I have several unfinished stories, but I fully intend to finish them when I get a chance. Only once have I ever abandoned a story entirely. I came up with characters I like and what I think is an interesting situation for them to be in, but they stubbornly refused to do anything. I tried about five different ways of writing it. I even changed the setting to a post-apocalyptic world to see if that would help. It didn't. I finally had to face the fact that I just didn't have a story. Characters? Sure. Setting? Yes. Situation? Absolutely. Story? Apparently not. I wrote a few pages and ran into a brick wall. I've never been so frustrated as a writer. I just had to bury the poor thing and carry on with something else.
I have had story ideas and i began to write them out and unfortunately i have abandoned them i'm not proud of it, but i have done it.
I believe that this is a misunderstanding. You objected to the line: Hey, you just have to keep yourself excited and if you are not, such writing will be for what kind of people then? I assume that you're hearing the first two words as "Hey, you!" But that's not what they meant. You can use "hey" in front of any assertion, as a casual way of starting the sentence. So: "The bakery's open." can become "Hey, the bakery's open." or "Hey, it's almost lunchtime." or "Hey, do you know where I put my shoes?" So his original sentence was: "You have to keep yourself excited..." And then he introduced it with "Hey," thus making it: "Hey, you have to keep yourself excited..." I don't know if this clarifies the issue at all, but it seemed worth a try.
But I haven't seen anybody call another thus in the forums. usually they call each other by username or basically none. Also it seemed he was addressing proudly.
No, I see you are a writer but I think you write more the combativeness story, when a commander orders a solider : " hey, you" and the soldier must reply him : " yes, sir "
What is your problem, Mans? I'm not really a solider fan, you see our army forfeit the battle same day Hitler came in. But I heard that certain somebody else have his country at war right now
go back a page and read chickenfreak's explanation of this, mans... it's quite clear... he was NOT addressing you as 'hey, you!'... the first word of his advice was 'you'... as in 'you have to do this....' in giving you advice... and he simply put 'hey' in front of it, as one might start that same sentence with 'well'.. so get it out of your head that he was saying 'hey, you!'... he was not...
Oh don,t get serious Teodor I didn't talk rigid. Also my purpose wasn't your country or your army. It was just a friendly humor. I hope you get my sociable intention. In addition , if you mean my country is at war now it is not so. Our country has a very ancient history with the peaceful and nice people. They are enthusiastic to other people in a respectful and justice connection and dealing. Have you seen this poem in the portal of the UNO building ? "The children of humanity are each others limbs" "That shares an origin in their creator" "When one limb passes its days in pain" "The other limbs can not remain easy" "You who feel no pain at the suffering of others" "It is not fitting you be called human" This international poem belongs the ancient famous Iranian poet Sadi which has been chosen for the portal of the UNO building. Yes, I know many people of Europe, among the groups of German people were victim for the selfishness and racism of a mad ruler as Hitler However what I wrote in my previous post was just a friendly humor
Sometime if I don't get the story to go where I want it to OR if I don't quite feel the emotions I want to portray I end up shelving it for a bit until I can iron it out
I give up writing a story because it needs more development. For example, I put a work-in-progress on hiatus because I couldn't generate an interesting ending. A few months later I came up with an ending that worked and was able to finish the draft. I put a second work on hiatus because I needed to make the story more interesting. Sometimes the first incarnation of the story isn't the best. Halfway through you might recognize it. I believe that's the point where it's best to put it aside and let the ideas settle.
When you are writing a scary story, does its horror impress on you. I mean, whether thinking about its horrible views or events or characters scare you ? Do you feel a psychical pressure inwardly during writing or even awhile after finishing the story? In this situation ( writing ) do you write it in a lonely room and at night or you prefer write the story where there are some other persons and at the daytime ? Excuse me just a question
If what you are writing is good or if you are invested in it it is only natural to experience the feelings of fear and suspense that a horror story brings with it. I do not write horror stories and still sometimes i put off writing a chapter because i feel nervous when i think what will happen to my characters in those chapters.
