My Annual rant.

[shamguy4]

It's my annual writers post yay!
So every year I rant about how my book is doing ...or not doing, and ask for advice and frankly I'm sick of it. Why isn't this thing written by now!
There must be something wrong in what I am doing.

When I first decided to write a book I ran and got a paper and pen and wrote whatever came to my mind. I had a chapter and then realized I had no idea what came next.
So I sat and brainstormed and then when I figured that out I wrote the second chapter. At that point I realized the first chapter no longer fit, so I rewrote that. Then I tried moving on to the third chapter and realized the second didn't work anymore, or needed major changing.
This put a bad taste in my mouth and I began to get annoyed.

I finally decided to stop awriting until I knew the whole story. Once I knew around 50% I wrote chapter 1 and 2. I now have 4 chapters and its been almost 6 years since this has started. The story has grown tremendously but I only know 85%.
A part of me is always afraid to move forward and write when I dont know everything. It means I cant foreshadow or set things up properly.

Do I just wing it? I am not one of those people who writes on a whim.
The good news is I have not given up and I have been reading a lot on how to write and have studied and taken apart books that I liked, to see how they were written and what made them good. I am writing a young adults book and had a 13 year old read my first chapter. They loved it and nonstop ask me for chapter 2 whenever they see me. So i feel somewhat good.

I have even written to or tweeted some famous authors on their writing process but I have never received a response. They are too swamped with stupid fan mail to see my tweet.

 

[Danny McG]

Read Martian Chronicles, see how a collection of loosely related short stories around a central theme tie together.
Choke back a sob 'cos the genius of Bradbury is no more.
Try a short story or two with commonalities.
I have a WIP with similar problems. Every now and again I junk most of it and write about evil space robots instead.

 

[Stuart Suffel]

But...wasn't the Martian chronicles actually a disparate group of short stories that an editor suggested to Bradbury, that he publish them as one novel? Afaik, Bradbury tweeked the disparate stories so they had some kinda connection.

 

[Danny McG]

But...wasn't the Martian chronicles actually a disparate group of short stories that an editor suggested to Bradbury, that he publish them as one novel? Afaik, Bradbury tweeked the disparate stories so they had some kinda connection.

Yeah, that's true now I think about it. I think it mentions that in the foreword or intro of my battered old paperback.
Nothing wrong with a short story though. Great to read waiting at dentist and they distract you from what's gonna happen

 

[HoopyFrood]

I don't think anyone knows the entire story before they start writing; and even when you do start writing it highly likely new scenes will pop in, new side stories will grow and characters will do things you never expected them to. I once started an entire novel based on just one idea for how it would begin and just went from there, forming the actual plot on the fly.

It's also highly likely that you will find things that don't fit or need changing by the end, even entire chapters (as much as it may hurt and as necessary as that lovingly crafted chapter seems) but that's what the drafting process is all about.

Everyone has this wonderfully shiny story inside their heads, and worry that what gets put down on the page will never do it justice. But not doing so means being haunted by the Story That Never Was for the rest of their lives, as is happening to you, it seems

Long story short: go for it and leave the worries until the editing!

 

[Phyrebrat]

I sympathise with you as someone who has been writing the same story since 2009.

The thing I would suggest is hold the reins loosely and finish it. All your foreshadowing can come in draft 2 or subsequent edits. And most important to remember is that once you have got draft 1 down you can change it.

There is a debilitating myth about control. Relax and just write. And if It's wrong? So what. There's absolutely nothing stopping you from rewriting sections. The thing is, until you know what you're working with you won't be able to polish the story. You need a rough gem at first before you can start to facet it.

Let's be honest, if it's taking you this long writing stuff that might later be binned is more productive than sitting around waiting for the 'right moment' or inspiration to strike. And the brain works best when it's on the task. I'll bet your themes and foreshadowing concerns evaporate as you write.

So write. Anything. Just write. WTDT!



pH

 

[JE Loddon]

It sounds like you need to have a plan in place that covers the structure from start to end. Decide on what actually needs to happen during the story, and write out a list of the chapters and what needs to happen in each one in a broad sense. Then, whilst writing each chapter, you'll know where it needs to get to by the end of it.

 

[HareBrain]

A part of me is always afraid to move forward and write when I dont know everything. It means I cant foreshadow or set things up properly.

Do you fear wasted effort? I can sympathise with that, but I think it's something you might just have to overcome, somehow. You can't know the story before writing it, not for certain, only during the writing (even if you're a planner). To be a writer is to destroy tens or hundreds of thousands of words because they didn't go right.

