Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Overwined
Sep 22, 2008

Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
Yeah that article was a good read and it's definitely along the lines I've been thinking recently. Someone over on AW asked "How do I know what my characters are thinking?" In the past I'd go "huh" and think about it for awhile then spew some poo poo about how you have to live with them and let them speak to you etc etc etc.

But we need to acknowledge that everything we do as writers is a construct created from our minds out of whole cloth. The plot doesn't tell you where to go; you tell it. The characters don't tell you what to say; you make them say what you want. You don't reproduce reality in your work; you create it, even if you are writing "realistic" fiction.

Now, there's a deeper conversation here that what you write probably always has to be referential to reality at the least. However, I take the main thesis of this article to be "you don't really know what you know" or at least not in the way you think you know it. By trying to convey what you know you are tranfering those (often flawed) lenses onto the page. If you want to lead the reader as well as yourself to a more perfect clarity, you necessarily have to break the bubble you're in.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Seldom Posts
Jul 4, 2010

Grimey Drawer

Overwined posted:

Yeah that article was a good read and it's definitely along the lines I've been thinking recently. Someone over on AW asked "How do I know what my characters are thinking?" In the past I'd go "huh" and think about it for awhile then spew some poo poo about how you have to live with them and let them speak to you etc etc etc.

But we need to acknowledge that everything we do as writers is a construct created from our minds out of whole cloth. The plot doesn't tell you where to go; you tell it. The characters don't tell you what to say; you make them say what you want. You don't reproduce reality in your work; you create it, even if you are writing "realistic" fiction.

Now, there's a deeper conversation here that what you write probably always has to be referential to reality at the least. However, I take the main thesis of this article to be "you don't really know what you know" or at least not in the way you think you know it. By trying to convey what you know you are tranfering those (often flawed) lenses onto the page. If you want to lead the reader as well as yourself to a more perfect clarity, you necessarily have to break the bubble you're in.

I generally agree with this, but I think it goes against what he was saying that "stories aren't about things, they are things." Which is something that I don't buy. Sure some stories are just experiences, but others are clearly about something, and those are often my most favourite stories. Will Self, for example, is amazing satirist, and his stories are like laser guided missiles in terms of being "about something."

Overwined
Sep 22, 2008

Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
Well what if it can be a thing about a thing? :v:

Seriously though, I don't agree with what he said 100% either. It sort of smells like that particular brand of anti-canon that quickly becomes canon. It gets the juices flowing though, and most importantly it gets you to at least think hard about what your own conceits my be.

Erik Shawn-Bohner
Mar 21, 2010

by XyloJW
It's all semantics. I'll give you the secret recipe to finding greatness in writing:

Sit down and put ink to wood. All the time.

SkySteak
Sep 9, 2010
Nanowrimo is an amazing excuse to try and get some writing out there. I mean sure it may be terrible but given natural talent, most people can or can't produce good stuff regardless.

Black Griffon
Mar 12, 2005

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are. You are destiny.


Erik Shawn-Bohner posted:

It's all semantics. I'll give you the secret recipe to finding greatness in writing:

Sit down and put ink to wood. All the time.

As true as this is, I know far too many people who would write crappy fanfic until they died if they just followed that advice. Some times it doesn't hurt to elaborate.

Overwined
Sep 22, 2008

Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
It's funny to call a pursuit that is basically all semantics "all semantics". And hey, aren't you the guy that just infodumped his thesis on writing into a post a page or two ago?

To respond seriously to you, no, that's a recipe for simply writing reams upon reams of total garbage. You have to develop an inner auditing sense in parallel to your writing sense. Articles like this are commentaries on the auditing sense.

Erik Shawn-Bohner
Mar 21, 2010

by XyloJW

SkySteak posted:

Nanowrimo is an amazing excuse to try and get some writing out there. I mean sure it may be terrible but given natural talent, most people can or can't produce good stuff regardless.

Natural talent isn't. It's hard work. I ain't saying you think you're king poo poo of turd mountain and suck, but the "natural talent" bullshit has become a meme among those who do, and the most fierce defenders are those who don't want to work and learn their craft. They just like to run their jowls about how they want to write and are naturally talented instead of reading books and putting in the hours required to write unreadable crap until they get better. Like a welder, you know. You just work hard, study, and produce poo poo until you eventually get to the point where it's awesome.

