Writing General Discussion & Critique

[GodsAndMonsters]

In the last couple days, I've written so much of my novel by hand and I'm kind of dreading typing it all up because of all the crossings out, arrows that indicate me moving sentences, add ins, etc. It looks so messy, which is satisfying, but not when you have to decipher it to put it into a word document.

I was working on a novel about a female popstar who dies and is replaced by a body double, but it was more of a psychology study on the body double's fragmented identity than a thriller. And I got so overwhelmed by the industry research I had to do to make it believable and started disliking the pop sphere so much that I pivoted to fantasy, which is easier in terms of research (re lore: just make that shit up). I will finish the pop novel someday, but it ballooned to over 120,000 words with only 50%ish of the story in (this half of the novel was my MFA thesis). It's intimidating.

I'm not sure if I even want to bother trying to get the fantasy novel published through regular means because I have no energy for that shit. Might save up money and self-publish. I'd rather do what's better for my sanity. I'm really writing this book for myself after all. If others read it, that would be great, but I'm no longer really thinking about traditional publication. i just want to do justice to my ideas. My protagonist, an autistic teenager named Elizabeth, is a bad ass.

I loooove writing freehand, I find I'm able to get my ideas down so much better than when I type it straight out. But like you say, it's then when it comes to typing out what you've handwritten that feels like a chore haha

The female popstar idea sounds so good. I hope you find the inspiration to return to that.

 

[Raichu]

I loooove writing freehand, I find I'm able to get my ideas down so much better than when I type it straight out. But like you say, it's then when it comes to typing out what you've handwritten that feels like a chore haha

The female popstar idea sounds so good. I hope you find the inspiration to return to that.

Thanks. Yeah, I most likely will, if only because there are some people I respect who really want to read it. It's just so exhausting to write because it's first person and the narrator's voice is very heavy with idiom and what not.

But yeah, longhand is the way. There's something about the tactile nature of it, like you're truly building something.

 

[Runawaywithme]

I've always been to scared to post anything on here before, but I've been working all year on a book of poems I was going to self-publish but my mentor (a published author many times) wants me to pitch to publishers. I'm still unsure which road to take but I'm at this point actively trying to write again after what has been a rough year. I worked on this today and started it yesterday and I really like it. Thought about sharing it. Any feedback much appreciated!

Spoiler: "Paralysed by the Undefined"

Thinking practically physically pains me.

My head is so hazy that I don't quite know where I fit in anywhere,

I just can't seem to catch a grip onto these guide-lines on the grid of life, by which everyone else seems to graciously abide, knowing when to take shelter and when to stride, when to run and where to hide.

But caution just isn't something I can conceptualise.



Contentment isn't a state where I can reside.

I used to be comfortable chasing cobwebs, catching chinks of light, coasting along the curved edge of those clouded outlines;

Enjoying the ride.

Swinging from the vines of different timelines sliding along the neon moon-beams of my dazzling daydreams

Running with reckless glee down reality’s finely refined, chiselled clean concrete streets.

Feeling the rush of the city flush through me, exhaust-pipe breeze stroking my cheeks, the fibreoptic, kaleidoscopic, electricity of fantasy protecting me from the dropkick pavement curb’s colossal peaks, back then we were all in synchronicity.

I was finding my feet.

Unsteady but completely utterly at ease.

I was happy in-between.



Until the world around me and the world inside me aligned in perfect harmony and left me behind;

Paralysed by the undefined in this liminal limbo,

Drifting aimlessly, a speck of cosmic debris, at the mercy of various nefarious frequencies

Crystallised right inside the cusp of clarity but never able to break free,

Forever looking at life through a frosted glass window.

Constraints aren’t something I can recognise

They just bleed into the screaming flow of static chaos covering me,

I’m neutralized by everything I see everywhere I go; the disguise left me revitalised then pulled the wool over my eye’s,

Now I’m centralized by my shadow’s trembling unholy ghost

So, when I push past my restraints, I never know.



Until it's too late and I'm crying out in pain.

