I haven't written any longer works yet so my usual word count is around 2000-3000 words. When I write I don't choose to make the stories this length, instead I let the story flow until it reaches its own end.
I often come up with an idea in my head for the story. Putting together the plot I develop a few characters, I think of a few basics, and then I am hot on my keys... on OneNote. I make an entire notebook for this world, the characters, the places they are from, where this character will go, this side story here, then another background story here. After a few days I have an entire notebook about the world, and then a single page of notes for the actual story. I will have decided on an entire series, an epic tale of adventure and intrigue. Then I cannot get myself to write the first line of the story itself. However this time I actually just made myself start to write the primary story that I compiled together. It is the first draft, as I keep telling myself revision can happen later and to get the story out.
And then you have the other writer who begins writing with inspiration and fury, only to find that the story goes nowhere and gives up. I could equate your predicament, however, to that moment of apprehension right before jumping into the water. You want to jump in - hell, you're on the edge of the dock with your goggles on your eyes, wearing your swim trunks, toes just over the edge - but your body won't comply. It's only until your mind and body align, or your mind overrides your body, that you jump in. Once you're in, though, the apprehension and its effects on you just disappear completely. So you should jump in.
@Foxe You are absolutely correct there. Diving in can bring a vigorous sprint of inspiration which motivates me to continue moving.
It has been almost a year since I have been able to put 40,000 words together. Last year I had that much together, then revised it down to 11,000 that comprised a part of the story; a storyteller and his stories he tells in the story, but removed the MC and main plot movement. I was not satisfied at all. What I have now is retelling of some stories from 1000 Arabian Nights.
How long do you spend just thinking about your story. I don't mean planning and outline but stopping to just think about it without doing anything else? I'm sure others understand this but while I am at work doing work things I think about my story every free moment I get. I think about how I'm going to pick up where I left off and what the next scene will be. I'm not saying you shouldn't outline, do what works, but there is a huge power for me in just thinking and working it out in my head. Another question. How long does your process take? Im talking, from the time you think about a story to the time you attempt to write it?
Different people work different ways. Over thinking is something I used to do. I would say it is good to realize that it is never going to look quite the same on paper. Some ideas that sound lame in my head turn out to be awesome on paper and sadly the reverse is true too. You definitly need to get the full draft out there before revising or I recommend it. Mainly because as one person once told me. "Building a book is like building a chair. Revising is like trimming a leg. Trimming a leg before the other legs exist is not usually a wise descision. Once you have the other legs you may realize the one leg you wanted to edit is the best leg. Once you have all the pieces, you can see them together and see which pieces are not working as a part of the whole structure." Takes a lot of time and work and patients. I think it helps to realize writing a great book is not a weekend project. It helps me at least with pacing myself to know it is supposed to take awhile.
Concur with GuardianWynn! Started editing my WIP about fifteen years ago, before it was finished, and got very discouraged and didn't touch it for ten years. Editing is critical, and writing is creative, they don't mix well. That isn't to say I don't edit a single paragraph for obvious booboos. I primarily am an engineer who does a lot fast-paced technical writing, so it is second nature for me to look at a paragraph after I hit the enter key, to fix spelling, grammar, and flow, make sure the right person is speaking, etc. But that is not editing, it is proof reading. Editing is going back to change how characters evolve, what actually contributes to the story, and what is in the way and should be cut, what needs addition. Don't even think about doing that until the last chapter of the first draft is done. I like the analogy of the chair. Bottom line, get started. Once you start telling the story, the story will take over and tell itself.
Some awesome feedback, thank you. GuardianWynn, you are spot on. Great analogy. How this particular story came to me recently as a fragment of a story. I had a basic plot. As I thought, brain stormed, to get more of a foundation down, I started to think more outside looking in and wondered mostly about greater logical rationality. Why is this happening to the MC? I thought about the antagonist, their motives, the history leading to the motives, the boundaries of the antagonists' resources, other assets that can be drawn on, their motives, their conflicts, the world at large and how it will respond to my MC and the journey that is occurring from A to B. It swirls in my head and before I know it I have an epic instead of a single story. I starting writing this story first, no glamour to it in the first paragraphs just to get the story started, and this story has to work for the rest to work. It has been a week so far since I started on this WIP.
