The Writing Thread

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NSA said:
I've been writing recently so I felt like talking about it. I've had a story in mind, a nice comfy scifi story with some fantasy mixed in. I'll just go ahead and compare it to DUNE in terms of setting. I'm at almost 90K words at this point, and it's going great, so I had a few thoughts about writing methods.
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I used to do a lot of these things myself. Though really I loosened up after my first novel because I wrote the whole fucking thing in like a month (something like 3000+ words a day 5-6 days a week at my peak). Once you get the feeling that you can do it if you feel like it you kinda stop stressing over it as much and just do whatever works. My current thing is at something like 10k words as of today, but it's the most schizophrenic shit I've ever written and will only get more and more retarded as it progresses, as Yakub intended. There's a rough chapter by chapter outline that I'm only quasi-following so I'll probably get bored of it at 50-80k words and consider it done.

Or I could end up feeling like it needs to be painfully long to really torture the reader and try for 200k or more just for the hell of it. Word counts mean next to nothing to me anymore.
 
Pomniman said:
I used to do a lot of these things myself. Though really I loosened up after my first novel because I wrote the whole fucking thing in like a month (something like 3000+ words a day 5-6 days a week at my peak). Once you get the feeling that you can do it if you feel like it you kinda stop stressing over it as much and just do whatever works. My current thing is at something like 10k words as of today, but it's the most schizophrenic shit I've ever written and will only get more and more retarded as it progresses, as Yakub intended. There's a rough chapter by chapter outline that I'm only quasi-following so I'll probably get bored of it at 50-80k words and consider it done.

Or I could end up feeling like it needs to be painfully long to really torture the reader and try for 200k or more just for the hell of it. Word counts mean next to nothing to me anymore.
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Sweet, that's definitely my goal. Hopefully I can rewire my brain with my word-counting strategy.
 
I found some free time and read through a few dozen pages of notes. I know I must be doing something right because I laugh and have a delightful time sifting through absolute nonsense to find what I really meant at the time. Then, when I have to tend to real life stuff, I feel pretty good about wanting to delve back into my work... tho the longer I go without working my novel the more that feeling fades and I feel trepidation.

I am very sleep-deprived so I hope I make sense.

Good stuff nonetheless. Godspeed, frens.
 
Castoreum said:
I am very sleep-deprived so I hope I make sense.
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Surprisingly enough i'm a lot more productive and inspired at night when i'm a bit sleep deprived. Dunno if that means i'm a night owl or something, but it's something i tried to take advantage of.

Meanwhile i've been writing a lot for years and i've struggled with keeping up the pace, having time and juggling writing and drawing so i have enough time to do a bit of both. But in the end it feels like everything is advancing at a snail's pace. Plus, i've focused more on worldbuilding and autistic lore than focusing on the meat of the story.

There is also the thing about me getting too caught up on how my work is. I constantly think what i write is too cringy or too bland to actually be worth my time. Plus, my style in english is very verbose with someone defining it as "hemming and hawing". Some say it's bad while others say it's good. tbh i don't know how to go except keep writing my drivel
 
Atticus Carpenter said:
Meanwhile i've been writing a lot for years and i've struggled with keeping up the pace, having time and juggling writing and drawing so i have enough time to do a bit of both. But in the end it feels like everything is advancing at a snail's pace. Plus, i've focused more on worldbuilding and autistic lore than focusing on the meat of the story.

There is also the thing about me getting too caught up on how my work is. I constantly think what i write is too cringy or too bland to actually be worth my time. Plus, my style in english is very verbose with someone defining it as "hemming and hawing". Some say it's bad while others say it's good. tbh i don't know how to go except keep writing my drivel
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I feel that exact same way all the time. I'm a writer and artist too. There's an immense pressure on creators to pump out a finished product as fast as possible. I've seen it in both writing and art spaces. There are people who will shame you for not having completed your project yesterday.

People who have always been able to sit without distraction or other obligations don't know the struggle, but they sure do like to flap their gums about how to be successful. They are also very loud and annoying while people who are busy doing the work are, yknow, working.

I also worry about cringe. I have rewritten several chapters to be "less cringe." When I go back to review what I've written, I find myself preferring the "more cringe" versions. Playing it safe is just no fun!

Don't be so hard on yourself, fren. Embrace your unique view of teh world.
 
Castoreum said:
I feel that exact same way all the time. I'm a writer and artist too. There's an immense pressure on creators to pump out a finished product as fast as possible. I've seen it in both writing and art spaces. There are people who will shame you for not having completed your project yesterday.

