Thank you, frigocc! Good to know that this is just part of the process and not me being a REALLY slow learner...although I'd love to blaze through 3 chapters every once in a while, haha! So far, I'm doing really well if I get straight through half a chapter.
I agree that there are no shortcut (or longcuts for that matter) when it comes to art. It's one of those things that, sometimes it comes to the artist easily, and sometimes, it doesn't (I'm probably messing up the commas here, haha). But I do think there is such a thing as becoming more productive with practice and honing one's craft, and there are, like any other artforms, ways to improve how we practice. I'm sure it's different for different artists, but it's always helpful to listen and share with others so we continue learning and improving.
I totally agree, Jannert! I've always found walking away and coming back easier. I just feel guilty about it sometimes for steppng away as opposed to keep working and working and working on it. Sigh, I guess it's just about finding the right balance.
Oh, not to worry about the keeping track part, haha! I always see the issues during rereads. They always jump out at me when I edit, which makes me stop every few paragraphs. I just have a hard time finding the right solutions for them.
I'm one of those who already have most of the story planned out so when I start writing my draft, my issue is just with "getting it out". I would start off going towards the direction that I planned and get stuck on not telling it correctly. If it is not that important to the plot, I gloss over it and come back, if it is semi-important I will try to get it 30% there and come back , but if it is super important, ex the story can not move forward without a particular scene, I try to get it at least 70% there. One of the reasons why I do it this way is because I've tried writing everything in one pass but then it turns into more of an outline than actual writing, sigh.
If you want practice with words and language, I would say reading more is the way to go. It's pretty easy to spot a well-read writer. And through reading we develop our writing skills. That's what I believe and it's true for me. I have to give my reading a lot of credit for where it's gotten me.
Maybe don’t put too much pressure on yourself. It may be a good idea to ‘warm up’ too. Something I liked to do, much less so now, was to just write ANYTHING! Like this: Way to go to cook the shock up the riverbeds. Let sheets wishy-washy flow and abound over rocks and logs that bob and cling. Let the girl cleaning her hair sing and sing. Don’t THINK just let rip. It helps ease up the mind, get the juices flowing and helps - with persistence - to find a means of expression you’re happy with. It sounds a lot like you’re thinking in too structured a manner. Of course I say this because I’m not exactly keen on structure. It can be fun just to write complete gibberish too like this: Amber dummer bubble wist a likken bath to the smummer bee te dreven goone. Basically, when you sit down to write use some form of ‘warm up’. Reading something may help/hinder or doing what I suggest may help/hinder. Just keep on keeping on and don’t worry too much about writing trash as that is simply the cruel fact of writing (no matter where or when you start the idea may be pristine but the execution will, if you’re lucky, capture around 50% of what you intended. If you’re struggling to find words you could also try something I did years ago. That is write a full page of every word I could related to ‘water’ and then one related to ‘textures’, ‘sickness’, ‘emotions’ etc.,. I have attached proof of this
For me here is the thing. We all have ideas right? We all have great imaginations and it is really important to realise that those ideas, that creativity, is like magic and it is very precious. Having to continually re-write kills the ideas in my opinion and that is when fatigue steps in. So beware endless re-writes! Definatley finish the draft no matter what, it is a draft so it will have issues! I too feel exactly the same way as you SF. It is soooo tiring having to write and re-write manuscript and still I feel it is not quite right. The good news is practice will definatly help and so will the members here. However I have come to the conclusion that I must address my own weaknesses as a writer in order to become stronger, more effective and productive. I have realised that banging my head against a brick wall actually hurts! Further more, it is not helping me advance as a writer. I have stopped all my projects and I will not start them again until I have at least begun to addressed my writing issues. Otherwise I am just wasting my own time if my writing is fundamentally not good enough. So until such time that it improves I am just practicing writing and leaving my precious projects in a safe place. Just in case you are interested, my weakness is descriptive, evocative writing; my stories can sometimes read like a shopping list! Although I have written some beautiful descriptive paragraphs, these are only a handful and I find I have to be in the right frame of my mind to produce them. That means that I am not in control, so I have begun to look at basic word mechanics such as: Nouns Verbs Adjectives Connectives Dialogue (althought I feel very compitent at this) That is not even really the descriptive part covered, once I figure proper word structure it will be on to descriptive aspects such as: Similies Alliteration Imagery Metaphors and all the rest... Then once I start to use some or all of the above I will need to learn how to be concise. Then I will have control and I will be able to produce the goods no matter what, well thats the plan anyway. I wish you luck SF, let me know if you have posted any creative writing here and I would love to take a peek.
You are absolutely right about reading! I know it is one of my greatest disadvantages because I've always struggled to read since I was a child. So a lot of my verbal skills were learned through listening which is why my writing is more informal. I think I will try more audio books even though they are probably less effective and harder to absorb.
Wow, that's amazing! Thank you so much for sharing that with me. It's a wonderful way of honing your skills!
Thank you! Haha, we sound very similar in that we're both pretty methodical. I kind of have the same mindset in that I like to see my flaws and fix it first before moving forwward. Sort of like when learning to play an instrument, if the player trips up on a note, they practice that note again and again and again until they get it just right before moving on. It would be great if we can do that with writing but I don't always know how to pracitice. For ex. I just know a sentence just doesn't sound right but I don't always know what the issue is exactly and whether I can "practice" it in a way that I won't make the mistake again. Slowly, I'm learning though.
Audio books don't help. They don't trigger the same parts of the brain. If you want to be an effective writer, you have to be an avid reader.
I wonder... are you getting caught up in the trap of trying to create that perfect first draft? I do this to myself a lot. I will be so focused on trying to get this particular sentence out in just the right way that I end up locking myself into a panic and never typing so much as a word. Sometimes, you just have to hit those keys, even if what you put on the page is garbage; just get it out. If there's a particular part of a story or paragraph you really want to get right, you can even open up a separate file for just that piece of your work and hash out multiple versions of it in one go. This way you're sort of removing that psychological fear of making it part of the story and just working on it alone, by itself. Not sure if it's helpful for you, but that's something I've done before. Also, do you ever do any free writing exercises? I mean, where you just sit down and start typing, no matter what comes out let it go don't worry about puncuation or spelling justm ake it happen! Like that? Sometimes you have to just vomit onto the page for a while before you can really sit down and write. I always say, there are very few Hank Moodys in the world. Most of us don't simply sit down in a moment of inspiration and bang out an award-winning novel in one fell swoop. Sounds good. Often doesn't work out that way. Most of us have to put the time in, hammer away at those keys and hope that something beautiful comes out on the other end.
