Quote:
Originally Posted by BookCat
[...]gmw: asking myself similar questions about the characters and the plot is how the entire story forms within such a short time. I suppose I take a more direct route to my destination. Jotting it down is no problem, neither is developing events to further the plot or details which help me to know the characters. The problem is having the energy to run the marathon which is novel writing.
I'm determined to finish this one.
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I do a lot more than jot down. I have two thirds of a prelude novel (something over 100,000 words) relating to my published series, and probably another 60,000 words in short stories and other snippets. By writing actual scenes with my characters, outside/before the novel itself, I learn more about who they are and how they speak. ... It also explains why I write so slowly
It may be observed that I tend to obsess, so I may not be a good example. I suspect anyone that wants to make a success of their writing (get widely read) needs to learn to work faster than I do. (It would help if I had more time to spend on it.)
One of the reasons why this thread drew my attention is that I currently have three projects on the go in various stages, and one in particular is proving difficult. I've managed to get almost 38000 words of reasonably fast paced story together, but I still haven't really gotten to the story I originally wanted to tell (not even the scene that first inspired the story). My characters seem to have gotten away from me a bit. This was supposed to be a fantasy story, but so far the fantasy is still only showing as rather vague hints and I am concerned that my target audience will have long since given up on it. It may turn out that a lot of what I have written so far may need to be relegated to a private back-story ... we'll see.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BookCat
My inner critic is horrid enough, I can do without other negative remarks at this stage especially considering the purpose of this thread. (Yes, I'm looking at you Cinisajoy.)
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BookCat, one of the things I have learned on this forum is that any posting of actual text will invite comment on the quality of the text, and such comment will sometimes arrive without much regard to the context.
There are two morals:
* If you intend to share your work you need a thick skin. Learn to find useful items in any proffered criticism and to ignore those parts that don't apply.
* Only put up pieces of text that you are willing to have torn apart.
It is simple fact that even the very best work will find harsh critics. It doesn't matter how well you do, some people will not be happy with it.
That is much easier said that done. I paid someone to review an early draft of my first published novel and was effectively told to discard it and try something new. It was only after some weeks that I could get past the shock of their conclusion and realise the reviewer was trying to read their own story into what I had written (they wanted an environmental moral, which was not my intention). Realising that allowed me to finally see the useful things in the review (part of which was to try and ensure other readers did not make the same mistake) ... but I still remember the shock (and never sent them another manuscript).