All the reasons why not
So here's an interesting sidenote to start with: My work internet blocks absolutely no websites or web apps except LiveJournal. Baffling as this lone exception is, it's also tremendously annoying, since the only time I have to journal and comment-respond is in five-minute gaps between work things, and then I can't respond to LJ comments. I have been going, "Oh, well, I'll get them when I'm at home, then!" but at-home computer time is writing or games (in the midst of a Wesnoth revival pending the release of Neverwinter) and I always forget. I don't want to turn off LJ commenting, because I love hearing from you guys however and whenever, but bear this in mind.
Back to point!
Encountered today: 8 Reasons Authors Don't Complete Their Manuscripts.
More than a few of these hit me where I live - and especially there were a couple to which I nodded sagely: I would not have finished Boralos if I had not overcome them. Others I find myself wrestling with right now.
Let's start with #4 on their list: "The writer constantly rewrites chapters before the first draft is complete." I have, lost in the vaults of my long-held stores and even on floppy disks, approximately nine novels that never got beyond chapter 5, the reason being that at that point, I realised I was taking a different direction from what I thought initially. I then went back and redid chapter 1. OR - and this was a doozy - I read one of those things about writing/publishing that went on about how important your first chapter is, got the shakes, and started reworking the first chapter. (This also ties into #5: "The author sends it out for beta-reviews too early and gets discouraged.")
I didn't get anywhere until I forced myself to stop doing that. Get it all down. Get a complete draft. Make yourself margin notes as you go - I have one that, memorably, says, "Holy shit, she's actually a man." and marks the place where a character goes from being someone's sister to being someone's brother. Change it from here and move forwards. There is NO POINT retconning until you've finished the draft, because guess what? In the middle of chapter 47 you might realise that actually, no, she was a woman all along. OR you might write the character out entirely in the overall editing process, or merge it with another character, or turn it into a robotic butler. Point being: you'll be changing so much shit in the editing process, so solve all your problems at once.
And this is why, while I lovelovelove workshopping my stuff with my writing coven (and would recommend it to writers, because knowing that there are other people engaged in your story as well is a powerful motivator to tell more of it), I always take their (magnificent, useful, accurate) comments and notations, and put them aside until editing time. Oh, I take on board stuff for moving forward, and make those margin notes - "What IS her motivation anyway?" "They should be related." "So he's gay, right?" - and run with them, but I don't edit. Don't break your stride.
That was then, this is now. Now I have the I-can-do-it of having completed (and edited) a novel behind me, you'd think it'd be easier. But I find myself struggling with the "Commitment Issues" section of their list. I mean, #3, "The author gives up on the manuscript and starts another."... I'm currently working on the third project since completing Boralos. I have - oh, here it goes again - about five chapters of each of those projects down. And I'm also having some sitting-down-and-writing issues, which makes me think it's very accurate to bundle those three together under that heading.
But here's the interesting line from the article: Moving on could be a good idea if you’re more likely to finish the next one, but are you? What will be different about this next one? Because here's my counterpoint: having finished Boralos, but not been able to sell it (despite some lovely complimentary rejections from a couple of exciting agents), I want to write something I can sell.
How do you decide that, though? Tough, tough, tough. I'm trying, with the current project - the one I switched to when I got my second lovely rejection and swore my Scarlett-O'Hara vow to write something I could sell - to remedy things I was told by said rejecting agents were the issue with Boralos. Lots of things happening, three big strands of plot and conflict twining together. And adding into that, problems I found when I was writing my Boralos query letter - namely, that I intellectually respected by novel, but I wasn't giddy and excited about it. It made it a bit tricky to sell enthusiastically. And so, in the current project, I'm doing my best to ram in as many things that excite me as possible. (Alchemy. Tame succubi. Badass doyennes of society getting up to mischief. Laconic female cops. Showy bastards duelling with poetry, foils and fashion. Weird political systems. Y'know, STUFF.)
