Writing a Novel

[Danny Franks]

So I thought I'd start a thread to discuss people's experiences with attempting (or succeeding) to write a novel of their own. Or a memoir, or non-fiction title. Or fanfiction, because I have read some fanfiction in the past that was honestly better than plenty of novels I've read.

Anyone tried it? Anyone had anything published? I'm currently attempting to write a novel myself, and wouldn't mind sharing some of my experiences with the grind and constant reining in of ambitions it seems to involve.

[Joe]

Yes, I write. Nothing in publishable shape yet, but maybe one day. I completely agree with you about the grind. A bit every day, even when you don't want to. That's what works for me. Even if you have to rewrite it later, at least you've gotten it down to start with.

On another note, there are different ways of doing things. For a while I tried writing non-linearly, jumping around between different parts as I felt like it, then stitching them together afterwards. But that just meant I ended up with a bunch of fragments I liked, but I had trouble with the stitching. Nowdays I try to outline first, before starting on the actual prose. What approach do you use?

I find a phone is handy for writing. One day I noticed my new phone had a notepad function. Suddenly I didn't need pen and paper, I could just jot down random ideas on the phone and copy them across later.

[Danny Franks]

I never thought about using my phone for that. I just carry a notebook around, which can be annoying at times. Thanks for the tip. I have started using Google Drive recently to store the latest version so I can read over it whenever I have a spare minute.

As for my approach, I've never tried writing in non-linear fashion, I'm not sure my brain could process it. I just start planning things out in very brief, bullet point form, and create a structure for the story. Then I go back and fill it in in more detail, which might involve writing a couple of lines of dialogue or description that I like. Then the hard bit is actually turning those notes into prose. The trouble is, it's easy to fall in love with that process of having ideas and expanding them, so instead of turning the first idea into prose, I start working on a second one, and a third. I guess that might pay off in the long term.

Another challenge is, as you said, to just write, and then to move on even if I'm not happy with what I've just written. Trying to edit while writing is natural, but it's a killer.

[Joe]

There's probably no one true way to write a story. Everyone has to discover their own way to work. On another note, sometimes when I'm blocked I have to stop for a few days. After a day or two, my dreams become a bit more vivid. They tend to subside when I'm back on the writing. Does that happen to you?

[Danny Franks]

I can't say it does, really. At least, not to my knowledge, as I don't often remember my dreams. I do sometimes get spurts of inspiration that jolt me out of periods of inactivity though. Not dreams, as much as just idle thoughts that I realise apply to the story I'm writing, and might improve or add something to it.

A few years back, I got into writing fanfiction a little, and took a very different approach with that. I tended to write with little planning at all, because I already had firmly developed ideas of who the characters were, and what they would do or say in certain situations. It seemed much easier to just get the words flowing and see where the story took me. There was less of a brain-to-fingers barrier to break down.

Have you let family or friends read anything you've written? That's a big hurdle for me, because while they know I have ambitions to be a writer, it just feels strange to ask them to read something. Even when they've offered, I try to brush it off.

[Joe]

I understand what you mean about fanfic. My current story is while not exactly fanfic, leans heavily on something else. It was surprisingly easy to bang out a rough summary.

As for reading, yes. I let my mum read my one completed piece a few months back. Ultimately she liked it and gave it a good copy edit. No actual constructive criticism, which is what I really want and need. Or at least I think I do. Maybe whoever I show it to next. Right now I'm letting it rest and working on something new. So there are pros and cons with letting people see. If you want to get published, you're going to have to let other people look at it sometime. :)

[NutMeg]

Nice thread, let me join. My writing habits have been a bit random, I write new stuff when inspiration strikes, even if it means that I'm procrastinating, but that's also because I'm recording ideas/feelings/plots that would be lost otherwise :) and I make my dreams work for me, so yeah, I can relate to both of you. Will surely come back and talk it more if the tread stays active, it will be nice to share experiences.

[Danny Franks]

16 hours ago, Joe said:

As for reading, yes. I let my mum read my one completed piece a few months back. Ultimately she liked it and gave it a good copy edit. No actual constructive criticism, which is what I really want and need. Or at least I think I do. Maybe whoever I show it to next. Right now I'm letting it rest and working on something new. So there are pros and cons with letting people see. If you want to get published, you're going to have to let other people look at it sometime. :)

I actually bit the bullet on my last night and let a couple of friends read an excerpt from my first chapter. They liked it, and one actually brainstormed a little around a plot point I've been getting stuck on . So that's encouraging. 

The strange thing is, when I read it and try to see it through the eyes of someone reading for the first time, I keep picking out new bits that I don't care for too much. Language that's a bit too flowery, overly descriptive passages, awkward dialogue. I'm just forcing myself to leave those bits alone so I can keep writing the first draft itself.

49 minutes ago, NutMeg said:

Nice thread, let me join. My writing habits have been a bit random, I write new stuff when inspiration strikes, even if it means that I'm procrastinating, but that's also because I'm recording ideas/feelings/plots that would be lost otherwise :) and I make my dreams work for me, so yeah, I can relate to both of you. Will surely come back and talk it more if the tread stays active, it will be nice to share experiences.

This is why I try to carry a notebook around all the time (though may change that to using my phone, from now on). Whenever the kernel of an idea hits me, I jot it down. I may never look at it again, or I may go back and think about it some more, expand it and see where it takes me. 

My biggest fear (apart from the obvious of either never finishing this or of it not being published/read/liked) is that if I did manage to get a book published, I'd be out of ideas for any sort of follow up. But now I have reams of partially formed ideas that I could dip into and try to develop.

[Eegah]

I finished a manuscript a while ago, and am currently going through editing. What I especially had fun with was throwing in little nods that people I know would pick up on, while also trying to give them a purpose beyond the inside joke (like Matt Groening, I named several characters after family members).

The really hard part was anything to do with romance. I'm asexual and have no personal experience with those kinds of feelings, so I was mostly just taking stabs in the dark based on other stuff I've read. The major gimmick is that the central relationship of the book is a gay couple who hook up at the end, and their stories are structured just like a typical romance hero story, yet hopefully still subtle enough that people wouldn't pick up on it until the big confession (Legend of Korra was a big inspiration there).

[Enigma X]

For the past fifteen years, there are three novels that I have been trying to write. (I almost feel embarrassed to admit that I have been working on something without finishing it for so long.) Like some of you have written as your problem, I too get lost in detail that derails me. 

