I've started dozens of stories, wrote half a page, got sidetracked, procrastinated while trying to get back into it, and promptly put it aside hoping I'd come back to it at a later date. Only to come up with a new idea and for the same cycle to happen all over. I entered Summerslam to try and force myself into putting something down.edithdick wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 2:33 pm Does anybody else struggle with this? I feel like the more time I spend reading other people’s stories, the harder it is for me to get into my own.
While I was recovering from COVID last week, I couldn’t concentrate on writing at all, so I’ve been reading everything I could find to pass the time.
Once I was feeling better, I found it almost impossible to continue writing my story in The Suggestion Box thread but found it effortless to complete two endings for BP’s story.
I literally had to take a day off of reading anything but my own story before I could write my own story again.
How to Write?
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Re: How to Write?
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Re: How to Write?
I wrote my first story when I was 12 years old or about 30 years before word processors. At the time I had to be letter perfect. Mistakes were difficult to correct and if I had to go back and "patch" a previous section of the story, there was no easy way to do it. Of course there were scissors and tape (the original cut and paste).
Word processing makes the process so much easier. You don't have to get it on the first take. Get on the horse and keep writing.
For most of my stories I don't have to do a lot of revision, but then sometimes, I do have to do a major rewrite. Sometimes, I throw the story on the "get back to it someday" pile - I have hundreds of these stories dating back to the 1990's. This is my junkyard, and like its mechanical counterpart, I sometimes raid it for spare parts. Some scenes and ideas are worth recycling.
Most of my stories are inspired by pictures: not even pornographic pictures necessarily. I wonder what is going on here? How did this situation come about? Where does it go from here?
In his book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," Stephen Covey advises as his Second Habit: "Start with the end in mind." This works well in business, but to tell the truth, I rarely know how my stories will end when I start them.
I do limit myself to about a half dozen main characters, each with a distinct personality. Then I do like Peter Sellers does in some of his movies, play multiple parts. I take on the personality of my characters, they become my arms and legs and mouths. They do not always stick to the script. As I start a conversation with the other characters and they respond, they sometimes take the story in a direction I did not intend.
So I can be a submissive boy or a dominant girl and enjoy the excitement of being humiliated and the thrill of dominance.
As a child, I never had an imaginary friend. As an author I have hundreds of them. I don't know if writers have to have multiple personality disorder, but it works for me.
So my main problem with writing is how to wrap it up or end it. Most of my stories have room for sequels.
Writing my stories takes anywhere from about a week to a month or in some cases, years. I've written short one-offs (which is how I started) to multiple part sagas.
Word processing makes the process so much easier. You don't have to get it on the first take. Get on the horse and keep writing.
For most of my stories I don't have to do a lot of revision, but then sometimes, I do have to do a major rewrite. Sometimes, I throw the story on the "get back to it someday" pile - I have hundreds of these stories dating back to the 1990's. This is my junkyard, and like its mechanical counterpart, I sometimes raid it for spare parts. Some scenes and ideas are worth recycling.
Most of my stories are inspired by pictures: not even pornographic pictures necessarily. I wonder what is going on here? How did this situation come about? Where does it go from here?
In his book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," Stephen Covey advises as his Second Habit: "Start with the end in mind." This works well in business, but to tell the truth, I rarely know how my stories will end when I start them.
I do limit myself to about a half dozen main characters, each with a distinct personality. Then I do like Peter Sellers does in some of his movies, play multiple parts. I take on the personality of my characters, they become my arms and legs and mouths. They do not always stick to the script. As I start a conversation with the other characters and they respond, they sometimes take the story in a direction I did not intend.
So I can be a submissive boy or a dominant girl and enjoy the excitement of being humiliated and the thrill of dominance.
As a child, I never had an imaginary friend. As an author I have hundreds of them. I don't know if writers have to have multiple personality disorder, but it works for me.
So my main problem with writing is how to wrap it up or end it. Most of my stories have room for sequels.
Writing my stories takes anywhere from about a week to a month or in some cases, years. I've written short one-offs (which is how I started) to multiple part sagas.
My story page: https://puericil.netlify.app/fna/namb.html
- Executionus
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Re: How to Write?
I've mentioned before that this is my exact process. I will have conversations with myself at work, in character as multiple people (including changing my voice). I have been caught doing this before. My managers all think I'm insane.Namb wrote: ↑Thu Sep 01, 2022 1:46 am I do limit myself to about a half dozen main characters, each with a distinct personality. Then I do like Peter Sellers does in some of his movies, play multiple parts. I take on the personality of my characters, they become my arms and legs and mouths. They do not always stick to the script. As I start a conversation with the other characters and they respond, they sometimes take the story in a direction I did not intend.
So I can be a submissive boy or a dominant girl and enjoy the excitement of being humiliated and the thrill of dominance.
