So I haven't made much progress in the past... two weeks?
It's pretty bad. I've had a lot going on, which is part of it... with graduation and all, but the main reason is that as I've been editing the crappiness is impossible to get through. Speaking with my advisors (people on the internet) I've come to the conclusion that I should probably take a short break from it. This solution has the added bonus of not making me feel as bad about slacking off the past week.
So sorry about not having anything good to update.
...I cleaned my room today.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
General Suckage
I've been struggling with this on and off whenever I've sat down to edit, but it really got me today.
My writing sucks.
I know, according to just about every writer from whom I've sought counsel, this is a normal thing. But I've never been one to hate on my own work, not even my own paintings or drawings, while I've seen other artists go to pieces over their own in disdain.
So this is new to me- and when I sat down to edit today I got stuck in the gut with it, and just how bad I think my writing is.
I can fix it, yes, but right now it's an uphill battle and there's just SO MUCH bad writing and it's going to take me forever... And I just want to get to the more recently written parts already because hopefully those will be much better.
It's one of my great fears that I'll finish this, edit it and everything, even get it published, and then look back at it in a year or two and think it's horrible. After all that work, yes I would have so much knowledge gained from it, but I'd still be ashamed. I can't handle being ashamed of my own work, especially something like this that I love so much.
So back to editing now. It's So Bad. Gah. Pray for me, Lord give me strength.
Oh- on a procrastination note, while I was avoiding facing this monstrosity head-on I was looking through famous quotes and saw AGAIN the Twain quote about replacing every "very" with "damn" so the editors will take it out, so I replaced every "very" with the f-word in my own document via the "find" tool so I'll catch all of them as I go. Because I'm not using any curse words in this story, so it'll be striking. Now I can't wait to find one and fix it, so I have something to look forward to.
Problems I'm Thinking About:
-general suckage
-character consistency
-what is the title going to be??
-mastering the use of dialogue
-well-rounded character stories
My writing sucks.
I know, according to just about every writer from whom I've sought counsel, this is a normal thing. But I've never been one to hate on my own work, not even my own paintings or drawings, while I've seen other artists go to pieces over their own in disdain.
So this is new to me- and when I sat down to edit today I got stuck in the gut with it, and just how bad I think my writing is.
I can fix it, yes, but right now it's an uphill battle and there's just SO MUCH bad writing and it's going to take me forever... And I just want to get to the more recently written parts already because hopefully those will be much better.
It's one of my great fears that I'll finish this, edit it and everything, even get it published, and then look back at it in a year or two and think it's horrible. After all that work, yes I would have so much knowledge gained from it, but I'd still be ashamed. I can't handle being ashamed of my own work, especially something like this that I love so much.
So back to editing now. It's So Bad. Gah. Pray for me, Lord give me strength.
Oh- on a procrastination note, while I was avoiding facing this monstrosity head-on I was looking through famous quotes and saw AGAIN the Twain quote about replacing every "very" with "damn" so the editors will take it out, so I replaced every "very" with the f-word in my own document via the "find" tool so I'll catch all of them as I go. Because I'm not using any curse words in this story, so it'll be striking. Now I can't wait to find one and fix it, so I have something to look forward to.
Problems I'm Thinking About:
-general suckage
-character consistency
-what is the title going to be??
-mastering the use of dialogue
-well-rounded character stories
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Chapters of Progress
So whooppee! I've officially edited one eighth of my manuscript!! (fifty-two pages)
I also split "Chapter Three" so I that sooper long chapter is now a bit shorter, and I'm now working on Chapter Four.
My writing is still crap, but I suppose that's to be expected. At least I can recognize it and fix it (kinda).
How long do you like your chapters? I've been trying to stick to around 10-17 pages per chapter but, well I guess I should just read a few books and see. I've been really bad about reading this year. I have read a few really good books though, just not fantasy.
I've admitted to myself that there's no way in hell I'm finishing this by graduation, so I'm just taking my time now. Going to get it done right.
I also came across this picture the other day that is scarily like how I picture the main character. I don't know the girl's name, or anything else about her other than she's Russian and had her picture on this before and after thing for some Russian make-up artist.
Here's the pic:
I think I may have stretched it a little bit somehow, but still. It was startling, to see the image I've been trying to draw for myself for a year.
Another thing is I just started watching Game of Thrones, and it's giving me serious story envy. Everything's so beautiful, the characters are so well rounded, the whole thing is super original. Like the seasons thing? That's awesome! I read an article recently about making your fantasy setting any way to serve the story, and not having to obey the rules of our world and with creatures and settings I've done very badly with creating something original, so I'll work on that. I want the world I'm creating to be just as magical as I see it, but when I think about it most of the beauty comes from just my obsession with the natural beauty of our world. I'm not going to make water green or give it two suns, but I can do a better job of exaggerating things to give the reader the same wonder I have.
Game of Thrones is also great with their characters. I haven't read the actual books the show is based off of, but I'm sure to have all these different stories it must have multiple POVs, which I'm not going to do. Still, that isn't the only reason the show has such a complex and multifaceted story, with all these characters with their own complete dramas. I've been noticing that a lot in real life, as well; that every person has their own story just as or more complex and mine, which sounds obvious but is really hard to think about. I saw something a while ago that titled the sensation of this realization as "sonder" and it really is overwhelming.
