Just thought I'd ask the good folks around here how they're doing with their writing. Main project? Side project(s)? All? My main writing is going slow. Written half a book in two years time now. I expect to be finished by the end of this year, but my current progress tells me something else. I write the occasional short story. Recently I've started a bad habit of only writing half a short story and then begin on another, don't know why I have started with that. It hasn't been a problem for me before. I have ideas, but they quickly burn out and I get new ones that seem more interesting, only for them to burn out too. Have to stop that. Focus. Finish. Feast. How about you?
I cranked out a webcomic recently, and am coming up with a fanfic story line for my Alien vs Predator game.
It's based on the Asylum memoirs I'm writing. Basically, they're memoirs about monsters, anomalous events, and frightening experiences.
I thought I was still writing a first draft, but it's sort of turned into a first-and-a-half. I wasn't planning on editing any of the passages I'd written but I find myself doing that as much as writing new stuff. The import is that my word count isn't ticking up as fast as I'd like, but it's probably for the best. I was going to have to make those edits eventually anyway. And it has started to read better IMHO, as opposed to just being the "this happened, then that happened" type deal it started out as.
I took a break from querying for my novel to work on an older story that i'd started back when i was in middle school (i found the file and it amazed the amount of detail and planning i had for it). My plan was to edit and update the story, flesh out the characters, expand the world, and basically adapt a "middle school " story for an adult audience. THEN..... I picked up another story that i finished earlier this year with the intention of posting it to Wattpad, but changed my mind as i started the editing process (caught A LOT of embarrassing redundancies and inconsistencies). I've been working on those two things non stop, until these past few days where family and pet stuff has been pulling all my attention. Now that everything has evened out (not necessarily gotten better), i may start writing again.
@J.T. Woody If I remember correctly, the novel you're querying is a sci-fi one right? Or is that another one? Adapting a middle school story for an adult audience can't be an easy task. Mind if I ask what it's about? @Robert Musil In what genre is your first-and-a-half draft?
You are correct about the first one. The middle school story (i call it that, not because of the plot but because thats when i wrote it) follows a Snow White plot, somewhat.... Dont laugh.... It was about tiny fairies in a magical meadow. One fairy princess was taken into the forest to be killed by her older brother but she runs away, gets her wings ripped off and has to live on the ground in the forest working at an inn-- essentially hiding out until plot stuff happens and shes brought back to the meadow to confront her brothers. Theres also a love interest but he dies trying to rescue her. I stuck with the basic Snow White bare bones. But my edits thus far: they are no longer fairies. They are people sized. Theres more plot as to why her brothers want her dead (no, they did not want to become fairest of them all...). They no longer live in a "magical meadow" though there is magic (or, lore surrounding magic...magic is never actively used by characters) MC is still a princess but the world has been developed into a feudal system and isnt as glamorous as i wrote being a princess to be back then, but a more mature depiction of it (i did research lol) Also, she starts off as a damsel but in the end, she does the rescuing. Love interest still dies, though. Cant have "Happy Ever Afters"
ETA: thanks for asking! @Madman *takes a deep breath, exhales slowly* Oh man, what a good question, let's see...uh...well, I suppose I've been thinking of it as a sci-fi. And indeed, if you look up at the night sky in my setting you'll see a lot of interesting stuff, orbital megastructures, Alcubierre drives flashing in and out of the Solar System, Arcturan megafreighters visible from their parking orbit, which is halfway to Mars to cut down on the gravity pollution...BUT the thing is none of the characters in the story have aught to do with any of that. They're stuck on Earth with no better than Neolithic technology. The last time they were part of a technologically-advanced human race was thousands of years ago, a past they remember only as myths, and through a very few remaining cast-off bits of technology which have survived that long--mostly glass and ceramic, a few bits of very degraded plastics and metal. Nothing still usable, although they've taken on quasi-magical significance. UNTIL our characters happen upon some of these artifacts just sitting around out in the world. No one in living memory has actually found one--all the ones they have, have been safely kept since forever ago in a certain ritual complex, where everyone knows exactly what to do with them. So then our characters set to arguing about what to do with them...and that's the inciting incident of our story. So I dunno, you tell me. I've told you all the most science fiction-y bits but keep in mind, all of this is deeply in the background for most of the story. 98% of it is, like, hunting caribou with bows and arrows. The sci-fi really just provides the MacGuffin and the worldbuilding.
Slowly. I'm pretty bad at focusing even at the best of times, but now I'm dealing with a real life conundrum (which could end up being an extremely good thing, if it turns out the way I'm hoping) and the uncertainty is making it even harder to just sit down and write. Hopefully, all will be resolved within a week or two, though. As for the current project, I always have a million things that I'm hopping between, but I'd really like to finish a fantasy short story that's been in progress for a while. I'm taking a zoom short fiction class, and we each get to workshop one piece, so that's motivating me to finish a critique-worthy draft soon.
Finished an article on bald eagles, working on an article on porcupines. Fiction progressing sloooooowwwwwwllllllyyyyyy.
I've been working on the same project since the start of the year. I'm just over halfway through now. It's going slowly, but that's fine, I'm in no rush. I know that when I've finished though, there'll be a lot of unnecessary words, and a lot of sections that make no sense because I've rushed them.
@J.T. Woody Sounds intriguing and seems like you got a good handle on updating your work. @Robert Musil Neat, so a world where advanced tech exists, but we follow the primitives? I think that's a very original idea. Interesting!
Kinda been exploring short stories, but for me that means they probably are longer than what the average would call short. Been an exploration into tightening up my writing, new characters, and concepts cause it's fun. Started a Sci-fi Dystopian story (real original I know), but I like to think I'm adding my own twist on the concept, and have no intent on having things get better as is the standard for such stories.
Dead. All dead. Every last one of them. All my characters… Why are the walls wet with blood? Why do I have an axe? Why am I breathing hard, and whose arm is that? *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ In all seriousness, my writing took a backseat due to a stupidly high crunch time at work. I haven’t written a word in months.
Two months ago I finally decided to start writing the fantasy novel that I've been thinking about for over two years now. My motivation level is always touch and go so I've been wary of it. I'm not writing every day but I am writing every week, which is something! Still unsure about certain plot points and the direction I want to go in, but it seems promising so far. I don't know when I'll finish it, but I'll just keep trucking along for now.
Spit out over two thousand words yesterday, on two separate projects. One may be good enough for this month's writing contest. The other has controversial thoughts on religion that I am hesitant to post in here. I'm disappointed because it's a particularly good piece of writing.