 

[Nick B]

Outline the whole story in a few paragraphs. Then try and see if you can plan a few key scenes, outline those in a few lines each. Try doing some basic outlining to get an overview of the entire story in a short space. Thats about as much planning as we do, as it allows a basic framework of A to B to C. Then its a case of writing it, and dont worry about foreshadowing, you can add that in later drafts.

 

[Toby Frost]

Make of this what you will, but if you’ve been writing this for 6 years and it’s not finished, something’s gone wrong. I say this because if it’s taken this long to map out what’s going to happen, is the story still the one you really want to tell?

It is good that you’ve read so much about writing. You’ve clearly got the determination that’s needed to write the book, and that in itself is half the battle. However, writing is like painting or carpentry: you can only read so much before you need hands-on experience, generally quite a lot of it. Personally, I am wary of trying to rewrite chapters before the book is entirely present in rough draft, at least at this stage. There’s always the risk of becoming the snake that eats its own tail, editing away what’s been done without ever getting much further. Anyone’s first draft – anyone’s – will not be anything close to perfect. I once saw the first page of 1984, and it was covered in crossings-out and additions in pen.

If your novel is 85% planned out, it’s probably ready to be written. But it sounds as if you’re not ready to write it, which is why I ask whether it really is the book for you. At the moment, one way forward would be to deliberately write something that isn’t the book you’re working on: partly to get general writing practice and also to get into the habit of writing regularly. I think inspiration works differently depending on the style of work you’re producing: a poet needs to be full-on inspired whenever they write, because they have so few words to use. For a novelist, I think planning and determination are as important as inspiration. I’d suggest writing something that doesn’t matter: a peripheral story, or something with a light, pulpy tone that can be either edited into good shape or thrown away as appropriate later on. There are competitions for short work on this site, for instance.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[shamguy4]

Thanks for the replies.

@Toby Frost It's definitely the book I want to write!!!!

@Nick B I have tried outlining and I get stuck in the middle. I know my end and my beginning. Everything spiraled out of one brilliant idea for the climax scene. That scene has not changed in over 5 years.

When I say foreshadowing I mean more like introducing elements long before they are needed. I guess that's not exactly foreshadowing, but I'm not sure what its called.

For instance, if a character is meant to die in chapter 5, wouldn't it be nice if the main protagonist had met this character earlier?
If this special sword is what kills the antagonist, it's more likely to make sense to the readers to see this sword long before it gets used.

So while writing I may suddenly realize, and this actually happened in the book: for instance that my character needed to leave something behind so that he can be traced. I had nothing. So I suddenly had him sporting a jacket which he takes off because it's too hot and forgets it. The antagonist recognizes the jacket and realizes our hero was here.
For this to make more sense, I had to go back a few chapters and add in a few areas that my character wore this jacket and it was not random this time for him to suddenly wear one.

I always introduce things and elements and settings long before they are needed. This means that if I know whats coming this job is much easier. When I dont its kind of annoying. Especially when its very important like killing off a character the readers just met. Thats awful.

 

[ratsy]

Hey Sham. Writing a book is hard work. The example you said with the jacket is something I would just add, make a note to go back and tweak and add things earlier after the rest of the story is done. Get the first draft through, then go back and work on fleshing it out and making it more coherent.

I was always a pantser. For my first book, i knew the ending and the beginning, and made up everything in between as I went. I do find that doing like Nick suggested is better for me now.

My second book I started a couple years ago, and when I decided to actually do that book again, I started from the beginning using what I had already written as an outline. What I got was much better quality. Then I did small outlines to get me from that point to the end of the book. Of course a lot of things got added in the actual writing, but it was a good way for me to make it to the end.

I'm really starting to think about the sequel to my first novel, and I sat there on monday night and wrote out a one page outline for the whole book. So I know where to start, where it goes in the middle, and how I'm ending it. Now I get to do the fun parts without stressing about where I'm taking it. I find that gives me a lot of focus, and the words flow out faster and more efficiently.

So if you have it in you, I'd say maybe take what you have so far, write it out as an outline, add to that with where you want to go, and perhaps even start over with fresh eyes, and new skills. It sounds daunting but you may find a much better story for it.

 

[shamguy4]

thanks.
Ive have an outline for the series... yeah its grown into a series.

And I have tried to zoom in and outline the book, but I end up writing like 4 pages and its huge no matter how I slice it! Its hard to compress it. I find things get solves when i look at the book from a different angle or look at another part of the story which suddenly gives me an idea that fixes this part... but its taking very long as you can see. It may be time to just write it and try to move forward. I have a perfectionist thing inside of me that needs to go back and fix things otherwise I fear i wont see the story right.

 

[Vaz]

Maybe your not ready for this story yet

I've had a similar experience when writing my first Epic Fantasy, and it was a hard thing to admit that I wasn't portraying the themes or story I wanted to tell. Basically, the story was to big for me.

