I would discuss it with your friend as well. And your friend may even be able to lend you insight into what you're writing about.
I agree with Cogito. There is nothing wrong with it. After all, people find inspiration for things in life everywhere.
This is really good advice. Use the hardship, and gain inspiration from it, but make sure it's tailored to best fit the story. Don't feel like everything has to be forced to fit the real-life situation.
hey, i've been working on a series for a long time, especially book one, but i've thought all of the books out as a whole, but now I wonder if I may have put too much thought into it all? It's becoming almost hard to write some of these books because I know exactly what happens in my head and it's not as much discovering what happens as I write which is part of what's so fun about writing. should i take a step back from the stories? maybe i should forget about what is supposed to happen and just start writing and see what actually does happen. perhaps my books will be the better for it.
Hi Rumwriter, I often have the same problem. My work turns from a piece of creative writing, to somewhat of a 'copy this text' that you would have to do in school. Rather than feeling like you are plucking ideas from your mind, and exploring them through writing, you are simply 'rewriting' what you already know. What I think might help is if you already know what's going to happen in your books, express that as a start (John lost his pen), and a finish (John found his pen). If you break your story down in to simply the start and finish point, you are free to work out how he 'found his pen' as you write. When ideas are flying through your mind, jot down ones that you think might benefit the story and make it interesting, but don't turn it in to a set of instructions that you must follow. This way you'll know what is going to happen but you are still free to explore the possibilities between A and Z. Start writing about how your MC got to B, C, D, E, F, G... Hope this helps!
Of course you're too close to your story, aren't we all. I have my stories all thought out but as I'm writing I sometimes find that it takes a slightly different turn or a bit of dialog sparks a new idea. I'm not nearly as good at verbally telling a story as I am at writing a story (meaning that when I take the time to fine tune my words in writing they have way more power than something that comes off the tip of my tongue). To me it's the creating and fine tuning into something really great that is the joy in writing. So if the story is flowing, let it flow. Breaks, smeaks, who needs them?
Definetely agree, i will just make a few little dot points, and make my own way there. Flows alot better like that
if you are like me once it comes to writing it down it will transform into something you do as you go along so it will not take the fun out of it
I think it is a good thing that you know what is going to happen through the majority of your novels - it will give them a much clearer structure. I tend the have the opposite problem, I know the characters and bits and peices, but I rarely have a properlly developed plotline. What I would advise you do is to write your novels as you imagine them - you have obviously spent a long time thinking about what you want to write, so there is nothing to say that they won't be brilliant. If, after you have finished writing them and there are sections you are unhappy with, then maybe the time to take a step backwards and see how to change it. But yea, for now just work on actually finishing
Came across the term today, and was wondering what it meant (person said that the shorter stories in a particular publication that publishes stories from about 1000 to 18K words were more "open-ended")
It can mean several things. If a prompt says a story is open-ended, this generally means that you can write it about whatever you want, instead of them giving you a theme or required element to start with. But if an already-written story is open-ended, this generally means that the ending left some mysteries open, so the readers (or viewers if it's a movie) can use their own imaginations to speculate about whys and hows.
It could also mean that there are some lose endings to a story or movie and the readers or viewers are awaiting a sequel to the story or movie. But then again, I guess I could be wrong on this subject.
^ Yeah, that's what I was talking about - loose endings that leave some mysteries open. You're not wrong on that, Reg.
How do you keep your story organized as you write? One of my biggest problems is that I don't do a good enough job keeping backups of scenes that I revise. I think I'm going to start writing each scene in a separate document and then keeping each scene for the chapter inside a folder. Do any of you do anything like this? It's not the biggest deal in the world, but it always causes me problems.
Personally, I have individual chapters in separate files. When I begin to write a chapter I'll outline in bullet points basically what I'm going for in the chapter... and if there is a specific point I think of that I don't want to forget I'll give it it's own bullet point. I've never re-written an entire scene, but sometimes I'll re-write like a section of a chapter and if I do I'll always include both the old and new version with some way of distinguishing which is which (color, different font, w/t).
I'm not plugging this piece of software, but there is actually a program that does that, called YWriter. I personally like just writing one piece. I'm a little bit obsessive compulsive over the neatness of folders on my computer.
I use the folders on my computer, somewhat like a "My Documents" but I call it "My Books." Inside I branch out to folders of each individual book project I have running, and those in turn branch out to all of their elements (chapters, outline, characters, setting, etc.). Most of these folders are filled with notes on their topics, except the chapters folder. I also separate my chapters to individual files, so this folder contains all drafts of chapters. But it is layered. I have a folder inside it for first edits, and once I begin to edit a chapter, I copy it into that folder before making changes. Then, I do the same with second and third and fourth edits. After I'm satisfied with the edits, I transfer all the individual edited chapter files into one document and save that inside as the master file (inside its own folder, too). My system is a little tedious to set up, but not so difficult to use. In the end, I keep a copy of every draft written, and it remains neat and organized.
My documents are always saved title, year, month, day for example, Embrace 2011.10.06 Usually once a month I retitle my document with the current date. That saves backup copies of the MS for if I want to go back and grab a deleted scene or just laugh at what it used to look like. By putting the date - year, month, day they stay in date order with the most current always at the top of the list.
Not sure I see any need to keep backups of stuff that's been rewritten/revised/edited. Of course, I edit as I go, so maybe there's the difference. I keep a list of characters, which chapter they first appear in - and a list of places and their respective chapters. Oh, and an 'idea file' for stuff, which includes stuff I cut but still like. Otherwise, my pc is too cluttered up already...
I have three different timelines- one for the characters, one for the plot, and one that blends the two together. I use it as a visual if/when I introduce a new character or plot twist, so they stay aligned. Having separate ones just helps me while writing, and depending on which aspect I'm working on, as a visual aid. I also keep a character journal on each major character, where I put their individual story/history timelines, and notes on where I want the character to go, where in the story I want them to end up, etc. Each time I add more to the character journal, timelines, and what I already have, I save it in a new document with the same title but with a 2.0 or 3.0, x.0 depending on the revision number. But I don't keep things separated into chapters. I just write until I find a good stopping point, save, and open a new document to begin the next segment-- but nothing is saved in 'chapters'.
I have separate folders for each chapter, short story, poem, all sorted into respective folders. I then have backups in an online storage system as well as backed up to CD and ZIP disk. I am miserly about what I throw away, cutting chunks out of one draft and storing it elsewhere, with the premise that maybe, with some tweaks, it can be recycled in another project, or fixed up and reinserted somewhere else where it originated from.
I keep a list of characters, important locations, & events similar to a cast of characters section of a theatrical play(or many Star Wars EU novels). Most of my brainstorming ideas are kept in notebooks and then as I write I draw from all of these avenues and go from there. Hope this helps!
I'm not very organized, I keep my novels, finished and ongoing, in separate folders in the My documents with the subtitle My novels, there I have all the previous versions of the novel in question, but I have the entire novel in one text document, all the chapters together one after another. I don't use to do character bios, it's all in my head, I don't feel the need to keep that written. After a days work I always save the latest version of the document on my USB thumb drive, something I started with when my old computer were showing signs of giving up soon, and now I'm pretty compulsive about it) but I don't keep old versions of them except for the ones in the document on the computer.
I keep it in one large document with each chapter title/number being set as a heading. There is a list of headings on the left-hand side of the screen and all I have to do is click on the one I want to automatically go to that chapter. I do the same for outlines + character notes (they're all kept it one file) and second/third/etc drafts. I find it easier to keep all of the information in as few files as possible (with back-ups, of course) than to have to scattered across many.
