Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Writing? No, No! Anything But That!

You know you want it. C'mon, just a taste. You won't get hooked. I guarantee it. Just sniff it a little. C'mon, it's safe to do. All your friends have done it. Why not you?

That's it. Just take that #92 Bright/20 lb piece of paper and hold it up to your nose. That clean chemical scent does something to you, don't it?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

What's that? You say you want more? But...but...but...well...okay. Here you go.

Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh.

Guess what my friend, I lied. You are, for all intents and purposes, hooked.

What? You say you're not hooked? That you can walk away from it and go back to being a normal non-self absorbed person?

Tell you what, if you can sit all the way through what I'm about to say without interrupting, then I will tell everyone that I was mistaken and you're not hooked. But if you do interrupt, you are hooked and there is nothing that you or anyone else can do about it.
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So, here I sit one month later, with the first draft of my synopsis for Line 21 and I'm having a heck of time trying to figure out how to trim the fat and reduce it from 10 pages to something more manageable. I found another article that was linked from QueryTracker and its a lot clearer than the one that I printed out back in August (also from QueryTracker), so hopefully by the time you read this, I can give an update in the comment section of the post.

This thing was a major pain in the ass to write to begin with and between writing it out by hand and typing out the rest of it on the computer, I was ready to tear out my hair with a pair of tweezers. However, I will say this about that: if they ask for an outline, I can write that in nothing flat. Bullet points I can do. Summarizing, I can't.

What's that? You say you have some pointers on how I could trim the fat? But you want me to post it first?

Are you mad? The damn thing is 10 pages long and even I wouldn't torture my readers with something that long. No sir, you'll just have to wait just like everyone else to find out what the book is about in greater detail.

shakes his head in disappointment

As for my other writing project that I put aside while I was doing multiple rounds of editing Line 21, that has hit a major league snag. About two weeks ago, I decided to apply the notes I'd written on the hard copy to the disk copy, so that when I finally decided to get back to it in earnest, it would be up to date. I figure that this was the very least I could do since I once again wrote myself into a small corner with the story. However, that isn't the major league snag I hit.

This is.

While I was transcribing my notes, I came across a very small paragraph of a internal explanation that one of the minor characters had thought, which basically stated what the intended plot of the story was to be. Problem is that's not what I originally envisioned the end result of the story to be.

The basic plot is this: a hybrid woman in exile from her home planet is told that the current ruler of the planet wants to possess her human husband and will do whatever it takes to acquire him. So I basically stayed within that plot line for about 67 pages, and expanding on it only when I felt it was necessary. Early on I decided to write it from two different points of view: the hybrid woman who is trying to hang onto her husband and the other hybrid who is trying to take him away.

But like I said, its that one small paragraph that is giving me grief. The more I think about it, the less I'm liking it. The less I like it, the more disinclined I am to continue writing the story. And thus, my current dilemma with the story.

sigh

I can see that my original statement about you still stands. You are indeed hooked and there is no escaping the fact that you are hooked. Oh sure, you can try to DENY that you're hooked, but really, can you say that denial with a straight face after just churning out a few thousand words while also spending a few hours editing a story until it screams for mercy?

I didn't think so.

Since your addiction has taken over your soul 100%, I might as well give your daily fix, which as you know from reading this blog, is in the form of a question.

"Have you ever experienced the problem that I've just expounded on with a story? And if so, how did you come to satisfactory resolution?"

11 comments:

  1. I'm definitely hooked on writing, though I do my share of procrastinating. when I hit a snag like you're talking about I find the only real cure is some time away from the manuscript.

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  2. I still don't know how you write Fiction, seems sooo hard!

    I did think about trying once. Had a crazy dream and thought I should expand on it... but it was about ghosts and how many damn ghosts books are out right now? A LOT!

    Keep up the good work!

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  3. I can't say that I have. But I don't write fiction either. :)

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  4. Charles: Up until this past weekend, I spent over a solid month not working on this (or anything else for that matter). I was finally to shove that small problem aside and not only finish that particular section/chapter, but was able to start on the next chapter. Still haven't touch my synopsis yet, but I'm taking a couple of vacation days next week to work on it.

    T1G: Happy New Year young lady!

    Actually, I find writing fiction ridiculously easy....so long as I don't have to worry about a plot that sprouts in multiple directions.

    Non-fiction would be the bane of my existence.

    Lynn: But..but..but..doesn't writing certain business correspondence count as fiction? :D

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  5. I usually have to set the writing aside for enough time that I have a new perspective. That's the only thing that has worked for me.

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  6. R: A new perspective? Yeah, I can do that.

    I probably been doing that with almost everything that I write as of late.

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  7. If you're like me, you write two versions and see what rings true...then you don't have any regrets about not exploring the angles you thought you would, but that somehow escaped your attention while in the thralls of creating :)

    And, of course, after writing the two versions you then write a totally different piece that hardly resembles the idea you started with! ;)

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  8. Well....as I type this, I am taking a break from screaming at J and N who, instead of performing their assigned roles, got into a screaming match that ended with J trying to kill his mentor moments before the climatic moment he is supposed to, instead of dueling with his best friend, assist his mentor.

    Pesky characters doing what they would do instead of what they are supposed to do to make my story work.

    Now I have the conundrum; the last three pages feel like intense, exceptional writing but they sort of dereail the story; do I put off the climax and resolve this or throw out what I just wrote?

    I feel your pain

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  9. Talon: The problem with the first part of your theory is that with me, I would probably write for so long exploring something else that by the time I figure out what I was supposed to be doing, the story would be severely compromised. :(

    The second part I have done and completely agree with . :D

    Darth: The sticky problem I had with this one was that I was trying to explain why Jon (the human husband) didn't want to go back to his previous lifestyle in order to help his wife prevent him from being kidnapped and I got severely stuck over one particular paragraph.

    I finally got around it by wiping out that paragraph and continuing in the same vein of animosity that Jon's current wife and ex-wife were going through with each other.

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  10. I have a writer's notebook filled with pieces of work that resemble a patchwork of stories. I wonder if they can be put into a cohesive whole. As you know, poetry has been taking up my attention lately. I do feel that writing nudge and wonder if I need to see how my "present" eyes like or dislike what I wrote before. Maybe I can get these broken up stories a life somehow.

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  11. Kelly: Sounds like a good plan. I did that with a few of my incompletes and weaved a very nice story around them.

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Go on, give me your best shot. I can take it. If I couldn't, I wouldn't have created this wonderful little blog that you decided to grace with your presence today.

About that comment moderation thingy: While yes, it does say up above I can take it, I only use it to prevent the occasional miscreant from leaving thoughtless and/or clueless comments.

So remember, all of your comments are greatly appreciated and all answers will be given that personal touch that you come to expect and enjoy.

G. B. Miller

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