I am certainly an idiot, but I think we as people just want to have a direction to go. A solid path better than just "work hard and try really hard every day." It feels so nebulous and doesn't offer a solid plan to get from A to C. I had a little success though. and that's the often repeated mantra of people who had more success than me and decided to tell me how they think they did it. We all go about it different ways, but it really just comes down to either working hard or getting really lucky. We can't control luck, but we can work hard.

Black Griffon posted:

As true as this is, I know far too many people who would write crappy fanfic until they died if they just followed that advice. Some times it doesn't hurt to elaborate.

So there.

SkySteak
Sep 9, 2010
All I'm saying is that no matter how much effort you put in, inherent ability is going to end up pushing people further and said people generally being more skilled authors, no matter how those who don't, try.

Erik Shawn-Bohner
Mar 21, 2010

by XyloJW

SkySteak posted:

All I'm saying is that no matter how much effort you put in, inherent ability is going to end up pushing people further and said people generally being more skilled authors, no matter how those who don't, try.

If it comes down to inherent ability, I'm hosed.

Overwined posted:

It's funny to call a pursuit that is basically all semantics "all semantics". And hey, aren't you the guy that just infodumped his thesis on writing into a post a page or two ago?

To respond seriously to you, no, that's a recipe for simply writing reams upon reams of total garbage. You have to develop an inner auditing sense in parallel to your writing sense. Articles like this are commentaries on the auditing sense.

I'm not trying to threadshit, promise. I was just saying this specific conversation in the context of the article is something I feel I disagree with on (while not trying to say you guys should stop, just putting in my ten cents). I'm using the colloquial version of the phrase "a semantic argument", not to be confused with a "Semitic argument." I think D&D called dibs on that.

I just mean that it's hard to write or speak the way you feel about this. It's a classic argument, but I think people like O'Brien certainly know where they're going about what they're talking about. But he may not be expressing it in a way that people get.

Regarding my screed, I just wrote it off of instinct. Not to make really any point to be honest, but that I thought it may help some people that want to get fired up and try hard. Someone did it for me, and I liked it. If it doesn't, then I've already covered my bases by admitting I'm an idiot.

Erik Shawn-Bohner fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Sep 30, 2012

Overwined
Sep 22, 2008

Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
I'm of the mind that everyone has a certain ability to do lots of things. Even a person with little language acuity can become a passable writer, but I agree this takes work, plain and simple. Some people stand on top of a mountain and look down on others from their vantage. It's usually those people who fail to see that the real goal is up in the stars and that everyone has a long way to go.

HiddenGecko
Apr 15, 2007

You think I'm really going
to read this shit?
Writing is like any craft. You practice and pay attention. You figure out how to construct sentences and what makes a sentence "good". Then you figure out how to make those into paragraphs. Then you get bored with college essays and start to write fiction. The same follows for painting, drawing, swimming, cooking, anything really.

A lot of "natural talent" comes down to your environment. Did your parents encourage you to explore and read? Or did they plop you down in front of the TV and let that raise you? Were you forced to memorize that entire English textbook in eight grade? Or did you find it more satisfying to do algebra.

Outside of environmental factors there is a hard upper limit to a writer's ability to craft a story. These can be personality issues (They don't know the difference between ad hominen and objective criticism and never improve because they take everything personally). Or maybe the first bit of reading material they got their hands on was sonic fanfiction instead of some meaty Steinbeck and then got stuck deep in the rabbit hole. Or they grew up in a lower class community and didn't have access to the resources to even fathom becoming a writer.

Thus, there are SO many factors that contribute to a writers abilities that it's almost always futile to talk about the subject. You got to sit down and write and listen to your more experienced writing friends when they critique you and keep going. You have to be willing to write 100000 words of poo poo before you know what a 100 words of good prose looks like. The most important thing is that you can't stop. Many writers with excellent potential write one story, submit it, get rejected, and never write again. Persistence and endurance are the most important traits a writer can have.