My main project I call a present-day sci-fi/fantasy/literary piece. I often get lost in the pseudo-science of it all making sense.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Working on a book now, and my main problem has always been focus. It always starts out really well, but I have a lot of difficulty sticking with a long project. I've even tried participating in NaNo a couple of times, but the writing always peters out before it's even close to finished. Any suggestions on how to work out that issue would be greatly appreciated.

[auntlada]

1 hour ago, Cobalt Stargazer said:

Working on a book now, and my main problem has always been focus. It always starts out really well, but I have a lot of difficulty sticking with a long project. I've even tried participating in NaNo a couple of times, but the writing always peters out before it's even close to finished. Any suggestions on how to work out that issue would be greatly appreciated.

If you figure it out, let me know. I got to about 21,000 words one year, but then just sort of stopped. Usually I'm doing good to get to 4,000 words. I am easily distracted by other things, including sleep. Especially sleep.

[Joe]

2 hours ago, Cobalt Stargazer said:

Working on a book now, and my main problem has always been focus. It always starts out really well, but I have a lot of difficulty sticking with a long project. I've even tried participating in NaNo a couple of times, but the writing always peters out before it's even close to finished. Any suggestions on how to work out that issue would be greatly appreciated.

My current plan is to not start on the prose until I have a rough summary done. Once you have an idea of where it's heading, it gets a bit easier. Of course, you could write the summary, start on the prose, and still run out of motivation. But it's better than nothing.

[buffynut]

I've tried to write in the past. In fact, I have 3 unfinished novels that I haven't looked at in years. I have no idea if my writing is good or horrible, but coming up with the story is easy. I struggle, though, with 2 main issues: 1) constant editing of my work before moving on and 2) not enough description

[Darian]

No novel but I have a book-length memoir that I should be revising and shopping. Unless you're a celebrity or have a story like cutting your own arm off, it's extremely hard to get a memoir deal. Having portions published (30%, I've heard) helps, so I've gotten essays from it published a few places (one in an anthology I can visit at the library or in bookstores, which I am goofy enough to do every so often).  I've published poems here and there, too, but it's my weakest genre. I'm really terrible at sending work out, not because of fear of rejection (I expect that) but I simply don't take the time to do it.  

 

As far as focus or getting back to something, I'm not great at either, but I can think of a few things you might try. For focus, set a schedule. I might decide to give myself six days a week not to look at a piece, but Friday is the day I will work on that. I set calendar reminders to go back to a piece so I don't have to thin about it until it pops up in my email. I have writer friends who are readers, so we set deadlines and give prompts to each other and meet to workshop work once a month. Having a deadline is a necessity for me. If it's lack of interest, I might decide to write from the POV of a different character or in different verb tense or something, anything to get me going again.  Good luck! Keep going!

[Eegah]

I definitely made sure I had a full outline ready before writing a word, but also found as I went that I'd sometimes come up with a better idea for one story point which then had a domino effect on how the story afterwards could work. Plus I realized one particular event could come off as really homophobic once I actually started writing it out and promptly changed it. I still definitely recommend doing it, though with the caveat that it also shouldn't make you feel locked into it (the How I Met Your Mother problem, as I like to call it).

[Joe]

Here's something I just picked up from Simon Kinberg. I'll paraphrase. Even if all you have in mind is shit, just write it. Once you get the crap out of the way, you can write better. I tried this, and it worked surprisingly well. It isn't exactly a cinematic blockbuster, but I've certainly done worse. :)

[proserpina65]

Quote

Have you let family or friends read anything you've written? That's a big hurdle for me, because while they know I have ambitions to be a writer, it just feels strange to ask them to read something. Even when they've offered, I try to brush it off.

I have for the last several years written Horatio Hornblower fan fiction featuring a minor character from the tv series.  Because it started as part of a group thread on a fan site, a lot of people have read bits and pieces, and due to the communal nature, I wasn't too weirded out about others seeing what I've written.  It was all a bit of fun at that point anyway.  Then a friend and I expanded upon that, working on several joint projects which have been read by a couple of other close friends, and I've since continued on from there with my own stories which only she has read.  It would give me pause to allow others to read the joint pieces and the later solo stuff because, to be honest, they often get sexually graphic, and I think I'd be rather embarrassed to have my personal sexual thoughts out there for people to see.  Which is a bit of a contradiction, given that I also write erotica in hopes of publishing it someday, albeit under a pseudonym.

On the 'want to publish' note, it's been a dream for some time to be a published author, but unfortunately I've found I lack the discipline to finish any of my projects enough to ever submit them anywhere.  I sometimes think that my laptop and I should go away to a cabin in the woods (or some similar remote locale) so I could focus on writing, but I know myself well enough to realize it probably wouldn't help.  Plus, gotta pay the bills.

Edited June 7, 2016 by proserpina65

[Danny Franks]

On 06/06/2016 at 1:18 PM, buffynut said:

I've tried to write in the past. In fact, I have 3 unfinished novels that I haven't looked at in years. I have no idea if my writing is good or horrible, but coming up with the story is easy. I struggle, though, with 2 main issues: 1) constant editing of my work before moving on and 2) not enough description

As I've said, I struggle with editing as I go, and have to consciously stop myself from changing or deleting bits I'm not wild about. It's a difficult discipline, but I'm trying to work on the idea that something I don't like now might actually work, when I reread it later.

The descriptive bit is interesting. It's not easy to balance your writing so it's neither sparse nor being overly-descriptive. I think I definitely tend to being too descriptive, and have to pull back from it a bit. I always have a very clear image in my head of what characters or places look like, so want to make sure the reader has that same image. But sometimes it's better to let readers develop their own ideas, with a few smaller prompts.

23 hours ago, Eegah said:

I definitely made sure I had a full outline ready before writing a word, but also found as I went that I'd sometimes come up with a better idea for one story point which then had a domino effect on how the story afterwards could work. Plus I realized one particular event could come off as really homophobic once I actually started writing it out and promptly changed it. I still definitely recommend doing it, though with the caveat that it also shouldn't make you feel locked into it (the How I Met Your Mother problem, as I like to call it).

It's a question of whether you think it's easier to change something after it's been written than it is to make sure you get it right first time, I guess. And while changing it afterwards is surely going to be challenging, I think it probably makes for a better and easier writing experience to just get it written first. But if I come up with new ideas, I will add them to my plan, changing things in short-form before they're written in full.

2 hours ago, Joe said:

Here's something I just picked up from Simon Kinberg. I'll paraphrase. Even if all you have in mind is shit, just write it. Once you get the crap out of the way, you can write better. I tried this, and it worked surprisingly well. It isn't exactly a cinematic blockbuster, but I've certainly done worse. :)

That's good advice, I'm sure. Neil Gaiman has the advice of "just write", which is in the same vein. I think a lot of authors think the most important thing is just to get words on paper, first and foremost. If it's crap, then it's crap. You might be able to make it better, or move on to something else.

