Heap upon me your guidance

[Velshtein]

Hello one and all, a relatively new writer here looking to ingrain myself into a group that can help push me along where necessary. I currently have about three novels making all manner of noise in my head, not to mention on my keyboard.

I have here a few things that I thought I might ask you more experienced bunch if you wouldn't mind me doing so.

First off, how do you turn those thoughts that patter through your head like faint footsteps that you know are there (but can't quite grasp) into words on paper? I often have distinct ideas flare up and wind up sprinting for the nearest pen or pencil to jot down, but other times I find myself stopping what I'm doing because I feel that something fantastic is right on the fringe of my thoughts, but I can't quite snag it for my own use. Does anyone else ever have similar problems?

Next up, how often do you write at home versus out and about? Occasionally I find myself able to make a pot of tea or coffee, sit down at my PC, and churn out five thousand words in one sitting (that obviously need revising afterwards). More often than not, I tend to view my home as an extremely boring place through which I can draw no inspiration. In fact, I think about writing more often while out and about doing other things than I do while home! This is a struggle for me, and I would love to hear everyone's input.

Third is a follow up to my second question. If you spend much time writing places other than home, what is your most common tool? I'm seriously eying a netbook right now as a relatively inexpensive way to get things done, though I'm never adverse to the standard pen and notebook. However, I find that I'm less interested to write full pages and chapters on a notebook to convert over to typed text, and can't ever seem to work up the interest in grabbing paper and going out. Other considerations at the moment are things like the noteslate - a digital notebook (currently in production) and products similar to it.

Last, I would absolutely love it if you all would simply throw any advice you know would be beneficial in my direction. I'm not afraid of asking my betters for assistance, but I would prefer to know what mistakes to avoid right from the start as opposed to making them one-hundred thousand words in.

Thank you in advance everyone!

 

[MistingWolf]

Welcome to the Chrons! :}

Oh, those tricksy ideas that stay just out of reach.... You'll catch them eventually. When you get these sudden ideas, yes, write them down, but don't stop just because you think you might have something better later. If you do have something better later, what you wrote before can always be replaced, but if for some reason those other ideas escape you, at least you'll have something down so that your story can move on, instead of waiting in classic cliche form for that one true love.

I also think better when I'm not at home, but like you, I'm not much into writing things down on paper only to retype them later (It's one of my pet peeves, writing things over, because I think I've already done it so much). It might be a good idea (for both of us maybe!) to have that little netbook to carry around for those "Eureka!" moments.

As for avoiding mistakes before you get there... well... I still need to work on that myself, so I won't be much help there.

 

[Philosopher]

I think Im in the same boat, so can only tell you from my experience. When not near my laptop or any other laptops I will just write my spontaneous ideas on a text on my mobile phone and save it as a draft (thats assuming I don't have a pen and paper on me either)... As we all do I hate retyping, but sometimes its just got to be done. It lets you reflect on your idea as well.

Most ideas come to me outside of the home, usually when doing something relaxing and stimulating. E.g. Walking in the woods. . .

 

[chrispenycate]

The 'retyping' phase, when I drag the A5 notebook out of my eternal shoulder bag and transfer its contents into electronic storage, is an important 'pre-edit' for me. Oh, lots goes down just as the first flush of inspiration generated it; it had rhythm and the dynamic I was seeking from the start. Still, a lot I recognise can be streamlined, and, as I've got to do the transfer anyway, it is very little extra effort to do the clean up in the process; I've got the time for thinking (one of the major reasons for me to write longhand is that my thoughts move a lot faster than my fingers, particularly my typing fingers. I can write with a pencil much faster (still nowhere near as fast as my brain delivers text but requiring less buffer RAM).

I have been known to transcribe paper tablecloths from restaurants; how many banquets could you tap on your laptop during the speeches?

 

[Malloriel]

It's only logical that you feel inspiration when out and about. You have lots of visual, auditory, and olfactory stimuli. You're watching people, you're hearing people, you're ruminating on your story bits, and a woman in a red dress could pass you, her perfume just strong enough to detect, and that feeling it sparks inside you could be exactly what your hero needs when he first crosses paths with the heroine.

Conversely, your home is where solitude can be found, an environment lacking stimulation that hasn't already been put there by you, intentionally, meaning you aren't coming across anything unanticipated. This can create a sense of stagnation, boredom, and a dearth of creativity.

Personally, I find that the solitude is the best environment when I'm sitting down and actually putting the scenes in my head into the words I like. I can concentrate better without external distractions tearing at my focus with their dagger-claws. However, when it comes to pure creation, world building, story arc development, etc., I love being out of the house. A cliched coffee shop, a book store (sometimes a library, but fewer people coming and going actually makes it feel more like home than an outing), a tiny restaurant (there's a place called Johnny B's, a little 50's style/alternative place that's great for getting mozzarella sticks and losing a few hours), parks. I love parks. My backyard is park-like, minus the people, but I love being in the outdoors while creating, whether it's a plaza downtown, or under a tree watching people shoot some hoops. I suppose I could also get down to writing the actual manuscript while out, but since I get into a groove and like to plug away for hours on end, the battery life of my lappy and daylight hours (the few in which I'm awake) will drain away before I'm ready to call it a day (add in "the coffee shop/book store will close", etc.), as well as a slew of other tiny reasons, I just can't accomplish the writing anywhere but a home-like setting. Besides, I get SUPER cranky if I'm forced out of the thought patterns necessary for writing before I'm ready to let them go. SUUUUPER cranky. Like, strangle barristers cranky.

