According to my local library, the 'Adult' section is... eh... well lets just say you wouldn't read it out loud. To be clear, they have sex. Though YA may hint at sex, you'll never read about a, "Meaty and throbbing XXX"
It may not be described in Penthouse-letter detail, but I've come across frank depictions of blowjobs and other sex acts in YA fiction.
One I read, first person protagonist realizes that she has walked in on some girl giving a guy a blowjob. The word "blowjob" is used. The protagonist retreats.
The novel I'm currently pitching is narrated by an adult looking back to what happened when he was 13. I initially was told by a couple of people that made it YA, so I found it was important to note that he was narrating as an adult. I recently read Anne Charnock's Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind, which has three loosely related plots, all with protags aged 12-14. Not YA.
I am not sure myself. I thought I was writing a young adult but I am not confident anymore..it may be general fiction. I think it probably has to do with the subject matter, vocabulary and how you approach it all.
This may sound like a mess, but... in 2014 I began to read Fanfiction and it helped me rediscover my love of writing. I attempted to start my own about a year later and it was legitimately awful, but I appreciate that it got the ball rolling for me. I did not produce much until early 2017 and it was not until the fall of 2017 I got wholly invested in it. I attempted to create my own supernatural sort of story. I created a few worlds and "rules" for each, but the scope became way too big for me. By the seventh month I totally lost interest and had very little work to show for all that time. In late February of 2018 I came up with another novel-ish idea. I still love it very much and it's planned out fairly well. However, I feel myself losing interest again. It's like I've done things right in terms of planning... but it's me getting in the way. (I have about 13k put into it so it's not just planning.) I'm not an adult yet so fairly young. I thought about it and I've never really set long-term goals for myself... no one else has either. I'm beginning to think that I should hold off any grand-scale project until I am more confident in my ability to handle them. Just to clarify, school does not get in the way for me and I have no social life so really I could dedicate a ton of time to this, I am also into gaming though. The unfortunate thing is... I've reached existential problems so a part of me is convinced that I'm basically wasting my finite time if I'm not producing something to live on after me. It stresses me out a ton. Aside from failed novels, I also write free verse style poetry and lyrics. (Not a ton of those under my belt.) I've thought about participating in flash contests to enhance my talent. Attempting Fanfiction again has crossed my mind too. Would it be unreasonable or "giving up" for me to shy away from novels for now? Has anyone else experienced these sort of beginner problems? Any input would be appreciated.
I can relate to some of what you said. I'm young as well, and I've attempted writing in the past before I started on my WIP. That writing did not turn out well, and I got discouraged and quit very quickly. For me, it took finding an idea that I couldn't possibly let go of. I've had other ideas in the past that came before this one, and I take it as they didn't hold my attention. Maybe that's what's happening to you? I'll admit, though, I tend to obsess over things, and my WIP is one of them. I think about it ALL THE TIME. I'm not in any way saying you need to obsess over ideas (unless you're that type of person like I am) but how much time do you devote in your mind to your current work? If you're mostly thinking about things other then it, I'd say something about the concept is making you lose interest. If you feel that moving to something else would be more beneficial to you, then you should listen to that instinct. As far as I'm concerned, you only "give up" in writing when you don't write. And, you may move on to some other type of writing and find that you love it or are better at it and never want to go back to novels again. That's okay. And, if you really want to stick with novels, just keep making yourself work on the one you currently have, or come up with a new idea. It'll get easier eventually. I believe everyone has beginner problems with writing. Just do what you feel is best for yourself as a writer, and you'll be okay. I think more teens then we realize experience this at some point. I know I have. Just try to push it to the back of your mind. You'll get your work out there in time. Or, alternatively, use this as motivation to finish your WIP.
This is a totally normal problem. People give up on MS half way through for loads of reasons like: - came to a problem in the story they don't know how to resolve - don't know the characters well enough for the story to carry emotionally - being too perfectionist and worrying about it being good instead of getting it done - the idea was too short to be sustained throughout a whole book - starting to write to please an audience instead of just telling the story, therefore putting yourself under stress These are all totally normal reasons. Why not start with a 10k project first, then a 20k one, and so on? It'll give you a good feeling to complete something. And you've got plenty of time for novels in future.
Oooh, I really like that mentality. The video was actually pretty helpful and something I'll have to keep in mind. I may look into more work by the poster also.
Don't consider failed or unfinished writings to be a waste of time. You will never get good enough to leave your magnum opus: THRALL AND HIS ADVENTURES IN THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM on this earth after you if you don't invest time in practicing your writing and getting better at it. Each failure is a stepping stone for you and something that, in some way big or small, made your grow as a thinker and as a person. You can take things away from failed or unfinished projects and apply them not just in future writing, but also the future in general. Even gaming can be a way of gaining inspiration or considering new things. You don't have to be WORKING WORKING WORKING all the time in order to not waste your life. Without art and distraction in your life, you'll probably never make anything of value anyways. Don't worry about it. Just keep writing whenever you feel like writing. Keep re-reading the stuff you already wrote. Don't feel like you have to fail and have to hate what you write (which is like the infamous hallmark of bad writing advice that everyone loves to give each other), but don't forget that you can always grow and change and do or try different things. Just keep writing.