Apparently a lot of people follow Chuck Wendig's blog Terrible Minds, because he has a lot of useful advice and thoughts on writing. I've not read any of his work, but have seen his books around and thought they looked intriguing.

[NutMeg]

On 6/6/2016 at 6:38 AM, Cobalt Stargazer said:

Working on a book now, and my main problem has always been focus. It always starts out really well, but I have a lot of difficulty sticking with a long project. I've even tried participating in NaNo a couple of times, but the writing always peters out before it's even close to finished. Any suggestions on how to work out that issue would be greatly appreciated.

I know the feeling! I started a lot of books or stories over the years, and most often than not ended up abandoning them for a new shiny object after thinking of an even better one. A few things have helped me in that regard:

- consistency, which for me means writing everyday, or almost everyday (I give myself a mandatory break on Thursdays),

- someone suggesting I focus on short stories; after writing two or three, I found that there was a common thread (a bigger theme) running through them, and that has encouraged me to continue with two possibilities at this stage, I could either keep them as shorts or integrate them in a longer work by tweaking here and there (I'm still torn)

- I work on several (very different) drafts at all time; that way, if one doesn't inspire me that day, I have another topic that does

- lastly, an author once told me that without a first draft, there's nothing to work on, and that the best way to finish it is to lower your standards. And because I want to see this first draft, I usually give myself a break in terms of editing until I finish the story. And then I come back to it, again and again, on days when I'm not inspired to continue with the writing. This actually works pretty well, because the mindframe required for editing is very different than the one for creating, and also because the more time has passed since the first writing, the easiest it is to edit with a fresh eye.

16 hours ago, Joe said:

Here's something I just picked up from Simon Kinberg. I'll paraphrase. Even if all you have in mind is shit, just write it. Once you get the crap out of the way, you can write better. I tried this, and it worked surprisingly well. It isn't exactly a cinematic blockbuster, but I've certainly done worse. :)

Or, in other words: a bad first draft is better than no draft at all :) Also, see point above about lowering your standards, that one was an eye opener for me.

On 6/6/2016 at 8:18 PM, buffynut said:

I've tried to write in the past. In fact, I have 3 unfinished novels that I haven't looked at in years. I have no idea if my writing is good or horrible, but coming up with the story is easy. I struggle, though, with 2 main issues: 1) constant editing of my work before moving on and 2) not enough description

I think sometimes editing works as a justification for procrastinating. As for description, that should come organically, so maybe you might work on that during the editing phase, when after being a bit more removed from the text you'll have a better view of what exactly is missing in terms of description - it might even turn out that your dialogues are so good that your work is better as a play or a movie script than as a novel :)

[potatoradio]

Ho-yay! I resemble this thread!

I hate plot. I f*cking hate plot. F*ck plot right in its logical, cliffhanging arse. 

Feedback on my work is generally, "good language, interesting characters...but why are you writing this? What IS your MC's deal?"

*facepalm*

Mebbe because I kept listening to everyone who told me, "be brave. Write like crap. Just get it down."

Well, it's down. It's down and out with nowhere to go. I prop it up with stolen plotlines, real life stories...anything. And...nope. "But why, Potato? Why should we care?"

Because...because...because...oh, f*ck if I know.

Only thing I've found that helps is reading, because if nothing else that seems to fill my head back up with options. Also, I spent one day deliberately writing bad opening lines for the Bulwer-Lytton contest. That was therapeutic. 

And I tell myself the only way out is through and the only way I'm going to improve is to keep working at it, but d*mn.

I hate plot soooooooooo much. Why, why, WHY can't my characters just sit and talk? Why?

I'm not bitter.

But I"m going to enjoy this thread.

[Archery]

On ‎6‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 6:35 PM, Enigma X said:

For the past fifteen years, there are three novels that I have been trying to write. (I almost feel embarrassed to admit that I have been working on something without finishing it for so long.)

Here, let me make you feel better about yourself.  Right now on my computer, I have an unfinished novel, about 200 pages.  I started it in about 1994, and it is set in that year, thereabouts.  I finally had to save it to my hard drive because I had been keeping it on one of those hard 3.5 inch floppy disks, and they stopped making computers with disk drives. It is so old (how old is it?) that as I've converted the format from various versions of WordPerfect to the various versions of Microsoft Word, it has changed all of my quotation marks to @ symbols.  So, were I to try to finish this thing, I would need to go through the entire story line by line and manually put in " " on every page containing dialogue.  Oh, and I would need to figure out how to deal with a plot point that depends entirely on there being no such thing as an iPhone.  Yes, there is a pay phone-related storyline.  At this rate, I should probably just wait another couple years, finish it, and market it as historical fiction. 

Edited June 14, 2016 by Archery

[auntlada]

Don't replace quote marks manually. Use search and replace.

[Archery]

I tried that.  It does not format properly.  The current version of Word reading the original formatting of the document is like me trying to read the original manuscript of Beowulf. I'm surprised it doesn't just place ?s all over the place. 

Edited June 15, 2016 by Archery

[Joe]

Think of it as a good opportunity to do some copy editing. I find that no matter how often I reread something, new errors creep in every time.

[psychoticstate]

I too have had the problem with completing work and staying focused.  It's extremely difficult when you work full time and are mentally/emotionally/physically drained when you get home.  I have always aimed toward fiction but am now concentrating on nonfiction.  I have found that I take little breaks throughout the day to email myself information/text.  It works.  It allows me to work on my writing (and at a time when I normally have the energy and yet not always the time or means to do so), it doesn't take big chunks out of my day and I don't feel guilty if I go home and don't write.  FWIW, while following this plan over the last 2 weeks, there have only been 2 nights when I have not written anything.  I seem to feel more energized and inspired doing little bits throughout the day.  (The only downside is interruption.) 

I am participating in an online writing summit now and am gathering some great advice.  Here are a few tidbits:

*Schedule your writing as you would a doctor's appointment. It's non-negotiable time.

*Write whenever and however works for you.  There is no right or wrong way.

*Tell yourself you are a writer.  Write it down every single day until you believe it.

*It's hard(er) to write in your normal surroundings.  Check into a hotel room or (stay with me) take a week long cruise and do nothing but write.  The bonus of the cruise is that your meals are provided and the cruise can be cheaper than a hotel room.

