Random thoughts

[ThinkerX]

Four more chapters and six thousand more words. Told myself that back in late May with 'Empire: Metropolis.' Four chapters and eight thousand words later, I was still telling myself that - just four more chapters and six thousand words. Didn't finish until the second week of June.

A few weeks ago I started telling myself the same thing with 'Empire: Spiral' - four more chapters and six thousand words. I was on Chapter then, most of ten thousand words ago. Now I'm starting on Chapter 20, and once again, I am telling myself - you guessed it - four more chapters and six thousand words.

Must be a phase or coping mechanism or something.

 

[Saigonnus]

My random thought for the day: Why is it easier for me to write random stuff, or stuff earlier in the chronology, then it is to actually work on one of my WIPs??


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[DragonOfTheAerie]

My random thought for the day: Why is it easier for me to write random stuff, or stuff earlier in the chronology, then it is to actually work on one of my WIPs??


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I've been writing little scenes throughout my WIP for practically forever, but for like two years it's been impossible for me to work on it, starting at the beginning and writing the story in a chronological manner...

 

[Saigonnus]

I've been writing little scenes throughout my WIP for practically forever, but for like two years it's been impossible for me to work on it, starting at the beginning and writing the story in a chronological manner...

Mine is sitting at about 85,000 words, and has been for the last 3 or 4 years. I have another at around 40k without working on it for about the same period.

And of course, I still have new ideas all the time and will write them up, just in case I can use them for something. 5k about a magical cat, 10k about a ship's crew in a post-apocalyptic future, 7k about a one-handed Dwarven gunsmith... and this doesn't count world building. *sigh*


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[Chessie]

Is there a lot you'll forgive in a book so long as the story is good? I'm currently reading a novel that received some either shotty editing or formatting: words missing, paragraphs lined up funky, sentences cutting off, grammar errors. It sounds like a nightmare, right? But the story is engaging and the errors are minor annoyances at best.

BTW this is a NY Times best-seller.

 

[Saigonnus]

Is there a lot you'll forgive in a book so long as the story is good? I'm currently reading a novel that received some either shotty editing or formatting: words missing, paragraphs lined up funky, sentences cutting off, grammar errors. It sounds like a nightmare, right? But the story is engaging and the errors are minor annoyances at best.

BTW this is a NY Times best-seller.

I guess I am more hung up on grammar than many (english teacher btw), because it irks me when there are lots of grammatical mistakes. If the POV is that of a 10 year-old, I suppose I would be more forgiving, but generally, it bothers me whether the story is good or not.


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[SaltyDog]

I agree with Saigonnus. I really don't like small mistakes, even if it's a good read.

 

[Ban]

Is there a lot you'll forgive in a book so long as the story is good? I'm currently reading a novel that received some either shotty editing or formatting: words missing, paragraphs lined up funky, sentences cutting off, grammar errors. It sounds like a nightmare, right? But the story is engaging and the errors are minor annoyances at best.

BTW this is a NY Times best-seller.

That doesnt bother me too much. I am not a native english speaker, so I'm quite accustomed to mispronunciations, bad grammar, bad spelling, bad punctuation etc... I am probably guilty of one of these things myself in these two sentences!

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Is there a lot you'll forgive in a book so long as the story is good? I'm currently reading a novel that received some either shotty editing or formatting: words missing, paragraphs lined up funky, sentences cutting off, grammar errors. It sounds like a nightmare, right? But the story is engaging and the errors are minor annoyances at best.

BTW this is a NY Times best-seller.

I'll forgive almost anything if the characters are engaging and make me care about them. I would probably be constantly cringing and rolling my eyes and shaking my head at the book you're describing, but if I really cared about the characters, I would still read.

The grammar and formatting errors might put me off from recommending the book, though...

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Why do i not have an emotional connection to this story i'm writing?

 

[FifthView]

Why do i not have an emotional connection to this story i'm writing?

Heliotrope said something to me in some thread I can't now find that I wish I'd saved/copied, to the effect that our best writing often comes when we are skating the edge of being absurd/ridiculous/extreme while dipping into our darkest side or most personal side.

