How do you keep writing?
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- Rachel Gough
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How do you keep writing?
- AmandaR
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- Latest Review: "Cinque Terre, Florence, Umbria" by Enrico Massetti
I am not sure if that will help at all, or even if it is right. But that is how I feel about it.
- Rachel Gough
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To put it more directly, and with less style, I want to share, but I don't because I think my stuff sucks, and that's my janky little loop of doom.
- kiwes
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- Favorite Book: To Kill a Mockingbird
- Currently Reading: Who Do I Run To
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Now, is that helping me by reading all the damn time instead of writing, well no, but what it is doing is healing me mentally, as I slowly am finding my writing bug is biting again. Writers are very tempermental people. We go from one mood to the next, which is why we are so creative and a little nuts, (no offense meant), but writers are a little out there--after all think of the things you read and then you think, wow this story was invented by someone's mind. We'd have to be nuts to write what we do, but we do it!
So here's my advice. STOP STRESSING OVER IT! For two years, I haven't written a word on my manuscript and I quit beating myself up over it. Obviously, there were other things I needed to deal with, and slowly I'm getting my edge back. Being on sites like this, help motivate me. Writing my own weekly blog keeps me relevant. So I am writing, just not in a storyline, but you get my drift. Don't beat yourself up! If you have someone you really trust, let them read what YOU think is junk? Give a copy to a few people and see what their reaction is. Make sure these people are truthful, because lies don't help an author, they hurt us.
One more thing before I go, when I wrote my first novel, I had a panel of women I selected from various ages and races, to read it. I wanted to see how this novel would impact each of these women. I gave them a survey to fill out and to be as honest as they could. I didn't care if they gave me a bad review or not, you learn from these things! Trust me, these women were brutally honest. I corrected many of the problems they felt I should address, and my novel did relatively well. It's something you might want to consider. Trust me, all negativity, isn't bad. I grow from it.
But no matter what! NEVER STOP WRITING! That's how you keep going, you never stop! You're writing on here, so half the battle is won!
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- AmandaR
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I completely agree with what you said. The second you start reading more, you want to write more. Thanks for the advice!
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What opened the door again was a new perspective. Rather than focusing on writing a novel, I chose to focus on telling the story. Once I accepted the possibility of my idea being okay as a short story, I was able to proceed. The funny thing is, with that distant and intimidating goal removed I quickly reached 40k words. I continued my new approach, and eventually my story exceeded 130k. Now, that may not happen every time, but that's the point. When running a marathon don't focus on the finish line. Just run.
- moderntimes
- Posts: 2249
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- Favorite Book: Ulysses by James Joyce
- Currently Reading: Grendel by John Gardner
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I write all the time --- as my girlfriend can wearily attest (ha ha). Once it was a big legal tablet on a clipboard, then a typewriter, now of course a laptop.
Last week I was working hard on my new novel (3rd in a series) and I got about 10,000 words total, revised and in decent shape -- 4 chapters essentially. And this was while going to the store, to dinner, spending time w. my girlfriend, catching Hannibal and Justified on TV, etc.
I really don't know why I write but I am thankfully unable to stop! So I write novels, short stories, essays, book reviews, articles, what have you.
And of course I take breaks to waste perfectly good electrons on forums...
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You've actually touched upon something I'm trying out now. It should have been common sense the whole time. Sitting down and writing a book is usually seen as being constructed in a linear form. While this is fine and gets people to simply sit down and do it; it's better if the writer is more engaged with story and development and try to weave them together so it doesn't seem like such a chore and being patiently aware. I have to do it for long form stuff even if I don't want to, but it makes for more compelling original stuff. People can tell.tobeywilson wrote:I distract myself with subplots and short stories until the story demands to be written again. I try to stay in the same subject area, do some research and see if something hits me. Basically, I'm extremely undisciplined and end up writing at 2 am.
- moderntimes
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- Favorite Book: Ulysses by James Joyce
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Let me backtrack a bit... I write my book reviews like essays. I never summarize the plot -- that's too elementary and it gives away too much of the story, a spoiler. So I instead hew to the traditional book review practice per the New Yorker or NY Times Review of Books. I create a small essay about the book's themes and talk about that. So the review stands alone and is hopefully good reading on its own, entertaining by itself.
Anyway... a novel is a completely different thing. First, due to its length, and also because of the many subplots and sequences. So, in my writing of novels (2 thus far) each arc or set of chapters will encompass a stand-alone portion of the book. That arc may involve an action theme, or an expository sequence, or a reflective arc. Each of these 3-4 chapter groupings for me constitute a set piece that I work on as a whole. I write and rewrite and read and re-read and revise these few chapters until they are "pretty good but not perfect" (I have to draw the line somewhere or I'll be spinning my wheels). Then I write the next set of chapters, and always I go back and tweak and revise until it's as nearly perfect as I can make it.
Regardless, I keep working on the book, taking breaks of course to live my life and also to visit interesting forums (anybody know of any?)
- saviolo
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Ian Fleming felt exactly the same way. His approach was to correct his work for spelling errors but not to re-write or even look at it again until the book was finished. By then it was too late to really stop - having got so far momentum carried him through.Rachel Gough wrote: I can never finish a project because I get so overwhelmed with my task that I convince myself that whatever I'm writing is garbage and it should never see the light of day.
And routine. Yukio Mishima was the same - every midnight, at his desk, working.
I think the truth is that most writers go through exactly the same thing that you do. There's that wonderful enthusiasm when you find a new project, then the sense that this is going to take a large chunk of my life to complete, then the sense that you don't really want to continue.Rachel Gough wrote: I want to know how all of you manage to keep doing it, and how you make yourself write; why is it important?
The best answer I can give is that you have to enjoy the actual writing itself. Make your writing time as pleasant as possible. I sometimes find writers block melts away when I take a notepad over to my favourite coffee shop. On days when I really can't write, I'll research. And on days when I just can't do either, I go home and play on the X-Box, knowing I'll have a better day tomorrow (but days when I do nothing at all are very rare)
I also never think about the length of the project I'm working on, or when I'm 'supposed' to finish, I just work the scene I'm currently at. The first draft of anything is entirely for me.
As for why it's important? Actually it's not. If my work was never published the world would not change. But I enjoy it, and that's enough for me.