I figured... why have a group if you aren't going to use it for discussion? So, in that vein, every so often I'll post a general topic for discussion and debate. Maybe it'll give you a few ideas to make your life easier, maybe it won't. But... I'm nosy so I like to know these things about people either way hehe. And of course, please post your own topics, whatever they may be, whenever you get the urge. :)
Writing Goals
Every once in a while, I realize I need to set new writing goals for myself. After months of very little writing, my current goal is 1,500 words a day plus 1 hour of editing time for other WIPs. I generally get pretty close to the writing goal, not so much with the editing just yet.
I lack purpose and direction without the goals, or more aptly, without the challenge of striving to meet the goal. Kind of like I can't quite get the essay written for class unless I feel the pressure of a looming deadline.
Do you set daily writing goals for yourself or do you just write when you get the urge? Do you count editing in the goal or is it straight word count only? And... do writing goals help keep you on track or do they throw you all off?
The only writing goals that I have evr had have been those set for me by an instructor. To set my own goals I would not even know were to begin. I guess I do better when people tell me I have to do things. If I were to set a goal it would topical... I mean to be able to say I have covered the entire topic. I like this JulyNaNo thing, It has basically told me how much, all I have to figure out is how and about what. If I were to set a page or word limit I would either put down crap to fill the space or struggle to trim it down sacrificing info that I think is good.
With the writting 'competition' I will have a plan. I think it will be a patchwork book. That is I will make a series of small experiences, ideas, scenarios, character descriptions, whatever then weave it together after I figure out who my characters are. I always end up doing things backwards somehow.
I really like your discussion debate topic idea. This helps me with my lack of creativity and can give us all input and other opinions we can use to develope our skill and thoughts.
Okay now I am just rambling wondering why I wrote what I did and why I drank that third large cup of coffee.
~T
A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins. ~Benjamin Franklin
That makes sense. When I first started college, most of what I wrote were short stories and poems; nothing really long or involved, so word counts weren't really a big thing. Having the instructors set minimum word counts there though, was incredibly helpful both there and when I started really writing again the following year. Getting used to having a specific number of pages or words to write was a pain, but now it makes it so much easier to keep me motivated to do it, hence my daily writing goals. Having the personal goal keeps me motivated to make the time to write every day. When I don't have them, I don't write as much as I need too and then end up obsessing even worse because I need to write and I'm not doing it.
Do you write out of order or patchwork a lot? This is the first time I've really tried it and it was rather by accident. I just had a general idea and started writing, only to realize about 4,000 words in that what I thought was the beginning wasn't going to work as a beginning. I'm not going back just yet. Once I get to the end, I'll go back and write the beginning. Not sure how that's going to work... any tips on writing out of order?
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Like writing? So do we!
~Fallon~
"If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don't remove it - I might be writing in my dreams."- Pace
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Organization is key here. Actually this method feels a inherently messy. If you have ever seen the making of a quilt it can be disasterly at some points.
I first started doing it this way in high school because I would mix up my concrete details with commentary. For some reason I could not tell the diffrence and would have to shuffle my essays so that they would be right upon the due date.
Now what I do Is I take the facts and write those out and keep them seperate. Those will be the important parts that will make the story or whatever. Then I write. I have to set each patch up so it makes sense. I have a timeline that can be mixed if it makes more for a more appealing read. I have my 'oh so important parts' that I need and want (patches) and sew it all together with the other details and tailor as I go along. In the end you can not tell that I started anywere but the begining and have a beautiful creation.
I would not recomend this for everyone, its easy to get confused and lost...I know I do and I have to go back over everything to figure out the point I was trying to make. This is a good way to get some editing done , right?
~T
A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins. ~Benjamin Franklin
hehe, that probably wouldn't work for me. I'm pretty anal about minor details. If, for instance, I say there was a full moon, I'm going to go check and ensure that there was actually a full moon on this or that date. If I say it was raining on this date, I'm going to check that too. It winds up meaning that every detail is important to me, so I can't just plot the important details and work with that since I wind up researching even the little moot points to get those right.
It is a neat idea though and would definitely get some editing done. I have a tendency of editing too much when I'm writing, so I do most of my first drafts longhand and when I type them (if using conventional paper), I make edits as I type. If I'm using the Fly pen, I make edits after I scan... that way I'm not spending more time editing than I am writing. The writing is done by that point.
I just have to get the motivation to go back and start editing previous manuscripts now. I've done some of it... but I can't edit at the computer, I have to print it out and I'm currently trying not to waste paper, so until I find something that will allow me to exist in a happy medium, editing of those is the enemy.
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Like writing? So do we!
~Fallon~
"If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don't remove it - I might be writing in my dreams."- Pace
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Actually it could work. You know you want to say it was raining or that there was a full moon so one of you patches would be 'a full moon on Good Friday, 13th of April, 2001' or something like that. All the made up stuff would go around it to tie it to the next fact 'crappy weather' and so on. Sometimes it ends up being linear anyways esspecially if you have an outline. I usually find my info out of order because search engines hate me and always give me the 'internet finger', or I stumble on other info that would fit elsewhere.
Anyway I am excited to start this treck... tomorow!!! Wow!
Maybe I will do the notebook thing that way I can stay with my kids and jot a few things when away from desk top.
Good luck everyone!!!