*Writing 10 shitty chapters is better than constantly revising 2 or 3.  Get it out.  Worry about revisions/perfection later.  If you're trying to perfect it and/or revise it as you write, you will never finish.

*Be selective who you share your writing goals with.  We all have people in our lives who won't understand and/or will tell us we can't do it and will fail.  Miserably.

[proserpina65]

On ‎06‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 1:46 PM, Archery said:

Here, let me make you feel better about yourself.  Right now on my computer, I have an unfinished novel, about 200 pages.  I started it in about 1994, and it is set in that year, thereabouts.  I finally had to save it to my hard drive because I had been keeping it on one of those hard 3.5 inch floppy disks, and they stopped making computers with disk drives. It is so old (how old is it?) that as I've converted the format from various versions of WordPerfect to the various versions of Microsoft Word, it has changed all of my quotation marks to @ symbols.  So, were I to try to finish this thing, I would need to go through the entire story line by line and manually put in " " on every page containing dialogue.  Oh, and I would need to figure out how to deal with a plot point that depends entirely on there being no such thing as an iPhone.  Yes, there is a pay phone-related storyline.  At this rate, I should probably just wait another couple years, finish it, and market it as historical fiction. 

I still have lots of stuff on diskettes.  When I bought my 'new' computer (in 2007, I think), it didn't have a disk drive so I bought an external one off of Ebay.  Yeah, someday I'm going to have to put that shit on a flash drive or something.  Not storing it in the f-ing Cloud, no way, no how.

[Danny Franks]

On 10/06/2016 at 3:42 AM, potatoradio said:

I hate plot soooooooooo much. Why, why, WHY can't my characters just sit and talk? Why?

I kind of know how you feel. I find that writing dialogue is so, so much easier than writing descriptive passages, and especially easier than coming up with reasons for things, and making sure those reasons make sense.

Dialogue just flows. One person speaks, another answers, and before I know it, the story may have gone somewhere I never expected. I find myself learning things about my characters that even I didn't know until I wrote their words. It's cool, one of those things that actually makes me feel like a writer, rather than someone just fooling themselves. 

In the passage I've just written, I struggled like crazy to establish a scene, and it took ages to get the words I wanted. Then I got to three characters in conversation, and bashed out five hundred words in twenty minutes. It may all end up being trash and be changed or removed, but at least I've got something to work with.

On 16/06/2016 at 0:32 AM, psychoticstate said:

I too have had the problem with completing work and staying focused.  It's extremely difficult when you work full time and are mentally/emotionally/physically drained when you get home.  I have always aimed toward fiction but am now concentrating on nonfiction.  I have found that I take little breaks throughout the day to email myself information/text.  It works.  It allows me to work on my writing (and at a time when I normally have the energy and yet not always the time or means to do so), it doesn't take big chunks out of my day and I don't feel guilty if I go home and don't write.  FWIW, while following this plan over the last 2 weeks, there have only been 2 nights when I have not written anything.  I seem to feel more energized and inspired doing little bits throughout the day.  (The only downside is interruption.) 

 

That's exactly how I feel at the end of the day. Tired and too weary to want to be productive. It's much easier to kill an hour reading, or watching TV, or playing a videogame, than it is to sit down and write something after you've been at work all day.

Sadly, I don't have the option of writing at work. Because, although I work in an office, it's one which has high security and does not allow personal data to be emailed in or out, or stored on any portable drives. I can get away with jotting some stuff down in my notebook, but that's about it. And now I have the full plan in that notebook, I only want to add to it when I make a decision to change something in the plan.

On 17/06/2016 at 4:12 PM, proserpina65 said:

I still have lots of stuff on diskettes.  When I bought my 'new' computer (in 2007, I think), it didn't have a disk drive so I bought an external one off of Ebay.  Yeah, someday I'm going to have to put that shit on a flash drive or something.  Not storing it in the f-ing Cloud, no way, no how.

I keep my stuff all over the place. Hard drive, detachable hard drive, Google drive and USB stick. The main irritation is making sure they're all updated regularly, so if anything happens, I should always have a live version of my work. My laptop is on its last legs though, so it's even more important to me than usual to keep those locations updated.

Anyway, I feel like I've been fairly productive today, after a fallow week or so. I've almost finished the chapter I'm working on, which will feel like a big achievement. One of the reasons I started this thread was to spur myself on to get it done. I've been stuck on it for a very long time.

[buffynut]

On 6/15/2016 at 10:42 AM, Archery said:

I tried that.  It does not format properly.  The current version of Word reading the original formatting of the document is like me trying to read the original manuscript of Beowulf. I'm surprised it doesn't just place ?s all over the place. 

Try saving the Word file using "save as" and using different formats. (i.e. plain text, word 97-2003, etc.) and then trying the "search and replace".  I actually managed to bring a file from an old PC that had been written in Amipro (anyone ever heard of that one?) by changing file formats in Word.

[Archery]

Tried that. I managed to get rid of the @  - which were the closed quotes, using search and replace, but, in the latest episode of "Whatcu talkin' about Willis?", the open quotes are now represented as either an elevated dash (which I can't even reproduce), or, later in the document, a capital A, as in:  AThe door was open."  Sigh. Search and replace won't help.  

On 6/15/2016 at 10:32 AM, Joe said:

Think of it as a good opportunity to do some copy editing. I find that no matter how often I reread something, new errors creep in every time.

LOL. You've provided me with a title, if I ever finish this thing: Glass Half Full.  

[potatoradio]

Quote

Dialogue just flows. One person speaks, another answers, and before I know it, the story may have gone somewhere I never expected. I find myself learning things about my characters that even I didn't know until I wrote their words. It's cool, one of those things that actually makes me feel like a writer, rather than someone just fooling themselves

Yep, exactly.

And, having just had a workshop in which everyone said the dialog was great and the plot not only sucked but also flattened the characters and rendered everything too confusing for words...well, yeah, I'm looking forward to getting on that horse again....giddyup...

[NutMeg]

Not convinced this is the right place to post, although it relates to something that could be either the authors's or the editor's decision - I'm not sure.

It's a pet peeve, really. Quite a number of books now start with a scene that is close to the end of the novel and I'm not a fan of that. It's akin to one telling you "This is where we're going, so bear with us while we get there". One consequence of that gimmick is that the journey becomes somewhat secondary, because you know where you're going and are waiting to get there. 

In other words, we used to trust authors to take us on on journeys, destination unknown. And we used to trust them that the destination would be worth the trip. So these "this is where you are going to get" at the beginning of books take away from the journey (i.e., if it's a thriller, and you know x and y characters will still be there after z happens, what's the point about worrying about x and y's fate until z happens.really? We know they'll still be fine!)   

