Anything I could say to summarize would be useless. 'There are no shortcuts' would be about the best I can come up with.
Pick one and get through it. Any ideas for other stories, make note of them (and make any further notes that might come along) but concentrate on one thing until it's done.
I haven't read much in terms of how to write, nothing actually, I was just a bit curious about the whole planning and pantsing thing. Maybe because I don't read books on how to write or generally talk to others who write (apart from those on this forum, and I only joined last week) is the reason I was getting a little self doubt in my approach. I have no problem with rejection from people or criticism, I've been in bands since I was a teenager and you always have people tell you you're crap, but it doesn't matter you just get on with it. But reading what people have written on this forum I feel more at ease knowing that there is no formula it isn't a science. So thanks all.
Another good practice is to clean up all of your writing for whatever you are doing. When you write, think of whatever you are doing as part of your story. Answer emails, write letters, even your grocery list, make and effort to improve your writing. In the last couple months I think I can say that I have probably averaged at least twenty thousand words a week. Each day I can see my grammar and vocabulary improving. The old cliché that the more you write, the better you will be at it is working a little for me. Just this response will have me putting down at little over one hundred words. Not the best quality, but gets you in the habit of it.
ok, its just with you saying gleaned from them, to me when you glean something it isn't a massive amount of information or knowledge just a snippet that gets you a little further down the track. I wasn't trying to say make me an awesome writer in 5 words
LOL! Okay, I'll try to avoid that trap. Just to give you an idea, the notes I took filled ten (or maybe it was twelve) notebooks. Most of those notes I never used, but it all seemed quite important at the time I was taking the notes. I tossed them out a couple of years ago when I realized I hadn't looked at them in at least a decade. And once I discovered the books I listed in my sig, all the others seemed like they were no more than window dressing. If I could be sure that would be the case for you as well, I'd recommend them highly and tell you not to bother with the others. But it's entirely possible that I wouldn't have gotten as much from Swain and Snyder if I hadn't read all those other how-to books first.
I can't plan too far into my books. I've always read, "Outline, outline, outline; outline your book then write it." I've never been able to outline anything before I've written it . . . ever. I just don't think that way. I can't think that way. I know; I've tried. What I do is get a basic idea of a story--usually a scene goes into my head and I fall in love with the characters and/or idea--and then I write that idea down. Sometimes it turns into something I want to put into a book, sometimes it doesn't. Right now I know of about six books I want to write, only two of which I'm actively working on. I say just go with whatever works for you. You can try all the different methods, but don't beat yourself up if none of them work for you. About working on several books at once: I was almost afraid to let myself work on more than one book at a time because I figured I'd never get either one finished, but recently I discovered working on two books at once is good for me. When I'm discouraged about one book (writer's block or similar issues), I can work on the other one until inspiration hits me for the first one. Knowing I have another book I can work on is actually keeping me excited about both books. Someone on this forum said they work on, I believe, fourteen books at a time. It really just depends on what works for you.
14 books at a time, that is extreme. I wouldn't be able to sleep that many plots and characters floating around in the ether of my mind. Invariably I would mix them up into a mash where my historical romance slips into my futuristic Armageddon "The castle was cold, and the candle light shimmered on the picture of the recently deceased nobleman. I was only going to be a shoulder to cry on for the heiress, but when she walked down the stairs I knew in my heart of hearts I wanted her. I needed her. I would wait the appropriate amount of time and then begin a courtship so wonderful the ages would remember our names. Then suddenly an android dead set on killing the last remaining internet servers broke in"
This is good, I you are getting a lot of diverse opinions here, and that is good, because everyone agrees there is no one way to write. I do a huge volume of engineering technical writing. and have done that type of writing for decades. The emphasis is on clarity and editorial quality, and of course such writing always begins with an outline. Entertainment is not a priority! My fictional writing, on the other hand, is kind of a rebellion against that. However, as soon as I end a paragraph with the enter key, fiction or technical, I go back and scan the paragraph for spelling, grammar, flow and situation mistakes (wrong person tagged talking, etc). Again when I finish a chapter, I read the entire thing, for clarity, more SPaG, perhaps revise a few sentences. This is the discipline learned from technical writing. Then I give it to my wife (former English teacher and budding writer) for her corrections, which are usually SPaG, occasionally run-on sentences, and sometimes structural... doesn't think something is in character, etc. I try to avoid major revisions while the story is unfolding, however. For me, that is a trap that leads to constant indecision and revision, even a bit of-self-doubt. I used to consider myself a pure pantser, but in a recent thread I had to change my mind. While I don't do text outlines and so forth, since my WIP involved a great deal of travel, I used a mapping program to lay out my route, sometimes in the mountains on a contour map so I knew exactly what the route would look like, how long it would take, season when they started, season when the ended, and therefore what clothes they would wear. That was basically almost on a chapter by chapter basis. I also used google earth to see the area. In my first foray into the Pamirs, I followed Google Earth at ground level for several hundred miles from Kashgar in China through the Irkeshtam Pass into Kyrgyzstan until I knew every twist in the road. So that really is planning, though it didn't involve text. So having laid out the route, and knowing how long it would take, I sat down to write the chapter, and here is where I became a pntser, because I often didn't know exactly what was going to happen! And that is the fun part.
haha. I didn't mention before the rest of the story will be a straight copy and paste from the Braveheart script and Terminator hope that's ok...
I think it really does depend on what you are most comfortable with, and what, with practice, helps you to write better/more. I find knowing what happens helps me get from point A to point B.