I wish I could remember the exact words because it struck me as incredibly important at the time, and I realized that I too often pull back from that edge and in fact probably have a strong tendency to want to avoid writing in that place.

I often start out with a strong emotional connection with a story and then as time passes I discover I just don't give a damn. But the connection comes back at the weirdest times—usually when I'm nowhere near my computer or don't have the time to write.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I experienced that with the series of valentine's day card I did. The first ones were funny/cheeky/cheerful, but the longer I kept at it, the more serious they became. Deeper and darker - much more personal. At the same time they also became better and stronger - a lot stronger.

 

[Russ]

Is there a lot you'll forgive in a book so long as the story is good? I'm currently reading a novel that received some either shotty editing or formatting: words missing, paragraphs lined up funky, sentences cutting off, grammar errors. It sounds like a nightmare, right? But the story is engaging and the errors are minor annoyances at best.

BTW this is a NY Times best-seller.

I am easily jarred out of a story. I find stuff like that annoys me to no end and I stop reading the book pretty quickly.

Was it an e-version? There really is no excuse for a NYT best seller to suffer from those kind of flaws.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Heliotrope said something to me in some thread I can't now find that I wish I'd saved/copied, to the effect that our best writing often comes when we are skating the edge of being absurd/ridiculous/extreme while dipping into our darkest side or most personal side.

I wish I could remember the exact words because it struck me as incredibly important at the time, and I realized that I too often pull back from that edge and in fact probably have a strong tendency to want to avoid writing in that place.

I often start out with a strong emotional connection with a story and then as time passes I discover I just don't give a damn. But the connection comes back at the weirdest times—usually when I'm nowhere near my computer or don't have the time to write.

Losing my connection to a story is frustrating and scary. In this case, though, I don't know if I had a serious connection in the first place.

Honestly I just have no idea where the story is going or what kind of story it is and just...it's scary.

 

[Chessie]

I am easily jarred out of a story. I find stuff like that annoys me to no end and I stop reading the book pretty quickly.

Was it an e-version? There really is no excuse for a NYT best seller to suffer from those kind of flaws.

Yes it's an e-version. To be honest, I really like the story but it is jarring to suddenly be reading a sentence that cuts off and another paragraph begins. I don't normally write reviews but I'll be leaving one on this book because it seems like a formatting error.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Dragon of the Aerie:

I can identify with your problem. This happened to me some time ago, while I was working on my story Whispers of the Witch for my own Halloween Challenge. At certain point I began to lose connection with the story and the characters, and as a result of that it was really difficult to complete that story even though it's not actually complex or long.

This happened to me because I never had a real and strong connection to Whispers to start with. It was a project for a Challenge and so it was supposed to follow certain ingredients, so I went pretty blindly into the story (what I call a Let's see What happens approach) and soon I was out of sparks to keep working on it.

What did I do?

I decided that it was not the right moment to keep working on that story, and so I dedicated my efforts to a different story which had me pretty fired up back then. I finished that one easily, and then it was time to return to Whispers of the Witch and find a way to negotiate and dance with it at last.

Guess what?

When the right time came, Whispers began to throw great sparks and soon everything was clicking into place. I began to really enjoy the story, it was finished alright (Whispers of the Witch is the sequel to Violet Riding Hood) and since then those characters keep calling me to eventually work on the third and final story of a trilogy.

My advice to you (which I give because I think that we work in similar ways) is to just leave a story aside for some time in case that you do not have enough connection to it.

You never know when the right moment will come, or when you are going to get a sudden Spark for that story... Trying to force it will only give you bad results, so just wait. Meanwhile, you can work on some other stories that you feel more connected to. Also try to get more insight and more feelings related to the story that is failing you.

Never start working on a story if you do not have a clear connection to it. It's not something that will always ruin everything, but you can be sure that a lack of connection from the start will make the work much harder.

Good luck!

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Dragon of the Aerie:

I can identify with your problem. This happened to me some time ago, while I was working on my story Whispers of the Witch for my own Halloween Challenge. At certain point I began to lose connection with the story and the characters, and as a result of that it was really difficult to complete that story even though it's not actually complex or long.