In the interest of creating more complex storylines/subplots and characters I started giving every important/semi-important character a page in my notebook to outline their lives and feelings and motives, and though I've only done a handful so far I was kind of surprised because I realized a lot of my characters (like most of them) are killed some way by this one guy, which may change, but right now really entertains me.
Problems I'm Thinking About:
-general suckage
-character consistency
-what is the title going to be??
-mastering the use of dialogue
-well-rounded character stories
I also split "Chapter Three" so I that sooper long chapter is now a bit shorter, and I'm now working on Chapter Four.
My writing is still crap, but I suppose that's to be expected. At least I can recognize it and fix it (kinda).
How long do you like your chapters? I've been trying to stick to around 10-17 pages per chapter but, well I guess I should just read a few books and see. I've been really bad about reading this year. I have read a few really good books though, just not fantasy.
I've admitted to myself that there's no way in hell I'm finishing this by graduation, so I'm just taking my time now. Going to get it done right.
I also came across this picture the other day that is scarily like how I picture the main character. I don't know the girl's name, or anything else about her other than she's Russian and had her picture on this before and after thing for some Russian make-up artist.
Here's the pic:
Another thing is I just started watching Game of Thrones, and it's giving me serious story envy. Everything's so beautiful, the characters are so well rounded, the whole thing is super original. Like the seasons thing? That's awesome! I read an article recently about making your fantasy setting any way to serve the story, and not having to obey the rules of our world and with creatures and settings I've done very badly with creating something original, so I'll work on that. I want the world I'm creating to be just as magical as I see it, but when I think about it most of the beauty comes from just my obsession with the natural beauty of our world. I'm not going to make water green or give it two suns, but I can do a better job of exaggerating things to give the reader the same wonder I have.
Game of Thrones is also great with their characters. I haven't read the actual books the show is based off of, but I'm sure to have all these different stories it must have multiple POVs, which I'm not going to do. Still, that isn't the only reason the show has such a complex and multifaceted story, with all these characters with their own complete dramas. I've been noticing that a lot in real life, as well; that every person has their own story just as or more complex and mine, which sounds obvious but is really hard to think about. I saw something a while ago that titled the sensation of this realization as "sonder" and it really is overwhelming.
In the interest of creating more complex storylines/subplots and characters I started giving every important/semi-important character a page in my notebook to outline their lives and feelings and motives, and though I've only done a handful so far I was kind of surprised because I realized a lot of my characters (like most of them) are killed some way by this one guy, which may change, but right now really entertains me.
Problems I'm Thinking About:
-general suckage
-character consistency
-what is the title going to be??
-mastering the use of dialogue
-well-rounded character stories
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Editing
No clever title for this one, sorry.
This'll be a quick post, as well. I just wanted to update y'all. I've been finally getting some stuff done! I'm on page 35, which isn't that great, but i did most of that in the past couple days so it is.
I have a newly ordained third chapter! It was tough getting there but now that I have it doesn't feel like it'll be that hard to make another one.
The writing still sucks, and I have sooo much unecessary blathering. Not to mention some of the characters were really... I don't know, not true to themselves? in the beginning, so I'm working on making them more noticibly different from the start. I should do some profiles to remind myself of what they should be acting like as I go; I'm sure characters changed a lot through the writing of it. I know the main character did, very drastically.
The main character- I'll admit it now- actually made me very nervous for a while. My one friend introduced me to the Mary Sue Litmus Test and told me I need to check myself before I wreck myself, and for the longest time Elle failed it. Now I just have to bring the originality she accumulated as I got more familiar with her into the begining, so her character development later in the story has more of a logical impact.
But I know what I need to do! I'm finally getting into the swing of it!
Now seriously, to bed.
Problems I'm Thinking About:
-chapters
-general suckage
-character consistency
-what is the title going to be??
-mastering the use of dialogue
This'll be a quick post, as well. I just wanted to update y'all. I've been finally getting some stuff done! I'm on page 35, which isn't that great, but i did most of that in the past couple days so it is.
I have a newly ordained third chapter! It was tough getting there but now that I have it doesn't feel like it'll be that hard to make another one.
The writing still sucks, and I have sooo much unecessary blathering. Not to mention some of the characters were really... I don't know, not true to themselves? in the beginning, so I'm working on making them more noticibly different from the start. I should do some profiles to remind myself of what they should be acting like as I go; I'm sure characters changed a lot through the writing of it. I know the main character did, very drastically.
The main character- I'll admit it now- actually made me very nervous for a while. My one friend introduced me to the Mary Sue Litmus Test and told me I need to check myself before I wreck myself, and for the longest time Elle failed it. Now I just have to bring the originality she accumulated as I got more familiar with her into the begining, so her character development later in the story has more of a logical impact.
But I know what I need to do! I'm finally getting into the swing of it!
Now seriously, to bed.
Problems I'm Thinking About:
-chapters
-general suckage
-character consistency
-what is the title going to be??
-mastering the use of dialogue
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