People who have always been able to sit without distraction or other obligations don't know the struggle, but they sure do like to flap their gums about how to be successful. They are also very loud and annoying while people who are busy doing the work are, yknow, working.

I also worry about cringe. I have rewritten several chapters to be "less cringe." When I go back to review what I've written, I find myself preferring the "more cringe" versions. Playing it safe is just no fun!

Don't be so hard on yourself, fren. Embrace your unique view of teh world.
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It is truly harsh. I kinda wish i could dedicate myself to writing and drawing the whole day but that can't be. At best i will save up enough money to not need to work for quite a while but that's still a pipe dream.

I'm not too much into a hassle over time constraints, after all i have a pretty good work ethic and if i got into commissions i would be very diligent with them. The problem is not that people yammer about being successful, but more like you see them constantly around. It's one of the main things that makes me not engage with things others do. I'm too self concious about being a retard that scribbles on paper.

When it comes to writing i really struggle to keep up the pace when i do it. Not only when i second guess what i write but when i write dialogues and consider 5 different options. I'm struck constantly with decision paralysis.

At least when i write lore it comes easily and fairly smoothly. And i still second guess my ideas since people have told me i have cool ideas but i tend to execute them poorly. But i'm one retard that i might not think or view things as others do
 
Been a while since I last posted here; things have been more than a bit hectic on my end, figured I'd just drop something here to clear my head.

The post-apocalyptic/sci-fi plotline has been going fairly well; got it outlined, been chipping away at it for a while. Turning out quite a bit shorter than I expected, but I'm satisfied with it right now. It's not done yet, but I'm making progress.

I also decided to go back and give a second look at the "urban fantasy" idea that I was tossing around a while back recently, and... it's not going so great. Character design is already confirmed, so that's not an issue, but the actual plot is giving me trouble; locations and events, mainly. Having some issues on what kind of intro I should be trying to make for this, and what plots I could try and make; got a few ideas, but nothing is completely concrete just yet.
 
I’ve been working on a world building project it’s not really in-depth yet but I have made progress on the general setting, it’s like Fire Emblem and Dieselpunk combined if that makes any sense, like you have roughly world war i era semi auto rifles enhanced with a magic system but people are dressed like it’s the 1860s, a lot of the technology i’ve been coming up with basically is petroleum based combined with magic to enhance its function

i’m still in the early phase of the first novel in the universe and im coming up with stuff when I need it like a place name or a name for a noble house, I honestly think the current novel will actually be the latest story timeline wise in canon anything else will probably be a prequel
 
I finally finish my first manuscript ever. 129k words long. My beta readers read it and tell me the pacing is too slow. I give them an edited down version and now they're complaining about the lack of world building. Am I the retard or are they?



Also they keep telling me it should be multiple books, but none can tell me where the ending of the forst book should be. Is this normal behavior?
 
Readers are retarded and they can spot when something's wrong, but will never have the correct explanation of how to fix it. If they complain about lack of worldbuilding after you edited the manuscript to be 'less slow', it sounds like a lack of tension and stakes instead of length. If they say it should be multiple books, only you know the answer to that. My suggestion would be chuck it onto a 4 act structure to see what happens, if your story points line up or not.

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They expect a series but won't support an author writing one unless it's finished thanks to the damage Rothfuss and Martin has done.
 
Commissar Fuklaw said:
Readers are retarded and they can spot when something's wrong, but will never have the correct explanation of how to fix it. If they complain about lack of worldbuilding after you edited the manuscript to be 'less slow', it sounds like a lack of tension and stakes instead of length.
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The problem isn't the lack of stakes. The problem is that there is too much world-building, so they say it's slow, or not enough, so the world feels bland when I trim it up to increase the pacing. None of them seems to be able to tell me what the sweet spot would be,

Cat Funt said:
Every autist thinks every sci-fi / fantasy must be a 5 book series now.
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Publishers and literary agents will push you to do a series for better read-through rates and more monetization opportunities on one story. Same reason why the last Hunger Games and Harry Potter movies were split into two.
 
Writing Excuses has a few episodes, that's where I learned of most of them. I also watched some youtube videos on specific ones. Brando Sando has some of his lectures recorded on youtube, they're pretty good. I ended up just writing some stories using templates I found online, that's the best way to learn what ones are good for you and your style I'd say.
 
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Steah said:
Am I the retard or are they?
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It's most likely them. Writing is not an exact science and everyone has a distinct writing style that has its strong and weak points. Is there a standard to writing? No. But finding the sweet spot to make your strong points shine and your weak points tolerable is pretty hard depending on the reader.