If you thinking is really large bursts. I recommend bullet points. A little cheat sheet of ideas. Because sometimes when writing, you can be so into the moment you forgot the idea you wanted this moment to lead into. A little cheat sheet of bullet points can really help you stay on track. By bullet points. I don't mean anything great. As an example from one of my works. - Finished fight with organization. - Calm down period, more develop between Jackie and Eric. - Call to action in the form of being asked to come home. - Development with family. Ext. If that gives you an idea. It is really just to remind yourself, so it doesn't even matter if the notes are too clustered to make sense to someone else.
I agree with this as well. I have yet to go back and revise what I am currently working on and I am projecting to be 3/4 done by the end of the weekend. Also i think when you haven't looked at something for a while, its easier to spot mistakes and you also get a better sense of what is good and what isnt. Of course I will think the last paragraph I wrote last night was amazing but will I think the same next month? 3 months? I think its good to give your work some time before you go back and look at it.
Interesting that when I go back and read books from the past that I loved, I still love them. The same does go for my own works. I go back and find things that are wrong, illogical, or not cohesive to the story. Last year I wrote something of 40,000 words. This summer I read it all, cut it down to 10,000 words. It is now less story than it was, with almost none of the primary plot left. All that remained was a side character (a story teller) and his side stories (I love stories within stories).
For me, I spilled the story out in a month, not in readable format but in concept format. I've been working on making it a readable story now for four years. I started with the idea of what I wanted the story to tell. If what you start with is something like, 'It was a dark and stormy night' and try to grow the story from there, that would never have worked for me. It might work for lots of authors so keep in mind we all have different styles. What I started with was, 'these are the things I want to write about'. Then I grew the setting and framework I could tell the story in. I cleaned the slate by making it about humans but on another planet. That way I could eliminate the problems on Earth I didn't want to address and just deal with the ones I did want to. I'm very pleased with the result. Now if I could just finish it.
One thing I've been doing lately is writing beginning sentence and paragraphs for stories in different styles. E.g. the book "What If: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers" lists nine different ways that a story can start. With narration, with a reminiscent narrator, with dialogue, with a generalisation, etc. By writing several, usually one stands out as being good. OP: You could do this after writing much of the rest of the story.
Easy for me to commit to a single world. Started, got immersed and couldn't stop. Still can't but it isn't finished yet . I know of the concept 'anything worthwile is not easy' @smerdyakov too and generally I agree. Sometimes I sit by the half-hour and stare at a blank screen, ideas and storyline arrangement running through my head and I wish I could just start writing. That isn't easy, taking the time to think things through even though your hands cry out to start putting words to screen. But when the words flow? Generally they only stop at the end of scenes to give me a breather. Regarding the issue of finishing, for me it is vitally important. As a youngster I started on so many projects and never even got close to finish at any one of them. I loved writing but I had no stamina to take the lumps on the long run. Now I am not sure I ever would be eligible to publish, but finish my WIP I very certainly will!! And review and polish and hone. Just to have the satisfaction and pleasure to be able to read the whole thing through from start to end and marvel at 'my words'.
It's easy for me--I know I won't finish if I work on more than one thing at a time, so I don't. Simple enough. I can store ideas away pretty easily, so I'm never worried about getting distracted by other writing projects. Getting distracted by other real-life stuff, on the other hand... Every once in a while I may stop what I'm currently working on to do something short (stop writing a novel to do a few songs or a short story), but if I do that I finish the small thing quickly and get back to the big thing. This is a pretty rare occurrence, though. Currently I'm trying to simultaneously start a new novel and edit an old one. Can't say it's going that well, but I don't know how much of that can be attributed to "trying to work on more than one thing" versus "overcoming the inertia of not-writing is taking a long time." Either way, some discipline wouldn't be a bad thing.
