Hi!
Today's post will be about writing what suits you and what to do when writing (which you love and are sure you want to do for the rest of your life - otherwise you wouldn't bother reading this) feels like a drag? Warning: loooong.
Let's start with 1.
Unbusting the myth of 'just write'. There will be a point in your career when you feel sucked dry, worn out, and you'll want to quit writing, but some stubborn part of yourself refuses to quit. You try to write still, short stories, novels, you start a couple of them, or twenty, but they don't work out. You're frustrated, you cry, you might rant to your friends/family about it, but nothing works.
Why not?
a) You're not doing what you love.
Oh but hold up.
You're wrong! I love writing.
If you're reading this you probably do. You want a solution to the perceived writer's block.
I'm going to tell you a secret.
Writer's Block is real.
It happens when you're not doing what you love. It happens when you're trying to do something you're not THAT into... just because it sounds cool/you've heard it sells well/you're trying to make the coolest story possible.
b) I've recently discovered a simple truth: when you're working on something you love, there's no time to agonize or be afraid. The project simply takes over... and the moment you feel frustrated/angry with it (even after taking a two day/two week/two month/two year break) something about the material you're writing is wrong. And then you should take a break until the rest of the story comes to you without you even having to think about it. (I'm not sure intense thinking works in this case instead. It doesn't work for me. It mostly does the opposite by simply ruining the whole book. And then you have to go back to the first draft... after you've already done another three or four. :D Yey!)
Taking the above into account... what (else) could be wrong? The same thing that was wrong with the ten plus projects I wrote 30-50k words on and then quit.
1. you're not writing what you love any more
2. you're (pretentiously) trying to write something that sounds cool... but your heart doesn't beat for
3. you're bored of the project (because of 1. or 2.)
4. the idea only engaged you the first hour you had it... then you started finding faults... started trying to fix them... found it too hard/boring/whatever and gave up on it.
Does this sound like I'm advocating quitting? Well. I am. Here's a single rule you should always apply: if you're tired of a project (or worse, bored), and you really don't want to do it any more, quit. With a caveat: Don't quit immediately. Sometimes there's a gem somewhere in the mess you're getting allergic to. Sometimes your brain just needs to... develop before you can finish a certain story. You'll have to practice a lot to understand this.
I'll give you some examples. I have a novella at 36k... unfinished. It's not something I can ever finish, even though I know the outcome. I just can't do it. It's too depressing. The main character grabbed me and told me her story in three days but then she told me the ending and I said 'No. This is not the sort of thing I write or want to write.' It would break people's hearts and make them cry. It made me cry... and I didn't even know the ending at the time. I don't want to finish it. I don't want to be crushed by my stories any more than I want to crush my readers. There's too much depressing stuff out there already. I don't need to add to it. After all, I'm trying to make the world a better, happier place with my stories.
This is one instance in which you quit. I likely won't ever finish the story, though it'd take 5k words (an afternoon's worth of words) max to do it. Instead I decided to put it away.
Then there's the beginnings... lots of them. I must have about twenty to thirty started and not finished stories by now.
Why? I love ideas and I like writing beginnings a lot. But I have no patience to see something through when my heart isn't into it. I'll find out something about a character, the plot, the setting... and I just go 'nope' mode. For me to finish a book, it has to be something I really love, plot, setting, characters, et al. Otherwise it won't hold my attention... and how do I expect the reader's attention to be held if I'm so bored I can't even think about it without groaning (out loud. Trust me... I've gotten weird looks.)? I'm not too worried about these though. Remember what I said about practice? You have to do it a lot. 10k hours as the common conception goes. This is all practice (and hey, my beginnings are getting great! ...). 30k words are easily written and discarded. Some turn into short stories instead of novels, but the point is, you need to keep at it. I don't believe in outlining or plotting or whatever before you sit down to write. Because, especially as a panster, you simply cannot know whether a story is going to be a short story or a novel or a novella when you start to write. You can't even know the genre... or the word count (you sit down to write a novel... and suddenly it's over at 4k words. That's ok! You can sell it to magazines as a short story and keep all the other ideas you had for it for another novel/short story/novella!) Don't worry. A lot of this will be less hazy with experience... which you get through practice!
Ok. Practice Propaganda done. Let's get on with the post.
Then there's the actual finished projects and their edits. These are tricky. There will be parts that work and parts that don't. And sometimes you won't know what works and what doesn't. :D Oh joy! Unfortunately I can't tell you what works and what doesn't. Each book is too subjective to make a general rule about how you should edit. (Yes this is not what you wanted to hear. Oh well. It's the practice thing again... it'll become easier in time to tell what's wrong... and how to fix it! I'll talk more about this in another post.) I could give you advice... but I'd have to charge for consultation. But don't worry, once it's done, you can put it aside, for a year or two, and then you take them out again, and if you're still scared to ruthlessly cut, you need to put it aside again, and again, and again, until the solutions come to you like mosquitos during the night (in a swampy area... ok.)!
Did this help you decide whether you're a sloth or not doing what you should be? I hope it did and that you have a great week no matter the outcome.
Cheers
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