Is there a time when you thought you were over your head when writing? Should you continue on and muddle through it or just set it aside for a while and see if you can finish it at that time?
I have that feeling on one of my WIP's. I feel that I should almost scrap it and just start a different piece and try to pick it up later.
There've been times when I thought, I can't write this, because I don't know enough about police work/archaeology/whatever. So I can learn, or put it off.
There have been times when I thought, I don't know enough about the world I'm writing in -- so I need to do more invention.
And *certainly* if I don't know what's going to happen in a scene, I don't put fingers on the keyboard, at least not with expectation I'll get useful text.
posted
Oh, every time I write something I think "oh, I can't write this, I don't know anything about [whatever]." But I write it anyway. The main story is going to be the interaction between the characters, which I can do. The rest is just detail - important detail that needs to be right, yes, but I don't need to know the detail for the first draft.
I got good at ignoring my lack of knowledge during flashes. What do I know about robots? Nothing! What do I know about assassins or blind people? Nothing! What do I know about meth addicts or Appalachin people? Nothing! But I bang out hte story, and if it's worth the effort, I can find out the rest of the info I need to really make it work.
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I try to keep in mind, during the writing process, that no one has to see it if I don't show it to them. I am free to write all the crapola I can churn out. It's the EDITING process that makes me anxious, because at that stage I suspect that someone else will soon be looking at it.
Posts: 2026 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I've had my own version of this. About a year and a half I had a moment of inspiration and thought of a fabulous idea for a mystery novel. I am quite literally afraid to write it. Not because I don't think I know enough about police procedures, etc. I agree that I can learn that. That's not what worries me. No, I'm afraid that I'm not good enough (yet, at least) to do this fantastic idea justice. I feel like it deserves so much more than my meager skill can manage. I'm slowly working my way toward it, practicing, occassionally trying bits and pieces, working on it and thinking about it. But I just don't know if I can do it. And yes, no one has to see it if I don't want them to, but I feel that the story deserves to be shared. I think that many would enjoy it, if I could only tell it right, if I can only write well enough.
All that said, I don't think I could ever forget this story, nor stop trying to write it. I just can't not write.
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One definition of "writer's block" is that the writer doesn't feel ready or able to write the story that is demanding to be written.
Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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posted
If you have good ideas that demand to be written, but you aren't ready, get a stack of index cards, sketch out the story with one scene on an index card and color code the edge of the cards common to one plot line with a highlight marker.
Once you've done that, I think you'll find yourself in one of two places. Either you will be ready to write the story, or you will have a good archive of your story that you can pull out of the drawer when you are ready. I've done this to preserve a story idea that back a few places in the queue and it works really well. The cards are good because it lets you move scene order around, and color coding allows you to order the whole story yet still be able to easily extract one plot line from the stack.
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you're better off coming up with your own scheme, using colors that work for you, rather than for someone else, no?
Posts: 2710 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
True, but it would be easier to adapt a known pattern to a personal level. If you tell someone to decorate a living room and they have only lived in a tent, they won't understand the basis of the materials.
I'm just looking for an example so I can better understand the theory.
posted
I've always been intrigued by this index card, color-coded system you guys talk about, as well. Now that my WIP has grown to 195 pages and 30,000 words, I'm finding it a challenge at times to make sure the chronology of my scenes is taking place in the optimum order. I have a basic outline, but it's only good to highlight the chapter summaries, not scenes within a chapter. A detailed explanation of how this system can be used would be helpful. Is there a book or website you can refer us to? Or anyone able to summarize the process?
Posts: 2026 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I'm a programmer and a novelist, and yWriter is the result of 3 or 4 years of development. I really struggled over my first novel because I wrote whole slabs of text into a great big word processor file and tried to make sense of the whole thing at once. I then tried saving each chapter to individual files with great long descriptive filenames, but moving scenes around was a nuisance and I couldn't get an overview of the whole thing (or easily search for one word amongst 32 files) In the end I realised a dedicated program was the way to go, and yWriter is the result. It may look simple, but as the author of three books written with this tool I can guarantee it has everything needed to get a first draft together.
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I'm trying out yWriter for one novel, but it's slow going. Not all the features are making sense of how to get them working or what use they are. I haven't given up yet, still trying.
posted
My color-coding scheme is not based on anything. I grab one highlighter for one plot line, grab a different color for another plot line, and so forth. The colors are only meaningful in that cards with the same color are the same plot thread. I don't need anything more sophistocated than that.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
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