~T
A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins. ~Benjamin Franklin
See, academic writing and creative writing are two totally different things for me. I can sit down and write an academic paper straight through if I feel motivated to. And it usually turns out pretty close to my rough draft when I turn it in... maybe a little rewriting or moving in parts, but it's all basically there.
For my creative writing, I have no problem writing chapter 5 when I know what I want in chapter 5 and I know how to write it, only to go back and write chapters 1-4 putting in all the details you need for chapter 5. And I usually end up rewriting a lot.
~C
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I tend to stay pretty close to the drafts as well with academic writing, but the word count concept is the same for me with each. I have to have that goal to stay motivated or I can't keep myself on track, creative writing or academic writing. I have more trouble editing academic writing though. I tend to say what I wanted to say so never know what to change when the need arises. That takes forever to figure out!
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Like writing? So do we!
~Fallon~
"If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don't remove it - I might be writing in my dreams."- Pace
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Well, Fallon, I'm not nearly as much of a writer as you are, but when I do sit down and decide to write, I try to get at least a portion of a chapter, if not the entire chapter done. Of course, while I have a rough idea of what I want in each chapter, I'm never really such of exactly what I want, so I tend to skip around quite a bit.
So, I don't really go for word counts (except that I want at least 2000 words in each chapter in the project I'm working on now), so much as progress in the project as a whole.
~C
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Do you find it easier to write out of order and skip around? This is my first time really doing it that way... so it's an interesting experience. Do you keep notes or a story board or anything to keep it all flowing when you're writing out of order or do you just kind of remember what needs to go where and how you want to do it?
In November one of the girls that I teamed up with for motivation for NaNo had this really elaborate story board. She had torn out images from magazines, clipped headlines from the news, quotes, etc and cleared an entire wall in her house. She posted all of those things and them put up numbered note cards all over the wall that had points she wanted to include at various times in her novel. It was the most elaborate thing I had seen but she said it worked really well. The images and things kept her focused and gave her "sight"; she looked at those when she was drawing a blank on a description; they were her inspiration. When she needed to go back and write something she had skipped, she had it all plotted out on the note cards so she could skip around without worrying that she would forget. I'm still amazed at it.
MCRW has an article on storyboarding that is kind of neat for anyone who goes that route. I'd like to see it in action, if anyone has plans to storyboard during NaNo!
How did you decide on 2000 words per chapter?
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Like writing? So do we!
~Fallon~
"If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don't remove it - I might be writing in my dreams."- Pace
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It depends on my mood, to be honest. Sometimes, I'll have the inspiration to write something, and rather than wait to write it, I write it out right then. And then I figure it might work well in one of my stories, so I sort of adapt my stories to fit that in somewhere. But sometimes, it just doesn't work, so I live with the short story. But I often have a hard time keeping linear thought going, even with my outlines (which really aren't much of outlines... I have like 2-3 things in each chapter I want to happen, and a general timeline of when each chapter is, but beyond that... it's nothing). Maybe I'll actually start keeping a notebook or something with little details I want in there and see if that works a little better for me.
The project I have now is a piece of fanfiction that's a fictionalized account of my relationship with my ex. It fits well, because I think we have the same basic personality traits as the characters. It just has to end a little differently, and a few small details have to be changed. At any rate, my previous attempts at fanfiction had insanely short chapters... like 500 words each. And I didn't think that counted as a real chapter in most books, so I made a goal for myself... at least 2000 words per chapter.
Now, when I do my JulNoWriMo project, I'm not going to be concerned about the length of each chapter, because each chapter will have a definite break. Once I figure out how I want to divide them up, anyway.
~C
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There's always a lot of debate about what makes a chapter on the RWC list. Some think they should all be exactly the same length, others vary them, others think so long as they're so many words it's fine. I've never had a solid opinion on it, so all the debate is interesting to me.
I don't really outline anything except the story itself. I'll plot what the story is about, who the characters are and details about the characters, but I never really break it into chapter or what I want to happen where. My philosophy is it will happen where it wants so might as well not waste the time with notes that are mostly going to be scrapped anyway.
What notes I do use are the minor details... full moon this date, it snowed in London on this day, descriptions of things I want to add (a specific painting I researched, a specific carriage I saw when researching, etc) or numbers that I have to remember for a time line that deals with back story so they match up since I'm so bad at numbers. Unless I have the list there to refer back too, I spend hours every time I need to add that detail trying to figure it out again. I just write the back-story time line the first time I need it and then keep it at hand for future referral. Makes life easier!
I've never written fanfiction. Is it not difficult to keep true to the original when you have to switch things up? I don't think I could base work off of something else and keep it recognizable as that thing!
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Like writing? So do we!
~Fallon~
"If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don't remove it - I might be writing in my dreams."- Pace
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Well, I do Harry Potter fanfiction, and I pretty strictly write things that aren't talked about in canon, which makes it a lot easier to write. I primarily write in Harry's parent's generation, which took place back in the 60's. I don't add many historical elements to it (though I probably should... I get so miffed when I see works that have IM in them... these people were alive in the 60's... not the late 90's), so I tend to focus on the plot a lot. Basically, I just write it so that I don't have to come up with my own characters (and to satisfy my own curiosity at times). Maybe one of these days I'll actually break apart some of my works and make them more original....
~C
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