What is the hardest thing to do when you are creating a story? Most people struggle with plots, structure, getting it underway, and the like. But for some reason I REALLY struggle with names. Anything from city names, to character names, and especially to the titles of my actual stories. What is your hardest thing to do in writing, and do you share the same hardship? Also, do you have any tips of trying to get names? I look at baby books/baby websites, day dream, and stuff like that to try and come up with names, but sometimes it can just be impossible at times. And it's a shame because for some reason if I can't come up with something I may abandon a work which had a potentially great plot. So any advice in that area is appreciated!
Keeping it cheerful. For some reason I can't really seem to keep anything light hearted. Last night I was writing a chapter in a horror story where a kid was suppose to have a party with his friend that was going to add a nice little light hearted bit to a very depressing story. To get it started he was going to talk to an imaginary monster, and get the better of it verbally. It got a life of its own and he started beating it to death with a pistol, nearly killing it. The chapter was excellent but not light hearted. These sites might help you with names http://surnames.behindthename.com/ http://www.behindthename.com/ It is just a list of names but its a lot more detailed then a lot of baby names sites, and it has names from various ages, countries and ethnic groups. Thats the best I can offer.
I have never really had any troubles coming up with names, sometimes takes me a day or 3 but I always manage to come up with one. Although once I wasn't able to but i got the name in the end. (after 3 years) The one thing that I find the hardest is trying not to go into too much depth about certain events, I find I always go into so much depth about an area of the story and then next thing I know all I hae is a whole chapter desrcibing the intricate details of each grain of sand almost.....or I deviate off course. Ariella
names are also hard for me, especially foreign names. To find some unique and interesting names, I pick up a CD case from the rack next to my computer and surf through the composer/producer/other credits in the booklet and combine first and last names. also, I always find it hard to stay motivated to work on a story, and many times I lose steam before I'm even half-done. No cure for laziness, sadly!
Writing is easy. Actually starting writing for me is about a 4 on a 5-star scale of hardness. But the 5-star, hardest thing about writing? Actually writing good material.
Believing it will be good enough for myself, which it usually isn't. I'm a modest person and when it comes to writing I am my own worst critic.
The hardest part, at least for me, is definitely starting. I can plot all I want, but eventually I'll have to start the first chapter, and it never feels right, if that makes any sense. The second hardest? Not getting discouraged if I discover a plot hole. I've had 40,000 words invalidated because someone pointed out that by my own rules, magic did not work that way in my universe. Grrrrrrrr . . .
I have the same problem, but the way I solved it was to add a prologue in front of it. I didnt delete the initial chapter, but just put stuff in front of it when I came up with a better opener. That might not work for you, but it did for me.
My biggest problem is finding the time to actually sit down and write. I also have a big problem (or should I say the family do - poor hard done by starving critters!) with stopping.
the only 'hard' thing for me is stopping!... when working on a major project, i'd been known to work 20hrs/day for weeks on end and forget to eat, if someone didn't toss some food at me... seriously... no exaggeration...
My biggest challenge is putting enough detail into the writing. I'm always too vague - one of my professors told me it probably means I'm not confident enough with my writing, but who knows. So I always go back and revise everything, and force myself to add a lot more detail. Man, I wish I had your problem Mammamaia! I was like that when I was a bit younger, and not in the middle of working for a degree.
i'm like that at 68, lily... and was always like that, even when younger and then in the middle of working at many other 'life' things... so there's probably hope for you, yet... ;-) love and hugs, m
I have trouble coming up with good words to descibe things. I know what I want to write but it's hard to always make it sound good. Some times I sit there for a half hour staring at the sceen. Anyone else have this problem?
Heck, yeah. That's usually the part where I can be found with my face buried between my forearms, and my fists pulling at my hair as if the word I want could be physically extracted that way. Sometimes I'll just put a place holder in (e.g., "[no, not "stultifying" - find better word!]") and move on. A slightly different problem is driving me crazy right now. A short story I'm working on describes a woman banking a fire: "She had used the last large chunk of dry wood to smoor the coals...." "Smoor" is a real word, but a very obscure one. Wictionary's never heard of it, and Google doesn't have anything meaningful on it in the first three pages, nor Dogpile on the first page. But "Webster's On-A-Bridge " has it: "smoor, v.t. to smother. [Scot.]" (Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary: Unabridged; 2nd Ed., Simon & Shuster, NY, 1983) Now, just where I got "smoor" in the sense of "to cover/not-quite-completely-smother a fire such that it will smolder all night and still have a few live coals in the morning," I have no idea. But, IMHO & E, it is the right word, the best word for this action. It seems pretty clear from the context, and I know of no better-known synonym. On the other hand, the sentence quoted above is the second sentence of the story. One of my most dedicated and helpful reviewers feels strongly that, while such an obscure word might be just fine somewhere well into the body of the story, throwing at the reader in the second sentence is bound to seem off-putting - if not downright unfriendly. On the other other hand: "Smoor" It's just a great word. - Evelyn
I think that the hardest thing for me is getting started and then tying it all up again at the end. My endings and my beginnings definately leave much to be desired...
Deleting my work when I'm unsatisfied. Then realizing, further on in the week, that what I've deleted was the best damn thing created (for me) since sliced bread.
That's one thing that i've never done - no matter how much I hate a poem/story that i've written or a drawing that i've done i've kept them all. I hate the thought of throwing something away that shows the development of my skills, and in the case of my writings could become better if I got the chance to edit it.
I struggle with finishing what I've started, as the followers (if there are any) of my latest short stories. >.< I guess it's because I write off the top of my head and have only a vague idea of where the plot is goingto go.
I was wondering if anyone knows how Ernest Hemmingway or Cormac McCarthy or any of the great writers in history or present specifically wrote their novels. Did they have the idea in their head and just sit down and grind out the book or maybe they wrote a rough draft of the basic plot and then went back through it and filled in the detail? Is there any published novelists on this forum? If so, how do you do it? Thanks.
I think that this thread is located in the wrong area of the forum for starters. And the only way to get published is by increasing the quality of your work and submitting your work to publishers. The worst that can happen is they say no we aren't interested. It happens to the best of the best. Start small and then go big. There are plenty of online publishers to begin with to get out there with your work. Try places like ezines, magazinne, and even try your hand at getting an ebook published. Just be prepared to get kicked in the teeth and told that no one is interested for a while and eventually you wil find some one who is interested. It doesn't happen over night, but it will happen if you keep your chin up and keep trying. The harder you try, the better chances you have of succeeding!
I don't really think knowing how Hemmingway or Tolstoy or any other writer did it would help. I belong to a writing/crit workshop (7 of the 12 are published), and everyone's process of writing is just slightly different. Don't worry about how everyone else does it. Experiment and find the process that works for you. Write, revise, submit. Repeat (ad nauseum) until you get that letter that says someone is willing to represent you or publish you.
