Incessant Rambling

[galaxygoddess]

Ok, so I’ve got several things going on with this post, so bear with me. (I crammed all of this in one post so that I’m not making multiple posts, and because my mind trails around). Forgive me if I missed where any of this has been hashed out before.

The first thing is that, over the years I’ve gotten ideas in my head, mostly from weird dreams, and I write them down, either in a notebook or on the computer, giving myself as much detail as possible. I’ve been doing this for ever now, and I have a lot of little snippets and ideas, and stuff I want to work with at a later date. I’m sure pretty much most, if not all, of you guys have the same thing going. I wanted to share something mildly humorous. I was going through my files, opening everything seeing what I had, and I found one titled “constant damsel”. Now I’m thinking, this one has gotta be fantasy or romance, or both, and there’s probably a lot in this one. I open the file and… nope. It says “Firefighters! Johnathan!” and… that’s it. That’s my entire note to myself. *facepalm* real freaking helpful.

The second thing is that I have this story I’m stuck on. I kind of hate it, but I don’t “want” to stop writing it. I’m about 7 pages in and it’s terrible. Yet I want to write down the bulk of it and set it to the side and let it stew. I don’t know why I am so stuck on writing this. I got a “sort of” plotline, but no imagery to go with it. The words are stagnant and stale, and I feel like I’m beating my head on the keyboard trying to make words. It’s not a block, per say, but it’s some form of annoyance. I’ve tried free writing (how I usually do it), I’ve tried skipping ahead to the good parts (which feels wrong because, well, what got them there?), I’ve tried throwing darts at the dictionary and hoping for good words. Hell, I’ll even take standing on my head and whistling Dixie. Why is THIS stupid story plaguing me? I just got through saying I have a stockpile of ideas waiting for me. I have three novellas to edit for smashwords. I even have a full-length novel waiting for me to tack on the last chapter. ARGH!

I had an idea, which is to pretend I’m Disney or pixar, and do story boarding. Which is where they do little doodles (in my case, stick figures) and draw scenes and build the world, but I’m not sure how helpful that is either. I mean, it sounds like a great practice for getting further along and building the background noise, but as for the actual story, hell, I don’t know. *throws hands in the air*

Finally, this goes with “background noise” but when writing out characters, do you ever have “hand talkers”? What I mean is, people that talk with their hands. Not sign language, but like, southerners (i.e my relatives), who can’t stop moving their hands with every word they say. I come from a long line of “hand talkers” but I, myself, never know what to do with my hands and wind up clenching them together, which triggers my tremors, which leads to people asking me if I’m nervous all the time. (not that anyone needed to know that). Has anyone come across any good stories where there’s a hand talker? I would like examples of how people handle stories in which people use their hands and other body language to a decent effect.

 

[BongoGal]

Has anyone come across any good stories where there’s a hand talker? I would like examples of how people handle stories in which people use their hands and other body language to a decent effect.

This is interesting, I think. Maybe I'm wrong, but hand talking just doesn't get used much in written stories because you just can't describe it beyond "her hands flailed wildly as she tried to explain what happened". It is wordless communication, and as such, it is difficult to put into written words.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

RE #1 - I've got all sorts of notes. I differentiate between story ideas which tend to be better defined, plot hooks which tend to be hitches in the characters' existence, plot devices (or 'plot bunnies' as they call them here) that are ideas for things or places that have potential for making interesting stories, and 'misc'. I literally have different directories on my main computer (backed up all over the place!) for these four. Every year, on 1 April, I prune the 'misc' and try to better categorize things, expand on them, or even delete them if they're utterly out there.

#2 - There's a lot of tools and concepts out there to help in these circumstances. Storyboarding is certainly one, but the one I tend to use the most is just bullet points. Partial sentences, hopefully in some reasonable order, that address where I currently think a story's going, background information I used but didn't write into the story or don't plan on doing so in the future but still affect where the story's going, etc.

There are TONS of other ways to do this - idea mapping/mind mapping, timelines, brainstorming, etc. Some time on google'll give you tons of options.

#3 - There're certain ethnicities locally known for 'hand-talking' as you put it. It's a stereotype, but like many such things there's a seed of truth in the middle of the muck. I've certainly read stories addressing such behavior but I don't have any good examples to share, sorry. Vocalization is easier to write, IMO, but I have seen body language written into stories. Everything from slinking around to smirking to shouting to twitching to flinching, it's all out there.

Hope this is of some help

EDIT - BTW, this is pretty well organized, not really rambling. You liar, you!

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I'm currently stuck on a major crisis scene in a fantasy story I'm writing, and it's frustrating, because I really love the story. I've decided to approach it from another angle to try and achieve resolution, so we'll see what happens there.

I hate background and white noise, so I most often write to music with my earphones on. Very often, it's themed with what I'm writing, but not always. Today, for instance, my writing is accompanied by the Meddle album by Pink Floyd. It just works today.

