Random thoughts

[ThinkerX]

I'm thinking the reason for my failure to connect to this story is that I'm still living in the world of the last story. The one I'm trying to forget for a while. But how do you make it go away...?

Combine the settings (worlds) into one. I did that fairly often in the old days. My main world is actually a fusion of five or six worlds. (Planets tend to be pretty big, and most fantasy world maps, contrary to their names, cover only tiny segments of the world.)

 

[Chessie]

No offense but...maybe you worry about too many things/trying to get everything perfect instead of just writing? The only way to learn how to write is by finishing projects, not by stopping and starting new ones. There comes a point in time when you just have to keep going no matter what.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Combine the settings (worlds) into one. I did that fairly often in the old days. My main world is actually a fusion of five or six worlds. (Planets tend to be pretty big, and most fantasy world maps, contrary to their names, cover only tiny segments of the world.)

Since I'm dealing with totally different magic systems, species and technology levels, this wouldn't be very plausible.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

No offense but...maybe you worry about too many things/trying to get everything perfect instead of just writing? The only way to learn how to write is by finishing projects, not by stopping and starting new ones. There comes a point in time when you just have to keep going no matter what.

Definitely, lol. I just wish the anxiety/feeling of lack of control would stop. And I'm writing this story to take a break from the last one (I can tell you with absolute certainty that I NEED a long break...almost two years of everything else wasn't getting me past the fourth chapter...) and I am physically, but mentally? The characters of the last one still live in my head, but this new one hasn't colonized my brain in nearly the same way. Thought if I could knock out 2-3 novels before coming back to the big one, my experience would be greater and my confidence renewed. Don't know how it will work and I don't like not knowing. I don't suppose I CAN do anything other than keep at the new project though...

I'm trying to worldbuild. Started a note for this story on my notes app. Interviewed my MC. Trying to find the real meat of the story, the juicy conflict, that can drive my inspiration. This is what happens when you pants it completely....

 

[ThinkerX]

Since I'm dealing with totally different magic systems, species and technology levels, this wouldn't be very plausible.

I had to deal with this as well when I fused settings.

First, are all the different races really necessary? Big mistake by all too many authors is too many races.

Second, time happens. Same world, different era's. An old race vanished. A new race appeared from somewhere. Some hero or demon did something that fundamentally changed how magic works. Brilliant inventors launched a technological revolution in one part of the world - but those devices will be centuries reaching other parts. Or the inverse: an ancient technological civilization collapsed, leading to an age of barbarism. Or both (which is sort of what is happening in my principle world.)

 

[Geo]

It's funny how after a whole very hot and bright summer I found myself missing cloudy days... sure soon enough I'll have my fill of those but for now... I want rain!

 

[FifthView]

Last night I woke after two hours of sleep from a vivid dream about two not-quite-human side characters, and I now have a much clearer idea of them and plan to give them more prominent roles. I'm psyched. This is unusual for me, since I often no longer remember dreams and rarely dream about my characters.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Last night I woke after two hours of sleep from a vivid dream about two not-quite-human side characters, and I now have a much clearer idea of them and plan to give them more prominent roles. I'm psyched. This is unusual for me, since I often no longer remember dreams and rarely dream about my characters.

I love it when dreams are inspiring. Sadly it isn't a common occurrence. I have been working on my WIP for 4 years and have had maybe 3 or 4 dreams directly related to it. Which is very strange, since it consumed my mind so much during much of those 4 years...

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

It's funny how after a whole very hot and bright summer I found myself missing cloudy days... sure soon enough I'll have my fill of those but for now... I want rain!

I feel the same. I want to curl up with a good book inside during a long, hard rain.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I had to deal with this as well when I fused settings.

First, are all the different races really necessary? Big mistake by all too many authors is too many races.

Second, time happens. Same world, different era's. An old race vanished. A new race appeared from somewhere. Some hero or demon did something that fundamentally changed how magic works. Brilliant inventors launched a technological revolution in one part of the world - but those devices will be centuries reaching other parts. Or the inverse: an ancient technological civilization collapsed, leading to an age of barbarism. Or both (which is sort of what is happening in my principle world.)

They're entirely different kinds of races. Humans with modifications plausible through genetic engineering of some kind vs. magical immortals (not unlike the wizard race i invented for Top Scribe VI) and were-creatures (like werewolves, but becoming various large animals; one character becomes a jaguar, another a grey poodle.) I like internal consistency, so...And no, they're not necessary i guess, but they do add so much to the story that would otherwise be missing.

The magic system is the main thing. Totally incompatible...

Though i'll end up using one of the ideas for one story in the other, so there is that.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I had to deal with this as well when I fused settings.

First, are all the different races really necessary? Big mistake by all too many authors is too many races.

Second, time happens. Same world, different era's. An old race vanished. A new race appeared from somewhere. Some hero or demon did something that fundamentally changed how magic works. Brilliant inventors launched a technological revolution in one part of the world - but those devices will be centuries reaching other parts. Or the inverse: an ancient technological civilization collapsed, leading to an age of barbarism. Or both (which is sort of what is happening in my principle world.)

