of my writing. I think I'm still reluctant to leap into the unknown with only a word processor between me and the abyss. I'm going to keep thinking about it for a bit. Thanks for the reply.
-- Donna Lamb, Flack
-- Donna Lamb, ex-Flack
Some of my books and stories are sold through DopplerPress to help support BigCloset. -- Donna
Donna
BigCloset TopShelf
TGLibrary.com
Thanks
I know you work at being encouraging to everyone who writes and posts on BC. Your thought is appreciated.
-- Donna Lamb, Flack
-- Donna Lamb, ex-Flack
Some of my books and stories are sold through DopplerPress to help support BigCloset. -- Donna
Beep - beep
You're a special talent.
Your above post should come with a disclaimer, "Kids -- don't try this at home!"
Unfortunately you make it look easy, and soon every filbert with a keyboard will be attempting the impossible.
If your muse runs on anxiety, that's what you need to do.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Bert and Ernie
Sometimes you Phil like a nut, sometimes you don't. ::grin::
When I'm writing fiction, I try to keep the goals and outcomes out of reach and cloudy while the paths and scenery are as concrete as sidewalks and as palpable as that unidentifiable substance that always seems to stick to one's soul. Not everyone enjoys my brand of suspense, Purple Juice with Extra Pulp.
That energy that went into Blue Moon came from somewhere and until I find the tap or plug or duct that sourced it, I think I'm grounded.
Thanks for your vote of confidence. ::smile::
-- Donna Lamb, Flack
-- Donna Lamb, ex-Flack
Some of my books and stories are sold through DopplerPress to help support BigCloset. -- Donna
Go at your own pace.
Do whatever works best for you is my advice. I did enjoy Blue Moon, so I'll look forward to whatever you write, however you write it. Having said that, I know that, though I don't necessarily need it, I do enjoy the input from readers on what I write, and it does give me some different ideas I might not have thought of on my own.
Saless
"But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend." - Eddie Murphy, Coming To America
"But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend." - Eddie Murphy, Coming To America
Ooh, ooh ooh Me Me Me!!!
Was channling Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter there for a moment.
Post or not but at least send the stuck stuff off to some scratch monkeys, I mean test readers...Maybe they can notice something you missed. Forest for the trees syndrome and all that.
John in Wauwatosa
P.S. Ever hear Stan Freeberg's The Flack Man and Regean?
John in Wauwatosa
Oh, yes
The classics. ::grin::
I always wondered if Stan wrote his own material. He did so well with the words of others as announcer and cartoon voice but those comedy albums seemed very personal. I think I once saw a credit that indicated that Jack Burns did some writing for him at one time.
Beta readers are good but that's not really the charge I'm looking for. When I did Blue Moon, Erin sometimes did some proofing after I posted but the thrill was in just putting it out there.
Thanks for replying.
-- Donna Lamb, Flack
-- Donna Lamb, ex-Flack
Some of my books and stories are sold through DopplerPress to help support BigCloset. -- Donna
Spurs that Jingle Jangle
I like to think I can write anytime on any subject to any specified length. Tell me to have 3000 words by 5 p.m. on how a new radial arm saw for the community workshop project will reduce crime, improve nutrition and cure plantar warts and I'm your girl. I live for deadlines.
Writing fiction for a hobby has no deadlines. And so, it seems, I need to artificially create that kind of pressure. And more, I have to believe in it. It's like trying to get the audience to clap their hands to save the little fairy. Shameless, I know. ::grin::
Thanks for the reply.
-- Donna Lamb, Flack
-- Donna Lamb, ex-Flack
Some of my books and stories are sold through DopplerPress to help support BigCloset. -- Donna
I'm only fustrared when...
I get into a story and then find that it appears to be abandoned. There are many such stories all over the web, so all i ask is you try not to do the same. Whether you release it when done or as you go is up to you, I'll give it a gander either way. :)
Huggles,
Winnie
Huggles,
Winnie
Duck! It's an analogy!
No one has to like finding an abandoned story but no one starts a story with the intent of abandoning it. It's like recommending to the lion tamer not to get bit. ::grin::
I'm not painting houses or building bridges. What I want to do is approach writing like improv or marathoning. Sometimes you get on stage and you lay an egg, or you get hit by a car when you make the turn onto Pico Boulevard. This is hard to communicate.
Is it better not to have started a race at all than to make it 19 miles instead of 26? Magellan died in the middle of circumnavigating the globe but his attempt is remembered.
Abandonment of a story is not the worst that can happen, I guess I'm trying to say.
Thanks for your reply and I'm glad you're willing to give me a gander, though what I may really need is a goose. ::grin::
-- Donna Lamb, Flack
-- Donna Lamb, ex-Flack
Some of my books and stories are sold through DopplerPress to help support BigCloset. -- Donna
Personally ...
... I'd wait until you've finished it. This is nothing against those who post serials before completing the entire story, but I've found that a story is better when it is worked on as a whole. I also wonder how many serials remain unfinished because the author has worked herself into a huge hole she can't escape from.
Aardvark
P.S.
Oh, yeah. You're an excellent writer. We swine can wait for your scraps. :)
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
That's expected
Some people don't like circus acts, I understand that. But you can't be shot out of a cannon in the privacy of your own den and expect anyone to applaud. ::grin::
For the reader, reading the story is the experience. For a writer, having written a story is a memory of an experience.
I think I have four or five unfinished serials lying around on the net. Are they worthless? Maybe.
And none of them are unfinished because of some unresolvable plot point, I know how each of them ends and what the next unwritten scene in each of them is. That ain't the dilemma. They're unfinished because I stopped having fun writing them.
I do this as a hobby. And my hobby seems to be, not just writing stories for the sake of writing stories, but writing for the sake of the interaction between myself and readers as I write.
And you're an excellent writer, too. ::grin::
If you think your efforts are best spent polishing your gems in privacy before showing them to us, we will wait patiently.
I just don't think that's going to work for me, and I've been trying.
-- Donna Lamb, Flack
-- Donna Lamb, ex-Flack
Some of my books and stories are sold through DopplerPress to help support BigCloset. -- Donna