This happened to me because I never had a real and strong connection to Whispers to start with. It was a project for a Challenge and so it was supposed to follow certain ingredients, so I went pretty blindly into the story (what I call a Let's see What happens approach) and soon I was out of sparks to keep working on it.

What did I do?

I decided that it was not the right moment to keep working on that story, and so I dedicated my efforts to a different story which had me pretty fired up back then. I finished that one easily, and then it was time to return to Whispers of the Witch and find a way to negotiate and dance with it at last.

Guess what?

When the right time came, Whispers began to throw great sparks and soon everything was clicking into place. I began to really enjoy the story, it was finished alright (Whispers of the Witch is the sequel to Violet Riding Hood) and since then those characters keep calling me to eventually work on the third and final story of a trilogy.

My advice to you (which I give because I think that we work in similar ways) is to just leave a story aside for some time in case that you do not have enough connection to it.

You never know when the right moment will come, or when you are going to get a sudden Spark for that story... Trying to force it will only give you bad results, so just wait. Meanwhile, you can work on some other stories that you feel more connected to. Also try to get more insight and more feelings related to the story that is failing you.

Never start working on a story if you do not have a clear connection to it. It's not something that will always ruin everything, but you can be sure that a lack of connection from the start will make the work much harder.

Good luck!

Hiya, Sheilawisz! Long time no see

I do agree that it doesn't work to force it. Thing is, I am writing this story mainly to take a break from my other story which I was also failing to connect to.

However, your example is actually pretty similar to what I'm going through right now. I started writing without much of a plan or a connection to the story, and now I'm starting to flounder some 15,000 words in. I completely neglected world-building and plot development beforehand. Well, maybe it's time to work on that stuff. ?

It's strange, really. I'm used to my characters living in my head and making a racket up there whenever I take too much time off, but with this story I don't even think about it unless I'm actually sitting there writing. It's really strange. I'm used to being consumed by my stories. Having a deep bond to them. I'm not sure what is causing this absence.

 

[ThinkerX]

However, your example is actually pretty similar to what I'm going through right now. I started writing without much of a plan or a connection to the story, and now I'm starting to flounder some 15,000 words in. I completely neglected world-building and plot development beforehand. Well, maybe it's time to work on that stuff. ?

It's strange, really. I'm used to my characters living in my head and making a racket up there whenever I take too much time off, but with this story I don't even think about it unless I'm actually sitting there writing. It's really strange. I'm used to being consumed by my stories. Having a deep bond to them. I'm not sure what is causing this absence.

I used to do that - sit down with a notion in my head and write until fatigue set in, or until I'd written myself into a corner.

It took a while, but that finally changed. Now, I won't start into a story, especially a longer one, unless I have a fairly clear idea of its course. That is a definite beginning, middle, and end.

The exception is what I think of as 'concept stories,' short tales or parts thereof intended to provoke my thought about certain notions.

One I wrote earlier this year revolves around a utterly forbidden zone inside of a major city - just casually talking about it is considered about as tasteful as supporting child molestation. (Attempting) to enter the taboo zone carries an automatic, on the spot death sentence. Once written, I started brainstorming just how this situation could have come about. That in turn led to a couple of novella length stories which I hope to get to next year.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I used to do that - sit down with a notion in my head and write until fatigue set in, or until I'd written myself into a corner.

It took a while, but that finally changed. Now, I won't start into a story, especially a longer one, unless I have a fairly clear idea of its course. That is a definite beginning, middle, and end.

The exception is what I think of as 'concept stories,' short tales or parts thereof intended to provoke my thought about certain notions.

One I wrote earlier this year revolves around a utterly forbidden zone inside of a major city - just casually talking about it is considered about as tasteful as supporting child molestation. (Attempting) to enter the taboo zone carries an automatic, on the spot death sentence. Once written, I started brainstorming just how this situation could have come about. That in turn led to a couple of novella length stories which I hope to get to next year.

Your idea sounds amazing. It immediately grabs my interest and makes me want to know more.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

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...?