And yet still I find my brain twitching about. I can only assume my brain is spoilt and lazy - and the having of ideas is so much less hard work than the hammering of those ideas into actual narrative. Which I cannot be having with… but my goodness, it’s tough work fighting your own brain uphill.
Originally posted on Dreamwidth
Back to point!
Encountered today: 8 Reasons Authors Don't Complete Their Manuscripts.
More than a few of these hit me where I live - and especially there were a couple to which I nodded sagely: I would not have finished Boralos if I had not overcome them. Others I find myself wrestling with right now.
Let's start with #4 on their list: "The writer constantly rewrites chapters before the first draft is complete." I have, lost in the vaults of my long-held stores and even on floppy disks, approximately nine novels that never got beyond chapter 5, the reason being that at that point, I realised I was taking a different direction from what I thought initially. I then went back and redid chapter 1. OR - and this was a doozy - I read one of those things about writing/publishing that went on about how important your first chapter is, got the shakes, and started reworking the first chapter. (This also ties into #5: "The author sends it out for beta-reviews too early and gets discouraged.")
I didn't get anywhere until I forced myself to stop doing that. Get it all down. Get a complete draft. Make yourself margin notes as you go - I have one that, memorably, says, "Holy shit, she's actually a man." and marks the place where a character goes from being someone's sister to being someone's brother. Change it from here and move forwards. There is NO POINT retconning until you've finished the draft, because guess what? In the middle of chapter 47 you might realise that actually, no, she was a woman all along. OR you might write the character out entirely in the overall editing process, or merge it with another character, or turn it into a robotic butler. Point being: you'll be changing so much shit in the editing process, so solve all your problems at once.
And this is why, while I lovelovelove workshopping my stuff with my writing coven (and would recommend it to writers, because knowing that there are other people engaged in your story as well is a powerful motivator to tell more of it), I always take their (magnificent, useful, accurate) comments and notations, and put them aside until editing time. Oh, I take on board stuff for moving forward, and make those margin notes - "What IS her motivation anyway?" "They should be related." "So he's gay, right?" - and run with them, but I don't edit. Don't break your stride.
That was then, this is now. Now I have the I-can-do-it of having completed (and edited) a novel behind me, you'd think it'd be easier. But I find myself struggling with the "Commitment Issues" section of their list. I mean, #3, "The author gives up on the manuscript and starts another."... I'm currently working on the third project since completing Boralos. I have - oh, here it goes again - about five chapters of each of those projects down. And I'm also having some sitting-down-and-writing issues, which makes me think it's very accurate to bundle those three together under that heading.
But here's the interesting line from the article: Moving on could be a good idea if you’re more likely to finish the next one, but are you? What will be different about this next one? Because here's my counterpoint: having finished Boralos, but not been able to sell it (despite some lovely complimentary rejections from a couple of exciting agents), I want to write something I can sell.
How do you decide that, though? Tough, tough, tough. I'm trying, with the current project - the one I switched to when I got my second lovely rejection and swore my Scarlett-O'Hara vow to write something I could sell - to remedy things I was told by said rejecting agents were the issue with Boralos. Lots of things happening, three big strands of plot and conflict twining together. And adding into that, problems I found when I was writing my Boralos query letter - namely, that I intellectually respected by novel, but I wasn't giddy and excited about it. It made it a bit tricky to sell enthusiastically. And so, in the current project, I'm doing my best to ram in as many things that excite me as possible. (Alchemy. Tame succubi. Badass doyennes of society getting up to mischief. Laconic female cops. Showy bastards duelling with poetry, foils and fashion. Weird political systems. Y'know, STUFF.)
And yet still I find my brain twitching about. I can only assume my brain is spoilt and lazy - and the having of ideas is so much less hard work than the hammering of those ideas into actual narrative. Which I cannot be having with… but my goodness, it’s tough work fighting your own brain uphill.
Originally posted on Dreamwidth