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I have so many problems in regards to writing. First one is I'm not writing in my native language because, for some reason, whenever I write in it it just feels clumsy and doesn't sound right. Probably because most of the books I've read have been in English (Because it's always better to read in the original language when possible) Second one is I can not get the balance right between world building and stuff actually happening, or at least I feel I can not get it right. Third problem is pacing. I'm trying to write a book I thought at first was going to be maybe 200 pages but I'm at page 18 and I'm not even close to the point in the story I want to be. I guess the finished story will be closer to 700 pages if I can finish it. I still haven't finished the first draft (as I said I'm only on page 18 because depression happened because I worked 2 months and got no pay and then got fired and still haven't gotten paid and I have no loving money or job etc) and I'm worried like gently caress about the tone since I think it changes all the time based on what I've been reading, what TV shows I've been watching etc. This writing poo poo is hard. But right now it might be the only thing keeping me from going insane, at least until I can get a job. Anyway, how many writers know how long any given book will be when they set out to write it? When I started writing I had a pretty clear beginning and end, but the ideas for the middle parts are getting bigger and bigger. I fear at some point there might be some bloat there, and at that point the book that was supposed to be 200-300 pages might become 700 pages. And how do you deal with the tone-shift problem, assuming I'm not the only one experiencing it? I want the book to be serious but not devoid of humor, but at the same time there shouldn't be too much comedy. The worrying thing is I'm subconsciously copying or mimicking whatever I've read or watched lately and though I try to watch myself so I don't outright steal stuff things might be slipping through the cracks that I don't notice.
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Dec 27, 2013 04:34
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 18:13 |
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Okay, here's a small sample of some exposition. "“drat....” They kept walking through the deserted streets. Nikodemus hadn’t noticed the charred bodies that seemed to be everywhere, faces frozen in mid-scream. There were burned out car wrecks and the sidewalks were filled with debris. “Okay Daniel, since you know what’s going on here, what the hell is the plan?” “Plan? Right now our only priority is to get out of here.” “Out of here, and then where?” “I was thinking the old arms factory.” The old arms factory had been built during the war, when Russia invaded Europe again. After heavy fighting most cities east of Helsinki had been evacuated, and many of the refugees had moved to Norway to the war refugee camp that became known as Uusi Porvoo. Norway decided to build a new arms factory there to keep up with the high demand of weapons, and once the war had ended the factory was shut down, but the city that had been built around it for the workers remained, even if most of the workers had since moved away. Now the factory building still stood there, empty. It was a big place surrounded by open fields, the nearest buildings being 300 meters away and the nearest forest 500. “Okay, that sounds like a good idea, but we-” Nikodemus was interrupted mid-sentence by Daniel who covered Nikodemus’ mouth with his hand and pushed him against the wall. He made the “shush” sign. Nikodemus heard what Daniel was hearing, the sounds of beating wings, bigger wings than any of the angels so far had shown. Daniel removed his hand and crept along the wall to the next corner, Nikodemus followed. " I try to keep "unnatural" (I guess you might call it the narrated) exposition to a minimum (like one paragraph, two at the most), but then there's like a page and a half of conversation between two people that are also exposition (There's some other stuff going on as well though) and on the one hand I'm worried that might be too much but on the other hand it's kind of important stuff I feel. Otherwise it's 16 pages of pure action, if you take away the one and a half page of exposition. Also I really need to find someone who would read this for me, unfortunately I don't know a whole lot of people irl that like to read this kind of stuff. Then again I also want to have a little more before I do that. Also also just reading through the little I have so far I am already finding so many things that need fixing but if I start getting hung up on that now I will never continue actually writing. So whatever, I'll fix it in post. EDIT: This also reminds me of yet another problem I have that I understand is pretty common: Whenever I re-read what I've written I think it's poo poo, or feels fake. I guess this is another one of these things you just have to power through though and keep working at. organburner fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Dec 27, 2013 |
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Dec 27, 2013 22:32
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crabrock posted:The problem here with your exposition is that it's pretty boring and pointless. You're not directing a movie, you're telling me a story. Don't tell me the layout of the buildings unless it's really important. Give me the RELEVANT details. Are there windows that need to be boarded? Good look out towers? Always be asking yourself: "Why does the reader care?" If your answer is "to set the mood." then BZZZZT, try again. Backstory should be only so I can understand stuff about the characters. Thanks man, this is a big help. I honestly have no idea why I write like that, I guess once I start writing I have a really hard time spotting all this stuff. Also now that you mention it most of my my characters so far do cuss a lot  Then again they are policemen in the story and in my experience they do tend to cuss a lot regardless of what the situation calls for  I'll keep this in mind going forward and when doing the revisions. I keep noticing a lot of writing like this as it is but if I start fixing it now I think it'll bog me down and I might stop writing.
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Dec 28, 2013 00:10
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Blade_of_tyshalle posted:The charred bodies, which were localised to a 20'x15' irregular area on the north side of the street approximately five yards from Nikodemus... Hey now! I would never use yards to get exact measurements 
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Dec 28, 2013 09:07
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But if I write the story like a play-by-play of a DnD campaign it will be so much easier to follow!
