Have you ever been writing a scene...

And you know for a fact that you cannot write it to match the level of epic going on inside your noggin when you picture it?

There's a scene I'm scribing for an upcoming story and when I realized exactly how incredible it COULD be, I kept refining it and tweaking it, making it better each time, modifying other scenes around it to nuance it and make it even more epic.

And it's still gonna fall short of where I need it to be, no matter how many times or ways I refine it. I know my writing just won't get it there!

Are you one of those writers who tortures themselves that way?

*flops and wills self to become Homer or someone else with epic writing skills*

I think we're all limited in some way. I find the more I write the better I get at conveying the image in my head. Sometimes just writing the bones of it helps and them coming back and editing, adding and reassessing. A second opinion always helps. Sometimes I google what I'm picturing as in a location and it gives me something real to base my descriptions on. It's always best to mull it over with others if you're struggling with a certain aspect, maybe find a mentor who does what you want to do and ask them to feedback? Maybe there's just wording or emotion or something specific that can help to convey your image, scene.

Ultimately anything you write is always going to fall a little short of people actually watching it as you do in your head.

Princess_Red said:

Ultimately anything you write is always going to fall a little short of people actually watching it as you do in your head.

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*sigh* I think the problem is that I've inadvertently written a scene that oughta be in a movie or an epic anime and I'm trying to convey it with words. Argh.

*goes back to mental refinery*

Every time I put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

I've been doing it most of today as I keep a scene running in my head so I won't forget it and I know what I write won't be near as good as what's in my head.

That's how I usually think about my stuff, it plays like a movie in my head, I try to write a little like a screen play in places. Sounds, smells, feelings, imagery. All really important for me in convaying a mental image. surrounding the person in sensation.

BiscuitHammer said:

*sigh* I think the problem is that I've inadvertently written a scene that oughta be in a movie or an epic anime and I'm trying to convey it with words. Argh.

*goes back to mental refinery*

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BiscuitHammer said:

There's a scene I'm scribing for an upcoming story and when I realized exactly how incredible it COULD be, I kept refining it and tweaking it, making it better each time, modifying other scenes around it to nuance it and make it even more epic.

And it's still gonna fall short of where I need it to be, no matter how many times or ways I refine it. I know my writing just won't get it there!

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I've written some difficult scenes, and I have more to write. The one I'm working on now isn't so much epic as it is just difficult. Strong emotions, intimacy, conflicts and a number of other things can make scenes very difficult.

The most epic scene I've written is near the end of "The Third Ring," (linked in my sig). It seemed really difficult to write until I actually got to that point, then the setup was complete and the scene itself followed. I found that I had to simplify, simplify and let the readers' imaginations take over. I guess it worked. I don't think anyone has ever singled out that scene, but it is the climax of the story. If it didn't work the comments couldn't be so positive.

There are other scenes that I wanted to be epic, and I can't tell if they worked or not. "Tamsin of Sky Village" (also linked in my sig) contains a scene where the village streets are flooded by women and children fleeing an attack while the village men run from rooftop to rooftop in the opposite direction to meet the attacker, and the heroine of the story walks alone against the throng to face the attacker one-on-one. When I wrote it, it was crystalline. I wanted the scene to come off at a bone-crushing pace, and I think I got that. I'm not sure about the visual. It could have been lost in the pace.

In another story, placed in the Spanish Renaissance, I have a short paragraph that describes the hero of the story with a cadre of trusted guards charging on horseback across the moon-lit plains of central Spain into unknown danger because his sister needed help. I can see it. I'm not sure the readers did.

So my only advice is to: have the scene set clearly in your mind, set up the scene, write it simply, and depend on your reader's imagination. You may never know if it really works. All you can do is try.

I so know the feeling. Just ask my poor beta readers.

My long-suffering editor is my beta-reader

Blind_Justice said:

I so know the feeling. Just ask my poor beta readers.

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I do not envy him the lunacy I must put him through. I mean, granted, I don't torture him the way I do my Muses (Calliope will happily tell you all about it over some absinthe), but still, the madness I subject him to must be almost Lovecraftian in it's cosmic scope.

It pisses me off that I could easily (said he modestly) write a scene of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, but I can't achieve the correct level of epic for this chase I'm writing.

*headdesk*

Nyarlatothep: "Doesn't that hurt?"

Calliope: *knocking back a Hellen Keller* "Not as much as being his Muse."

Editor: *drinking a Corpse Revivor* "Amen to that, sister..."

Only rarely. More typically, once I start writing, I find that my Muse was well ahead of me and had developed a much richer, more complex scene than my consciousness had.

That's happened a few times and usually it's because my mental camera is all over the place. I remind myself to slow down and focus on leading the reader through an experience, not just showing them scenes like in a movie.

