After the Bloom (writerly thread)

[MagicaPractica]

I like that idea about the 500 words, I know the other day I was writing a story and around 1000 words into it, I started to completely lose track of where I was and had to quit for the day.

1,000 words per day seems to be my "productive" limit. It flows easily up to that then I have to push for it. If I do push, the writing the next day won't come as easily, so I make 1,000 a day my goal now.

 

[starrkers]

TXRD I limit my writing to 500 words per day, per project. This keeps the story from wandering off the reservation. Plus I write the last chapter first.

Im tinkig ayav o deelop a similar stategy if I'mve going to gt anything done

Translation: I'm thinking I may have to develop a similar strategy if I'm ever going to get anything done. I'm also thinking I need to check the batteries on my keyboard.

 

[TxRad]

Im tinkig ayav o deelop a similar stategy if I'mve going to gt anything done

Translation: I'm thinking I may have to develop a similar strategy if I'm ever going to get anything done. I'm also thinking I need to check the batteries on my keyboard.

Thanks, I needed a laugh, a really good laugh.

That first line is what most of my posts would look like if i didn't edit closely. But my excuse is fat fingers and a small keyboard. Plus thinking far faster than my two fingers can keep up with.

 

[starrkers]

Thanks, I needed a laugh, a really good laugh.

That first line is what most of my posts would look like if i didn't edit closely. But my excuse is fat fingers and a small keyboard. Plus thinking far faster than my two fingers can keep up with.

My problem is I can type as fast as I think (almost - the accuracy gets dodgy when I'm flying) and don't need to look at what I'm doing. So if I start from the wrong key, or the keyboard gets kittenish, all sorts of interesting things can result.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

It's funny, but I don't think up my stories the way you guys do. I don't think in terms of situations -- a guy driving past a graveyard suddenly finds someone in the car next to him; the first girl at an all-guys' military school; a secretary abducted on a middle-eastern business trip. I think in terms of scenes. Specific, concrete scenes that capture my imagination, and then I start putting together a story that will allow that scene to happen.

My payoff is the verbal description and realization of that scene in my story, so that scene acts as a target I'm writing towards, a goal that keeps my writing focused and on track and sets my pacing so I don't start wandering. It's only when I can't get a good clear grip on that key scene that I start having trouble and start dawdling and going around in circles, trying to find something to happen because I'm sure what that definitive scene is.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

TXRD

Every writer has their own way to compose; 500 words a day is optimal for me (I can write a lot more but throw most of it away). Every writer is naturalistic (YOU) or romantic (ME). The point is: Find a word count that feels right for you, write that many words, and STOP!

I'm not a serial writer, either. I compose the last chapter first to guarantee I get to my destination; it keeps the Muses on the ranch, if not in the corral. I skip around when I write. Some chapters progress one line a day, some progress 25 lines, but I stop when the flow stops.

DOC is exactly right. When the action isnt clear in your mind, your mind wanders in search of closure.

 

[keeblercrumb]

TXRD

... it keeps the Muses on the ranch, if not in the corral....

I think it is only polite that I tell you that I fully intend to steal that line...



-KC

 

[dr_mabeuse]

TXRD

DOC is exactly right. When the action isnt clear in your mind, your mind wanders in search of closure.

Yeah. Most of the time I really don't know how my stories are going to end, but I do know what the climax looks like. Once you know that, you head for it. Otherwise, you wander endlessly.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

STARRKERS

I write essays and humor mostly. Both are short in comparison with fiction. So 400-500 words is what I'm used to writing. When I wrote 1000 words I discarded 500 of them, so I cut back to 500 and tossed out none. You have to find the stride that works for you.

500 words a day is 182,500 words a year. Thats 2-3 books.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

DOC

You can always change the ending, but I find it gives my writing an aiming point. I need that, others dont.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

KEEBLER

Lots of what I write gets stolen because I post it on boards.

Here's another for you: I have so many cousin marriages in my family that when I play with myself its considered incest in most states.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

KEEBLER

Lots of what I write gets stolen because I post it on boards.

Here's another for you: I have so many cousin marriages in my family that when I play with myself its considered incest in most states.

Here's a sample...

 

[neonlyte]

It's funny, but I don't think up my stories the way you guys do. I don't think in terms of situations -- a guy driving past a graveyard suddenly finds someone in the car next to him; the first girl at an all-guys' military school; a secretary abducted on a middle-eastern business trip. I think in terms of scenes. Specific, concrete scenes that capture my imagination, and then I start putting together a story that will allow that scene to happen.

My payoff is the verbal description and realization of that scene in my story, so that scene acts as a target I'm writing towards, a goal that keeps my writing focused and on track and sets my pacing so I don't start wandering. It's only when I can't get a good clear grip on that key scene that I start having trouble and start dawdling and going around in circles, trying to find something to happen because I'm sure what that definitive scene is.

Yeh... every time. All my tales are based on ob serv ation before im agin ation takes over. I tend to write forward and back from the initial scene.

 

[starrkers]

STARRKERS

I write essays and humor mostly. Both are short in comparison with fiction. So 400-500 words is what I'm used to writing. When I wrote 1000 words I discarded 500 of them, so I cut back to 500 and tossed out none. You have to find the stride that works for you.

500 words a day is 182,500 words a year. Thats 2-3 books.

I'm used to writing to a deadline and length. Being given free rein to write as much or as little and to get it finished whenever is just too much of an invitation to sit on my butt and do sod all.

 

[TxRad]

It's funny, but I don't think up my stories the way you guys do. I don't think in terms of situations -- a guy driving past a graveyard suddenly finds someone in the car next to him; the first girl at an all-guys' military school; a secretary abducted on a middle-eastern business trip. I think in terms of scenes. Specific, concrete scenes that capture my imagination, and then I start putting together a story that will allow that scene to happen.

My payoff is the verbal description and realization of that scene in my story, so that scene acts as a target I'm writing towards, a goal that keeps my writing focused and on track and sets my pacing so I don't start wandering. It's only when I can't get a good clear grip on that key scene that I start having trouble and start dawdling and going around in circles, trying to find something to happen because I'm sure what that definitive scene is.

Most of my stories start with a scene or a mental picture. Well the short ones anyway. I hear others talk about writing on this chapter or that one or this scene and then that one. They jump around in the story. I don't or maybe can't is a better word, do that. My mind is to linear. It has to go from point A to point B to point C.

Although in my first story that turned into a book, I started in the middle. I didn't realize it of course and had to switch some chapters around and from the back to the front. It worked it fairly well.


JBJ

Time is my enemy so limiting myself to so few words doesn't work. I have to get what I can, when I can.

As for the type of writer I am, well, I consider myself more of a story teller trying to learn to write. If I had only known, way back when, I would have paid a hell of a lot more attention in English class.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

TXRD

Like I say, you have to find what works for you. Thats the solution to most of the problem.