Author Topic: Accountability, author's timecard, word count written, feeling lonely out there?  (Read 51253 times)

Offline Enjorous

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My first few projects I didn't have that problem. I didn't have any problem really until I was over 80% done.

Now those blocks seem to be happening earlier and earlier. Ah well, there's always the second draft.
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Offline meg_evonne

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Okay, so the really nasty and very much hated 10,000 word slump has hit me yet again. I don't know what it is but the first 10k come fairly quickly and then I suppose the newness of the project wears off and I'm nowhere near a climax or resolution. I feel between now and then is like the biggest uphill battle.
Profit is right.  Hang in there, but listen to whatever is speaking to you.  Remember the first draft is just the first of many, many, and yet many more.  You really have to love this thing like a spouse.  Okay, bad analogy, but you probably get my drift.  That's why I will never put time into a project unless I've got a killer premise, a killer outline, a killer cast of characters first.  I used to and I have plenty of projects that died on the vine.  I've plenty that I crammed through to the end on the first draft, but know that I'll never touch it again.

Or, maybe you just need to do what Jim does...take the whip to your characters.  The pleasure of torturing them might help get over the hump?
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Offline Enjorous

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Yeah I'd love to torture them, but sadly it isn't time yet :(

And I can't outline, when I do I'm glued to it, and can't break it.
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Nah, women are just batshit crazy ALL the time!  :D
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Offline prophet224

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That's a tough spot to be in - hamstrung by an outline and stuck for motivation/fire.

If it helps, I outline on the fly. As I write those scenes that are in my head, if I think at all about order or get ideas for how to lay things out, I enter them into a basic outline. It isn't my limit, but my guide. I use that outline to know what to write about next. It is sort of just notes on the scenes I want to work on, and it becomes a very basic outline. Helps me to not get stuck. :D
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Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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was away last weekend, have had lousy sleep for a while, so nothing but note-shuffling done this past fortnight. Shall be trying to get something written again today.
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Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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Cut a bit of chapter 1 of vol 2, which still largely does not work; cut about 700 words from chapter 2 which does want to be in but not there, and wrote about 2000 words new, which I think pretty much ties up chapter 2 for the moment, though some I thought was there has now been moved to chapter 3.  This thing is less settled than I had thought.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline meg_evonne

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What one agent last spring described, but I couldn't understand or find his technical term online, was clarified bright as day by 2nd agent this past weekend.  :-) and another :-)  Best yet, it's really an easy editing fix--a technique problem.  So far I'm pushing through the new edits with speed that amazes me.

In case you're wondering.  In the past, I've put on tags of narrative clarification at the end of paragraphs unconsciously.  Things that I've already put into the action/behavior etc.  I trained myself out of those.  Yes, you can hear the pat on my back...

BUT this agent's line by line edit showed me that I was also doing it within the blasted paragraphs. A physical showing of what the first agent was trying to tell me. Bottom line?  Trust my writing and cut the followup or over done parts.  

Problem? I fear this is so ingrained that with every manuscript I work on in the future it will still need a special edit read to yank those g** d*** suckers out of there.  

Now, I'm watching word count drop, but I'm also leaving room for new action, new tells that are different and more fun to read and to write.

Good writing all!
« Last Edit: October 18, 2010, 11:09:33 PM by meg_evonne »
"Calypso was offerin' Odysseus immortality, darlin'. Penelope offered him endurin' love. I myself just wanted some company." John Henry (Doc) Holliday from "Doc" by Mary Dorla Russell
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Offline adgramaine

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My writing has unique self-imposed constraints; being a game designer, I do hen-picking throughout the week, usually 5-7000 words. Weekends are the bread and butter - we have our play test sessions on Saturday, and Sunday I take all the notes and make changes or additions as needed. The learning curve is what ends up hurting me more than anything. Whenever we switch gears and test a different game (I think we've got four separate games we're building right now), it always takes the testers a spell to switch gears, filtering through the rules they knew prior and adjusting on the fly to whatever's new. Having one universal rules set helps, but not as much as I thought it would....
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Offline Starbeam

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Uhm....  I think I've finished my rough draft.
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Offline Kali

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Uhm....  I think I've finished my rough draft.

Woo hoo!  Grats!!
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Offline Enjorous

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Uhm....  I think I've finished my rough draft.

Three cheers for Star!

Hip hip Huzzah!

Hip hip Huzzah!

Hip hip Huzzah!
« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 05:30:41 PM by Dr. Horrible of Midworld »
Kentucky Fried Shuriken - Finger Lickin' Death.
Quote from: horsehearted
Nah, women are just batshit crazy ALL the time!  :D
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Offline Starbeam

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Three cheers for Berry!

Hip hip Huzzah!

Hip hip Huzzah!

Hip hip Huzzah!

Uhm...Berry?
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." Ray Bradbury

Offline Enjorous

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Huh...I got no excuses.

Editing now.
Kentucky Fried Shuriken - Finger Lickin' Death.
Quote from: horsehearted
Nah, women are just batshit crazy ALL the time!  :D
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Offline Starbeam

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 :D  No worries.
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." Ray Bradbury

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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5000 words today (oh boy...)

And not an acid-spitting squid-headed deadspawn were-shark war troll in sight, which as my head has been full of the things, is pleasing.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.