Erik Shawn-Bohner
Mar 21, 2010

by XyloJW

Overwined posted:

I'm of the mind that everyone has a certain ability to do lots of things. Even a person with little language acuity can become a passable writer, but I agree this takes work, plain and simple. Some people stand on top of a mountain and look down on others from their vantage. It's usually those people who fail to see that the real goal is up in the stars and that everyone has a long way to go.

I can agree with all that.

I mean, I've had hands helping me up all this time. I'm not very high myself, but it took me a lot of people to get even here, and I like the idea of helping those I can in whatever ways I'm capable. So some call that luck. From my point of view, it's great luck. But, I think from a broader view it could be called a support system that was around in the writing world before I showed up.

That's the thing about the "semantics" I was saying. I do think it's 100% hard work in a literal sense, and I think there are those of us that work very hard. Are they just lovely and not working hard enough if they didn't meet their dreams immediately? Of course not. And those that get lucky (the often cited sparkle vampire lady), and we should devote a modest amount of effort to mocking them, but we all gotta seek out a little bit of that luck. Connect with people that will slap you on the back and make you feel like poo poo if you don't get your 1000 words a day in.

But I'm just going tangential at this point, so feel free to yell at me for interrupting. I just like to ramble lately.

Overwined
Sep 22, 2008

Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
I think the question at hand is not how much should you work (answer: a lot), but how much talking about how you work can help and/or hurt. There are so many people out there spouting "rules" about fiction and indeed the author of that article started off with a list of rules that he hands out to his students (gag). Of course most of these people are trying to reduce the irreducible, but on the other hand I cannot accept that a writer banging out tomes in a vacuum can accomplish anything. The question is how do we approach these things in order to make them useful and not harmful?

HiddenGecko
Apr 15, 2007

You think I'm really going
to read this shit?

Erik Shawn-Bohner posted:

Connect with people that will slap you on the back and make you feel like poo poo if you don't get your 1000 words a day in.


:morning::hf::cheers:

Collaborate and elaborate.

Erik Shawn-Bohner
Mar 21, 2010

by XyloJW

Overwined posted:

I think the question at hand is not how much should you work (answer: a lot), but how much talking about how you work can help and/or hurt. There are so many people out there spouting "rules" about fiction and indeed the author of that article started off with a list of rules that he hands out to his students (gag). Of course most of these people are trying to reduce the irreducible, but on the other hand I cannot accept that a writer banging out tomes in a vacuum can accomplish anything. The question is how do we approach these things in order to make them useful and not harmful?

I have an opinion on those points.

Rules are jokes. We all try to come up with them, and I don't think that's too wrong. We want them because that'd make a very vague job easy. But I think it'd be boring if we did come up with a top ten rule list for writing. So I agree on that.

I think vacuums are the worst. It's communication, and it's dialogue. You have to listen (read) to respond in any way that is additive. We need to feed off of one another to see where the current state of "good fiction" has arrived at along with what topics have been beaten to death this epoch and what we need to address. And I believe most of the work is to strive to read things that are good. It's somewhat subjective what constitutes good, but we live in a more global society these days. There is a deluge of critics, and we have enough at our fingertips to get a metacritic-style average of what people respond to. We need to know what people who don't write want to read, and we need to serve them to have our platform.

I think, as fiction writers, we are ultimately jokers and clowns. Our job is to entertain these people as best as we can in the way we think we want. We dance and sing for these people to make them happy so they feel better going to their job of cleaning toilets, plugging away at boring database code, or whatever they do that is crucial to having the life we enjoy. In exchange, we get a platform to work in our opinions and try to change the world. They listen to us, and it's our job to make our opinions known for better or worse, whether they listen or not. But we have to entertain as fiction writers. We get a chance to really change the world. If you don't want to do that, write political articles or textbooks. It's an equally important job if not more so in the case of textbooks.

SkySteak
Sep 9, 2010
Maybe I was too overzealous in saying that natural talent beats actual practice/skill (I know it's bullshit). It just feels frustrating how some people just seem to sail through their writing while others hit their heads against a brick wall.

SkySteak fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Sep 30, 2012

Erik Shawn-Bohner
Mar 21, 2010

by XyloJW

SkySteak posted:

Maybe I was too overzealous in saying that natural talent beats actual practice/skill. It just feels frustrating how some people just seem to sail through their writing while others hit their heads against a brick wall.