I'm always terrified when something unexpected happens, and when you invent everything by yourself, there is nothing to be scared of. =)
When I write a horror bit into one of our stories with KaTrian, we usually try to go for the most intense, extreme things we can think of. Mind, we don't strive for maximum gore although sometimes there is some of that too but, rather, we try to create this kind of a... dark, suffocating, claustrophobic atmosphere that really grips the reader (we hope) and doesn't let go until the scene is over. To us the atmosphere is everything. You don't need a single gunshot, bogeyman, or pile of guts to create an intense scene. We find that music helps a lot when you're first writing a scene. One scene was partly inspired by Bill Laswell's Visitation, a fairly haunting piece. We also listened to Abruptum when we wrote a medieval monastery haunted by a malevolent presence (but the thing never materializes as such so everything relies on the atmosphere of the chapter) to get into the whole "demonic" mindset (even though we're not fans of black metal as such or whatever you'd call their music). Oh, and we definitely feel the scenes and we do turn off the lights, put on the darkest, creepiest music we can find (Gnaw Their Tongues is pretty good for that), and just really dive deep, hoping that some of the intensity we feel would rub off on the scene. So far the feedback has been pretty good, but our "test group" is way too small to say if the scenes truly work or if the betas just happen to be on the same wave length with us. Usually I've found that the old idea about showing less to create suspense and horror instead of relying on gore and splatter holds true. What you don't see/know/understand is much more likely to induce feelings of dread than some beast with a lion's claws, a goat's head, a pig's tail, and a duck's beak or whatever monsters they show in movies that only manage to get a twitch out of their audience by playing a really loud and ear-grating sound effect when the beast appears. I usually just find that annoying instead of scary.
I've never been too spooked reading a horror let alone writing one. Only two books ever really creeped me out - Rats and Dominion by James Herbert. Every house noise had my spine tingling and my brain screaming - the rats are coming. Lol. I might read a few horrors to get in a creepy mood to write but other than that - it's the same as any other story as far as I'm concerned.
for me, horror is the norm, maybe because of the type of person i am, it all falls into place, a normality, i can write my horror anywhere, in a half-lit room with no one about or in a bright sunny room with a ton of people about. for me Music is a huge part of how i write, im a metalhead, but its not all screaming and dark desires, if you take a band such as Dream Theater or Symphony X, their music is much calmer, thus, it depends on the sub genre (of which there are a hundred, possibly)
Listed are the reasons I leave something incomplete - I get intimidated. - Boredom. - I run out of ideas. - Feeling like I suck at everything - Writing myself into a corner. What I mean by this is putting my characters in difficult situations, and then not being able to think of how to get them out of it.
I think boredom is the greatest threat to writing. Finding inspiration is essential to keep me writing, whether it be music or movies that inspire me to feel and write.
I like the manner in which you cared enough about both you and the story to stop. You make it sound like your story was a living entity and you owed it something. That was a long time to work on a story and I'm sure that took some struggle having to make such a choice. If I were a story I'd like someone like you to write me.
in a sense, yes it had become its own entity, and one that was continually at the back of my mind... i tried for ages to get it to flow properly and realised that maybe it was something that wasnt going to work, despite being nearly 20,000 words, that may not seem much, but considering im 19 and i left it about a year and a half ago, it did pretty well. i thought i 'owed it something' as i had so many people give me ideas that i wanted (somehow) to get them to work with it... i hate driving myself crazy over things, if i can tell its not happening, i leave it, but if i can tell its going to be something i persevere, go back, and go through it (i need to do this with my main piece i am writing) i like method and organisation, but i allow the story to tell itself, i only plan sparse details for it. are you serious about that comment, if so, thank you, ive only been serious about writing for no more than about 6-9 months...
Yes I am serious about that because you understand how a story has life and you treat it as such. That is a good thing.
I can never choose a good beginning. I keep getting stuck on the first three chapters. I write them in third person and first person. Then I compare them. I decide I like both, or all in some cases. I get frustrated and put them away until the next attempt. I believe that I get stuck there because I am afraid of going past that. What if I get done? What if people around me like it? What if the agent likes it? What if a publisher picks it up? What if they want more books? What if they give me deadlines? I have "what if"-itis and I am terrified of it. That is why I am here. I am hoping that by reading what others have to deal with and are going through and maybe with some help from people on here, I will have the confidence to move forward. Cat