I was wondering it that could ever be an author's choice (I can only get it with a very insecure one but are we not all insecure to some degree? or if it was something publishing houses/editors insist on.

[topanga]

4 hours ago, NutMeg said:

Not convinced this is the right place to post, although it relates to something that could be either the authors's or the editor's decision - I'm not sure.

It's a pet peeve, really. Quite a number of books now start with a scene that is close to the end of the novel and I'm not a fan of that. It's akin to one telling you "This is where we're going, so bear with us while we get there". One consequence of that gimmick is that the journey becomes somewhat secondary, because you know where you're going and are waiting to get there. 

In other words, we used to trust authors to take us on on journeys, destination unknown. And we used to trust them that the destination would be worth the trip. So these "this is where you are going to get" at the beginning of books take away from the journey (i.e., if it's a thriller, and you know x and y characters will still be there after z happens, what's the point about worrying about x and y's fate until z happens.really? We know they'll still be fine!)   

I was wondering it that could ever be an author's choice (I can only get it with a very insecure one but are we not all insecure to some degree? or if it was something publishing houses/editors insist on.

The trend in writing seems to be "hook in the reader," so if you start out with a character looking down the barrel of a gun or sitting in a jail cell, that's supposed to make the reader wonder what happened to the character before that pivotal moment. But I agree with you: it's a cheap and lazy way to build suspense, and it does make the rest of the book a little less enjoyable. Because that "Shocking! Outcome!" isn't quite as shocking when you've read about it int he first 5 pages of the book. 

On 6/4/2016 at 1:50 PM, Danny Franks said:

Have you let family or friends read anything you've written? That's a big hurdle for me, because while they know I have ambitions to be a writer, it just feels strange to ask them to read something. Even when they've offered, I try to brush it off.

If they've asked to read it, it means they're interested--that's great. How about telling friends and family members that you're working on a novel? That sucks sometimes. Besides your spouse/SO, telling other people that you're writing means that every time you see that distant cousin, mother, or close acquaintance, they'll ask, "So...how's that novel coming along?"  Ugghhh!!!

[NutMeg]

11 minutes ago, topanga said:

The trend in writing seems to be "hook in the reader," so if you start out with a character looking down the barrel of a gun or sitting in a jail cell, that's supposed to make the reader wonder what happened to the character before that pivotal moment. But I agree with you: it's a cheap and lazy way to build suspense, and it does make the rest of the book a little less enjoyable. Because that "Shocking! Outcome!" isn't quite as shocking when you've read about it int he first 5 pages of the book. 

If they've asked to read it, it means they're interested--that's great. How about telling friends and family members that you're working on a novel? That sucks sometimes. Besides your spouse/SO, telling other people that you're writing means that every time you see that distant cousin, mother, or close acquaintance, they'll ask, "So...how's that novel coming along?"  Ugghhh!!!

thank you for agreeing that hooking the reader is a cheap thrill - now the question remains of who is responsible for that trend.   

Otherwise, yes, I hate these "how is that book coming along" conversations. Despite it coming along fine, thank you very much, if slowly, or at least slower than you think it's supposed to be, you barbarians! Try writing and we'll talk.

[potatoradio]

On 8/24/2016 at 6:36 AM, NutMeg said:

 

It's a pet peeve, really. Quite a number of books now start with a scene that is close to the end of the novel and I'm not a fan of that. It's akin to one telling you "This is where we're going, so bear with us while we get there". One consequence of that gimmick is that the journey becomes somewhat secondary, because you know where you're going and are waiting to get there. 

 

I'm actually wrestling with this very question. I agree that I find the whole "hook the reader with an opening cliffhanger" device really gimmicky and rarely does the rest of the book live up to it. However, I've seen more epic style novels use the end of a story quite well - I'm thinking of books like "How Green Was My Valley" and "East of Eden" and "Giovanni's Room." Those books start with the narrator in the present and the rest of the book is essentially a flashback to show how we got to the opening scene. That would be a big no-no in today's world, but I think it sets reader expectations really well. I know what I'm getting into. Then again, these are master writers we're talking about, so I'm pretty sure they could do just about anything. I may try it both ways and see if one feels more authentic. 

I would love for someone to ask how the writing is going! The question I hate is, "what's it about?" I dunno. People. Places. Stuff. Might be a story in there somewhere.

I also hate it when people start the psychoanalysis behind why I'm writing what I'm writing. "Oh, so you have father issues?" "Oh, so is it therapeutic for you?" "You're writing about deranged, alien caterpillars? Are you an entomologist? Did you read Jane Smith's autobiography on deranged, alien caterpillars? Because that's a good book."

Back away slowly while I brew more coffee and consider ways to include you as a bumbling, clueless minor character, please...

[Miss Dee]

I have a question. Have you ever written characters significantly different than you in terms of race, gender, orientation, etc? Did you find it easy to get into the character's head? What pitfalls did you fall into/avoid?

And for those of you who fall into a marginalized group of some kind: what's your opinion on authors writing main characters when they enjoy some kind of privilege that the character does not? Is it kosher for a man to write a female lead character, a white person to have a person of colour as their lead, etc?

Thanks, I hope to participate in this thread too.

[Joe]

I have. Probably every author ends up doing so eventually, if they come up with enough characters. I've written several WOCs, though I am neither. Actually, all my characters tend to be a little sameish no matter what they look like. And I have no problem with POCs writing white people. It's all about how much I like the character, what they do. And half the time I don't notice a character's ethnicity on a page, because the kind of stories I read it barely matters. However, if it's a modern day kind of story dealing with real life issues, then I may notice and care.

Although, yes. Once I asked a question about something I'd written, and discovered what I thought was funny, was accidentally racist. So I'm saving that joke for the right kind of alien. For that matter, I had to rewrite the whole story with a white lead character, due to some other unintentional dodginess I discovered. I still have that black woman in the back of my mind, just looking for the right story to put her in.

[Archery]

I'm a WOC who regularly writes white characters, because that is the American default setting.  When I used to write fan fiction, my favorite character to base stories around was a white man.  I think it's more difficult for white people to write authentic POC because much of what they think they know about how POCs act and speak comes from other media.  It takes either A LOT of research (and willingness to be critiqued) or being steeped in that culture to be able to pull it off authentically. One great example is Diana Gabaldon, who writes the Outlander series, set partly in 18th century Scotland.  She's an American who lives in Arizona, but she has studied Scottish culture, language, and history so deeply that she rarely makes a misstep or sounds inauthentic. 

