What writing issue...

[James Marinero]

...have you struggled with in the past seven days? Time? Grammar? Commercial? Ending para? Starting para? Plot issue? BLOCK?

For me, it was adding another violent scene to strengthen the ending of 'Sicilian Channel'. It worked out well IMHO, but how was your resolution - or is the issue still lingering?

 

[Marc Joan]

Plot. I have a WIP that has morphed from a short story into a ~25K novelette. The growing pains are substantial, as it requires significant rewriting and de novo plotting. Currently, it's just a mess. It's driving me mad, coz I'm just not getting anywhere, at least not very quickly.

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

General feeling "is it all worth it?" and impossibility of describing someone smirk in the most grafic manner. So nothing new...

 

[Boopadoo]

Finishing. Writing "The End," either literally or in spirit. I'm less than a chapter from completing my main WIP, the one I feel is ready for public consumption.

It's been more than 5 years in the making - it began as a NaNoWriMo in November 2010, I cut it in half and started over with the best 25k words, put it on the "occasional revisit" cycle for two years while I wrote hundreds of short stories and serial episodes in an effort to become a reasonably decent writer, revisited it hardcore for six months, put it off again for six months during and after a near-death health crisis, then resolved to truly finish in the past six months.

The final climactic confrontation scene is mapped out, the last chapter to follow is actually already written, but I just can't seem to make myself commit to getting it down. I think I have a little bit of "fear of closure", of the project going away (even though I'm fully aware there's a whole lot of work to do post "the end"). I think it's because I love the actual creative-flow writing aspect of what we do, but I'm not a big fan of everything that follows (editing, submitting, marketing, etc.). Been there, done that with the shorts, et. al. Exhausting.

Oh, well. I'm finishing it by Sunday night if it kills me...

 

[Marc Joan]

If it does kill you, can I have your space-monkey avatar? I just love his thousand-yard stare.

But seriously, I understand the frustrations attached to the 'everything that follows' -- I've had my share of pain finding homes for short stories. Just found out that one prestigious journal didn't receive the story I posted to them 7 months ago. Ho hum. You'd think that everyone would have moved to Submittable now, but no...

 

[Carol Rose]

I'm writing something entirely different for me - a dark romance. The hero has to be an anti-hero - in other words - he doesn't redeem himself by the end of the story. There's still an HEA (happily-ever-after) and, for Evernight at least, some things are still taboo in the story, so it's been an incredible challenge for me to keep the psychological torture and the dark tone of the book going, while still staying true to the characters, their messed-up backgrounds, and their personalities. It's also a much longer book than I usually write, but I am having SO much fun with this. I may never go back to shorter, more predictable arcs again. LOL!!

 

[Chase Gamwell]

Dat ending doe.

Just finished my WIP, but completing that last chapter, then putting together a satisfying Epilogue was brutally difficult. Took me two days just to figure out the last 2K words of the manuscript. Might not sound like a long time, but it is considering I wrote over 50K words in April. The ending was tough, but I think I cinched it. (I'll have a final ruling on that once I go back and read the whole thing. I'll most likely be horrified at what I wound up putting to paper this last month...)

 

[Matnov]

Time. Been working 12 hours shifts for six days on the spin. I aim to write at least 500 words as a minimum and whilst I have done so, I am struggling and having to write between jobs on my old smart phone is problematic. But c'est la vie. This shit is not meant to be easy. Plus this is all a first draft so nobody else will ever get to read it so I can worry about the tidying up at a later date.

 

[James Marinero]

Dat ending doe.

Just finished my WIP, but completing that last chapter, then putting together a satisfying Epilogue was brutally difficult. Took me two days just to figure out the last 2K words of the manuscript. Might not sound like a long time, but it is considering I wrote over 50K words in April. The ending was tough, but I think I cinched it. (I'll have a final ruling on that once I go back and read the whole thing. I'll most likely be horrified at what I wound up putting to paper this last month...)

I got stuck om Monday when I realised more was needed. It was a cold sunny day, so I went walking. Now, I hate walking but it does help c;ear my thinking - and it did. Job done.

 

[James Marinero]

Time. Been working 12 hours shifts for six days on the spin. I aim to write at least 500 words as a minimum and whilst I have done so, I am struggling and having to write between jobs on my old smart phone is problematic. But c'est la vie. This shit is not meant to be easy. Plus this is all a first draft so nobody else will ever get to read it so I can worry about the tidying up at a later date.

Am looking for the 'sympathy' emoticon! Not there!

 

[Matnov]

Am looking for the 'sympathy' emoticon! Not there!

LOL. Good. Hate all this being supportive and patting each other on the back malarkey. Writing is a tough old business and I loathe all this modern day hugging, both real and cyber. This country has been going to hell ever since Lady Di's funeral. Never been the same since.

Just fucking write. Right?

 

[Robinne Weiss]

It's not so much a writing struggle as a publicising struggle. I self-pubbed a novel, and did a big push before the release date, but now that it's actually available, and people might actually buy it and *GASP* read it, I'm suddenly really shy about advertising it.

Friday might have been my turnaround though. My husband, who had not yet read the book, took it on a trip, and when he came back (having read the whole book), he said it was really good. That's huge to me, because he is the master of harsh criticism, and if he'd found something wrong with it, he would have pounced mercilessly, as though it were a scientific paper he was tearing to shreds as an editor. Crossing my fingers and hoping the feeling lasts until Monday, when I'm back at it.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Right what? Oh, write, now I get ya! Nar, too busy editing.... lol

 

[Geoff]

Still pondering over my submission at the moment, still not 100% it is good to go. My send button has become a red telephone waiting to be lifted.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

It's not so much a writing struggle as a publicising struggle. I self-pubbed a novel, and did a big push before the release date, but now that it's actually available, and people might actually buy it and *GASP* read it, I'm suddenly really shy about advertising it.

In getting our work published, whether it's traditional print or as an ebook, we need to advertise. This is also true for querying literary agents, where essentially we're trying to sell ourselves and our product.

For most authors this is more difficult than actually creating a story. But it's worth remembering:

“Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.”

—Steuart Henderson Britt, from Marketing Management and Administrative Action.

 

[echo.]

Rewriting the 'sad scene.' It only needs a couple of little changes but the prospect of actually typing it out is just so depressing I keep putting it off with weird medical documentaries on Youtube. I don't think I'm even having fun anymore, I just can't bear the sadness. After ten minutes of staring forlornly at the page it seems like a better option to switch over to 'Turning into a Giant' or 'The Man with the Upside Down Head.'

 

[James Marinero]

Rewriting the 'sad scene.' It only needs a couple of little changes but the prospect of actually typing it out is just so depressing I keep putting it off with weird medical documentaries on Youtube. I don't think I'm even having fun anymore, I just can't bear the sadness. After ten minutes of staring forlornly at the page it seems like a better option to switch over to 'Turning into a Giant' or 'The Man with the Upside Down Head.'

Are you a masochist? Isn't it better to write than to suffer the agony of YouTube procedures? Bang the table and write!

 

[James Marinero]

Just fucking write. Right?

Exactamente!