• Café Life is the Colony's main hangout, watering hole and meeting point.

    This is a place where you'll meet and make writing friends, and indulge in stratospherically-elevated wit or barometrically low humour.

    Some Colonists pop in religiously every day before or after work. Others we see here less regularly, but all are equally welcome. Two important grounds rules…

    • Don't give offence
    • Don't take offence

    We now allow political discussion, but strongly suggest it takes place in the Steam Room, which is a private sub-forum within Café Life. It’s only accessible to Full Members.

    You can dismiss this notice by clicking the "x" box

Fun or Profit?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Carol Rose said:
Going to just put this out there as a suggestion … why does the writing have to be brilliant or perfect or stellar, or whatever you're ultimate goal is, right away? Just write it. Get the story down. Write scenes of dialogue if that's all you can do that day. Write the scenes out of order. Just free flow and get something down on paper/into a document. You can always go back and edit it later, mix the scenes around, move everything, etc.
Click to expand...

Oh, I know! For years I couldn't write anything at all because I felt it had to emerge perfect, and I'd edit as I went. I FINALLY got past that. I understand now that it's supposed to be crap on the first draft, and I write anyway, but I still feel that block of "This sucks."

I read recently that you should sit down at your computer or whatever you write with and say to yourself, "Today I am going to write a piece of crap."

Another reason I am tricking myself by writing longhand is because there's no temptation to go back and edit--because there's no room to! With a computer, I can easily distract myself by backing up and "fixing" parts of the the story. Writing longhand, I just have to leave it.
 
Meerkat said:
Oh, I know! For years I couldn't write anything at all because I felt it had to emerge perfect, and I'd edit as I went. I FINALLY got past that. I understand now that it's supposed to be crap on the first draft, and I write anyway, but I still feel that block of "This sucks."

I read recently that you should sit down at your computer or whatever you write with and say to yourself, "Today I am going to write a piece of crap."

Another reason I am tricking myself by writing longhand is because there's no temptation to go back and edit--because there's no room to! With a computer, I can easily distract myself by backing up and "fixing" parts of the the story. Writing longhand, I just have to leave it.
Click to expand...
Nodding all the way through this. :)
 
My favourite place to write is when I'm on a long flight. I write longhand in a notebook and then transcribe when I land and have access to my computer. Longhand is the way to go just as @Meerkat mentioned because you can't go back and edit. I outlined and wrote the first 5,000 words of my latest book while flying across the Atlantic. Strange but true...
 
Island Writer said:
My favourite place to write is when I'm on a long flight. I write longhand in a notebook and then transcribe when I land and have access to my computer. Longhand is the way to go just as @Meerkat mentioned because you can't go back and edit. I outlined and wrote the first 5,000 words of my latest book while flying across the Atlantic. Strange but true...
Click to expand...
More power to you guys that write it out. I tried that a few times back in high school, but I could never stick with a story when I did that. My hand would cramp and I'd be stuck with a story banging to get out but an inability to get it out.
 
Nicole Wilson said:
More power to you guys that write it out. I tried that a few times back in high school, but I could never stick with a story when I did that. My hand would cramp and I'd be stuck with a story banging to get out but an inability to get it out.
Click to expand...
I found the same as you @Nicole Wilson I have some big respect for folks that can just write and write and write (longhand)
 
Island Writer said:
My favourite place to write is when I'm on a long flight. I write longhand in a notebook and then transcribe when I land and have access to my computer. Longhand is the way to go just as @Meerkat mentioned because you can't go back and edit. I outlined and wrote the first 5,000 words of my latest book while flying across the Atlantic. Strange but true...
Click to expand...
I admire you being able to write on a plane. I've tried and just can't do it. Too cramped in that seat. :)
 
I do a lot of 'writing' in the car (many hospital trips) only I don't write it down. It all just get's logged and stored in my head for later. Think I'd get travel sick if I tried to write. Not to mention a crick in the neck.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Café Life Tag Cloud

agent author authors blog book books cafe calls for submissions christmas competition conferences contest contests creative writing creativity editing fantasy fear fiction genre greetings huddle inspiration life literature litopia motivation new new member novel novels philosophy poetry publishing reading review romance science fiction self-publishing shakespeare short story stories story submissions time words writer writers writing writing contests

Similar threads

Pamela Jo
Craft Chat London 24 Hour writing Sprint Looks like Fun
Replies
0
Views
70
Pamela Jo
Pamela Jo
Back
Top