Learning my limitations

[Djmac1031]

Some late night musings on my writing experiences two months in.

I just finished the longest story I've ever attempted. Right now, barring any additions or edits, it clocks in at 13,661 words.

Probably a drop in the bucket for many of you lol.

But for me it's a fucking novel.

I've had a lot of fun writing it, and I'm proud of the concept and most of the execution.

But I'm realizing just how tough it is to truly write a complex story; to get details right, to flesh out characters, to not sound repetitive and redundant, and to try and create a fully realized tale that has a beginning, middle, climax, and ending.

Plus, I'm reaching for the stars with an "emotional payoff" type ending and hoping like hell I developed the characters enough during to make it resonate.

I'm still sitting on it; gonna make a few more passes at editing and tweaking, but at some point I'm going to have to call it finished whether I'm fully satisfied with the results or not. Because if I waited til I felt this story was perfect, it would never get published.

I'm my own worst critic, and rightly so. Because I'm no author. I'm strictly amateur hour, I know that about my writing.

Anyway, just kinda musing on things. If you wanna chime in or share how you deal with these things or offer advice or just laugh at me, feel free.

 

[ElectricBlue]

As a famous newspaper editor (probably) said, "Print and be damned."

No point talking about it here. Submit it, and then talk about it .

 

[geronimo_appleby]

As a famous newspaper editor (probably) said, "Print and be damned."

No point talking about it here. Submit it, and then talk about it .

uh-huh. and maybe lighten-up a touch? this is supposed to be fun.

 

[Djmac1031]

As a famous newspaper editor (probably) said, "Print and be damned."

No point talking about it here. Submit it, and then talk about it .

Oh I'll submit it soon. Still needs at least one more edit check.

I'm just sharing some thoughts is all.

 

[Bramblethorn]

But I'm realizing just how tough it is to truly write a complex story; to get details right, to flesh out characters, to not sound repetitive and redundant, and to try and create a fully realized tale that has a beginning, middle, climax, and ending.

Plus, I'm reaching for the stars with an "emotional payoff" type ending and hoping like hell I developed the characters enough during to make it resonate.

I'm still sitting on it; gonna make a few more passes at editing and tweaking, but at some point I'm going to have to call it finished whether I'm fully satisfied with the results or not. Because if I waited til I felt this story was perfect, it would never get published.

This is a good principle to remember. Don't allow "perfect" to become the enemy of "good".

Anyway, just kinda musing on things. If you wanna chime in or share how you deal with these things or offer advice or just laugh at me, feel free.

Practice is a big part of it. I don't remember the exact quote, but some author said something along the lines of "each of us starts with about a million bad words that we have to get out before we can start writing the good ones". You have to start that somewhere and Literotica is as good a place as any.

Planning and organising your writing - this is one of those highly personal things that works differently for everybody, but I find that even more important than planning the plot is to plan out emotional/character arcs.

For the longer stories, technology can be helpful. I use Scrivener to organise my stories by scenes, to store short character bios, and to tag scenes by content and by characters present. (This means that if I decide to make a major change to a character, for instance, I can easily check back through that character's scenes and make sure it all fits together.) It's a bit of work to learn, but for larger works it's useful to me.

 

[Djmac1031]

Planning and organising your writing - this is one of those highly personal things that works differently for everybody, but I find that even more important than planning the plot is to plan out emotional/character arcs.

For the longer stories, technology can be helpful. I use Scrivener to organise my stories by scenes, to store short character bios, and to tag scenes by content and by characters present. (This means that if I decide to make a major change to a character, for instance, I can easily check back through that character's scenes and make sure it all fits together.) It's a bit of work to learn, but for larger works it's useful to me.

Probably something I should work on.

I don't know that I plan or organize beyond an idea that pops in my head that I start writing and see where it goes.

With short stories that's not so bad I suppose. But if I'm gonna write longer ones those are good tips.

I have a series I've been writing, just published the 7th chapter. Those seem far easier; I have the idea for what happens next, write it, set up an idea for the next chapter, and publish. And they're all pretty short, averaging two LE pages each.

I suppose whether I try another long story will depend on what ideas I come up with.

And yeah, practice practice practice. I get it.

