Never fear, there's a Jedi here!

[JediKnightMuse]

Okay, I tried to post this once already and then it ate my post 'cause apparently I wasn't logged in any more. Let's try this again!

I'm Ally, a.k.a. Jedi Knight Muse. I'm twenty-five years old, obviously a Star Wars fan, but I also original fantasy fiction (obviously, or I probably wouldn't be here) that's usually high fantasy/sword and sorcery. I unfortunately don't have any finished projects at the moment but I'm trying to work through the writing slump I seem to be in.

I love joining boards for writers (and even run one of my own), so I'm glad to be here. ^_^ Hi!

 

[Black Dragon]

Welcome Ally!

I know all about writing slumps. Sometimes bouncing ideas off of other writers can help you to get through them. Writing boards can be very good for that.

Do you have any works in progress at the moment?

 

[Meg the Healer]

Welcome Ally! I've had the same problem (when I'm at work - pretending to do my job) about being logged out and unable to post. (Don't have a problem at home though.....must be a sign from the gods).

Anyway, welcome to the site. I hope you find us helpful and ready to bounce around ideas. Writing slumps can be hard to overcome, but sometimes I have found that when I use a different medium, the writing returns. Example, writing pen to paper outside versus sitting on my couch at the computer or when I was in school going to the empty 3rd floor classroom and writing on the chalkboard (then I'd have to copy it down and that made it flow again). Just a suggestion.

 

[JediKnightMuse]

Late reply is late. XD

Welcome Ally!

I know all about writing slumps. Sometimes bouncing ideas off of other writers can help you to get through them. Writing boards can be very good for that.

Do you have any works in progress at the moment?

Thank you!

Yeah, I've been joining and starting my own communities for writers on and off for years, so I've found lots of people to bounce ideas off of. Sometimes I rely on on them a little too much, though.

I...kinda do? XD I'm participating in a challenge on Livejournal called Novel Big Bang for the first time. Basically it's kind of like NaNoWriMo, but:

1. you can't write fan fiction and can only write original fiction
2. you have to write a minimum of 18k and have a finished draft by a certain date
3. people can, when they see the summaries of the stories that are being written, sign up to be artists, which means they can offer to do cover art, soundtracks, whatever the author wants that they're willing to do for the projects
4. you can't post anything of your Big Bang publicly (i.e. I CAN post it here because the showcase can't be accessed without having five posts already, though I think technically I'm only supposed to post excerpts, which probably means not an entire chapter) until your posting date, which I don't think is until September
5. You also have to have someone beta read your first draft and then do a second draft by the time it's time to post it.

So I'm -trying- to figure out my plot for that so that I can finally start writing. Luckily the schedule of the challenge is flexible enough to allow me to take as long as it is to start writing, although hopefully it doesn't take me too much longer.

Anyway, welcome to the site. I hope you find us helpful and ready to bounce around ideas. Writing slumps can be hard to overcome, but sometimes I have found that when I use a different medium, the writing returns. Example, writing pen to paper outside versus sitting on my couch at the computer or when I was in school going to the empty 3rd floor classroom and writing on the chalkboard (then I'd have to copy it down and that made it flow again). Just a suggestion.

Thank you!

Mm, maybe...for some reason I tend to find it harder to actually stick to writing in a notebook (outside of just writing notes and ideas down) because I end up just typing it up on my computer anyway, but maybe if I just start writing -something- on paper that isn't notes I'll be able to get far enough into it to be able to definitely stick with it and then just keep writing it on my computer.

 

[Black Dragon]

I've had the same problem (when I'm at work - pretending to do my job) about being logged out and unable to post.

This has happened to me more than a few times. It's a safety measure built into the software, which logs you out automatically after being inactive for a specified length of time.

The default setting, I just discovered, was a measly 15 minutes. So if you spent more than 15 minutes writing a post, you would be logged off. I've changed it to 60 minutes, which should be far better.

 

[Black Dragon]

So I'm -trying- to figure out my plot for that so that I can finally start writing. Luckily the schedule of the challenge is flexible enough to allow me to take as long as it is to start writing, although hopefully it doesn't take me too much longer.

Developing your plot is half the battle. Do you generally outline your stories before you begin writing them?

 

[JediKnightMuse]

Interesting! I don't think it took me fifteen minutes to write my intro post. I think it took...maybe ten or so? I could be wrong, though.

 

[Donny Bruso]

I ran into similar problems when I was logging into the forum through the facebook connect option. Since using the manual login I haven't had the problem of being logged out. Though I'm still paranoid and copy my posts to my computer clipboard before i hit submit, lol

 

[JediKnightMuse]

Developing your plot is half the battle. Do you generally outline your stories before you begin writing them?

Usually it depends. I TRY to outline, but it doesn't always work and usually it's not a great amount of detail. I have a plot card method that I created and I've used before and has helped me a bit in the past as far as adding more things onto a plot I already have goes. I really want to get back to when I used to be able to just write by the seat of my pants without having to worry about anything making me go "ack, what's the reason for such-and-such?" and panic. Hopefully that'll happen sooner than later.