Call me Rica. I am a hermit, living in the lush mountains of Australia. I'm 10,000 words away from finishing my first completed novel. I write mystery/adventure stories, often set in the wildest places on earth. I also write anthropomorphic stories/fables. What tickles me is writing about nature and spiritual awakenings, shifts in consciousness, and characters that are powerful and steadfast. I hope to critique and have my writings critiqued, in order to learn and grow as a writer.
Welcome. Your stuff sounds interesting, especially the bit about spirituality and consciousness. It's the kind of stuff I'm fascinated by, even if I don't really center my writing on it that much. Oh, and congratulations on closing in on your first novel!
Th Thank you, Night herald. Nice to meet you! The last chapters are intimidating me, my writing pace has slowed considerably. Do I not want my book to end? The journey has been remarkable, and suddenly I'm faced with the reality that my darlings need to be murdered. Sighs Any tips? Also, what genre do you write>?
No tips from me, I'm afraid. I have a hard time finishing stories as well, even short ones, and I'm no good at doing away with even the most pointless darlings. My best attempt at finishing a novel stalled at the 130k word count for these reasons. I guess I don't feel equal to the task of fulfilling the potential I see in my stories? I start a lot of new stuff, which I gather is a common ailment among writers. Anyways, I write mostly Fantasy and some Science Fiction. I focus a lot on humor, history, mysticism, dream worlds, alien dimensions, and parallel planes of existence. I also like blending in Sci-fi elements.
I'll treat this as a general question to all and sundry and give what little advice I can: Write up a hypothetical ending. Don't think of it as something set in stone, but as one possible way to end the story, and you might change it drastically or write a completely different one later. In fact that's true—a first draft is an immensely fluid thing, subject to all kinds of changes down the road. So it isn't really the end, not for you as the writer. You're going to be revising and editing many times anyway going forward, and the shape of the story may change drastically, possibly several times. So really, everything you've already written is hypothetical, it's your first idea for how the story should go. This is the purpose of a first draft—once it's written all the way to an end you can finally see the entire thing in rough form and begin to see what changes need to be made.
Oh, friend, 130k is a considerable word count. Bravo! I believe you are beyond equal to the task of finishing, and you came so far -- finish and taste the glory. You bloody well deserve it. As for your writing genres haha...the shorter answer would be, what genre don't I write in . Send me one of your short stories, even if it's unfinished. Sincerely
Xoic, you wonderful writer! I am a pantser, I just love not knowing. However, I suspect your wisdom reigns true and I shall write a hypothetical ending, I already know it, it's lurking in my subconscious, I've been tasting it these last days. Thank you, for the kick up my arse .
That's extremely kind of you to say, and I can tell you're gonna be a positive force around this here forum. But yeah, I could probably finish if I wanted to. Thanks for reminding me If you would like to read any of my stories (or poems) you could click on the medals under my name and get redirected to some of my award-winning shorts, or you could go on my profile and check out my workshop submissions. I'd also be down with showing you some of my WIPs via PM, and would be happy to critique your stuff in turn.