 

[Emirus]

Whenever I hear of a person talking about their limitations I always think of Harry Callahan. The scene in Magnum Force when he blows up his boss’s car and then comes out with the one liner “a man’s gotta know his limitations.” Really nothing to do with your post but I just love that scene.

You try and improve every aspect of your writing because you will never know your limitations until you try to exceed them. A story ends when you run out of words to properly explain what’s happening. Hopefully by that time you’ve reached the ending you are looking for and the story deserves.

You’re correct that 13k words isn’t a long story but you’ve done pretty well with what you’ve submitted up to now so I don’t see why this story should be less well received than your others.

As for editing sometimes one pair of eyes is enough but sometimes, for whatever reason, another pair of eyes can be helpful but, as has already been said, don’t allow perfect to become the enemy of good. There’s a limit to how many times you can check a story for errors or rewrite sections.

Only an idiot attempts perfection. Everyone else knows it’s impossible and just does their best.

 

[MetaBob]

Whenever I hear of a person talking about their limitations I always think of Harry Callahan. The scene in Magnum Force when he blows up his boss’s car and then comes out with the one liner “a man’s gotta know his limitations.” Really nothing to do with your post but I just love that scene.

You try and improve every aspect of your writing because you will never know your limitations until you try to exceed them. A story ends when you run out of words to properly explain what’s happening. Hopefully by that time you’ve reached the ending you are looking for and the story deserves.

You’re correct that 13k words isn’t a long story but you’ve done pretty well with what you’ve submitted up to now so I don’t see why this story should be less well received than your others.

As for editing sometimes one pair of eyes is enough but sometimes, for whatever reason, another pair of eyes can be helpful but, as has already been said, don’t allow perfect to become the enemy of good. There’s a limit to how many times you can check a story for errors or rewrite sections.

Only an idiot attempts perfection. Everyone else knows it’s impossible and just does their best.

Amen. You have no "limitations" other than those you put on yourself. I've read your stuff and it's good. Very good. Write. Write more. If it works out, and I will happily bear witness that it has worked out, write more!

Nothing is impossible, even when some might say "impossible." Impossible isn't real. Implausible is closer. Believe. I do.

Did I already say "Amen?" If not, I should've.

Write. Write more. See what happens. It might take years (as in my case), or even decades, but if you're feeling it ... write it. You have the talent.

 

[SimonDoom]

Whenever I hear of a person talking about their limitations I always think of Harry Callahan. The scene in Magnum Force when he blows up his boss’s car and then comes out with the one liner “a man’s gotta know his limitations.” Really nothing to do with your post but I just love that scene.

That's a good scene. If I recall he foreshadows it by saying the same quote earlier in the movie, but I forget the exact scene.

The difference, in terms of applying the concept of limitations to writing, is that with writing at Literotica there's no real consequence. You aren't going to get yourself shot or blown up. So let it rip, forget limitations, and work on breaking through your limitations every time you write. Don't limit yourself.

 

[StrangeLife]

...writing at Literotica there's no real consequence. You aren't going to get yourself shot or blown up.

Well, there are Loving Wives...

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Well, there are Loving Wives...

you’ve got a couple above 4 on LW. not bad going.

 

[StrangeLife]

you’ve got a couple above 4 on LW. not bad going.

I was more referring to the comments though. They can be very colorful indeed - especially if you allow a cheating wife to get away with it.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

I was more referring to the comments though. They can be very colorful indeed - especially if you allow a cheating wife to get away with it.

oh, this i know! you're nobody until you've had death-threats.

...in CAPITALS and with loads of spelling errors.

 

[Djmac1031]

oh, this i know! you're nobody until you've had death-threats.

Hmm. Guess I gotta work harder then.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Hmm. Guess I gotta work harder then.

it's simple. as strange said: cheating wife who gets away with it.

BOOM!

burn-the-bitch crowd turns up with pitchforks and torches.

and rope.

 

[lovecraft68]

Just let it fly and move on to the next story, like you said no story is perfect, and thing about lit is it has varied readership so no matter what you write, some will like it, some won't, but its important you like it.

In the beginning its common to have doubts about your writing. In a recent e-mail with another author I mentioned something I wrote that I felt wasn't good while I was working on it, then when I went back and revisited it, I thought it was very good.

Doubt isn't a terrible thing because the only people who never doubt themselves about anything are now suffering from arrogance, and we have those folks here, trust me.