I have no problem with, say, white authors writing POC, if they are willing to put in the work to write authentic voices.  Another example would be Robert B. Parker, who wrote the Spenser detective series. Part of it was that he started in the 70s, but a big problem for me was the dialogue for the black character, Hawk.  I came across the word "jive," and was like, Are you kidding me?  Nobody talks like that.   He got better, I'm not sure why.  But I feel as though I can tell when the only exposure an author has had to other cultures is watching TV or movies; you find that inauthenticity a lot in historical fiction. 

On ‎8‎/‎31‎/‎2016 at 3:18 AM, Joe said:

And half the time I don't notice a character's ethnicity on a page, because the kind of stories I read it barely matters.

If there's no mention of a character's ethnicity on the page, he or she is usually white.  The one exception I can think of is Octavia Butler's Kindred, which is in the first person.  It's pages and pages before the main character casually gives you a clue that she is black and her husband is white.  I love that she turned that "white by default" convention on its head.

[NutMeg]

On 26 August 2016 at 2:01 AM, potatoradio said:

I'm actually wrestling with this very question. I agree that I find the whole "hook the reader with an opening cliffhanger" device really gimmicky and rarely does the rest of the book live up to it. However, I've seen more epic style novels use the end of a story quite well - I'm thinking of books like "How Green Was My Valley" and "East of Eden" and "Giovanni's Room." Those books start with the narrator in the present and the rest of the book is essentially a flashback to show how we got to the opening scene. That would be a big no-no in today's world, but I think it sets reader expectations really well. I know what I'm getting into. Then again, these are master writers we're talking about, so I'm pretty sure they could do just about anything. I may try it both ways and see if one feels more authentic. 

I would love for someone to ask how the writing is going! The question I hate is, "what's it about?" I dunno. People. Places. Stuff. Might be a story in there somewhere.

I also hate it when people start the psychoanalysis behind why I'm writing what I'm writing. "Oh, so you have father issues?" "Oh, so is it therapeutic for you?" "You're writing about deranged, alien caterpillars? Are you an entomologist? Did you read Jane Smith's autobiography on deranged, alien caterpillars? Because that's a good book."

Back away slowly while I brew more coffee and consider ways to include you as a bumbling, clueless minor character, please...

I was in a hurry when I first read your post, so I plussed it with the intention of coming back to it at some stage. Which took me long enough, but here goes...

I get what you mean about the narrator in the present, or rather a (past) present tense. The first example that sprang to mind was the Blind Assassin, I love the structure of the book: we start with a 90 year old women, and then we get back to not only her past but to fiction works as well , and it's bloody brilliant.

If we go to classics, this structure works well with Melville (and probably many others, but Melville is the one that first sprang to mind.

However - I think there is a huge difference between 1) starting from the present and going back to how you got there and 2) inserting the more adrenaline charged part of your book* (usually in italics) on the first two pages of the book, which is like admitting that yeah, some part of getting there will suck, but it WILL get exciting, SEE... [what you will read 180 pages later]

I guess for me it's a case of show-don't-tell. If the writer looks so insecure that he or she needs to tell me right off the bat how good it will get later, I'm peeved. Especially because it gives me spoilers early on. And I like a writer that can surprise me.  

Otherwise, the part of your message I bolded? I totally relate to it!!!!

From my experience, most people have no interest in the fact that you write and won't ever ask anything about it. The rest will want to know what's it's about and then quickly lose interest if you cannot provide them with a detailed pitch and never raise the subject again. A few will accept things like "well, I've been rating a bunch of stories and I've come to realize that there is a recurring theme which is...", and never raise the subject again. Some will accept that you want to protect your baby and keep it all about wrap and are interested in your process, even when it's as vague as "well, I'm not sure where I've going so I'm calling this thing a UFO"... "oh, and I just added another tentacle to my UFO, btw, because it was something I wanted to explore". Those are either people in love with you or people who create on a daily basis (my best friend is a choreographer and GETS it; another dude that I saw once and talked with for maybe an hour, visual artist, got it, in the same way as I got his approach).

I loved, loved, loved this part of your post: "what's it about?" I dunno. People. Places. Stuff. Might be a story in there somewhere. Totally how I write. I guess some people start with a block of clay and see where it'll take them, when others need to map the whole adventure first, but not many people get that, so your post made me smile a really big smile.

I don't tell people what I write is about. First, they usually ask just out of politeness but with no real interest, like they think they ought to ask. Second, they tend to hijack my process with jumping on a word or idea (butter, therapy, countryside...) that they take as a segue to explain how the farmer's future daughter in law is seeing a therapist because issues. The weird thing is that if they told me the same story in any other context, I would probably soak it up, sponge that I am, and store it for potential reprocess and later use. 

[mamadrama]

I am a published author. It's actually how I make my living. :-) I write paranormal books, both fiction and nonfiction. I have 7 true hauntings out and a 7-book series about a woman who sees the past through her camera. It's a paranormal mystery series. I also have a supernatural cozy mystery series about a witch who moved back home to the mountains. It's on the humorous side. 

I have a very large audience of readers. My family and friends, however, could care less. :-) I don't talk shop with any of them. I'd say the biggest portion of my family and friends have never read any of my books, and yet I get invited to horror and paranormal cons as the "celebrity guest." It's kind of funny. Used to hurt my feelings but I got over that eventually. 

I just had a new book released this week. I am always nervous about book releases. This one is about a haunted school and it was kind of personal. In the future I want to release some of my literary fiction. I have a few written, but they don't sell as well. Right now, with a lot of medical bills, I am sticking with the paranormal books because thy pay the bills. And, since it's fall, it's kind of my "season." :-) 

[potatoradio]

Quote

From my experience, most people have no interest in the fact that you write and won't ever ask anything about it. The rest will want to know what's it's about and then quickly lose interest if you cannot provide them with a detailed pitch and never raise the subject again. A few will accept things like "well, I've been rating a bunch of stories and I've come to realize that there is a recurring theme which is...", and never raise the subject again. Some will accept that you want to protect your baby and keep it all about wrap and are interested in your process, even when it's as vague as "well, I'm not sure where I've going so I'm calling this thing a UFO"... "oh, and I just added another tentacle to my UFO, btw, because it was something I wanted to explore". Those are either people in love with you or people who create on a daily basis (my best friend is a choreographer and GETS it; another dude that I saw once and talked with for maybe an hour, visual artist, got it, in the same way as I got his approach)

Yay! Someone else who gets it! I totally understand randomly adding tentacles to a UFO. I wish more people did! The world would be a very different place. 