As a child, I never had an imaginary friend. As an author I have hundreds of them. I don't know if writers have to have multiple personality disorder, but it works for me.
Executionus Complete Story Archive
Other Old Story Archives: Beach Club, Dreambook Board, HUGE Mega archive.
Other Old Story Archives: Beach Club, Dreambook Board, HUGE Mega archive.
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Re: How to Write?
Here are my two biggest struggles. I work very hard to avoid this, but often fail.
1. Introducing too many characters and too quickly with the expectation that the reader will remember them all. I'm not good at remembering names and people, so I try extra hard to emphasize a trait or title that would make them easy to place in relation to the protagonists. You've lived with them all in your head, but the reader is just meeting them for the first time. Other than the protagonists, I try not to have more than about 1 other named character per chapter. If I'm going to introduce a new repeating character, I will often have another one exit the story to make room.
One example is that comes to mind is The New Rules by superevil7. Don't get me wrong, that story is a masterpiece and 10 times better than anything I could ever write. But I felt like I needed a glossary of characters to keep up with them all.
2. Too much dialog. Dialog is maybe the hardest thing to write well. It's just not descriptive enough for a written medium. And too much of it can totally derail a story. If you have a scene with lots of dialog, try to re-imagine it to tell it some other way.
The Tennis Captain by jastes22 is one example of this phenomenon. It's clearly popular and is probably a great story, for all I know. But I got overwhelmed by the amount of dialog going back and forth (like a tennis ball, hehe) that I gave up and moved on.
My point is, there are some really great authors on this board. There are also some really interesting ideas or seeds of amazing stories which I just can't get into because one or both of these is a distraction.
~ ND
1. Introducing too many characters and too quickly with the expectation that the reader will remember them all. I'm not good at remembering names and people, so I try extra hard to emphasize a trait or title that would make them easy to place in relation to the protagonists. You've lived with them all in your head, but the reader is just meeting them for the first time. Other than the protagonists, I try not to have more than about 1 other named character per chapter. If I'm going to introduce a new repeating character, I will often have another one exit the story to make room.
One example is that comes to mind is The New Rules by superevil7. Don't get me wrong, that story is a masterpiece and 10 times better than anything I could ever write. But I felt like I needed a glossary of characters to keep up with them all.
2. Too much dialog. Dialog is maybe the hardest thing to write well. It's just not descriptive enough for a written medium. And too much of it can totally derail a story. If you have a scene with lots of dialog, try to re-imagine it to tell it some other way.
The Tennis Captain by jastes22 is one example of this phenomenon. It's clearly popular and is probably a great story, for all I know. But I got overwhelmed by the amount of dialog going back and forth (like a tennis ball, hehe) that I gave up and moved on.
My point is, there are some really great authors on this board. There are also some really interesting ideas or seeds of amazing stories which I just can't get into because one or both of these is a distraction.
~ ND
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Re: How to Write?
I also have the long drawn out, multi-chapter type stories that grew larger from a simple idea.
At the same time, I have ideas for short stories that stay short. I found a way to do these short stories by giving them to a single character, a poor
lad who has to suffer all kinds of embarrassing moments. It's just easier giving all these mishaps to a single character and doing it all under one
topic.
At the same time, I have ideas for short stories that stay short. I found a way to do these short stories by giving them to a single character, a poor
lad who has to suffer all kinds of embarrassing moments. It's just easier giving all these mishaps to a single character and doing it all under one
topic.
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How did your story turn out?dublinjohn wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 8:33 pm So, I have an idea now, that I think I can make a story out of, it needs a bit of research, but, its simple stuff, but, to ask the writers here who actually finish stories, should I just mark out an hour daily 21.45 to 22.45 to write/research and be strict, or just try leaving it until a Sunday and doing a 4/5 hour stretch in the evening, when I do nothing but surf the web and spend time with my friend Jack (although, I may know him enough to call him John) Daniels and self edit during the week (once).
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It died a death in the wildernessedithdick wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 10:21 pmHow did your story turn out?dublinjohn wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 8:33 pm So, I have an idea now, that I think I can make a story out of, it needs a bit of research, but, its simple stuff, but, to ask the writers here who actually finish stories, should I just mark out an hour daily 21.45 to 22.45 to write/research and be strict, or just try leaving it until a Sunday and doing a 4/5 hour stretch in the evening, when I do nothing but surf the web and spend time with my friend Jack (although, I may know him enough to call him John) Daniels and self edit during the week (once).
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Re: How to Write?
I have a few stories that are lingering there as well. I feel like if you don't love the story you are writing, you'll never have the motivation to get around to finishing it. My advice it to noodle around with the story until you either find an angle that is so compelling that the words gush out of you until you can't stop writing it... or you will eventually get so sick of thinking about it that it leaves you alone forever.
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