General Writing

[Maxine MagicFox]

Jubelon, sounds like you just need to start a bunch of random writing exercises for yourself.

Just open up a document and begin typing away. It is nothing something that you will ever plan on releasing to anyone. You don't even have to save it. Just ... write. See what comes out. Doesn't have to be on computer. Try doing it on paper.

Sounds like you just need to find that way to make the story flow for yourself. At the risk of repeating what has already been told to you: you really do need to learn to write for yourself. Forget that you are going to show it to anyone. You can't think like that.

Yes, you should write the intent on one day publishing your story. That's the main goal of most writers. But you know what: it won't work if you first don't let yourself do the writing. Publishing and letting others view your work is secondary - third place even. An exotic sixth perhaps. Sit down and just write to PLEASE YOURSELF.

Writing for me is such a ... release. I feel exhausted at the end of writing even. Mentally and sometimes physically drained, but always refreshed. I feel BETTER after I've sat down to write. It's almost excruciating for me to go for a period of time without writing.

This should be the same for you.

SET UP A WRITING EXERCISE FOR YOURSELF!

Here, I'll make it easy and do one for you.

Take your current characters in your story and write a short story with them. Plot idea: they are going out to eat at their favorite eating place but one is having an argument with the other. DO NOT MAKE IT CANON!! Let's say... they are going out to McD's. (Dunno your world or setting but if it's a fantasy, that makes it even better if McD's shouldn't exist.)

*shrugs* Just have fun writing to be writing. Doesn't have to make sense. Just let yourself go and have fun with the piece. AND DON'T YOU EVEN DARE THINK OF SHARING IT WITH US OR ANYONE ELSE. Hell, delete it afterwards if you want. Don't even save it.

Anything you can do to break away from the "perfectionism effect" you've found yourself in. No one's going to read it: why be perfect with it?

Come on :3 I've done in . Just go with it and have fun.

Hell if you want, take the character that's pissing you off most and kill him off. Maybe let him meet his worst nightmare?

^_^ I once had a character in one story that was horrified of anything dead. So, I made him get lost in some catacombs cause he was pissing me off~ He never made it out alive~

[Trifkin]

[Kinokokao]

Well.

I'm stuck.

Or, rather, I'm absolutely frozen with indecision, and second-guessing everything I have written.

And it's all my characters' fault. I've been rambling for a while now about how utterly out of control they've been, and it's true. They've turned the story completely on its head. It's also my fault for not tightening this up before I put pen to paper, but that's okay. They're easier to blame.

Basically I've caught myself unable to go forward because I'm no longer sure where forward is. The trouble's been brewing for a while, and I've been trying to work around it and talk myself out of it, but, nope. I'm firmly stuck.

And it's a silly thing to be stuck over, but whatever.

But I'm determined to overcome this. I don't care if I have to start over completely from scratch. I have a feeling this story is going to end up radically different. I'm going to put my mind to this trouble and push through!

On the subject of writing,

the Literary festival was this week at the university. I went to hear Billy Collins read on Thursday, and got to meet Scot Heim. He's ridiculously nice! He's going to send Mr Kino and me a signed copy of his next book. I can't wait! I feel like I have to watch Mysterious Skin now, since he wrote the novel and adapted the screenplay; I've actually had it on my Netflix queue for a while since Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in it, and I kind of love him after watching Inception. He even came to the karaoke bar with us after dinner on Thursday, but didn't sing anything. We did discuss a few gay movies together; I assured him that Priscilla is superior over To Wong Foo, that Straight Jacket was so cliche it made me wince, and that yes, I've seen La Cage Aux Folles, but not the sequel.

Last night Joy Williams read, and afterward the whole MFA department ended up at Blake Bailey's house for the annual "End of the Lit Fest" party. I got to meet a few other of the visiting authors. There are some perks to being married into the MFA program; I get to rub elbows with famous authors like this.