They can spot what is wrong but they will not be able to tell you how it's wrong or how to fix it. tbh i would tell you to have their words into consideration but don't take what they say like the bible.
Caddo Cobgang said:
It’s a consequence of the fact that some IPs have such large fandoms, It’s actually why I kind of support getting rid of or restricting copyright law
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In this day and age production values are through the roof and tbh i think a lot of small guys with humble aspirations would struggle enormously with this kind of demand. I hate it. Specially because fandoms are filled with obnoxious retards that don't know what they want. If anything, making somehting for the fandom is one of the worst things someone can do.
Scream Aim Fire said:
Having some issues on what kind of intro I should be trying to make for this, and what plots I could try and make; got a few ideas, but nothing is completely concrete just yet.
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On the intro, it depends on what sort of vibe you want to give your story as well as how you want to present the characters. It's probably the hardest part when you write so give it a good thought. You want to give an initial hint of optimism? Fatalism? You want to convey how cruel and bleak the world is? or maybe how despite everything there is still hope?

If you instead focus on a character you should try to center the introduction around its most feature characteristic. Is he a mischeivous rascal? A tough and hardened man? A sensitive and lost woman? Give your readers a taste of what is to come with the first words
 
Atticus Carpenter said:
On the intro, it depends on what sort of vibe you want to give your story as well as how you want to present the characters. It's probably the hardest part when you write so give it a good thought. You want to give an initial hint of optimism? Fatalism? You want to convey how cruel and bleak the world is? or maybe how despite everything there is still hope?

If you instead focus on a character you should try to center the introduction around its most feature characteristic. Is he a mischeivous rascal? A tough and hardened man? A sensitive and lost woman? Give your readers a taste of what is to come with the first words
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Thanks for the tips. Right now, I'm currently trying to develop the world a bit more, really get a good idea of how things look before I jump on in. The general theme of the world is something I've been focusing on right now; I usually run stuff in a post-apocalypse world, so I thought about turning back the clock for a bit and focusing on a "just before the end/state of emergency" world like in The Division 1 or the prologue of The Last of Us, albeit with a supernatural angle. That said, I'm still workshopping on this, so it might end up changing.

Speaking of workshopping, I've also been trying to decide on what fantasy races would fit. Dragons are classic/a cliche, and werewolves and other shapeshifters are easy, but... what else could I make? Got a few ideas from classical myth, an avian/flying race is fun and easy... hell, even been getting some ideas to try and go for a Redwall-inspired design, of all things. Anyways, I'm still working on lining all this out, so... who knows what I could make? Like I said, I'm writing for fun.
 
Scream Aim Fire said:
Thanks for the tips. Right now, I'm currently trying to develop the world a bit more, really get a good idea of how things look before I jump on in. The general theme of the world is something I've been focusing on right now; I usually run stuff in a post-apocalypse world, so I thought about turning back the clock for a bit and focusing on a "just before the end/state of emergency" world like in The Division 1 or the prologue of The Last of Us, albeit with a supernatural angle. That said, I'm still workshopping on this, so it might end up changing.

Speaking of workshopping, I've also been trying to decide on what fantasy races would fit. Dragons are classic/a cliche, and werewolves and other shapeshifters are easy, but... what else could I make? Got a few ideas from classical myth, an avian/flying race is fun and easy... hell, even been getting some ideas to try and go for a Redwall-inspired design, of all things. Anyways, I'm still working on lining all this out, so... who knows what I could make? Like I said, I'm writing for fun.
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Writing lore and ironing it down is something that requires a lot of time if you do by yourself. After all, you are only one person and you can look at things from so many angles. Still, keep at it a little every day and you will get where you want. At leats the basics.
Regarding fantasy races i did a lot of thinking and reading of old myth for my own project. In my case i ditched the dragons and they are long extinct but their descendants are still out and about (Cockatrice, Culebre, Basilisk, Corrupent, Tatzelwurm...). Then i split all "humanoid" races into 3 types: The lesser ones which are extremely populous (humans, elves, dwarves, goblins, elves, aeslanders...), The ascended, created thanks to a lesser one making a pact with a god (Orcs, Gnolls, Harpies, Centaurs...) and last the Children of the Gods which were created by the gods themselves to shepard humanity (Satyrs, Sphynxes, Gorgons...).

I try to add variety to the already established, like mermaids being shapeshifters made of sea foam or aeslanders being a race of dead people that became bound to the place they lived and rose again as humans made of snow and ice. There is a lot to work with but i'm just one man. I can't think everything.
 
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