Pain

The only constant I can count on to provide my feet and brain with a level plain

grounding me with its icy blades, contorting under their weight as once again

I have failed to restrain, to contain, and unwillingly

Crashed through the windscreen between me and reality that I can't even see;

But how can I know how to control my speed when I don't even feel like I'm moving in the first place?

 

[Raichu]

I've always been to scared to post anything on here before, but I've been working all year on a book of poems I was going to self-publish but my mentor (a published author many times) wants me to pitch to publishers. I'm still unsure which road to take but I'm at this point actively trying to write again after what has been a rough year. I worked on this today and started it yesterday and I really like it. Thought about sharing it. Any feedback much appreciated!

Spoiler: "Paralysed by the Undefined"

Thinking practically physically pains me.

My head is so hazy that I don't quite know where I fit in anywhere,

I just can't seem to catch a grip onto these guide-lines on the grid of life, by which everyone else seems to graciously abide, knowing when to take shelter and when to stride, when to run and where to hide.

But caution just isn't something I can conceptualise.



Contentment isn't a state where I can reside.

I used to be comfortable chasing cobwebs, catching chinks of light, coasting along the curved edge of those clouded outlines;

Enjoying the ride.

Swinging from the vines of different timelines sliding along the neon moon-beams of my dazzling daydreams

Running with reckless glee down reality’s finely refined, chiselled clean concrete streets.

Feeling the rush of the city flush through me, exhaust-pipe breeze stroking my cheeks, the fibreoptic, kaleidoscopic, electricity of fantasy protecting me from the dropkick pavement curb’s colossal peaks, back then we were all in synchronicity.

I was finding my feet.

Unsteady but completely utterly at ease.

I was happy in-between.



Until the world around me and the world inside me aligned in perfect harmony and left me behind;

Paralysed by the undefined in this liminal limbo,

Drifting aimlessly, a speck of cosmic debris, at the mercy of various nefarious frequencies

Crystallised right inside the cusp of clarity but never able to break free,

Forever looking at life through a frosted glass window.

Constraints aren’t something I can recognise

They just bleed into the screaming flow of static chaos covering me,

I’m neutralized by everything I see everywhere I go; the disguise left me revitalised then pulled the wool over my eye’s,

Now I’m centralized by my shadow’s trembling unholy ghost

So, when I push past my restraints, I never know.



Until it's too late and I'm crying out in pain.

Pain

The only constant I can count on to provide my feet and brain with a level plain

grounding me with its icy blades, contorting under their weight as once again

I have failed to restrain, to contain, and unwillingly

Crashed through the windscreen between me and reality that I can't even see;

But how can I know how to control my speed when I don't even feel like I'm moving in the first place?

Poetry is not my area of expertise, but I like it quite a bit! The cadence and rhythm of it reminds me of Howl by Alan Ginsberg.

 

[Raichu]

I'm fast approaching a very difficult point in my novel (I'm at 203 pages handwritten; not sure what that amounts to in Word because I haven't typed up the current chapter), and I'm kind of nervous. But I have to remember that I can always scrap any portion I'm unhappy with and retry.

I guess my main critique of my novel is that it takes place inside role-playing video game (the idea is that data has a secret life), but besides my incorporation of things like treasure chests in unlikely places, characters with repetitive routines, a bestiary in the town library, and invisible walls, it doesn't really feel like one. It feels more like a folktale. Which is partly a good thing. A novel really shouldn't feel like a video game, but I do want it to seem like a video game that could be on the market. But it feels too cerebral and lonely, almost too realistic. And there's not much action. Maybe it could be a video game that didn't sell many copies because it's so different. After all, there is a very short prologue in which a little boy thinks the game is stupid and scratches the disc on purpose.

As for role-playing games, it definitely is more like a JRPG than a WRPG since the former is what I predominantly play. Atmospherically, it's kind of Chrono Cross-esque. A significant part of the book takes place in a fishing village that looks very suspiciously *rubs hands together mischeviously* like the village of Arni.