Quote

However - I think there is a huge difference between 1) starting from the present and going back to how you got there and 2) inserting the more adrenaline charged part of your book* (usually in italics) on the first two pages of the book, which is like admitting that yeah, some part of getting there will suck, but it WILL get exciting, SEE... [what you will read 180 pages later]

Ah, I see the difference. I remember when a friend of mine was dating this really pretentious, obnoxious “aspiring” novelist and he gave her his first chapter as a “gift” and “sign of trust” for feedback. Well, it was boring as h*ll (all about a guy sitting at a desk and thinking about time warps – not travelling any, mind you, just pondering them as he played with his Bic round stic medium – not a euphemism. Not kidding.) and she said, ‘well, maybe introduce a little more dramatic action up front?’ And he said, “I thought, as a poet, you’d appreciate nuance and subtlety! I guess I won’t ever give you the ‘boring’ part of my work again!” Yeah, buddy, that would be an excellent idea. They broke up.

There’s a difference between building tension and outright manipulation/author intrusion. Can totally tell, like you, when an author’s trying to wink at me and rubbing h/her hands devilishly together in attempts to toy with me, the reader. I can’t read when I’m rolling my eyes that hard or flipping ahead out of spite. Hook, my arse. I’ll show you…

 

Quote

guess some people start with a block of clay and see where it'll take them, when others need to map the whole adventure first, but not many people get that

I have a few “planners” in my writing group – you know, *those* people who always outlined a research paper and followed the steps to creating a thesis and never turned in a paper with a single stray comma. I tease. I actually admire these people, because I completely can’t do it that way. We can be good readers for each other when we’re not ready to kill each other – I keep asking them to mess things up and they keep asking me for my “takeaway” and “point.” I do not say (anymore), ‘d*mn it, I’m writing a novel, not a bumpersticker!’

 

 

Quote

Second, they tend to hijack my process with jumping on a word or idea (butter, therapy, countryside...) that they take as a segue to explain how the farmer's future daughter in law is seeing a therapist because issues. 

Ha ha!! Well, yeah, if you say ‘butter,’ obviously her father never loved her and she’s trying to find love in a tentacled spaceship that’s tearing up cornfields.

I have been grilled for something as…mundane as writing a male MC instead of a female MC. I don’t know if the assumption is that, because I’m dyke, it’s my divine mission to write about nothing but women coming undone and having emotional breakdowns and identity crises or getting bullied/abused, but f*ck that sh*t. I didn’t pick the character – he picked me. And…I sure as h*ll don’t write fiction as therapy. I write, in part, to discover, so if I’m lucky enough for a character to guide me through a world I don’t know and ask questions I hadn’t thought of, well, I don’t consider that a pathology. That’s creative license.

Takeaway/thesis/TLDR – thanks for your reply! Good to hear from another kindred “pantser/UFO tentacled” writer!

[NutMeg]

@potatoradio, it's amazing to find someone who has the same approach to writing as mine, I can't express how pumped and relieved as the same time I feel - I'll reply more when I can, but you made my day because I used to feel like the lone one who worked differently than "planners", and while it works for me, I've felt I was very much on my own island. Nice to see you inhabit it too :)

On 9/28/2016 at 11:46 PM, potatoradio said:

Yay! Someone else who gets it! I totally understand randomly adding tentacles to a UFO. I wish more people did! The world would be a very different place. 

Ah, I see the difference. I remember when a friend of mine was dating this really pretentious, obnoxious “aspiring” novelist and he gave her his first chapter as a “gift” and “sign of trust” for feedback. Well, it was boring as h*ll (all about a guy sitting at a desk and thinking about time warps – not travelling any, mind you, just pondering them as he played with his Bic round stic medium – not a euphemism. Not kidding.) and she said, ‘well, maybe introduce a little more dramatic action up front?’ And he said, “I thought, as a poet, you’d appreciate nuance and subtlety! I guess I won’t ever give you the ‘boring’ part of my work again!” Yeah, buddy, that would be an excellent idea. They broke up.

There’s a difference between building tension and outright manipulation/author intrusion. Can totally tell, like you, when an author’s trying to wink at me and rubbing h/her hands devilishly together in attempts to toy with me, the reader. I can’t read when I’m rolling my eyes that hard or flipping ahead out of spite. Hook, my arse. I’ll show you…

 

I have a few “planners” in my writing group – you know, *those* people who always outlined a research paper and followed the steps to creating a thesis and never turned in a paper with a single stray comma. I tease. I actually admire these people, because I completely can’t do it that way. We can be good readers for each other when we’re not ready to kill each other – I keep asking them to mess things up and they keep asking me for my “takeaway” and “point.” I do not say (anymore), ‘d*mn it, I’m writing a novel, not a bumpersticker!’

 

 

Ha ha!! Well, yeah, if you say ‘butter,’ obviously her father never loved her and she’s trying to find love in a tentacled spaceship that’s tearing up cornfields.

I have been grilled for something as…mundane as writing a male MC instead of a female MC. I don’t know if the assumption is that, because I’m dyke, it’s my divine mission to write about nothing but women coming undone and having emotional breakdowns and identity crises or getting bullied/abused, but f*ck that sh*t. I didn’t pick the character – he picked me. And…I sure as h*ll don’t write fiction as therapy. I write, in part, to discover, so if I’m lucky enough for a character to guide me through a world I don’t know and ask questions I hadn’t thought of, well, I don’t consider that a pathology. That’s creative license.

Takeaway/thesis/TLDR – thanks for your reply! Good to hear from another kindred “pantser/UFO tentacled” writer!

Yeah, if you also call yourself a "UFO tentacled" writer, we for sure have a lot in common :) Thank you so  much for your post.

[aradia22]

Hello thread!

I wanted to introduce myself because I'm new. I mean, I've been on previously for a while but I never investigated the Books forums. 

I'm one of those annoying people who keeps saying they're going to write a novel but never starts. There are some emotional reasons for that lately. I've been having a tough time for a while and it's difficult to write when you feel like a part of your brain is broken. 

Before that, I never really had a set method for writing. I did a bit of everything from intense planning to just winging it stream of consciousness but in general, it was a combination of being inspired and then getting it done. I could see myself writing a little every day but only after that initial spark of inspiration. I still get ideas but it's difficult to commit to one of them. I just don't have enough passion, or at least sustained passion (part of that is the emotional garbage). I know the first novel will probably be bad and I want to just get it out of the way but even then, I can't get started. 

[IrishPirate]

Anne Lamott's great bit of advice: "Everyone's entitled to a shitty first draft."