I only write one story at a time. I have tried working on more than one and neither have been complete. I have heard of people doing it though, i think Danielle Steele works on up to 5 books at a time. Personally for me I like to focus my time and attention to one thing. I have to shut off my brain to any other story ideas and believe me I get them, but i figure, if they are good enough I will remember them down the line. I think focusing on one story for me motivates me even more to complete the first draft. I think maybe when I get to the point that i finish a draft and I need to put my book down and step away for a while before editing again, that might be a good time to start a new story since the point is to give myself a break from the other so that when i go back to editing it will be with a fresh mind. I guess in that sense I could work on more than one book at a time.
You guys are crazy. I can't imagine working on any projects more than one. I have become obsessed with working on one series for the last four years and making it absolutely perfect. In my opinion, if anyone is looking to become successful from writing a novel, you have to put all of your focus into one thing, though, and making it the best; and I know I'm going to get backlash for saying this, so I'll say this: yes, I know everyone works differently and not everyone is looking to become successful so that's okay and you don't have to put all your time into one book because maybe that's not what writing is for you. But I don't think greatness can be created from a heaping pile of ideas because I think any idea can be turned into something great when worked on long enough but not when you keep switching between ideas because you hit a roadblock. I think if you don't have the passion in writing your story so much that you can't write anything else, that your audiences are going to feel that and that it's just going to become like every other novel that gets passed by on the bookshelf without ever getting a second glance because not even if its creator could focus on it for long enough. Stick to one story and make it the best; finish it; and don't give up or move on to anything else until you see your vision.
I know this is a common problem among writers, but I just want to know what everyone else does to inspire themselves. I've been trying to complete various stories for 5 years now and the farthest I've gotten is fully completing the outline of two stories and completing about four or five short stories. Once I completed the outline for the two stories I realized I didn't like them as much as before. The reason it is easier to complete short stories is because even if I spend a lot of time on them I'll never have to really commit to something long-term. I can finish a short story in one sitting. With novels, it's different. I'm sure everyone feels this way. I am afraid to commit because I don't want to put a lot of effort into the stories and characters only to give up later, because then all of that time and development was wasted and then I'm drained of creativity. This happens with role plays. I develop a character in a role play, but before I can even get to the best part of the development the role play ends and I never get to complete the story of the character which I have by then grown to really like. It feels like a waste- here I have this nice character but it has no where to go anymore. What if I really like a story idea and I decide to put a lot of effort into making the characters, which I never do 99% of the time, but then I realize that the story is stupid and it makes me sick just looking at it. Now those characters are just sitting there, unused, but quite developed. All of that effort- gone. I can't trust myself to stay committed, and so I end up not trying hard enough and the endless cycle continues. I am afraid of wasted effort. I want that effort to be worth it, but that is impossible to tell from the beginning no matter what story it is. How do you all take that risk?
I am wrestling with this too. The initial fire or passion tends to fade over time, and that is disappointing. I know a painter who told me once that he must finish any painting within two weeks of beginning it or he gets bored and will never finish it. OTOH I have heard of some writers who pick something up decades later to resume finishing it. Perhaps you could look at each session as a mini-goal within the larger goal of the bigger story, and just try to hit that small goal every day with a vague impression of the long term target. Just a thought.
Three is no easy answer. You have to be willing to put in the time and the effort, realizing that at the end of the project (it reaches completion) there is no guarantee of success (however you might want to measure that). And getting that first draft finished is just the first step. You'll be revising and editing and improving it through multiple passes. Some writers set goals...completing so many words a week, or spending five hours a week writing, or whatever works for them. Others just fit it in when they can and press forward. In the end it's self-discipline and the desire to write a novel (or story), possibly with the goal for others to read it and enjoy (although some writers only write for themselves). I can say that reaching the end of that first draft is a big accomplishment and a real boost to press forward. Many people talk about writing and some actually sit down to start. But few of those actually persevere and get that first draft finished, and from there only a small fraction do what it takes to get that novel finished and in the best quality version capable by the writer. Writing is both passion and desire...but it's also work and study. I hope you're both two of the small fraction that persevere and finish, Tea@3 and Silvertide!