 

[Raichu]

You know that feeling when you're like, "I wrote the shit out of that scene"? Well, I did in fact write the shit out of my latest scene. And it was an action scene, which I usually hate writing and don't think I'm particularly good at.

 

[Raichu]

How do you guys keep your creative juices going while working on a long project? I usually read and read until I inspire in myself a desire to really work the language, but I'm going through a very rough patch at the moment. I quite like what I've written during it, but I'm extremely exhausted, and progress is so slow.

I don't particularly believe in writer's block, but I do believe in writer's burnout, and it's been very hard to power through that.

 

[Heretic]

How do you guys keep your creative juices going while working on a long project? I usually read and read until I inspire in myself a desire to really work the language, but I'm going through a very rough patch at the moment. I quite like what I've written during it, but I'm extremely exhausted, and progress is so slow.

I don't particularly believe in writer's block, but I do believe in writer's burnout, and it's been very hard to power through that.

I don't know if this will be helpful, but this is what I do.

If I feel like I can't move forward, I make sure to just stop writing and go do anything else to take my mind off of what I'm trying to do. It's important to give yourself some space (often times while I'm doing whatever it is I'm doing [say laundry] I'll absentmindedly start brainstorming and suddenly I'll have an idea and rush back to write it down or just keep going). Space in general lets your creative juice's refresh (or it should, I know some people would not agree and feel you should just write until there's nothing left.)

Another approach I sometimes take is I'll just write anything, knowing I'm going to go back and re-read the whole thing and as I'm going through I'll often find that I'm changing things and getting ideas as I go along.

The thing I wanted to start working on already has me backed into a corner, so I feel like I can't even get started until I figure out how to fix the multiple issues I already created for myself (but then again, so much crap ends up being produced and put out there, maybe I shouldn't kill myself over it?).

 

[Raichu]

I don't know if this will be helpful, but this is what I do.

If I feel like I can't move forward, I make sure to just stop writing and go do anything else to take my mind off of what I'm trying to do. It's important to give yourself some space (often times while I'm doing whatever it is I'm doing [say laundry] I'll absentmindedly start brainstorming and suddenly I'll have an idea and rush back to write it down or just keep going). Space in general lets your creative juice's refresh (or it should, I know some people would not agree and feel you should just write until there's nothing left.)

Another approach I sometimes take is I'll just write anything, knowing I'm going to go back and re-read the whole thing and as I'm going through I'll often find that I'm changing things and getting ideas as I go along.

The thing I wanted to start working on already has me backed into a corner, so I feel like I can't even get started until I figure out how to fix the multiple issues I already created for myself (but then again, so much crap ends up being produced and put out there, maybe I shouldn't kill myself over it?).

Thanks so much. I especially love your suggestion about thinking about how much crap is out there as a way of combating perfectionism.

 

[Raichu]

After taking a bit of a break as @Heretic suggested and just writing down notes instead of prose, I've been slowly working through my novel again. Everything is coming in bits and spurts, but I like where it's going. I think the difficulty of this section is that's in a jungle and I'm an indoor person haha.

Another difficulty I've been encountering is that it's hard to write a fantasy novel when the point of it is that the main character is in a state of extreme loneliness and is working through that via the fantastical/video game setting. When you have another character they can bounce off of, it's easier to move things along (here, I'm thinking of Philip Pullman's clever daemon device or a party of traveling companions). When the character is alone, you have to find ways to make sure the prose doesn't turn to stream of consciousness.

Do you guys plan out your novel (or whatever genre you write) or just write it instinctively? I'm not organized enough to plan it out, so I have a bunch of scattered ideas in a notebook and not much else. I only really plan a section or sometimes a chapter ahead.

 

[Heretic]

After taking a bit of a break as @Heretic suggested and just writing down notes instead of prose, I've been slowly working through my novel again. Everything is coming in bits and spurts, but I like where it's going. I think the difficulty of this section is that's in a jungle and I'm an indoor person haha.