Im not a writer, but I am an observer. This is what I was told a long time ago. I observe it time and again. Writing is an expression - your expression. Art is an expression that provokes a reaction. Writing doesn't have to be art flowing from the pen. It just has to be yours, first. After that, talk to people. Us people-things are not superhuman, but we can react. Personally, I play a word game my brother and I invented: Say a random word. Tree. Say a related word that goes with it in some way. Me and bro go as abstract and as far out of the box as we can, as a challenge. Here, we start simply. Christmas. lights, bulbs, tulips, garden, shovel... grave...? (edit: I'd definitely buy this for a dollar) If something doesn't go we make a penalty buzzer sound and rewind. If something barely goes we say, I'd buy that for a dollar". Let it go for as long as it goes. The human mind has evolved to resolve everything. Desperately. That's what dreams are. Sooner or later, the random collection of loosely related nonsense will become a puzzle, or a trend, or a gateway to another stream of loosely related nonsense. A reaction. Or you could do what I do when I've had it. I go to the bottom of the page, and write 'Then everything burst into flames, and everyone ran around until a giant Godzilla foot came down and stomped everything flat.' (yes, I really do this)
How much time do you dedicate to reading compared to time dedicated to writing? It may be beneficial to read other people's writing for a while before you begin producing your own.
Gosh, you people should have your own quote site. So many great things have been posted! Your whole reply was interesting and helpful, quite inspiring as well. Unfortunately, probably not as much as I should. (Not a whole book anyway.) I'm not certain if I'm a nit-pick or it's just that I have yet to find my preferred genre. I'm much better at reading quick things such as Fanfiction or other pieces posted online. I end up mentally proof-reading as I go. I think that if I sought to apply myself I'd be useful as a beta-reader or a critic, but only if I honed my skills. Perhaps that's unreasonable though.
Your opinion is always valuable as a beta-reader. In that role, you're not necessarily expected to fix people's work, just tell them what problems you have with it and let them figure out what to do. The important thing is forcing yourself to critically think about writing. Sure, you might not be able to articulate problems with pacing as well as a veteran author, but you'll still notice them, and in thinking to yourself about them, you'll improve.
To get closer to realizing why you keep losing interest in your novels, you may want to try this exercise. Find an hour or so when you can be alone and not be interrupted by anything. Take a sheet of paper. Write a question that bothers you at this moment, for example: "Why do I feel reluctant to continue writing this novel?" Rewrite that question over and over. You aren't obliged to come up with an answer, just keep rewriting the question. Whenever you feel like writing something else (even when it's "I'm fed up with this stupid exercise"), write that something else. When you have no idea what to write, write the original question again. Continue to do so until the sheet is full. Then tear the sheet to pieces and throw it away. With this exercise you are asking your subconscious for ideas. It often helps you see things from a different angle. Sometimes an unusual insight comes surprisingly several days after doing the exercise when you have almost forgotten about it.
THIS^! Reading the writings of others shows you what's possible, how to describe settings in ways that are not "infodumps", to mix action and thought and description and dialogue, to construct a story; to hold a reader's attention, force him/her to keep turning pages. I first tried writing a novel when I was 11, and quickly realized that I didn't have the knowledge to write it. But the reading bug didn't kick in until two years later. I've been an avid reader ever since.
I come at this from the other end of the age spectrum, just turned seventy last month, but got news for you @Indigo Abbie, it can be just as hard when you are older. I started two novels in my late thirties and forties, both shelved and set aside (I still have paper draft of one and soft copy of the other, so they may someday be resurrected). One dealt with a massive nuclear war, and the survivors, one of whom was modeled on my daughter, age ten. That became too personal, and I also worked in that field at the time, so I was concerned about security issues. The other just ran out of steam. My big one was really big, took 20 years to finish with a 13 year discouragement-and-other-life-intervened hiatus in the middle. I like to say that hardest sentence to write is the first one. The second hardest is the last one. As to failure, you can't fail if you learn from the experience. If you learned something, something you want to do, something you don't want to repeat, that is not a failure, but experience. You are probably not going to write a good manuscript on your first attempt, any more than you are going to make a perfect landing on your first day as a pilot. In fact, you are going to most likely make some horrible ones that you are just glad to walk away from, that make you ask yourself why in the hell you ever wanted to fly in the first place. But then you make the perfect one where where you catch the hashmarks perfectly,with just a gentle thud and chirp from your tires as they spin up on the pavement, nose gear perfectly lowered to the deck. But that one makes the others all worth while
Thank you all who have commented so far, it's uplifting and helpful! I've began to focus on writing "fun" as opposed to "work." This is mainly because of upcoming life changes. I want to enjoy the remainder of my young time doing things just to do them as opposed to assigning myself to something that feels like a lifelong commitment.
I'd recommend doing shorts instead of novels. If you're trying to find your legs, you'll learn more from 80k worth of shorts compared to 80k worth of a novel. I say that you learn more because you get to set up 20 crises, 20 intros, 20 conclusions, settings, character arcs, etc. They're almost like miniatures, like Bach inventions training you for a fugue. Plus, if you give out halfway into a story, you don't lose so much. I've been practicing shorts for years in preparation for a novel. I think I'm almost ready to do an official one. I guess I did do one way back when, just goofing around. (It was a 140k-word mishmash of YA-urban fantasy and Hellraiser grostesquerie with a heavy dose of gang warfare. You know, for kids.) But I've gotta say, working on the small scale lets you try out a lot of different characters and styles to see where you want to go. You get a feel for your strengths before you commit. Sometimes I consider adding a bit to that novel and splitting it into two . . . It does break perfectly at the halfway point. Hmm . . . Anyway, I'm better now at what I do because I've put in a million words of short stories. That gave me a chance to publish lots too, once again, avoiding all the eggs in one basket with a novel.