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Dec 28, 2013 11:43
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As much as it shames me I have to admit, I do not face criticism well. When I posted a little excerpt here for critique it left me in a weird state and I just could not write at all and I think that was a couple of months ago now. I finally started writing again though! So that's something! I mean, it's still poo poo, but I'm hoping it will be a turd I can polish later. Hopefully I won't shut down for a couple of months the next time I receive some well deserved critique.
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Mar 18, 2014 22:13
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So I was writing a gay character, when I realized I don't actually know any gay guys (or girls) And then I went like poo poo, how the hell do I write a gay guy when I don't even know one. And for a night I was really worried about this until my moment of stupidity passed and I realized they're just like everyone else in end except they happen to like guys, so crisis averted I guess. Right now the problem I have is that my whole world feels stupid, the plot feels stupid, the characters are doing dumb things in a sort of post apocalyptic scenario. I also think I might have front loaded the first chapter with too much action and writing combat scenes is very much the worst thing ever. And then there's the character who just shows up to explain what's going on who will be central to the plot in the later parts and I'm having real trouble with him, he has clear motivations but I can't rationalize his methods which involve keeping dumb secrets (like the two main characters have both met him but not at the same time and they're both keeping him a secret from each other) The whole thing is going to get way more convoluted towards the middle as well when there's some double crossing going on. I kind of feel like just scrapping the whole thing and trying again, but I'm 12k words in it at this point and don't want to just let it fizzle out like all my other projects. 12k probably isn't much but it's the furthest I've gotten in my projects so far. Knowing that this problem isn't unique to me helps though, especially if even Gaiman has the same problems, though I don't exactly expect my writings to measure up to his. One thing I have discovered though, writing when slightly drunk takes away all my worries about whether something is silly or not, I just write which is good but I don't think I want to walk down that road. Sorry about rambling nonsense in here again, you guys really are a big help and I feel like I should follow and try to contribute to this thread more often. Was there any advice on how long a first novel should be by the way? I think I remember a good length being about 100k, but I'm not sure anymore.
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May 19, 2014 08:24
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I know what you mean, I'm reading the road right now and it kind of inspired one small section of my project. Well, maybe not inspired but definitely helped me get the tone a bit better. Now if I could just keep writing at 1k words per day my book would be finished in only three months!
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May 25, 2014 00:12
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I am now getting to the point where I can write 1000 words an hour. Which is great. Now if I write an hour per day my book will be ready in approximately 83 days And then start editing and re-editing. Yaaay!
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May 29, 2014 21:19
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Whalley posted:Not that I want more competition (not that I think I'm good enough yet to be considered) but Tor.com announced that they're accepting unsolicited, unagented submissions until the end of August. They're looking for complete, unpublished adult novellas/short novels above 17,500 words, with no upper limit. They explicitly want short pieces, so probably don't submit something above 50k. This made me dig after an old project that I had only written about a page of. Oh well, guess I've got an excuse to expand upon it now and take a break from my novel.
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Jun 9, 2014 21:14
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So I'm writing a short story about different gods. Somewhere along the lines I decided to avoid using gendered pronouns to keep anything gender related ambiguous, since it doesn't really have any bearing on the story anyway. This isn't working out so great, so far it's all clumsy as gently caress and I just realized they refer to the other gods as brothers anyway so gently caress it. Guess I'll have something fun to edit in post!
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Jun 11, 2014 21:06
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gently caress I just realized the story I'm writing for that TOR.com thing isn't going to be near 17500 words. I'm like a two thirds through and it's only 7k. This makes me sad 
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Jun 26, 2014 22:06
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Goddamn! I just finished my first draft of the thing I wanted to send to TOR for their thing. Except it's like 7k words short at the moment. I don't think I'll be able to edit in 7k words into it. gently caress. Was there a good list of places to publish short stories by the way? I think I remember seeing one but I couldn't find one in the OP. I might try to get this one published once I've given it a one-two-thrice over.
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Jul 9, 2014 07:29
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I'm in a funk, been in one for a week now. I wrote my first draft of a short story, and I'm trying to get a second draft going but I have a weird problem. When I write I can't quite comprehend what I'm writing. poo poo, writing this post right now is hard as gently caress for some reason and I don't understand what is happening. I can read and understand other things, I can read and understand what I've written before but whatever I'm in the process of writing just becomes a confused mess. So I haven't made any progress in a week. And I'm frustrated as all hell. Has anyone else had similar problems? Is this just a "take some time off" kind of thing? I'm not under any pressure to get this thing done either so I don't understand at all.
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Jul 12, 2014 19:43
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 18:13 |
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Huh, I've just always written with past tense. For some reason present tense hasn't even occurred to me. I can't even recall a single book or story I've read written in present tense but I'm sure there are some.
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Jul 18, 2014 20:07
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