Another difficulty I've been encountering is that it's hard to write a fantasy novel when the point of it is that the main character is in a state of extreme loneliness and is working through that via the fantastical/video game setting. When you have another character they can bounce off of, it's easier to move things along (here, I'm thinking of Philip Pullman's clever daemon device or a party of traveling companions). When the character is alone, you have to find ways to make sure the prose doesn't turn to stream of consciousness.

Do you guys plan out your novel (or whatever genre you write) or just write it instinctively? I'm not organized enough to plan it out, so I have a bunch of scattered ideas in a notebook and not much else. I only really plan a section or sometimes a chapter ahead.

Again. just what I do, but I might have a sort of plan laid out sometimes, but overwhelmingly it all just sort of happens as I go along. I guess it just depends on your needs and what you are writing about.

 

[Raichu]

I get very self-conscious of how many times I use the word "but," but then I forensically read prose from books that are acclaimed as masterpieces and realize they use it just as much as I do. It's an extremely useful word.

 

[Raichu]

I figured out so much about the ending of my novel last night and even the ideas made me feel emotional. So I hope I can do those ideas justice.

I know the entire arc of the novel now. It's just a question how I want to get to some of those landmark moments. I always try to leave some room to surprise myself.

The biggest challenge right now is just stamina. My prose is very ornamented and it's hard to keep that up.

 

[Raichu]

Tense dinner scenes are so fun to write. There's a certain push and pull to them that I find narratively satisfying and it's a good avenue to combine exposition/information with conflict.

 

[Raichu]

I've reached 70,000 words in my novel with about 40ish percent of the story written. So it's going to be another long one. No matter how concise I try to be, I just tend to write very long scenes with lots of interiority.

 

[GodsAndMonsters]

I've reached 70,000 words in my novel with about 40ish percent of the story written. So it's going to be another long one. No matter how concise I try to be, I just tend to write very long scenes with lots of interiority.

I love that moment where you realise "This is going to be longer than I thought"! I've had that a few times now. I hope your writing is going well.

Also, in some personal news, after months of being in a writing slump (I've decided to shelve the series I was writing and the ghost story I thought I'd start never really got off the ground) I've had an idea come to me that I'm really excited about. Will be nice to come up with new characters and stories and just enjoy the fun of the writing process again.

 

[Raichu]

I love that moment where you realise "This is going to be longer than I thought"! I've had that a few times now. I hope your writing is going well.

Also, in some personal news, after months of being in a writing slump (I've decided to shelve the series I was writing and the ghost story I thought I'd start never really got off the ground) I've had an idea come to me that I'm really excited about. Will be nice to come up with new characters and stories and just enjoy the fun of the writing process again.

That's awesome. Nothing better than starting a new project. So refreshing. It's when you're deep in the project that things start to feel bleak haha.

My writing has been going well! I keep thinking I'm going get caught in the thicket of a difficult section, but it keeps working out.

I'm excited (and nervous) for the next section because the villain comes back to the forefront and I plan to have her chew the shit out of some scenery, but there's also a lot of exposition I have to get into said section. I need to find ways to avoid the wall of text explanations.

 

[Raichu]

I'm kind of worried that my book is so miserable in terms of its emotional coloring that kids will find it lacking in fun. But I still want autistic teenagers to fucking see themselves in YA fiction. And I know autism is not miserable for everybody, but it's certainly felt that way for me personally and that's all I can draw from.

 

[Runawaywithme]

I pitched my play to a theatre in London this week! I'm worried it's too long (It's three acts with six scenes each) but I'm really excited about it. It's had a wee bit of industry buzz but no ones taken a chance on it yet. Pepole have said its literally like nothing they've ever read before. It's been compared to Beat Poetry, Trainspotting and Fight Club?!? I'm taking that as a compliment.

 

[Raichu]

I pitched my play to a theatre in London this week! I'm worried it's too long (It's three acts with six scenes each) but I'm really excited about it. It's had a wee bit of industry buzz but no ones taken a chance on it yet. Pepole have said its literally like nothing they've ever read before. It's been compared to Beat Poetry, Trainspotting and Fight Club?!? I'm taking that as a compliment.

You should. I want to see this play.