[Skele Von Mann]

okay maxine you inspired me to write something crappy from that example of a exercise

i just typed what came to mind so ive got tense messed up diverged from what was the plot didnt characterize enough and awkwardness everywhere but oh well

[Maxine MagicFox]

[beekee]

[Maxine MagicFox]

[beekee]

[Kinokokao]

Jubelon, you are a fucking lifesaver

Thanks to her, I'm unstuck.

I do need to completely rewrite everything -- the story has once again been completely uprooted and spun around, but I'm pleased with the result and confident the new trajectory is better than what I had before.

And, yes, it was the stupid relationship. -__-;

[Drathi]

English paper... Completed paper due tomorrow for peer review...

Only 3/7 of the way through the story... Time for an epic all nighter...

[beekee]

[Drathi]

It's divided into 7 portions as it follows a character through a week. xD I managed to get up to 5/7 done for my peer review. The teacher said that my progress was fine as my paper is currently almost 40 pages with his formatting. xD

[Maxine MagicFox]

I dunno if it helps any Jubelon, but, you could also think of the writing process and how it's divided?

Rough Draft (< You are here. You're writing your story, getting it all written out. There could be HUNDREDS of rough drafts that you write out. I know for TLQ I've had to started from chapter 1 at least about a thousand times.)

Final Version Draft 1 (< I am here. It's pretty much another rough draft which is just fixing the above. I know I have edits to make and plot holes to fill in. SOME sections are copy and pasted, but it's still basically another rough draft. At least I'm not wondering "so... what's happening next?" Keep in mind that there might be chapters that you still haven't even completed in a rough draft form. By the time I reached my later chapters I felt that I could not do them proper justice since I needed the first section's plotholes filled.)

Final Version Draft 2 (Going back through with a fine tooth comb over the above. Rewriting sections as needed. This is really probably the first official 'edit only'. The writing should be done. The manuscript is complete. You are just tightening up the words.)

Final Version Draft 3 (This could very well possibly be the last one. Though an author never views his work as "good enough". This is the final rewrite, really going through and tightening up the text.)

^_^ This is about the same process I've picked up that most writers take before sending a text into publishing. Maybe looking at you writing from this angle and seeing that the rough draft does not have to be perfect could ease your tension?

You're on a long, hard road Jubelon that you're pretty much just getting started. You're only on your first rough draft? Hehe, yeah, you shouldn't be too worried about if it's presentable or not. It's why I hate for people to try to read my stuff. It's NOT presentable. I'm still figuring out where the story is going. I've not had time to make sure my sentences are even grammatically correct let alone entertaining.

I remember in my first few drafts of TLQ I didn't even know what voice I was going to use. Then I handed the first copy of my final version to my sister to read. She handed it back to me and told me it was boring. I needed more emphasis on character thought. So, I rewrote it and I got a "MUCH BETTER! HEY THIS IS PRETTY GOOD!" ^_^ Yay! So, at least my voice is now in place. It only took this long for me to find that. *shrugs*

[Kinokokao]

My husband has a story due Monday. So guess what I'll be doing this weekend?

A lot of this:

Him: Kino, do you spell specialize?
Me: s-p-e-c-i-a-l-i-z-e

Him: Kino, what's that thing called at the end of a shoelace?
Me: Eyelet?

Him: Kino! How do you spell "incorrigible?"
Me: i-n-c-o-r-r-... i-g-i-b-l-e I think.

Him: Kino, I want to describe him as a Greek statue, but youthful and lithe. The sentence is , "like a Greek ___"
Me: Adonis?
Him: No, young, not muscular...
Me: Ganymede? He was the cup-bearer for Zeus and --
Him: No, not a specific person...
Me: Uhhhhh
Him: Runner? Greek runner? Are runners thin?
Me: er, what?
Him: I'll use that.

guys my husband thinks I'm google

[Drathi]

That just shows how smart he thinks you are.