View Single Post
Old 04-14-2013, 12:27 AM   #6
gmw
cacoethes scribendi
gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.gmw ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
gmw's Avatar
 
Posts: 5,809
Karma: 137770742
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Australia
Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami View Post
Hm. It's an interesting thought, but of course I *can* not write it if I so decide. Still, it may bother me that I've never tried...
Yes, we could all decide not to. I could, and did, decide not to smoke cigarettes ... a brave resolution that lasted almost five years - I can give you the number of days and hours if you want - but then ... .

I spent years thinking that I wanted to write, and while I wasn't actively writing it was easy to keep saying no. I started a few times, but the ideas faded or ran out of steam. They didn't have what it took to keep me interested, so how could I expect them to interest anyone else? Then an idea came to me and I wrote it out as it was in my head, just a half-dozen pages or so. And for some reason the idea wouldn't let go, and so I kept picking at it ... and I'm still going. I expect (hope) to give up cigarettes again before I expect to give up writing.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami View Post
[...]I've not even started, but I feel as if I'm "padding" the story already, just to make it big enough to fill a (very) small book of, lets say, 200 pages, just so I can use the end I've already thought up. It feels the wrong way around, but maybe it's good to have a goal to work toward. The "lead-up" would be about 80% of the first part/book, so I think it's rather necessary to write :P

It's a bit strange just to sit at the computer and make stuff up, knowing that in the end, it'll be "just" another fantasy story. Or more accurately, it'll consist two or three smaller stories, each in their own book forming a duology or trilogy, just because I want the ending to be the actual end of the book itself. (I hate omnibusses. Yeah, I'm weird.)
I try not to think too much about what others will think of the story while I'm writing it. I leave that for the second draft - that's the point when I try to step back and ask myself questions like: Does it work? The reader can't actually see what's in my head, have I told them enough, or too much? Is this bit really necessary? Is it boring?

But it would worry me to feel that I was adding "padding" while I was writing - and that is what it feels like to me when I try to plan out the story in detail. I write from inside the story, what happens is what happens inside the the story, none of it is deliberate padding. ... But some of it must turn out to have been padding, because big chunks get cut when I come to the second draft.

I judge what I am writing, as I am writing, purely on my own reactions. It has to keep me interested and involved when I go back and read over it (which I do again and again in an iterative process as I'm writing, to try and keep myself inside the story). Anything that fails that test I assume isn't working and I take it out or rewrite it.

Whether or not I ever achieve any external success, at least this process has benefit of creating a story that I like.
gmw is offline   Reply With Quote