foxsable

I have fixed at least some of  my point of view problems.  I started the story in first person unreliable, then I came back to third person semi-omnitient, and now I am back to third person.  It’s working though.  I also stopped giving away so much at the beginning, and stopped taking shortcuts.  Sure it’s convenient to have names for things, but that will come in time.  I also digressed from mystical knowledge of things to using nicknames for things, which stick.  It’s all working out.  Tonight, more editing

I have submitted my prelude and first chapter to some fellow writers, and boy is that depressing.  I have serious Point of View problems I don’t know how to fix, an omniscience/non-omniscience problem, boring story details taking up too much space.  It’s really disheartening.  Perhaps I should have waited until the whole thing was written before submitting anything.  Now I just want to revise but I do not even know where to start.  I used progressively better solutions to a problem which have just in turn created their own problems.  I don’t know what to do now.

Once again, no progress, too many other story ideas crossing my head.  How does anyone keep focused on one thing.  I guess that is what makes a good writer, the dedication to finish a project.  I just feel like if I worked on one hundred projects at once I would be more effective. Then again, I would not get any one of those projects finished.  It is perhaps harder than anyone could realize to finish a book.  Harder still a short story or good poem (not the “I just wrote this down” stuff, but finished works).   I do not know why it is so difficult, perhaps because I know the ending already.  But that can’t be it.   It is more like I DON’T know the stuff in between, and that is what gets me.  Dedication!  Tomorrow, nose to the grindstone!

It works!  I was stuck on a kind of boring scene where the party receives their quest and is thrown together to go out adventuring.  I wrote the initial part, but trying to start it was killing me.  The book so far is a flashback, so at the beginning of each chapter I have a page or so of the characters talking, though the rest of the chapter is written from one particular characters point of view.  It is pretty easy to write the prelude part, but when it comes to the meat of the writing in this chapter it is hard.  So that i would actually write tonight instead of wasting another night finding excuses to put it off, I skipped to the next chapter, skipped the precursor and wrote of the leaving of the journey and the combat that ensued just afterwords.  It’s an awesome combat, and I’ve written almost nine pages of it that flowed smoothly from my brain into the laptop.  Now that I have gotten this out of my system, i think I’ll be ready to go back and do the chapter I skipped during my next session.

I have read about writers doing this, but I sort of doubted it would work.  for one thing anything you change in the chapters you skipped would have to be edited for continuity in your new chapter.  I think I’m comfortable with that on behalf of progress.

I’m in pretty rough shape today. Last night was a 5 hour wedding reception, the preparations before and the clean up after. I got plenty of sleep, but I still feel rough. The Mountain Dew has not yet kicked in. It’s going to be hard to write before I get my head together today.

I also have so many other ideas bouncing around, it is hard to focus on my book. I know that if I start another project, I’m doomed with this one (at least temporarily), so I’m just jotting down some notes to finish later. It’s like the writer’s abandoned children sometimes, as when you look at your notes the second time, they are not the same. I do hope to get SOMETHING done today, even if it is just some editing. I am trying to make at least a little progress every day. I usually don’t achieve that goal on Saturdays.

The hardest part right now is getting my characters on track. I have to reveal the cause for their adventure right now, but there are still (mentally) some holes in the task, and I need to try to fill those while writing the scene. hopefully they will become obvious as I actually write them down and question them about it. Perhaps bouncing it off some friends will help me with plausibility problems as well.

I have written beyond the scope of the first edition!  Finally I have made improvements after 2 weeks of redoing.  Not only have I gotten farther, but I have done so in what I think is a pretty good way.  Now remains to continue writing.  I’m excited, and I don’t think it will be too bad.   I do feel like I need the change of location that my laptop now allows me.  Perhaps I’ll check out a coffee shop or two.  I haven’t written “out” yet, maybe today is the day?  I’m worried my wife will wonder where I am however.  If I am at home, at least it’s like we’re doing things together, even if I’m writing and she’s doing something else.  It is probably worth it though, and if it’s not I’ll just come home.

Well, I’m stuck again.  I don’t really want to go any further.  I do want to go further, but I am scared to go further.  There is a problem I need to fix, and also it is uncharted territory.  I am pretty sure there are gaps in my plot, and things that need to happen.  I’m unsure of my format as well, which makes it difficult to even make headway.  There is another writers group meeting next sunday (hopefully and finally) where I will learn what a large group thinks about my story.  Finally I’ll get an impartial jury verdict whether my new format is worth pursuing, whether it adds to the story or takes away from it.

I have changed my female lead’s name to Elissa.  It was not a leftover hangup about the Ayla thing where i thought of the name and then read clan of the Cave Bear and met another Ayla, it was more my love of the name Elissa.  I got it from a customer of mine, and though I’ve never met her, I know her name well:   Elissa Locke.  It is quite possibly the coolest name I have encountered.  Everytime I see it, I smile a little inside. I get a lot of my names from work.  There Berezin people are named after someone from work, a character of mine from an old role playing game, Kassamir was named after a customer.  Cities, towns, whatever.  I kind of wonder how I am going to find names I am in love with when I get another job.  Working at any job where you have a customer base is great for writers.

I often see people that I want to make into characters, but unless I have something currently planned for them, I tend to forget what they look like by the time I do need them.  I wish I could take pictures of them, but how awkward is that?  I keep trying to think of a way for people to let me take their pictures and not think I’m some crazy weirdo, but I haven’t come up with one yet.  I’m going to keep thinking though, or perhaps one day I’ll just grow the balls and do it.  I have a picture of a girl online that Elissa’s appearance is based on and I love it.  I hope I do that woman justice to her look.

Am I the only author who sometimes feels afraid to write further into my stories.  It is like I am stuck in a place where I almost don’t want to continue because then the words and the stories and the characters become real.  In my head everything is so magical and wonderful and perfect, but if I put it down on paper it possesses the opportunity to suck. My job, as a writer, is to transmit my ideas onto paper, to flesh out something enjoyable, and more importantly enlightening for others.  I HAVE to take my thoughts and portray them as words.  But like anything that you do, there is a chance for failure.  This chance however makes me want to spend more time editing than I do writing.  The story is going well, I have gotten further than before in a better manner, but I’m so afraid sometimes it is paralyzing.  I would rather leave it in my head than finish sometimes.  I can always go back and change it later if I want, but I am still afraid that simply writing it down will make it real. How can I combat this, am I the only one?

On a side note, I would love to just have someone read my writing and say “oh my god this is so amazing, I can’t believe this came out of you!”.  I don’t believe anyone has ever done that.  I’ve heard, this is pretty good, or this is interestesting, or I want to read further, but I’ve never really heard “wow dude, you gotz mad skillz yo!” or even “Amazing, you sir were born for this”. Just stating this makes me realize that when i read the words of others, I should give praise when praise is due, rather than assuming that they just know

When does anyone find time to write!  You can’t just sit down and write two sentences then do something else. You also can not just pick up and write at any time, like when your head is whirling with responsibilities and you are rushed, nervous or worried.  If I don’t have some time to devote, it’s useless.  I also need some momentary distractions to keep me going, like walking across the room to check email for a few minutes.  But with trying to lose weight (gym, diet, etc), having time with the wife and friends, work (since I don’t get paid to write yet), family, it just seems like there is never time!