So I dropped it, not forever - I will go back to it one day - but I needed to zoom in and apply focus to something on a much smaller scale.

Perhaps you could do the same. Set it aside, work on something smaller in scope for a while.

Just a few thoughts.

V

 

[Brian G Turner]

Do I just wing it?

Yes - the first challenge is to get the first draft down, warts and all. You go back and rewrite after to get everything back in line.

 

[Toby Frost]

It's definitely the book I want to write!!!!

Glad to hear it! Sorry if that was a bit brusque. What I mean is that sometimes it’s possible to have the story and not the setting, or vice versa. I had a good idea of the world of Space Captain Smith before I realised that it was outright comedy, and I’ve had the setting of the fantasy novel that I’m currently trying to write some while before concentrating on the particular characters. Sometimes it helps to look at a story from a slightly different angle: someone else tells the story instead of the hero, or you put a different emphasis on a group of people, etc.

 

[Stuart Suffel]

Hey Sham. Writing a book is hard work. The example you said with the jacket is something I would just add, make a note to go back and tweak and add things earlier after the rest of the story is done. Get the first draft through, then go back and work on fleshing it out and making it more coherent.

I was always a pantser. For my first book, i knew the ending and the beginning, and made up everything in between as I went. I do find that doing like Nick suggested is better for me now.

My second book I started a couple years ago, and when I decided to actually do that book again, I started from the beginning using what I had already written as an outline. What I got was much better quality. Then I did small outlines to get me from that point to the end of the book. Of course a lot of things got added in the actual writing, but it was a good way for me to make it to the end.

I'm really starting to think about the sequel to my first novel, and I sat there on monday night and wrote out a one page outline for the whole book. So I know where to start, where it goes in the middle, and how I'm ending it. Now I get to do the fun parts without stressing about where I'm taking it. I find that gives me a lot of focus, and the words flow out faster and more efficiently.

So if you have it in you, I'd say maybe take what you have so far, write it out as an outline, add to that with where you want to go, and perhaps even start over with fresh eyes, and new skills. It sounds daunting but you may find a much better story for it.

What he said.

 

[Lumens]

I have no advice as such, just wanted to say that I am still working on my first novel which I started 9 years ago. Some of the ideas in it are more than 20 years old. I haven't been working on it non-stop but a lot of hours have gone into it over the years. I am writing it because it is a labour of love. It wants to be written! Having said that, I have set myself a deadline for next year to finish it. If it's not finished by then, I will start the next one. Hopefully that one will take less time. Then maybe I will come back to it if needed.

I only found this forum yesterday, and really love it! It has given me a lot of ideas and inspiration already and it's a pleasure to read every post. I really should have come here 9 years ago.

Rob

 

[Danny McG]

I have no advice as such, just wanted to say that I am still working on my first novel which I started 9 years ago.

Rob

I got me five on the go like this. All ideas I scribbled down over the years and I keep going back to different ones as something new occurs to me and revising them. I did have eight but two were frozen for way too long so got permanently deleted. The other was tinkered with so many times that it's just a mish mash of jumbled phrases but there is 'one day' a speck of potential there. I think it'll end up sometime as linked short stories

 

[zmunkz]

I would echo the suggestions to write the whole thing out before editing anything. If you realize in chapter 5 you need a new character, well just drop her in there and go. Worry about fixing 1-4 later. This is easier said than done, I know, but I would really mentally commit to it... the edit/write/edit cycle has killed so many would-be awesome stories by preventing them from ever materializing.

Everyone's process is different, and for some (Tolkien or JK Rowling say) going underground and spending years on a single magnum opus worked just fine. I strongly believe that is the exception, rather than the rule, however. 6 years actively writing the same story is a sign something is amiss in most cases. Sounds like you've tried pantsing and you've tried light outlining, so I would try a full outline next. Start with your key scenes so you have some points on the map from start to finish, then to fill in the space between, think about what situation/state-of-mind you want in place in order for you key scenes to really punch. E.g., if a secondary character is going to die and you want it a major tragedy, you can maximize that impact if the main character was getting very close to them right before the incident. So maybe add a scene where have a powerful shared moment. Then repeat: that scene will deliver best if they've been struggling to get along and finally had their moment. Add a few where they try and fail to get along. Follow the threads backwards to fill in your middle.

Any foreshadowing you think of as you write, nail down, but don't worry at all about doing it fully and properly. That is so easy to fix later.

Finally watch out for story bloat. Another consequence of being stuck in a loop on a story is the conceptual story beyond that loop tends to swell. My advice would be, don't worry about a series yet, focus on writing one really great self-contained story first. When that is done in draft form, then you can step back and think about the series arc and adjust the draft to set thing up.

Best of luck!