As for old stories I've revisited? I mostly just mentally grouse "What the Hell were you thinking? This is idiotic!"

I can even do that with stories I've published, usually the ones done at reader request. A pity you can't edit stories and chapters already published on Lit...

 

[ElectricBlue]

I can even do that with stories I've published, usually the ones done at reader request. A pity you can't edit stories and chapters already published on Lit...

You can.

Prepare the revised text, submit with exactly the same story title plus the word EDIT. Add a note in the Notes to Editor that it's an edit. Resubmit. It will take 5 - 10 days to process. Your scores and comments will remain unchanged.

It won't go back up on the category front page, and there are no external alerts when an edit goes live, so no-one will know but you. Future readers will only see the latest text, and there's nothing to say it's an edit. But you can change text if you feel it's really necessary, which in most circumstances it probably isn't.

But I'd say put the effort into writing another story. You'll develop more as a writer, and you'll have another story. Your best story might be your next one, but it's less likely to be that old one. It's flawed and you already know that. Why bother with it any more?

 

[GuessImJamie]

You can.

Prepare the revised text, submit with exactly the same story title plus the word EDIT. Add a note in the Notes to Editor that it's an edit. Resubmit. It will take 5 - 10 days to process. Your scores and comments will remain unchanged.

It won't go back up on the category front page, and there are no external alerts when an edit goes live, so no-one will know but you. Future readers will only see the latest text, and there's nothing to say it's an edit. But you can change text if you feel it's really necessary, which in most circumstances it probably isn't.

But I'd say put the effort into writing another story. You'll develop more as a writer, and you'll have another story. Your best story might be your next one, but it's less likely to be that old one. It's flawed and you already know that. Why bother with it any more?

But it can lead to humorous later comments about previous comments about things altered by the edit. Lisa wrote a story which stated in the story it took place in 1978. Readers missed the multiple references to the period so she added...

JANUARY 16, 1978 - BURNET, TEXAS as a header.

New comments came in like

"Hey @Anon. There was no internet in 1978."

 

[SyleusSnow]

Finally, this goes with “background noise” but when writing out characters, do you ever have “hand talkers”? What I mean is, people that talk with their hands. Not sign language, but like, southerners (i.e my relatives), who can’t stop moving their hands with every word they say. I come from a long line of “hand talkers” but I, myself, never know what to do with my hands and wind up clenching them together, which triggers my tremors, which leads to people asking me if I’m nervous all the time. (not that anyone needed to know that). Has anyone come across any good stories where there’s a hand talker? I would like examples of how people handle stories in which people use their hands and other body language to a decent effect.

Can't think of any prominent stories with hand talkers, but I wrote one with a character who was very expressive, including hand talking. Didn't see any need to detail every gesture. I just wrote "While her friends talked calmly, this girl's hands flew, accompanied by exaggerated expressions and movements of her compact body." and "Her hands flailed as a constant stream of emotions washing across her face: amazement, anger, disgust, happiness. It was almost exhausting to watch." The Waif and the Wall

And not exactly what you're looking for, but later I wrote one where the couple lost their voices and resorted to gestures and expressions. It took some doing to describe. No Talking

If you need a list of physical gestures as a guide, try Bryn Donovan's Master List of gestures and body language

 

[yukonnights]

Can't think of any prominent stories with hand talkers, but I wrote one with a character who was very expressive, including hand talking. Didn't see any need to detail every gesture. I just wrote "While her friends talked calmly, this girl's hands flew, accompanied by exaggerated expressions and movements of her compact body." and "Her hands flailed as a constant stream of emotions washing across her face: amazement, anger, disgust, happiness. It was almost exhausting to watch." The Waif and the Wall

And not exactly what you're looking for, but later I wrote one where the couple lost their voices and resorted to gestures and expressions. It took some doing to describe. No Talking

If you need a list of physical gestures as a guide, try Bryn Donovan's Master List of gestures and body language

Thanks for putting that reference up. I took a peek and think this will be useful.

Quote Bryn's page; 'Hey there! Lots of writers liked my list of facial expressions, so I thought I would do a companion post about gestures and body language. Describing these can help readers visualize a scene and get a feel for the characters, and again, they can set up lines of dialogue so you don’t have a string of he said, she said, he asked, she exclaimed, etc., running down the page.'

This looks like another good direction to do some experimenting with.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Thanks for putting that reference up. I took a peek and think this will be useful.

Quote Bryn's page; 'Hey there! Lots of writers liked my list of facial expressions, so I thought I would do a companion post about gestures and body language. Describing these can help readers visualize a scene and get a feel for the characters, and again, they can set up lines of dialogue so you don’t have a string of he said, she said, he asked, she exclaimed, etc., running down the page.'

This looks like another good direction to do some experimenting with.

I've found all her lists useful. And her book Master Lists for Writers book. I keep it and the Emotion Thesaurus close by.

There's a bunch of these resources listed on my blog: Learning to write: Helpful lists and references