I think the key is information. Give us 1000 words a day. Whether they suck balls or not. Make a thread if you need a motivator, and we will come keep you accountable. Just 1000 a day. That's the best advice I ever got, and it changed me once it clicked into my thick skull and I really did it. Let's just do it. Just 1000 words of fiction and giving no fucks what people think. It's there to make sure you write as hard as you can every day even if it's not your best. It's to establish the act between the motion as you learn with us.

If I could bend pipes! arm, I'd force him to do a six hour probate on any writer who didn't post 1000 words a day here. Luckily for you, he is waiting in the shadows to eliminate my shitposting with a witty, well-placed perma.

Sitting Here
Dec 31, 2007

Erik Shawn-Bohner posted:

I think the key is information. Give us 1000 words a day. Whether they suck balls or not. Make a thread if you need a motivator, and we will come keep you accountable. Just 1000 a day. That's the best advice I ever got, and it changed me once it clicked into my thick skull and I really did it. Let's just do it. Just 1000 words of fiction and giving no fucks what people think. It's there to make sure you write as hard as you can every day even if it's not your best. It's to establish the act between the motion as you learn with us.

If I could bend pipes! arm, I'd force him to do a six hour probate on any writer who didn't post 1000 words a day here. Luckily for you, he is waiting in the shadows to eliminate my shitposting with a witty, well-placed perma.

I agree with this wholeheartedly, and I hope this is an appropriate place to thank you (and others!) for all your work on making the Thunderdome an awesome incentive to do just that. Seriously, I've probably created more material in the past 8 weeks than in any other single stretch of time. The topics forced some amount of research on a couple occasions, which is what sort of frustrated me into asking my question a couple pages back (How do authors go about acquiring and applying relevant knowledge and experience to their writing?).

But I think now it's one of those things that just happens through mindfulness, through observation and daily application of that observation through writing. And then following up with critique, of course.

Erik Shawn-Bohner
Mar 21, 2010

by XyloJW

Sitting Here posted:

I agree with this wholeheartedly, and I hope this is an appropriate place to thank you (and others!) for all your work on making the Thunderdome an awesome incentive to do just that. Seriously, I've probably created more material in the past 8 weeks than in any other single stretch of time. The topics forced some amount of research on a couple occasions, which is what sort of frustrated me into asking my question a couple pages back (How do authors go about acquiring and applying relevant knowledge and experience to their writing?).

But I think now it's one of those things that just happens through mindfulness, through observation and daily application of that observation through writing. And then following up with critique, of course.

Can you make me a skysteak 1000 words thread? I will toxx myself to address each 1000 words as I can.

I want everyone to do 1000 of poo poo words or godlike prose a day as is according to your ability. If one of you can make that happen, I will yell and scream as best as I can to make sure you guys get the support you need, and I will join in.

SurreptitiousMuffin
Mar 21, 2010
I was going to post a thread where I Toxx myself to write and post 1000 words a day (and edit/refine the previous day's) but I pussed out. ESB, I'll make that thread if you do the same.

In fact, a general thread for it where we all post/commiserate for (say) the month of November could be a cool idea. Posting in the thread means toxxing yourself for at least 1000 words a day. Interest check? Interest check?! We've got an interest check here, who's in?

Black Griffon
Mar 12, 2005

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are. You are destiny.


While it sounds badass as hell, there ought to be some kind of leeway. Yesterday went from unexpected event to unexpected event, from breakfast to 3AM, and if that Joel McHale looking motherfucker would've finally given in to my roguish charm and smooth voice I would have had time for something like fifty words total. Getting banned because of something like that would suck balls.

Edit: Heh.

Erik Shawn-Bohner
Mar 21, 2010

by XyloJW
No one will get banned for reals or even probated. I expect pipes! just doesn't have time for that unless he's a super-boring person who can live on the forums, and it's silly.

But let's get this going. I'm in. We can yell at people that don't produce.

Before we start, let's choose a proper word amount. 1000 may make a lot of people drop out. Whatever we decide on. Let's just get as many writers to produce as we can. And it can't interact with monthly writing contests and TD duties. Getting a full thing done is more important.

toanoradian
May 31, 2011


The happiest waffligator
^ isn't toxxes automatically done?

