non-77 thread for my epic novel

Cheers for those links Matt. I may try a short story or two at some stage although I've never been especially good at them - I don't really have the concision. Could be a valuable exercise...

I don't have to let this one go, but the trouble is that the next one just isn't coming - I've written a tentative plan - I can't motivate myself to write anything as it seems so slight and insubstantial (at this stage) next to the dead weight (literally) in boxes on my floor, that I devoted 6 years of my life to

Nobody's read it!

lol welcome to fiction writing. your best friends will read the first short story you finish out of curiosity, and then you'll regret showing it to them cos your stuff is better now. your absolute best friend might read another one or two. other writers are the only people who will read your writing, and at book length, i'd say even that is unlikely. maybe try sending people excerpts?

so you could join a writing group but ime these are hit and miss, and you have to sit there listening to some truly terrible writing (even while you know your own is miles from the level you want) or deal with people who are as crazy as you are but in more annoying ways. so like some offensive/horrible writing. also people who come and never write or share anything, or share the same thing over and over.

you might make a few pals at writing groups or classes, with whom you subsequently exchange work - maybe.

i'm just starting a masters in writing and a big part of the appeal is regular feedback from lecturers and, presumably, other students who are serious enough to have applied and got in.

but you've prob done one of the hard parts which is just finishing something in the first place - now you just need to edit it forever.

I earned my master’s in writing a decade and a half ago, worked for a few years and flamed out. After a horrendous bout of writer’s block I’m back on the teaching side of things and ... eesh... the psychosocial drama of managing a conference group is enough to drive me round the bend. If anything I’m more precious about sharing my work... although I’ve grown much more incisive and fearless in my critiquing.

i edited it for a year after finishing! there was absolutely loads to do. then i had to proofread, format it in indesign and make a cover but that's selfpublishing shit

writing groups are miss and miss ime and for the reasons you state. latterly tt and i tried to form a good writing meetup but nobody joined

good luck in your masters dude, i've liked what i've read of your work - one of the stronger entries in that short-lived writing thing klata put together a while back. i'd guess if you want to be serious about writing it's worth the expense, otherwise you're stuck with us haha

i really like learning and i tend to miss things when teaching myself stuff, it was like this when i studied drama more seriously, so i think i can improve a lot. also having deadlines and assignments is good for me. i like my day job and it's secure and well-paid but need a bit more. i write and read most evenings anyway so doing a masters doesn't alter my life much - all the ancillary benefits like meeting people and being out and about too.

don't know where it'll go really - doesn't matter. i really just want to write a few stories which some people read, maybe eventually have a collection of stories. doesn't have to be big.

there are quite a few small publishers i encountered on my vain (in several senses) quest to have my work promoted by others, who'd perk up an ear at your stuff, especially a small collection of stories. i'm sure you're getting good advice from your course but if you want i can point you in a few directions

one question - how do you motivate yourself to write most evenings? i should be writing right now, for instance, but i'm listening to music and playing chess and bemoaning

ah it's fucking impossible. i wouldn't say i "motivate" myself, some evenings i get in from work and sit down and i'm just zonked, and it takes a big effort. other times i go for a few weeks of writing most evenings and it feels easier.

i don't think anyone ever gets over that battle but the biggest thing i would say is that "having ideas" is no longer a problem for me - i definitely think if you start writing down snippets of ideas, and training yourself to always process an idea or take inspiration when it comes, your brain in turn gives you more. equally if you finish a thing your brain stops bugging you about that thing and comes up with something else. the more you can also train yourself in converting vague impulses into say, a first paragraph, or longer, the better.

it's all v weird tho. the two things i'm most hopeful about of late were both written on my phone, on flights home after weekends away. something about the total boredom/low key nature of that.

i have so many unfinished drafts and even more unedited first drafts - so so many. there are times i hate every word of a thing or just hate it. i wish i didn't have a job and could get up at 9am, go for a run, then write for the day, and i fantasise about going somewhere quiet and warm with a beach just to write, but i can't be sure that having more time would not be worse.

