My Greatest Writing Fear. What's Yours?
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- moderntimes
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Re: My Greatest Writing Fear. What's Yours?
I write private detective novels and what I tried to do was create a slightly different protagonist, a very well educated and smart PI, not at all the typical tough guy.
So you can do the same, Wanton. You take a few ideas from your journal and start churning out a short story or two from the ideas there. Don't worry about originality. EVERY story is different in some way. Just read a lot of the genre that you're writing in, and try to tweak the "normal" story line a bit so that you have created a different sort of story, and keep trying. It's all in the trying. If you give up before you start, you're dead in the water, pal.
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- moderntimes
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- moderntimes
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You of course must read the competition and learn the envelopes within which your writing needs to be placed. Then you must decide how to create an environment for your story that stays within the "fantasy" bounds but maybe tests them. For example, I write modern American private detective novels. The "forumula" for this says that my protagonist must be rough and tough and snarly and shove people around and be an old school wisecracking semi-thug. I said no. My detective is highly educated, intelligent, and not violent at all although he does know how to handle himself with guns. So that's a different tweak on the typical stereotype. However, I don't have zombies or Martians show up (ha ha) which would break all the rules and cheat on the mystery readers. So I know the areas within which I must stay and where I can stretch the edge of the envelope. This is because I know the other detective novels by the "competition" and have learned by studying them how I can make my detective different but still stay a private eye.
Similarly you must stick within the general envelope of fantasy but how you decide to vary that style must be your own educated and reasoned area. As you know, too many fantasy writers think "Oh, well, it's fantasy so I can put anything into my story and it's okay" but that's not true. If you keep putting too much goofy stuff in (maybe too weird) or just too many "inventions" you'll end up like the TV series "Lost" and you'll also be lost in too much juggling with silly take-offs from the central theme.
Nevertheless, you are the judge for what stays and what goes in your writing. Then as you start submitting your writing to prospective agents and publishers, you'll get plenty of rejections but some of these people may come back with helpful commentary. It happens. As I said, learn your craft. And this entails not only your own writing but the writing of others in your field or genre, and then you can decide whether your story is indeed to "weird" and act accordingly.
I'm speaking from experience because just a couple weeks ago, a legit publisher has contracted to me for all three of my private detective novels and has the option of first refusals for the fourth novel upcoming. But all three of my completed novels will soon be published in both paperback and ebook. This is a "real" publisher, not a vanity house either-- I pay zero, they pay me.
And I'm not bragging either. I'm just citing a direct and personal example that I was able to place my mystery stories in the "big game" marketplace. And hey, I'm not Robert B Parker, I'm just a regular guy who likes to write. My point being, if I can do it, so can you and most anyone else here in this forum thread. You just have to learn your genre and learn how to bend the rules without breaking them. And if you suspect your writing is too "weird" I'm maybe guessing that you might be thinking it's perhaps too violent or strong? There's juvenile fantasy (kiddie-lit) and then there's adult fantasy, written for grown up readers. Maybe you once meant to write a LOTR or Harry Potter (both juvenile really) but ended up writing a darker story that's actually meant for adults? Kind of like the late great Philip Jose Farmer maybe. That's okay. It's not necessary that your books not become adult oriented and not meant for the YA market. Just find your "voice" and hone it, and go out there and sell that book! Okay? And you do NOT need permission from someone else who might think your story is too "weird" -- you're the best arbiter of that. I promise you.
- brancook
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When I read back over my work, more often than not the process gives me a kind of neuralgia, followed by a mild anxiety that my work will never accomplish whatever it was that I had set out to accomplish. My stories are bumbling and rambling, and they generally do not find their plots until around the time that I've finished writing them. Once I have my plot then I can usually detect what kind of piece the story will be: a character sketch, a romance, a mystery, etc. and this detection gives me happiness because I can at last see the direction that my story will go in.
The happiness is usually brief because then I see my piece becoming trite, and I can see all of the work that preceded it amounting to nothing more than the recreation of a cliche. I am anxious then that the kind of originality I see my stories capable of will always devolve to this level. I am also anxious that some of my stories are too big for me--that I will not have the fortitude or skill to carry my ideas through to their ends. Following this, I see complete and realized stories: stories where the idea is followed through with such seamless, patient perfection, and I wonder if I will ever have the ease and consistency of mind to produce something on-par.
- Cee-Jay Aurinko
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You're absolutely right about the whole rereading thing, m. Every time I reread my novel, I come across flimsy errors. Like sometimes I'll be writing "plain" instead of plane. Or I'll confuse one character's descriptive detail with another, and then I have to go back and change names. But... I'm correcting my mistakes as I go along. I just hope I don't overlook any before sending it out.
- moderntimes
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Writing is exactly the same as any other skill. You work at it and consciously develop certain aspects of this. If you have problems with typos and mechanical errors, it's the same as that baseball player who's having trouble fielding a hit ball over his shoulder. So he goes out on the practice field and has the coach hit balls to him, over and over until he's got the thing worked out. And writing is the same -- good writing.
When we first start, we are ALL terrible! Except for a few rare prodigies and geniuses, we all start out as rank amateurs. All I can say is that you express yourself eloquently and clearly, and that I'm certain that your writing is just as good as your post.
What you must do is the same as I did. I was once very bad at rhythm and pacing. I would go off on a tangent of backstory and prattle about for pages upon pages, and I thought I was keen but in fact my writing was dull. I luckily got a bit of decent advice from a couple of good writers who recommended that I work on certain aspects of my writing until I'd fixed the problem. And with concentration and effort, it came to me and now I just roar through a new chapter and don't think twice. Well, that's not true really, in that I do revise and rework the chapter until it shines and gleams.