Yeah, I would be interested in a 'toxx for posting 1000 (or some other amount) words' thread. I think in 2010 I logged in to https://750words.com, which basically forces me by way of prizes and stats to write at least 750 words a day. There would be badges the longer I keep the streak of daily writing. There was like, a phoenix badge if you could do it for 200 days straight. I was getting past 100 days (written two novellas too) before the time difference between my home country and Australia fooled me and I missed a day. I...just can't force myself to continue after that. Maybe the thread of ban/permaban would help kick me in the nuts.

How would the edit/refine the previous day's writing work, though?

Erik Shawn-Bohner
Mar 21, 2010

by XyloJW
I think the best idea is that it's an honest daily writing thread. You have to be accountable to yourself. We can help one another, but life gets in the way sometimes. If you find yourself coming up with excuses all the time and never producing, I think that's going to make you feel bad.

Maybe we can say you write what you can every day, just a pact for those of us who want to push ourselves harder. I know I can always use that. Even if it's just to check in on the thread and update everyone. We can adjust as necessary. We don't need to be oppressive or softball.

Just a bunch of people doing the best we can to learn and grow.

Sitting Here
Dec 31, 2007
So the idea is that we would post an individual thread? That could be cool. Though I agree with Black Griffon, 1000 a day might be a little much some days. I propose that maybe the goal be a good faith effort to put out somewhere between 1000-5000 words a week. Maybe that would be a couple very short stories, maybe one longer piece. That sounds realistic to me for both writers and the people who will hopefully give feedback.

edit: I totally plan on doing this either way, probably starting in the next few days. I'm just sort of musing out loud here.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


I'll be alive again after this next week, will totally do this, and like Sitting Here's suggestion on a weekly minimum output, since that gives us some flexibility in case things go crazy but still forces us to get in gear.

Erik Shawn-Bohner
Mar 21, 2010

by XyloJW
I know what I want, but I prefer to know what you guys and gals want.

I just want to rock this poo poo. HARD. I want to spit in the face of everything, wildeyed and throwing punches, head down and hands up.

I don't think I'm so good at planning. I just want to get everyone that can identify with feeling like you're trapped. Like you

like you just have to scream

AHHHHHHH

Just yell at this loving monitor. Yell at everything.

And find the cure is writing words. Find the way to overcome this fear of putting your heart on that page. I talk a big bluster, but that's all I can do. We have to face this blank loving page day in and day out.

I fail. I fail all the time. I doubt myself so much that I get physically ill each and every day over it. I wake up screaming how much of a failure I am. How I'm just not doing enough.

But gently caress that. gently caress that in the rear end. We are going to write as hard as we can. We are going to win this thing, and there will be nothing that will stop you and I from reaching our dreams.

SurreptitiousMuffin
Mar 21, 2010
We haven't always seen eye-to-eye but I want you to know, you're a pimp-rear end motherfucka.

Ok, throwing out the idea of toxxes, what we need is an actual daily writing thread. You sign up, you say "I am going to write x words a day" (set your own word count, since our circumstances are all different but make it something decent) and you post the results in the thread every day. If your circumstances change, post and let us know. We will scream abuse and praise at each other, context depending.

I'll start writing up the thread and try to post it some time in the next day or two.

Black Griffon
Mar 12, 2005

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are. You are destiny.


I love this loving forum. All this is so good for my writing.

Dr. Kloctopussy
Apr 22, 2003

"It's time....to DIE!"
I think a lot of what seems like "natural talent" is actually hard work done for other reasons. For example if you've read like crazy your whole life, when you sit down to write there's a good chance you'll start ahead of someone who hasn't.

I love the idea for a daily word count commitment thread, but I'm not sure if I'll participate. I need to write more, but my first drafts are universally awful and posting them for critique would be a waste of everyone's time. And then there's no way to "get credit" for editing, which actually takes up the bulk of my time (and is the only way I can write anything remotely okay). So it might not work for my writing style....

Blargh, I'll probably commit to 500 words or something, that should keep my new writing moving and still allow me time for editing, right?

