Tell your story. Don't let the critique from others dictate what you write. If you want to write it, then write it and worry about whether or not it's boring once you get the story told. (That's what rewrites are for. )
You have some questions to ask of yourself. Perhaps you feel that the story is going nowhere because it lacks a foundation. A reason. I realize that you have a target age that you want to hit which is young, but that doesn’t mean that story need lack a purpose or a theme. Do you have a theme? A purpose? If not, then that is square one. If you do, then is this purpose something personal to you? What do you want me, the reader, to know about your point of view? Once you have the answers to those questions, then you must ask what is the roll of each of your characters in the expression of this theme.
first of all, you need to learn what a novel for that age group should be... and 15-20k it ain't!... do your homework and research how to write for kids, before attempting to do so... how many 'tween' market novels have you read/studied?... how many of them were under 40k? read/study lots of the most successfully published ones, while you go to one of the leading children's writer sites and check out the basic info you'll find there... then learn the basics, before plunging in... Google best children's writing forums. be sure to check out any you want to join at p&e, first... they give the following site a 'recommended': Children's Writers & Illustrators Message Board
THanks Wreybies, I do have a theme, I think, or a purpose. The more I write the more it unfolds. Hey Maia, yes! I have studied the markets (for years in fact) Most book publishers in the Children's Writer's Market Guide (which I have handy at all times) word count varies for all of them. I've seen it as little as 2,000 word count up to 40k. MOST of them have a word count of 10 to 20k for middle readers. Believe me I studied this. I also have read many novels of this age range. But, you're right about the research thing. It definitely gives me an idea and a foundation as to how to write for that audience
Don't forget, a first draft is not a finished novel. You get your first draft down, then you go back and take out the boring stuff, and tighten up the scenes, and sharpen the dialogue. No-one expects you to get it right first time. I second the questions about the characters. If they are living breathing people to you, you can make your readers care about them as well. Don't be afraid to give your characters big conflicts. Push the scary stuff to the limit. 9 - 14 year olds have a huge capacity to get the big picture and understand what's happening. You don't need to soften the edges for them.
If I were me, I'd push through regardless, then let it sit (marinade) for a while. One thing that I always do to try and spruce up my writing is to answer these questions: What does my character desperately want? What stands in the way? What do other (secondary) characters want? What does the antagonist want? Putting all of these things at odds will often help spice things up. Also, the best advice I was ever given in regard to characters is this: Write a letter from your character to YOU (the writer), explaining what's going right and what is going wrong. It's kind of silly sounding, but it works wonders for me.
Eileen, you're right. It is just a first draft...which I haven't even completely finished yet. I like the idea of pushing the envelope and taking risks with the reader. I have some ideas up my sleeve as to what I wanna do. So, yes, I do want to forge ahead and hopefully will. Hey MsMyth, those are good questions. I wrote them down as I want to do more character development. And the MC writing a letter to me sounds cool. I'll hafta try that too. Thank you everyone for your steadfast support!
If you need them, I have children that age, so if you want to run some ideas by them to see how they react, feel free.
Thanks, I have it posted in the novel section. The first one is titled The battle with Bianca or something like that and the next couple of chapters are "the Bianca problem". I posted them seperately and still am not sure on the title yet. Let me know what they think of it, thanks.
Keep writing. For God's sake, keep writing and do not stop. You can revise what you have once you're finished. Or throw it away and find something else to do with your life. Whatever. Just don't stop in the middle, while you can still write. Just being able to write -just having a story to tell and the ability to tell it at all- is a luxury.
Rather than start a similar thread I will dig this one out of the week old trench it is stuck. A quick about me; I've wanted to write since I was little, though throughout middle/high school I lost that drive, and didn't pay much attention, friends and activities were more important than school. Though, after doing what I set out to do (Game Development) I ended up doing a life goal that I never -ever- though I would, hike the Appalachian Trail. This opportunity showed me a lot, and reminded me of a lot of little things I always wanted to do, writing for instance. It goes without saying that effort is required to succeed at anything, so in 2010 I made a goal to read 2 books a month, and write 1pg a week; So far I've written about 4 entries for the short-story contest here, none of them finished to my liking or released - but each of them about a page long. I have yet to finish a book, although I started a few and just get busy with other things... About my problem; I have a few big ideas that I want to turn into books - who doesn't? Ideas are very easy to come by, but writing isn't. Don't think I am trying to avoid effort, but I've been reading a lot of little tidbits here and there on these forums, and I am trying to find ways to help these issues of mine. I keep restarting my big ideas because I don't feel it is being pulled off as good as I want it too. So then I start writing smaller bits, but have trouble concentrating on those... I will read this thread more thoroughly, quite possible I missed some good ideas as I skipped a lot of posts while 'skimming' the first time.