Doing Nanowrimo can throw you into an atmosphere of support, creativity, and challenge. It's exhilarating and a very fun way to spend November. The discussion boards there are well worth the signup. You'll find writers who are ultra-planners and those who write by the seat of their pants. For some people, cranking out 50k in 30 days gets the pump primed. So what if it's awful? You've written a huge bit, you and the page are no longer strangers, and maybe there's a paragraph of gold that you haven't edited the life out of yet.

[NutMeg]

On 10/12/2016 at 3:27 PM, IrishPirate said:

Anne Lamott's great bit of advice: "Everyone's entitled to a shitty first draft."

Doing Nanowrimo can throw you into an atmosphere of support, creativity, and challenge. It's exhilarating and a very fun way to spend November. The discussion boards there are well worth the signup. You'll find writers who are ultra-planners and those who write by the seat of their pants. For some people, cranking out 50k in 30 days gets the pump primed. So what if it's awful? You've written a huge bit, you and the page are no longer strangers, and maybe there's a paragraph of gold that you haven't edited the life out of yet.

This looks suspiciously like corporate speak. Can you tell us about your experience with that Nanothing, in a way that shows how the experience has made you grow as a writer, with specific examples, and what changed in your writing as a result, not in general terms, but very specifically (e.g. I had nice, lovely characters that I would have loved to know, but after the Nanothingy, I decided they all had to die).

[aradia22]

I have wanted to do NaNoWriMo for a while. Basically since I heard about it from John Green. November's not a great time for me, and even losing a couple of days feels like too much to catch up to now. But I have been feeling like I want to write lately. I wasn't struck by any inspiration exactly but I've been in the mood to do that grunt work of writing. Just getting some thoughts out every day. My personal affinity is romance. I thought perhaps I'd plot out a generic story and see where that takes me. I'll keep you posted if anything develops.

[toomuchtv47]

I had no idea about this thread.  None of my friends are writers or into the things I write about so I don't really have many people to talk to.  I've written a couple of short stories, a completed novel and am on book 2 of a trilogy right now.  

I find that each story/book I write follows its own formula.  Sometimes the idea just comes to me and I start, other times I plot it out, make notes, jot down things that I want to include and take it from there.  I even do it long hand although it does take a lot longer that way.

One thing I would like to know from anyone here is, do any of you get a physical sensation when you want to write? When I get on a roll or get an idea (and it doesn't happen all the time) it's like there is a need to get it down on paper somehow and it won't go away until I do.  I almost want to say it's like anxiety but that's not exactly right.

The first book I wrote was a spy novel but everything after that has been science fiction.  I love the genre and feel that you can go so many places with it.  I try and base it all in reality and push what I see now to what could eventually happen or take theories that I've learned and read about and use them that way.

The people I do meet that say they have ideas that they'd like to get down always get a "Do it" from me.  It doesn't matter if anyone will read it or not, it's the experience of writing.  So what if you think it sucks.  That's not the point.  Just write.  Although, the satisfaction of completing a book is usually followed by a period of depression from me because it's over.

As for my characters, I find myself in many of them but I also have a muse of sorts.  There's an actor that I've seen in a few things although he's not a big name whatsoever.  One show he was on had him killed off in one episode and it angered me and then I began to think about other projects I'd like to see him in.  All of a sudden on my way home from work one day, I stopped on the sidewalk for about half an hour and typed out an idea into my phone that became my first book.  Inspiration can come from almost anything but I always say that if you have an idea, any idea, to put it down somewhere because you never know where it might go.

I've been getting a boost lately from the Harry Potter series.  It's nothing like I write and I've only just read the books but JK Rowling's movie was on recently and even though I thought the movie itself was pretty bad, when she starts sending out her manuscript, something about that part got to me.  I don't expect to have a series like that or be as popular, but a yes from an agent would be my dream after several no's.

To everyone posting here or just reading, WRITE!!  Write what you think is important or what you want to read or anything at all.  If you want to write then do it.  I wish you all the best of luck!!

[aradia22]

I'm semi-active on fanfiction from way, way back in the day. Like middle school/high school. I don't know what it is about October/November but I've been getting a lot of beta requests. Maybe it's Fantastic Beasts because a lot of it tends to be Harry Potter. I managed to write a chapter and a draft for 2 old stories but I've momentarily stalled so I think it might be good to beta for some people (basically edit and advise) and shift my focus for a while.

I do want to get to the novel but I'm a romance writer and I'm not feeling in a romance mood right now.

[Mabinogia]

I was an avid fanfic writer for quite some time, mostly House. There was just something about the characters that I found very easy to write. I have not found any other show, or even my own characters for original stories, that flowed as well as House and Cuddy did for me. And I have to say, when it flowed, it was the greatest feeling. It was almost like an out of body experience. I didn't exist, no aches, no pains, no tired eyes or grumbling stomach, I could write for hours. I miss that, a lot, but that magic is gone.

I'm now working on my own stuff, mostly supernatural, Harry Potter meets Buffy. But I tend to get bogged down in the details. Like, I spent months making a map of my town. I have written an extensive history of the town, how it got it's name, how it was founded, the history of the guy who founded it. None of which is really in any way relevant to the story I'm trying to tell mind you, but it was such a delightful tangent.

Unfortunately, since that is the way I write, I am likely to never finish an actual story that has an actual beginning, middle and end, or any coherent flow to it at all. But I am enjoying myself so that's good.

Right now I'm into family histories. I've got 3-4 major families (two are blended through marriage) who's history I'm really enjoying discovering. I guess I write mostly for me, because I enjoy the journey, but I would love to write something and publish it some day, even if on my own through amazon or something. I miss the feedback fanfiction provided.

[NutMeg]

On 11/22/2016 at 3:01 AM, toomuchtv47 said:

One thing I would like to know from anyone here is, do any of you get a physical sensation when you want to write? When I get on a roll or get an idea (and it doesn't happen all the time) it's like there is a need to get it down on paper somehow and it won't go away until I do.  I almost want to say it's like anxiety but that's not exactly right.

What a beautiful post, Toomuchtv :) As to this specific part of your post, I wouldn't call it physical, but more a mental/emotional urge - for me it usually happens with a new story or a block I'm having with one in process. Sometimes I wake up on a dream that I find insightful to the knot I'm facing, and I'm super irritated that I have to  take care of mundane things before getting down to it. It feels like "positive anxiety", meaning an urge that you know won't get away. I think that's the best feeling, and I wish it would happen more often :) Because when you experience it, the writing just flows!