Overwined
Sep 22, 2008

Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
I also fight with the writing/editing time struggle. I always sit down to write first and lately (thanks, one month of unemployment!) I can bang out at least 2500 words per day. But by the time I'm done I'm sort of spent and now I have a backlog of poo poo that needs serious work. As well I'm beta-ing someone else's novel so I may have bit off more than I can chew. Add to that that I'm starting a new job tomorrow and my time aperture is closing fast.

Today is an exception. My last day of terrible "freedom" and I decided to write a very short story (about 2500 words) and edit it all today. Now it's not anything like don, but it felt good to go back while the iron is still hot.

DivisionPost
Jun 28, 2006

Nobody likes you.
Everybody hates you.
You're gonna lose.

Smile, you fuck.
If I'm looking to write a mystery novel, and I have the broad strokes for the mystery at hand (I know who gets killed, I have a decent idea of who did it and why, but I barely have any ideas for the exact circumstances that led to the crime) but no idea about the details, where can I go to find inspiration? I'm talking areas of news sites that would focus on small to mid-level crime.

Or am I going about this all wrong?

Chillmatic
Jul 25, 2003

always seeking to survive and flourish

DivisionPost posted:

If I'm looking to write a mystery novel, and I have the broad strokes for the mystery at hand (I know who gets killed, I have a decent idea of who did it and why, but I barely have any ideas for the exact circumstances that led to the crime) but no idea about the details, where can I go to find inspiration? I'm talking areas of news sites that would focus on small to mid-level crime.

Or am I going about this all wrong?

Just my opinion, but I'm doubtful as to how interesting you can make such a story if you don't know the circumstances around the crime itself. Those kinds of details are what makes mystery intriguing.

But then again, I never know what to tell people who are struggling for inspiration. There's a great quote by some old mean curmudgeon author -whose name i can't remember offhand- but the gist of what he says is that if you can't find inspiration, just give up and live your life until you find it.

I agree with that. It's the reason why I look askance at things like NaNo et al. If your story isn't interesting enough to you to convince yourself that you should take the time out to sit down every day and write it, why would it be worth asking a reader to take the time on a given day to read it?

I've had three false starts- where I had an idea I thought was great, sat down to outline it, and then realized it actually kind of sucked. Now I'm 91,000 words into a finished first draft, and it was easy to stick with because it's actually a good story that keeps me interested enough to really want to see it through and put it out there.

I suppose if you're the type that ~*simply must write*~ and you feel crippled if you don't, then sure, alright. But if you're like that, why would you need something like NaNo?

Chillmatic fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Sep 30, 2012

Sitting Here
Dec 31, 2007

I'd urge everyone to try to post a few hundred words daily. Gotta keep those pipes lubed up. Maybe you just transcribe a conversation you heard on the street, maybe you fictionalize some event from childhood. I think it's a lot like how our friends in the daily drawings thread would say an artist ought to be constantly observing and sketching from life.

I'm at the point where I want to fill my life with art and nothing but art. I do illustration as well as hosting open mic style performances out of my house each month on top of music making and a full time job and normal life stuff. Sometimes I start to panic because I have a bad habit of double booking myself.

But this past year I've seen more creative growth than any other time because I have ferociously latched on to the idea that I WILL get better, and keep getting better until I die. If I'm not writing, I'm drawing. If I'm not drawing, I'm taking pictures. If I'm not doing that, I'm taking notes or thumbnail sketches from the world around me for use in any number of projects. Eventually it all comes back around to the story, and I smash through the writer's block with new material and insight.

Now writing is a horrible slog through inumerable false starts and crappy short stories that I can barely stomach after I'm done. But there is a sort of pride in the feeling that I am at a different point in my practice than I was that morning, or last week, or last year.

DivisionPost
Jun 28, 2006

Nobody likes you.
Everybody hates you.
You're gonna lose.

Smile, you fuck.

Chillmatic posted:

Just my opinion, but I'm doubtful as to how interesting you can make such a story if you don't know the circumstances around the crime itself. Those kinds of details are what makes mystery intriguing.

But then again, I never know what to tell people who are struggling for inspiration. There's a great quote by some old mean curmudgeon author -whose name i can't remember offhand- but the gist of what he says is that if you can't find inspiration, just give up and live your life until you find it.

I agree with that.