But you need to gain a fuck it attitude. Not fuck it as in not caring about making your story the best it can be, but fuck what happens next, and move on to another story.

Like anything else, the more you do this the easier it gets and you'll reach a point where you'll KNOW your story is good and not keep yourself up at night worrying about anything other than what's my next one going to be about.

 

[Djmac1031]

That's a good scene. If I recall he foreshadows it by saying the same quote earlier in the movie, but I forget the exact scene.

The difference, in terms of applying the concept of limitations to writing, is that with writing at Literotica there's no real consequence. You aren't going to get yourself shot or blown up. So let it rip, forget limitations, and work on breaking through your limitations every time you write. Don't limit yourself.

Don't think I'm "limiting" myself so much as simply understanding where I'm at in this process so far.

And I've always been a realist.

I have good ideas, sometimes even great ideas...and sometimes I can get them to actually form words.

And sometimes they come up short lol.

I'm doing this mainly just for fun, and a way to exercise my mind.

Trust me, if I thought this new story was a turd, I'd flush it.

I think it's good.

I guess I'm just greedy and want it to be great lol.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

i mean, WTF...?

***

Anonymousalmost 8 years ago
racist bastard
Why would any man do anything like this if u met me is cut your black dicks off and shove em up yer arse as 4 y white women stay black no white man wants stick his dick in her diseased cunt, u should posted this in interacial fetish wanker

 

[Lifestyle66]

Hmm. Guess I gotta work harder then.

He's referring to posting a story in the Loving Wives category, and I don't see any of yours posted there.

On this Literotica site, LW cat stories receive special treatment from those niche readers.

 

[XerXesXu]

Don't think I'm "limiting" myself so much as simply understanding where I'm at in this process so far.

And I've always been a realist.

I have good ideas, sometimes even great ideas...and sometimes I can get them to actually form words.

And sometimes they come up short lol.

I'm doing this mainly just for fun, and a way to exercise my mind.

Trust me, if I thought this new story was a turd, I'd flush it.

I think it's good.

I guess I'm just greedy and want it to be great lol.

This amused me - from The Passive Voice

'Getting back to my friend and her query letter, she’d admit that her stage fright comes from her need to be perfect and her fear that she never will be. Well (here’s me being blunt again), she’s right about that. She never will be perfect. None of us will. Check out this 1-star review for the King James Bible:

“I would have given it 5 stars if not for the 2 typographical errors that I’ve found (so far).” '

 

[MelissaBaby]

This amused me - from The Passive Voice

'Getting back to my friend and her query letter, she’d admit that her stage fright comes from her need to be perfect and her fear that she never will be. Well (here’s me being blunt again), she’s right about that. She never will be perfect. None of us will. Check out this 1-star review for the King James Bible:

“I would have given it 5 stars if not for the 2 typographical errors that I’ve found (so far).” '

I gave it one star too, because I hated the ending.

 

[XerXesXu]

I gave it one star too, because I hated the ending.

Yeh, I find those stories when the hero magically rises from the grave then carries all before him/her a bit lame.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I love that Inspector Callahan quote too. It's one of the few he makes that is truly witty.

Djmac1031: I've seen this pattern before. People feel insecure about what they're doing, and then when you look at their profile, you see that they're doing great. Maybe that insecurity helps give them drive. But you have 102 followers already, which is more than I have after more than three years.

Before you get back to work, it's okay to give yourself a moment to savor your success. Maybe have a drink during that. People like what you're doing!

 

[geronimo_appleby]

I love that Inspector Callahan quote too. It's one of the few he makes that is truly witty.

Djmac1031: I've seen this pattern before. People feel insecure about what they're doing, and then when you look at their profile, you see that they're doing great. Maybe that insecurity helps give them drive. But you have 102 followers already, which is more than I have after more than three years.

Before you get back to work, it's okay to give yourself a moment to savor your success. Maybe have a drink during that. People like what you're doing!

you're new. write more. give it time.

 

[lovecraft68]

Yeh, I find those stories when the hero magically rises from the grave then carries all before him/her a bit lame.

You stopped reading too soon. In the end the world is destroyed and all the good folks saved, the bad peeps into the lake of fire.

I think we're nearing those days, except no one is saving anyone.