To continue addressing things in no particular order, your first query: I think I'm one of the few who struggles very little with this problem. Words are my allies. The keyboard is my brush, and words my paint and pallet. I've had those ideas that require time to understand, time to grow into something I really want to use, and in that way hesitate to put them down immediately, but those are the ones I usually talk myself through as I write them. A kind of archival approach, as though I'm writing it out for someone else to read and understand my reasoning, not just to put the idea down succinctly and without context. It gives depth to my own understanding of the growing idea, because I'm taking some elements which could be called ephemeral and acting as though I'm explaining them to someone else, which forces the mind to begin piecing it all together in a more linear fashion. Sounds like writing in general, yes? Only when we're writing the manuscript, we're also trying to figure out how to impart the information without info dumping it, how to leak concepts without overwhelming. For my own notes, I'm explaining the whole concept directly, with my reasoning for its existence or change. When I incorporate it into the story telling, the words come more easily, possibly because I've already taken the time to internalize and externalize. It's what works for me, at least.

As for the matter of tools: If I'm writing, I feel it must be on the computer. My resources are all collected in one place for easy reference, I think too quickly for a pen to keep up without cramping my hand, I can edit as I go, I love the feel of the keys beneath my flying fingers. It takes so little thought to type, even with my eyes closed. I love to just live the scene out as my character, eyes closed as I narrate the scene in my head, and let my fingers express the same thoughts. I immerse myself in the scene as completely as I can. Writing by hand is limiting, especially because it's quite difficult to read what one writes if done with the eyes closed.

In contrast, when I world build, I hate the involvement of the computer. I prefer to write that all out by hand in one of my many notebooks. There's no theme to the organization, such as the Green Book is for all things related to magic, etc. I just happen to remember in which books certain information ended up. I keep them all in a zippered brief-case type affair.

And finally, the best advice I think I can give would be: In the genre of fantasy, and sometimes over into sci-fi, though it is less my forte, we writers can fall into the idea that our stories must somehow revolutionize the genre, whether by concept, invention, or insight. If we feel our stories somehow fall short of this burning need, then they are not good enough, strong enough, complex enough, or whatever else have you. The understanding that helps us move past this quagmire of thought, however, is that stories have been done and done to death. Concepts we may think are new and intriguing may in fact be cliched and trite within the genre. What sets our stories apart from all the rest is that singular voice that is our signature within the writing. Tell the old stories again, incorporate those cliches. No one will question them if you make the writing interesting. Be aware that I steer clear of words like "unique", because it implies a sense of having to be different in order to stand out, when standing out and being different, -I- think, should be by products of a well written story that doesn't compromise itself, its characters, or the author's voice. So, seek help where you need it, but allow all advice to pass through that filter that tells you what the integrity of your tale feels like so that you can better know which advice could compromise it, and which could enhance it.

Best of luck, and welcome to the Chrons.

 

[DrMclony]

And finally, the best advice I think I can give would be: In the genre of fantasy, and sometimes over into sci-fi, though it is less my forte, we writers can fall into the idea that our stories must somehow revolutionize the genre, whether by concept, invention, or insight. If we feel our stories somehow fall short of this burning need, then they are not good enough, strong enough, complex enough, or whatever else have you. The understanding that helps us move past this quagmire of thought, however, is that stories have been done and done to death. Concepts we may think are new and intriguing may in fact be cliched and trite within the genre. What sets our stories apart from all the rest is that singular voice that is our signature within the writing.

So true. That self doubt leads to a massive trap - overwriting. Editing is crucial, and so is story expansion. Too much of it though, and you run the risk of overwriting - and the fact you are trying too hard will show badly. If you overwrite, there are TWO and only two things that happen to your story - either you bleed it dry of your unique voice that gives the book its soul (and thus ruin it) or you give what should be a 250-300 page book 600-700 pages and ruin it. Learning when to stop or move on can be one of the hardest lessons to learn. Those goalposts will move from book to book as well, which makes things even harder! You will quickly spot it if you write with your heart open to your own instincts, and your mind open to logical assessment.

 

[Gondor75]

I often use just a pad and pen. There is a wonderful lake with large oaks where I like to go and sit with a very old fishing pole that belonged to my grandfather. Unfortunately, the fish don't seem to like my bait. But then again I don't think that really matters.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I'm not afraid of asking my betters for assistance, but I would prefer to know what mistakes to avoid right from the start as opposed to making them one-hundred thousand words in.

Thank you in advance everyone!

Sometimes you learn more from your mistakes than you can by doing something right the first time. In fixing your mistakes, you can end up exploring alternate ways of doing things, which will be useful later.

And honestly, most writers have to produce an enormous amount of bad writing before they're able to write anything that is even halfway good. It's how we learn to learn, because in doing that, in demonstrating for ourselves how and why certain ideas don't work, we're laying the ground work we need to even begin to understand some of the good advice we'll receive later.

 

[Anne Martin]

I'm a manic writer. I must be in a comfortable place and alone, although sometimes if there is an idea eating me alive, I've just got to hide somewhere and write it. I have some RSI problems, so I type on a computer. (Writing long-hand just plain hurts.)

I write when I get ideas, and if my partner (or I) is away on business, that can sometimes mean through the night. I plan very little in advance and let my stories tell themselves to me as I write, unless the idea comes just before bedtime. If that is the case, I'm usually awake most of the night concocting the story in my head, ready to regurgitate it at 6 am when my alarm rings in the morning.

This haphazard method means that I don't finish many stories, but I keep them all, and continue them when they have ripened in my thoughts, or I just leave them if they go sour. My abandoned folder has about 12 bodies in it and there are probably 20 more in my active folder, plus four unfinished novels, which I work on when the ideas are there. That doesn't sound like a good record, but there are probably 100 finished ones. It's all part of the process, and like Teresa says, you'll write a lot of dross before you find the gems. Sometimes there are great ideas that you just can't follow through on. I might be writing one of those right now.

I think the bottom line is that we all do it differently, and you will eventually find what works best for you.