I don't. In fact I venture to suggest that writers fall into two camps: those with lots of ideas who struggle with writing, and those who have no trouble writing but struggle for ideas.
Antivenin for Writer's Block Once upon a time I wrote news stories, and had sort of a flexible quota to meet every day of short and quick reports. I've never had formal training as a journalist but I did my best to hit the high points. Writer's block was, of course, against company policy. When I could feel a block starting to build I would just start answering the mantra, who, what, when, where, why, and how. A second pass to clean up my presentation, and there was a news story. Recently, outlining has started to make more sense - I've always hated to draft outlines. I take my first notes in free form, without regard to order. These notes would be the facts that support a factual report, or the circumstances behind a work of fiction. Once a full compliment of facts or ideas is known, I put them in categories which suggests the dominant topics in an outline. By the time I start writing I've got my scaffolding already in place and the options I've closed off are, hopefully, blind alleys I didn't need to explore. But what do I know? As a writer I make a heck of a plumber, and it seems I'm always jiggling the handle.
Writer's block only exists if you don't write. I know that sounds so stupid, but it's true. Usually when you feel like you can't write anything, what most people mean is that they can't write anything worth reading. That's ok though. The best cure for writer's block is to just write, even if what you are writing is complete garbage and you know that you are just going to trash it the next day. It could lead to something actually worth reading, and certainly taking the time to force your brain into some sort of thought is always worth the time. You have to prepared to look over work for the next few days and just go, "Garbage." It's fine; just as long as you keep writing, eventually you'll find something salvageable. Hope it helps.
For what it's worth, the whole infighting at school thing does ring true to them, but even in the tales they bring home from school, there is more action. It's all full of who knew, and who told, and why did she gang with her, and not the other girl. There's also an extremely complicated ranking system, so your place in the school goes up or down, depending on how you look, what make-up you use, who your friends are, what boys fancy you, how many want to meet you (code for kissing), and lots of other things.
I thought I had some of that in my story...but I guess I need more action? Like what? I have Jane fist fight with Bianca in a later chapter. I have since then revised the beginning. Did they read that?
I agree with jack's ghost on this one. if you feel that burning passion that you had when you started, then that will make all the difference. the other thing you can do with your characters is put yourself in their shoes and look at the current problem though their eyes. don't change the characters to fit the story,change the story to fit the characters.
Absolutely right -sound wisdom. Unless you're up against a deadline, in which case, writer's block becomes an entirely different animal, something akin to Cameron's Alien...
Hi everyone. I'm new here and I'm seeking some assistance. I've been into writing since I was a young kid, and for many years I've tried to complete a story, but I can't. I work on it for several days/weeks and I get a good 40 or 50 pages deep, and then I lose interest. I really would like some help or advice on how to keep motivated. When I do finally decide to pick up and write some more, I've lost interest in what I was working on, and I start over fresh. So, needless to say, I've got about 10 "book starters" as I'd like to call them. Thanks so much for the help.
Well, I lose motivation when I run out of ideas or write myself into plot holes or things which are hard to fix.
Motivation is a tricky thing as you're finding out, some day’s you wanna write for hours on end and others you just wanna pretend like it doesn’t exist and that's the problem because when that starts happening your story dies. I've been writing for a couple of years, nothing really serious until now though, but I know what you're going through so here are some suggestions. 1) Pick up your favourite book and read, it always gets me back in the mood. 2) Try doing some mind maps about where your stories going or could go, get all your ideas on paper so at least you have some sort of structure. 3) Get peoples opinions on what you have so far, sometimes they can point out problems and suggest new angles. Well that's my two cents; I hope that's slightly helpful and good luck with your writing!
It seems like you might be better suited for writing short stories. Since they aren't nearly as long as novels, you are less likely to lose interest and quit in the middle of writing them.
Although it can be agonizing, what I do is keep moving forward, even if it's a new direction. Once I get past the part I'm stuck on I usually regain interest. To deal with redoing the beginning, I make a note of what needs to be fixed, but I don't fix it until I finish. Otherwise, you never move forward. Stories constantly evolve, and if you go back to change what you've already written every time the idea changes you just rewrite it all five times over and never get anywhere. Maybe try writing a new scene, and see if it sparks your interest. You can always come back later.
It happens to me too at about the same point in every story. Normally it's because my subconcious is telling me there is a problem with the plot. Even if I haven't quite figured out what it is yet. Once I figure it out though, I blaze through again. It would be easier to just quit and forget about it because of the frustration, at that point, but it's a lot more satisfying to sit down and figure out what's wrong. As long as I spend just a little time on it each day, and not switch to something else, the answer usually comes to me; usually when I am doing something totally different. So, stick at it. Once you figure out what's wrong, the whole rest of the story should fall into place, and there is nothing quite like the satisfaction of having finished a novel.
