So I started writing a story. Well, trying to at least.
I have 1 chapter (which is super short, more like a prologue), plus a couple paragraphs of chapter 2. I have a very rough shell of what I want to happen, but at this point, I'm not really sure where to take the story. So then I started wrting something else. Something that I don't have any real expectations for, so it's just a short story. Similar to a story I wrote last Christmas for my friends (it was a play off of A Christmas Carol).
Then I wondered who I write like (Chaelomen, I think that was one of my favorite blog posts you've done).
Beginning of book: Neil Gaiman.
Beginning of short story: Stephen King.
I like both of these authors, though let's not put too much stock into that (I typed up a couple paragraphs from Anansi Boys. Turns out Neil Gaiman writes like Arthur Clarke). If only I could actually finish writing something. Not that I think a lot of experienced writers read my blog, but any advice?
9 comments:
Here's some advice from an actual writer:
http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/
I never tried his method out, but it seemed like a pretty good idea. And his books are pretty good.
oh, and how are Kung Fu lessons going?
Getting a good start is easy, but keeping up with it isn't. I suggest taking a break for a while, reading some really old literature, and then perhaps starting up again. You don't have to keep writing consistently to finish it. As long as no one's waiting on you, you can go ahead and take years on it, and no one will have to know. :P
Not that I'm a professional, but I have read books by professionals on how to write. I think the last thing you want to do is take time off from it, planning to get back later. I've never gotten back to a story that I shelved. I think you want to set yourself a daily quota (probably by number of pages) and a deadline, and make sure you aren't editing as you write. You can always re-work story lines and dialog later. If you self-edit now, you'll just lose steam.
Shinobi- unfortunately, for some reason, Kung Fu has been changed from twice a week to once every two weeks. So, I'll let you know tomorrow :)
But thanks for the book website!
And thanks Sarah and Maku, even though you guys gave exact opposite advice :) I think I have a lot of things going on here, so I'll set a quota, but it'll be pretty light still.
Oh yeah. Shinobi. Kung Fu is pretty fun, but it's all very dance-ish right now. I assume (and hope) that once we get some of the more basic moves down, we'll start learning to fight, but that actually might be too advanced for the length of time we're here. We'll see.
Currently, we're trying to get Freda to get us Kung Fu lessons for 45 minutes once a week instead of an hour and a half twice a week. I think she said that would be fine. :)
And in case anyone is randomly checking my comments for updates... That website is totally awesome. And the quota thing is working pretty well for me so far. But whoa. It's hard to not go back through and try to edit my writing.
Glad the quota thing's working for you so far. Don't edit, you don't want to lose steam on the write. With how different your version of A Christmas Carol was from the original. I don't doubt that after your book exists you'll be able to work on or change anything you weren't so sure about in the original draft. Just keep going until you have a whole first copy to edit, and have a better idea of what the book is as a whole, before you try making it perfect as you go along.
By the way, do you have a specific goal so you know when your story is long enough (not that length won't change during editing)? Neverwhere was 370 pages, with about 280 words per page (100,000 words total). For National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo.org)the goal is 50,000 words for the novel, about 175 pages. Just something to think about before you get too far, if you haven't decided already.
I can't honestly say I did not expect to have anyone comment on this blog again. But that's an interesting point, I never even considered a length goal. I think the length of Neverwhere is a good one, but for nanowrimo, if they've got half of that, would a Neverwhere-lengthed novel be too much to start off on?
I don't think Neverwhere size is too much to start with. I mean, it's not American Gods. Go with it. And, I get the follow-up comments sent to my email when I leave a comment, so if you were to throw a comment up on this post some time next year, I'd get an email, and could respond if I had something to say.
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