The whole point was that they're two entirely different stories, completely unrelated to one another, so I could get my mind on a different track. So they're quite different.

Interestingly, the world for the story I was writing previously actually was a combination of two different worlds I created.

 

[La Volpe]

I'm thinking the reason for my failure to connect to this story is that I'm still living in the world of the last story. The one I'm trying to forget for a while. But how do you make it go away...?

I don't know if I'll be able to give you any good advice on this -- the moment I start with a new story, I put the old story out of my mind immediately.

However, I do feel that you're very attached to your on-hold story, perhaps so much that you think it is the masterwork of your writing career, and that anything else you write will just be fluff; thus your problem. This is a guess on my part, based on the way you've spoken (typed?) about your story and your experiences with new stories that you write.

Does this sound accurate?

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I don't know if I'll be able to give you any good advice on this -- the moment I start with a new story, I put the old story out of my mind immediately.

However, I do feel that you're very attached to your on-hold story, perhaps so much that you think it is the masterwork of your writing career, and that anything else you write will just be fluff; thus your problem. This is a guess on my part, based on the way you've spoken (typed?) about your story and your experiences with new stories that you write.

Does this sound accurate?

The thing is that i form intense emotional bonds with my stories. I think about them even when i'm not writing them. It's not easy to just put them away. I get really attached.

To this one especially, since i've been working on it for 4 years.

 

[La Volpe]

The thing is that i form intense emotional bonds with my stories. I think about them even when i'm not writing them. It's not easy to just put them away. I get really attached.

To this one especially, since i've been working on it for 4 years.

So it happens with all your stories? I.e. not just this one you've been working on for 4 years?

The reason I'm bringing all this up is because your situation seems marginally similar to an issue I had with drawing. I found that I, at some point after drawing something, was unable to make any corrections to the picture for fear of ruining it (I know this sounds like it has to do with revisions, but stay with me). So I would make little hardly-visible lines and avoid erasing anything (since that usually just ends up worse) and it would end up not being as good as it could be.

Then I realised that my problem was that when I had drawn something that I was even marginally happy with, I was so sure that I would never be able to draw something that good again, so I didn't want to ruin the one good one that I actually had.

So, what is my point here? Well, perhaps you have a similar issue. In that you have this one Big Idea which you've been working on for 4 years, and you don't think that anything you make will be able to be as good as that story; so your subconscious doesn't want to bother with writing it, since it thinks it'll just be terrible anyway (which, of course, is not the truth).

This might not be applicable to you at all (especially if this happens to you with every story you write), but I thought I'd put it out there anyway.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

So it happens with all your stories? I.e. not just this one you've been working on for 4 years?

The reason I'm bringing all this up is because your situation seems marginally similar to an issue I had with drawing. I found that I, at some point after drawing something, was unable to make any corrections to the picture for fear of ruining it (I know this sounds like it has to do with revisions, but stay with me). So I would make little hardly-visible lines and avoid erasing anything (since that usually just ends up worse) and it would end up not being as good as it could be.

Then I realised that my problem was that when I had drawn something that I was even marginally happy with, I was so sure that I would never be able to draw something that good again, so I didn't want to ruin the one good one that I actually had.

So, what is my point here? Well, perhaps you have a similar issue. In that you have this one Big Idea which you've been working on for 4 years, and you don't think that anything you make will be able to be as good as that story; so your subconscious doesn't want to bother with writing it, since it thinks it'll just be terrible anyway (which, of course, is not the truth).

This might not be applicable to you at all (especially if this happens to you with every story you write), but I thought I'd put it out there anyway.

With all my large, involved projects (i.e. novels), yes. My connection to the 4-year project was intense but not really unusual. I get really attached; you might say obsessed. The one I've been working on for four years has been my only major project for a long time, so basically it's had my mind to itself for years. It was very important to me. Now transitioning into a new story is hard. I'm still stuck more or less on the last story.

I have hopes that the new one will be as good, but none of publishing; just letting my friends read. Not much vision at all. I don't know what I want this story to be...which might be a good thing, allowing me to let it become what it is. But anyway, I'm regarding it mainly as just something to do, which makes the writing much easier, but makes it more difficult to get emotionally involved. I NEED to be able to get emotionally involved.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

When it's one in the morning and you need your sleep but suddenly inspiration begins coursing through your blood like liquid fire...

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I also forgot the witty thing I was going to post here.

 

[Tom]

Right now I'm preparing a presentation on the special effects in Mad Max: Fury Road and finding it really difficult not to fill the powerpoint with picture-vomit. Such amazing cinematography.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

Clothing is bought. Now we just need a Lorien broach a cheapo one ring and hobbit feet and the boy has his Halloween costume.

 

[Tom]

Oh man, I forgot this paper was due in class tomorrow! I assumed I had tomorrow night to work on it, too.