What I'm saying to you and other here is this: Be legitimately concerned if your writing isn't up to snuff. Keep honing your craft however, and this is not always easy, but you have the fine resources of this forum to help. If a certain chapter seems awkward, post it here and ask for feedback. PM me if you want and email me the chapter, and I'll be happy to look it over, and so on.
Don't be afraid of messing up -- all newbie writers do this and so do some pros. Learn from the rough spots in your writing and then tweak your stuff until it's better.
How? First, and foremost, LEARN YOUR GENRE! I don't care if you're writing juvenile fantasy (Potter books) or adult mystery (as I do), but learn what others have done before and take mental notes on how they lay out a story line, how they engage the reader by creating interesting characters and situations, and as I always say, dialogue is the heartbeat of the modern novel, so learn from the masters on how to create meaningful and realistic dialogue. For example, I've read some fantasy books where everyone talks like they were giving a prepared speech. Boring. Even elves and wizards and such "talk like regular people" -- or should -- and their dialogue must seem natural. And the ONLY way for you do create this is to first read other great books of your genre and then practice, practice, practice. Read the dialogue out loud, even if it's only read aloud to the cat or just yourself. Because hearing the words spoken will greatly assist you in tweaking that dialogue so that it sounds natural. This is just one small trick.
If you think that your writing is to cliched, try to think up small changes that remove this. As I said above, my private detective is within the "mold" of all detectives but he's different in that he's educated and urbane and not a rough-tough Mike Hammer type. Similarly, you can adjust the story line of your tale such that the plot or characters of whatever is within the bounds of the genre but still slightly different.
Don't fool yourself into thinking that good writing "just comes to you out of the dark" -- it doesn't. Good writing is a skill that you learn by doing, over and over and also learning your craft, improving and making the bad writing into good. ALL writers do this. It's not "magic" either -- it's hard work.
For example, my newest novel, 3rd in my detective series, was "finished" last August. But upon skimming through it, I realized that in places it dragged severely. So what did I do? I didn't wring my hands in faux despair, "Woe is me" idiocy. No, I just sat down and revised the whole damn novel again! Seventy thousand words, all of it. And I kept tweaking and tweaking until late in the year, I realized that I'd really improved the whole book. Then I started submitting and in July I signed a publication contract because my novel is now pretty darn good.
Sure, I've got innate talent and some pretty decent brains. But that isn't enough -- it takes lots of hard work. And hand wringing like some 19th century romantic heroine in a bad novel won't fix it. Hard work does.
You say that your stories ramble at times? Fix it. Fix it by revising and revising and revising until the ramble is gone. You say that you fear they're trite? Again, read others in your genre, favored or top ranked authors, and learn from them how they avoid this, and the rewrite and rewrite and rewrite until there's no hint of trite.
It does require hard work. Writing well is not easy. It's a product of both your innate talent and brains, coupled with learned skills and hard hard hard hard work.
But the results may be a tasty publication contract where the publisher pays YOU real money.
Now if anyone here has a specific problem about a passage or chapter or segment of a book, I'm happy to help. PM me with the short passage and tell me your concerns, what you're trying to do. I'm pretty busy right now with my 3 novels upcoming their editing process prior to publication, and me updating my website (arrgh the pains of HTML, arrgh) but I would still be happy to help. And I'll be brutally honest. Or just post the passage in this writer's section and ask for commentary.
That's what this section is all about, after all -- improving our writing. So get with it, gang, and keep plugging away. Okay?
-- 06 Aug 2015, 12:15 --
Let me reiterate my offer: If you're fretting or concerned about a certain aspect of your writing, PM me and include a short excerpt and tell me what your problem is. I'm a fast editor (I've done proofreading and editing) and I'll be happy to proffer my opinion. And no, I'm no expert but I write professional book reviews and I'm a published (non-self) author so I've got some experience into what fits and what doesn't.
Or just start a new thread in this section and post the excerpt, and ask for advice. All writers here who are tentative and "fear" their writing isn't good enough have a legitimate concern, but it can be addressed and dealt with, too. Just sitting in the corner and agonizing is sooo 19th century!
That's why we're here, to help each other, okey dokey?
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- kayla-b
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- moderntimes
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Nowadays I bore my girlfriend with a few passages that I'm working on, but she, like my cat, is too polite to complain.
For some strange reason, reading aloud, even to yourself, provides you a glimpse into the way that dialogue is structured, and it also helps with the narrative. If you yourself have trouble reading it, if the text doesn't flow "trippingly on the tongue" (Hamlet's advice) then you probably need to make adjustments.
Funny how this works but it does.
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I actually cannot read anything out loud--my throat gets dry and my voice breaks. It's pretty bad, and it's always been that way. It feels like a purely physical problem, but sometimes I wonder.
Thanks again for sending me the Oxford style guide!!
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I can totally relate to this. Heck, I'm trying hard not to reject myself, because I have issues believing some of my writing is good enough. And I write for a living. Odd.keyana_taylor wrote:My greatest fears are writers block, rejection, and having tons of embarrassing grammar issues. Being an English Major I feel like people expect you to always get everything right. It's just like any other craft, if you don't continue to grow and expand it it begins to fade. Sadly this is where I am beginning to find myself.
- webworkz7
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- moderntimes
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Ghostwriter? Wow, that's something I'd not ever do. I write for the joy of it but also I write for the recognition.