1. MarcT

    MarcT Active Member

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    When you're on a roll

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by MarcT, Sep 4, 2016.

    One of the greatest feelings if you're a writer, I feel.
    It just keeps coming and coming and more begets more.
    Damned if I know how that works, it just does.
    This book is practically consuming me, almost to the expense of everything else and frankly, I need to keep going.
    How do others feel about this weird sensation of almost superhuman ability?
     
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  2. SethLoki

    SethLoki Retired Autodidact Contributor

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    Envious.

    :)
     
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  3. matwoolf

    matwoolf Banned Contributor

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    Black painted walls of the teenage writer - sworls of blood endlessly looped upon pages of notebooks piled on a pony duvet, words transferred meticulously to the i-phone 7. Soundtrack to pain is death metal sub-genre. Finally they champion has completed the masterwork poem 'Isolation Upon Alpha Centuri: A Me Chronicle In 3 Parts' - but nobody wants to read it. Exquisite pain. Turn up the music.

    Mummy stands in the garden, shears held in her hand. Dad washes the car again and again and again.
     
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  4. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    What's with the new line for every sentence? Anyway, glad you are on a roll. I would say I've been pretty productive lately as well. And I think it is important to take advantage of the extra momentum when it hits us. Sometimes writing comes easier than other times. Keep it up.
     
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  5. MarcT

    MarcT Active Member

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    I was feeling a bit manic when I posted this, hence the rat-a-tat-tat, but I take your point Deadrats..
     
  6. MarcT

    MarcT Active Member

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    I was at around 40,000 words when I started this thread, then it all stopped for a few weeks due to a plot roadblock and I only managed to pick it up again by writing through it and creeping up to 55,000.
    Then the festive season arrived which completely blew a hole in my plans - too many far too enjoyable parties - and then I attacked the book again in the new year and haven't stopped.
    I'm practically at the end of the story now at 98,600 words and tying up the plotlines. I'm amazed at how the characters have developed with the story and it's been enormously fun painting them, especially building into them the idiosyncrasies I've spotted in real people. I so love that aspect of writing.
    That aspect in particular has really excited me, especially two female characters who have emerged as central to the way the book ends.
    I hope to have a finished first draft in a couple of weeks and then the fun begins with the polishing.
    ***The plot is centred around a fictitious South American country, targeted by a secret group, formed over two hundred years before, with specific aims to implant their own head of state by nefarious purposes.
    The only genre I can place it in is political thriller, for the moment.
     
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  7. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    And then comes the fun part: Edit (that's right I used that four letter word of evil.) :supergrin:
     
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  8. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    I equate it to a train. It's an enormous object of unfathomable weight that takes an ungodly amount of energy to set motion. But once that fucker gets rolling, God help anything that tries to stop it.
     
  9. 123456789

    123456789 Contributor Contributor

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    I'm a little surprised you haven't finished your first draft yet. It should only take about 3 months, especially if you're on a roll ~_~
     
  10. MarcT

    MarcT Active Member

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    Since when should the first draft 'take only about 3 months'? According to whom?
     
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  11. Dynasty

    Dynasty New Member

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    How many words can describe it? Tao, Zen, Ch'an, Chi, Holy Spirit even. I most likely don't know a fraction of them, but maybe that is what we experience.
     
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  12. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Well if you were to consider the logic of Elena in Tease Me (Book 1). According to this fictional author it only takes a few hours
    to write 7 chapters.

    And apparently there is someone who has written a novel in 3 days.


    So perhaps anything is possible. :p
     
  13. MarcT

    MarcT Active Member

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    Well, thankfully we all have our own unique styles in reaching our objectives.
    I'm very pleased though to have reached the 100k mark as of yesterday evening. It feels like a kind of milestone actually. My previous book, which I can barely pick up now without cringing, was around 82k, but nowhere near as interesting to write.
    I expect to finish within the next few days and also to fix some plot holes, since I write mainly off the cuff.
     
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  14. MarcT

    MarcT Active Member

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    I really enjoy editing actually. Gives me a real kick, like sharpening a knife.
     
  15. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Me too... until a year or two goes by.
     
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  16. MarcT

    MarcT Active Member

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    It's Friday, I've written 13,000 words since the same time last week so it's time for a beer.
     
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  17. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Well done @MarcT! 100k is a lot further than many aspiring authors ever get. :D
     
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  18. FireWater

    FireWater Senior Member

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    Congratulations on your progress! That's amazing.

    I think it's stupid to attach a time length it "should" take. Some people are able to spend hours a day writing at home, and that's great. Other people are busy with lots of demands from life, and writing thousands of words every single day isn't always feasible.

    I'm about to break the 50,000 threshold, so I feel like I'm on a roll too.
     
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  19. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    In my opinion, a first draft should take seven minutes and editing should take precisely 2.3 hours. Anybody working to different timescales is clearly an inferior writer. :whistle:
     
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  20. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    Just saw this. It's great.
     
  21. MarcT

    MarcT Active Member

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    Many thanks for your kind words and the best of luck with your book which I believe is due for publication isn't it. That alone must feel great!
     
  22. MarcT

    MarcT Active Member

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    Agreed, unless of course the agent tells you they want so many books a year :)
    50k is a milestone and gives you a real boost to keep going, so well done!
     
  23. FireWater

    FireWater Senior Member

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    Thanks! :) I've gone through a lot this year - changed cities, changing career paths, making friendships and seeking a girlfriend, etc. - so hitting the 50K progress mark (well, 300 words away at this point) feels pretty good. When I saw that "it should only take 3 months" post, it ruffled my feathers a bit. If you reach the 98,600/finish point like Marc did, then that's already more than 90%+ of 'it would be cool to be a writer' people can say for themselves.

    Matwoolf, I always love your posts. Are you on some really good weed while you're writing this stuff? I want some. -_-
     
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  24. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    I think Nora Roberts writes a novel every 45 days or something. That shouldn't shock anyone who's ever read one of them...
     
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  25. MarcT

    MarcT Active Member

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    And she's written over 200 novels since 1981 apparently. I'd never heard of her till you mentioned her name but heck, that's a lot of romance writing.
     
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