ooh last year i started a thing on a plane (also on my phone) then gave it up later as it wasn't going to be novel-length. maybe that's a short story right there. it was perhaps more personal to my own life than the novel, planes as places of introspection etc

tutoring gives me loads and loads of free time which i don't use properly and then feel bad about - maybe you're better off with a smaller window? that sounds ridiculous though. besides i wouldn't have been able to get 250,000 words out inside twenty years without the free time.

writing down snippets is urgent and key though - i should do it more rather than try to store everything (and when i was doing the novel, i did have a planning/snippets section at the end of the document).

maybe an ilx writing club could work if we went about it the right way this time - with more of a focus on writing rather than the public airing of extracts. craft not satiation. idk

no i think smaller windows can maybe be better, more urgency. eg many weekends pass without me writing.

i would be up for sharing writing or generally talking to people here about it.

one place i also found it curiously easy to write was the tube

right well i will see if something can be started

writing down snippets is urgent and key though - i should do it more rather than try to store everything (and when i was doing the novel, i did have a planning/snippets section at the end of the document).

some (maybe all) of the parts of stories i feel are strongest have come either as a snippet, maybe the morning after working on something at length, on my way to work, which i then put into my phone. or also, in bed after writing, reach over and grab my phone and write three paragraphs. there's definitely a lot of thought that comes away from the page - sometimes it feels futile or frustrating but other times i get these moments of clarity about how a scene should happen, or an ending.

all that said i'm still miles away from the standard of the writers whose work i admire.

xpost

yes my (non-fiction directed) experience of "all day in looking at the screen" (which i've organised quite well for myself over the years) is that it can sometimes end up being be very stultifying and demoralising: bus-rides and walks are U&K for generating slivers of material, yr body out and about has a different energy for imagination

if i had no paper*/pen with me -- and before phones with notepad apps -- i wd literally train myself to commit to memory the 3-4 little notions i'd had to work up as a list, and write them down properly as soon as i got somewhere i could do so

*flyleaf of book, inside back cover ditto, etc etc

no i think smaller windows can maybe be better, more urgency. eg many weekends pass without me writing.

i would be up for sharing writing or generally talking to people here about it.

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), woensdag 4 oktober 2017 10:52 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Man this is so where I am right now. I've got a personal essay in the works. The circumstances are probably the best I've ever had surrounding a writing thing: there's a clear deadline, clear subject, 10.000 words, subjective (ie. not a whole lot of research) and frankly a highly generous fee (it's big money, for me), I moved into a nice quiet farm recently, perfect for writing... Circumstances just could not be better. Blocked two whole weekends to write and... It's just not happening.

I was lucky enough to have two months off and be a writer in residence in San Sebastián earlier this year: that did work out great, writing wise. But here recently I just got nothing and blocked, procrastinated. Last week I was so fed up with myself I tried to do what I'd never done, never though would work, and that is writing for one hour, every night, even after I'm home knackered from work. And the slowly the wheels set in motion again! I can't believe it, but all day through I'm looking forward to that hour, taking notes in advance etc. And it works.

Never thought I was 'that person' who could write like this; always told myself I'd need a full free day at least. Possibly to have an excuse if it didn't work out ("I'm so busy all the time!"). That's for another thread probably, but yeah, short windows have been revelatory for me. Can't recommend enough to at least try it out for five days straight.

(Very much enjoyed this convo btw, we should keep this up)

I think those kind of time limits work really well. I had a bad period of block in the summer and I said "what if I wrote with honesty of effort for 20 minutes tonight" - and kind of took it from there. i guess the main thing is to have a connection to the thing you're working on, a few missed days and it dies.

Maybe a really comprehensive pan would shake me out of my months-long mope and get me cracking on the next one, but silence is worse.

It's printed in ITC Teeny-Weeny Serif.

is that what times new roman becomes when you make it size 9

if so, you are quite correct -_-

when you make it size 9

it's called "9 point". this is what happens when you let authors do their own book design.*

*full disclosure: I designed my self-published book.

Just in case yall dint see this ILB Writing Club

"we all have first novels in drawers"

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/05/29/christine-schutt-on-nightwork/

Its quite a video - all that hurt (even before the abusive r/ship she got into).