I wouldn't put it as strongly, in my case, because I'm not sure I'd describe the stuff in my head as "epic", but I do experience something like this. I think I have a pretty good imagination, and it far outpaces my writing productivity. I story-board scenes in my mind. Sometimes, though, when it comes time to write them, the writing muse doesn't seem quite up to the task, and I get stuck, or I get slowed down a lot. I'm going through that right now, and I'm hoping to bust through it this weekend.

BiscuitHammer said:

*sigh* I think the problem is that I've inadvertently written a scene that oughta be in a movie or an epic anime and I'm trying to convey it with words. Argh.

*goes back to mental refinery*

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May I suggest conveying the scene with words (narrative), but no dialogue? You may find you can get closer to your ideal scene this way.

I have that reaction when I attempt to describe an outdoor nature scene. To my mind both Tolkien and Machen could write a passage where I could clearly see the place they were describing. When I try it is just a bunch of words.

Yes I've had plenty of ideas that were so epic they were too epic and I never seemed to be able to do them justice.

But what I came to realize is seeing they're in my head and I feel I haven't hit expectation does not mean the reader won't think they're epic so I learned to do the best I could and let it go. Most people will be satisfied.

BiscuitHammer said:

And you know for a fact that you cannot write it to match the level of epic going on inside your noggin when you picture it?

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All. The. Time.

I often feel like a painter who realizes that he isn't able to use a quarter of the colors he'd like to. My limited skills and repertoire as a writer always hinder what I'm trying to accomplish. Always.

That's also why I'm here. Just plugging along and trying to get better, hoping to one day be able to get what I envision down on paper.

BiscuitHammer said:

Are you one of those writers who tortures themselves that way?

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Yes. You're clearly not alone.

SimonDoom said:

Sometimes, though, when it comes time to write them, the writing muse doesn't seem quite up to the task, and I get stuck, or I get slowed down a lot. I'm going through that right now, and I'm hoping to bust through it this weekend.

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I'm the same. I've learned now though, that if I'm not ready to write a particular scene, the muse for that story will let me go away and write a short side project on a completely different theme, thus giving my subconscious more time to cogitate.

It's when the 'short side project' runs up 19k and still going strong, that I can feel the muses jostling for space...

Bebop3 said:

All. The. Time.

I often feel like a painter who realizes that he isn't able to use a quarter of the colors he'd like to. My limited skills and repertoire as a writer always hinder what I'm trying to accomplish. Always.

That's also why I'm here. Just plugging along and trying to get better, hoping to one day be able to get what I envision down on paper.

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Yes! I have these epic scenes in my head but doing justice to them and getting the words right is a constant quest. I'm getting better at the sex scenes I think, coz those were what I started on, then more natural dialog and now it's plotting. I think "A Troll is Haunting Tex's" has been a good step for me with that action writing, that's for sure.

Just writing away to get to where I want to be....

Yes. I can't world-build to save my arse. Attempting to write a piece of fantasy fiction that's not set here and now is frustratingly slow. The action and the story's clear in my mind, but the set pieces are blank. Generic forest, generic palace, generic field of toxic flowers, and of course, generic serious leaking.

I want to get on with writing the action, but I first have to decide where they are and what their world's made of.

Never mind the sex. The sex is never the way I want it to be. Other people's writing turns me on far more than my own.

Thankfully, most authors can put their faith in a reader’s imagination to fill in the blanks when they visualize the story they are reading(assuming they have one and read something other than a phone book or newspaper article) Kant

BiscuitHammer said:

correct level of epic for this chase I'm writing

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Chase scenes are a bitch, which is why there are so few in written fiction and a lot more in visual media. Everything about the writing, even meter, must convey speed and movement and urgency. I’ve never really gotten it right.

Oblimo said:

Chase scenes are a bitch, which is why there are so few in written fiction and a lot more in visual media. Everything about the writing, even meter, must convey speed and movement and urgency. I’ve never really gotten it right.

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I had a chase scene in one of my recent stories. There was a little careening about, but I stunted the whole thing by placing it at rush hour. They used turn signals.

Chase scenes are difficult to write, but car chases aren't usually epic. I seem to remember that C.S. Forester wrote some naval chases I thought were pretty epic when I was ten. Starships could get into some really epic chases. That asteroid is in your way? Get rid of it.

Pls forgive 1 post threadjack

ChloeTzang said:

Just writing away to get to where I want to be....

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Hm. Maybe I’ll take a quick peek and—

Chloe said:

So okay, I'm a virgin. I admit it. Of course I know what cocks are for. Virgin, but not stupid, la! I was giving my boyfriend back in Hong Kong blowjobs. That was so much fun, so enjoyable. Not having sex with him though. Saving myself for a blue-eyed blonde guy with a big cock. Must've read too many of my Mom's Mills and Boon. Ever since I am a little girl, I've dreamed about blue-eyed blonde guys. Not dreaming of big cocks of course, that is only recently.

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Oh my God, that’s fan-fucking-tastic and funny as hell. I’ve barely started the story and I swear I know her. (Actually, I’m pretty sure I met her at MIT once.)

Consider me hooked, lined, and sinkered, Ms. Tzang!