Announcement

Collapse

Study Room Guidelines

Ok it isn't so quiet in here but our resident librarian will ensure that there is good discussion on literature, prose, poetry, etc. You may also post sermons, notes, and the like as long as it is not copyrighted material and within reason of the post length regulation.

We encourage you to take a lose look at the threads and offer honest and useful input. This forum is a place where we discuss literature of any media, as well as personal creations by some of our own wordsmiths. Debate is encouraged, but we often find ourselves relaxing here.

Forum Rules: here
See more
See less

Writing my novel

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Writing my novel

    I can't believe I'm even making a post about this. Crazy.

    So I've been at this for a couple years now, and it was only recently that I actually had writeable ideas. For a long time I thought what I had was better than it was, and so I ended up writing a lot--a whole lot--of crap. Which wasn't a bad thing; it gave me good practice and helped identify some of the many problems with my process.

    But now I've got an actually good and creative idea, and some honest-to-goodness characters to go with it. So now, finally, I can say that I am actually writing my book. I'm only 10k words or so in, and it largely sucks, but that's ok. The important thing is that it's getting written. Corrections can come later.

    For a while I struggled with how to go about making progress. To be sure, I wanted to write, but I was just finding it very difficult to actually get anything written. If you've ever tried writing yourself you probably know what I mean. So I needed some system of motivation.

    At first I tried a daily word goal: I don't even remember what the word goal was, but that didn't work. Then, after a while of no progress, I tried a more modest weekly word goal. That was better, sort of, but it still didn't work. Then, when I finally got my actual plot figured out, I decided to try something different.

    Now, instead of a word goal, I have a very modest time goal: ten minutes each day. This does several things for me:

    1. First of all, it gets me thinking about the writing every day. Having a daily word goal also did this, but this one works much better because
    2. there are some days that I just can't write. For whatever reason, my creativity is simply dead and if I can write anything at all it's embarrassingly terrible. (All first drafts are bad, but these days are really bad.) So what the ten minutes does is this: if I get some stuff written, great! If not, then I spend ten minutes at least reading previous writing--basically thinking about it. I'll still consider this progress, even though it's a bad day.
    3. Ten minutes each day has me making many small steps of progress, and it is adding up.
    4. Ten minutes is just a minimum; if I'm having a good day, then I'll write for as long as I want. This has produced some genuinely decent writing sessions thus far, along with a whole lot of like 50-400 word days, that add up to a good chunk.
    5. It's only ten minutes. I can do anything for ten minutes.

    So the ten minutes thing sounds overly modest on the surface, but it's actually working well for me. It's a tangible goal that I can meet each day, that is also producing results.

    On a different note, my novel seems to have morphed into much more of a horror than it was. I thought that was interesting.

    I just had some rambling thoughts about writing, and was curious if anyone would comment.
    Last edited by Zymologist; 06-05-2015, 11:48 AM.
    I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

  • #2
    This post itself isn't a novel?
    Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.--Isaiah 1:17

    I don't think that all forms o[f] slavery are inherently immoral.--seer

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by fm93 View Post
      This post itself isn't a novel?
      Is it a trick question?

      I just wanted to post about my process of writing.
      I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Zymologist View Post
        Is it a trick question?
        Light-hearted joke about how long the post was.

        I just wanted to post about my process of writing.
        I enjoyed it. Ten minutes seems like an uncomfortably short time, though. I can never permanently quit when I try setting time limits like that--usually I end up walking out of the room, wandering around the house for a while, then returning to try to wrestle out some ideas and words. Rinse, wash, repeat. But if it works for you, great.
        Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.--Isaiah 1:17

        I don't think that all forms o[f] slavery are inherently immoral.--seer

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by fm93 View Post
          Light-hearted joke about how long the post was.


          I enjoyed it. Ten minutes seems like an uncomfortably short time, though. I can never permanently quit when I try setting time limits like that--usually I end up walking out of the room, wandering around the house for a while, then returning to try to wrestle out some ideas and words. Rinse, wash, repeat. But if it works for you, great.
          It is short, yeah. One of my hopes is that, after I've been doing this for a while, a habit will have been formed and I can extend it without giving myself an excuse to skip days.
          I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

          Comment


          • #6
            You should check out Write On By Kindle. It is a online community for writers to give and receive feedback on their stories. All you need to join is an Amazon.com acco

            :citeWrite On By Kindle: Write On is a place for all the people who make great writing happen. Here, you can get support and provide feedback at every stage of the creative process. You can read fresh stories in every genre and find ones that you love–the kind of stories you want to champion, the ones you know could be amazing if they just got the right input early enough.:cite:
            Last edited by Premo316; 06-05-2015, 01:59 PM. Reason: Added more infor

            Comment

            widgetinstance 221 (Related Threads) skipped due to lack of content & hide_module_if_empty option.
            Working...
            X