I see what you're saying, and I suppose it's easy for me to say something like "No, see, I'm different." But I worry that if I just wait for inspiration to strike, it's probably not going to come. Granted, I've gotten half of the story I want to tell by living and observing, and while I'm happy to admit that it's more than a little derivative, I love it. I've written three test chapters, they look like crap and for all I know they may actually be crap deep down, but I powered through them in less than ten days writing as many as three thousand words a day, ending up with something over 17,000 words. I haven't been on a tear like that in 9 years.

Maybe patience really is a virtue here, and if I just chill out and stop trying so hard, I'll finally have another "Eureka!" moment and put that poo poo together. But I wonder if what I REALLY need to do to crack this thing is to change my perspective a bit and do a little research. So assuming that's the case, where do I begin?

Chillmatic posted:

It's the reason why I look askance at things like NaNo et al. If your story isn't interesting enough to you to convince yourself that you should take the time out to sit down every day and write it, why would it be worth asking a reader to take the time on a given day to read it?

I've had three false starts- where I had an idea I thought was great, sat down to outline it, and then realized it actually kind of sucked. Now I'm 91,000 words into a finished first draft, and it was easy to stick with because it's actually a good story that keeps me interested enough to really want to see it through and put it out there.

I suppose if you're the type that ~*simply must write*~ and you feel crippled if you don't, then sure, alright. But if you're like that, why would you need something like NaNo?

Honestly, I think NaNo's more for people like me, who need a little help/incentive in order to build up the discipline required to write every day. It's an exercise in the form of a challenge, and I think anybody that's truly committed to the craft grows from it (though, yes, it can only take them so far).

Chillmatic
Jul 25, 2003

always seeking to survive and flourish
If you're stuck as to what to do next, what helps me is to always take a small break and take a bird's eye look at the story itself. Where is it broken? Where does it get stuck? What do I really want to say with this story?



quote:

Granted, I've gotten half of the story I want to tell by living and observing, and while I'm happy to admit that it's more than a little derivative, I love it.

Everything's derivative of everything else, ever. Who cares. If you love it, and I mean really and truly love it, then sally forth, my friend. I believe you can only truly love a story that you know will kick other people in the balls. People you haven't even met yet who don't give a poo poo about hurting your feelings. So if that's how you feel about your story, let nothing get in the way of finishing it- and completely throw out everything else that you don't love.

quote:

Honestly, I think NaNo's more for people like me, who need a little help/incentive in order to build up the discipline required to write every day. It's an exercise in the form of a challenge, and I think anybody that's truly committed to the craft grows from it (though, yes, it can only take them so far).

You may be right, but I'd still suggest that nobody just go off on a tear of writing 50,000 garbled words to meet an arbitrary deadline. Outline first. Plot. Envision your characters and what you want them to do and say. Place them in a physical time and space as they progress through your story. Once you've done that, then go on and hammer out your 50,000 words. Just don't do it blindly.

For what it's worth, I'll say that I agree with the mantra of "nothing you ever write is wasted," but I'd add the caveat that "in a trash bin, you may find both old pizza and old banana peels. Both are edible, but one will do down a lot easier than the other."

What I mean is, while it's easy to just blindly repeat to WRITE WRITE AND WRITE SOME MORE, you'll get even more out of the process if some thought goes into it ahead of time.

Chillmatic fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Oct 1, 2012

Overwined
Sep 22, 2008

Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.

Sitting Here posted:

Gotta keep those pipes lubed up.

:mmmhmm:

I'll probably give the piece I wrote the once-over and maybe post it here for critiques. It definitely needs work, but it's one of the better things I've written in a while. I started off with just a conversation fragment in my head. I literally sat down today and said to myself, "yeah but how does it go from there?" Then I gave up on it and went to something else. Then I gave up on that and came back. I wrote the fragment in my head and the rest just came.

screenwritersblues
Sep 13, 2010
Is someone going to create a NaNoWriMo thread for this year?

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Bad Seafood
Dec 10, 2010


If you must blink, do it now.

screenwritersblues posted:

Is someone going to create a NaNoWriMo thread for this year?
I wouldn't mind typing one up. My Wednesday's clear (Gaecheonjeol), so I should have the time in between packing up my apartment.

  • Locked thread