Do you jump ahead when you write?

[MrPezman]

jump ahead? Sacrilege

Yeah, I can't do that. Usually if I get stuck on something in the story, or to a point where I'm having to force it along, I'll back off of it and work on something else. When I come back to it, the thread is often right there, just waiting to be picked up and followed once more. That's what it is for me, following a thread, not filling in pieces of a puzzle.

 

[miwildcat]

I know for me when I get stuck in a spot I will leave it for a while go relax listen to music or something else and give my brain a rest cause for me when I get writer's block it usually means I have done fried my brain out and it is going "Hey dumb ass time for a break cause you ain't getting any more outta me"

 

[oggbashan]

When I start a story I usually know how it will end.

If I get stuck in the middle I try to go backwards to the point at which the story started to go off at a tangent. If the story is really flawed I might sleep on it for a night or two. If I haven't come up with a solution by then it gets filed in the incomplete drafts file.

It can stay there for years...

 

[MayorReynolds]

I tend to do this a lot in my non-erotic work. I usually have my stories planned out in advance and sometimes writing the beginnings and endings first or jumping around gives me a greater sense of progress. I also have a word count limit I've set for myself (17,500 or fewer) and when I write the most important scenes first, the ones that require the greatest attention to detail, I can see how much more 'room' I have left.

Now, that said, it's a bit different with erotica. When I'm penning an erotic story I don't like pre-writing the sex scenes first. I tend to be more chronological because I want to get a feel for my characters. The sex is the crucial element, and if I haven't humanized my players in my head the bed just feels emptier.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The man says I'm mad as a cut snake and half as smart as the dummest dork in the room, and he's right. So I try and keep things simple.

I replaced an outside hose bib the other day, took me maybe 5 minutes to remove the broke one and install the new one.

Earlier in the week I changed the oil in my car. Took maybe 20 minutes.

In both cases I knew what I was doing. And writing shouldn't be different from any other process, if you know what youre doing. That said, every task comes with surprises, occasionally, and requires extra attention. But writers oughta know how to handle that, too. All writers block is, is an empty brain that needs filling with the right stuff or sufficient consideration of the problem. I mean, I know my way from here to Atlanta but surprises happen along the most familiar paths.

 

[Stephanie78]

Jumping ahead is not so much the way I would put it. I tend to do a general outline of longer works and then summarize each scene on a notecard.

From the notecards, I'll write the story, and generally I'll write on the notecards an idea of how long I want the scene to be. This helps me control the length of a novella or even a short story.

Basically, I have the story written before I ever begin writing. I've found it's better that way, and the story is more coherent.

 

[laptopwriter]

I'm with MrPezman,

I'll actually go to a different project all together. I usually don't do that so much when I'm stuck, but more when I get bored with my story.

If I get stuck I stick it out and work my way through it. I don't work with outlines so I need to keep the continuity of the story straight in my head. I'm afraid if I started to jump around the story would show it.

However, like I said, I sometimes get bored with longer pieces and need a break. When that happens I'll start something else completely until I get re-enthused, then go back to what I was originally working on. It seems to work for me.

 

[3113]

Now one question, you rent clothes?

It definitely should be rending

Webster's gives this as a definition of rent (noun): an opening made by or as if by rending. So I think it can be either word.

I actually meant it as "rend" as PennLady says, but checking my dictionary I see that it can be "rent" (meaning tearing or ripping)--maybe I knew that subconsciously?

 

[3113]

Back to Rent vs. Rend

Excuse the minor threadjack, but this is going to drive me crazy otherwise...

The problem is with the verb. Present = rend; past = rent.

Well, now I am confused. My dictionary says that "rent" is the noun ("there was a rent in his pants") and "rend" is the verb ("it might rend their marriage...."). Which means my usage was wrong. As PennLady put it, it should have been "rending" of garments as that's the verb.

Unless both are true? Can "rent" be both the present tense noun and the past tense verb?

 

[lovecraft68]

Yeah, but if you say "rented" it does make it sound like something you borrowed and I don't think "rended" is a word.

 

[lovecraft68]

So.....

I came up with a fairly creative solution. It was a lesbian sex scene so I went into my "remnants" folder and found a girl/girl scene I wrote and never used. I switched out the names, plugged it in and with about twenty minutes of tweaking it came out pretty good.

That is why I never delete anything I wrote.

On the other hand I feel like a kid who just cheated on a test.

 

[sr71plt]

Excuse the minor threadjack, but this is going to drive me crazy otherwise...

Well, now I am confused. My dictionary says that "rent" is the noun ("there was a rent in his pants") and "rend" is the verb ("it might rend their marriage...."). Which means my usage was wrong. As PennLady put it, it should have been "rending" of garments as that's the verb.

Unless both are true? Can "rent" be both the present tense noun and the past tense verb?

"Rent" is a noun ("rent in his pants"). "Rend" is the present tense of the verb ("he will rend his pants", with "rent" being the past tense ("he rent his pants by doing the splits") and the past participle ("his pants were rent").

You usage should have been "rending," yes.

To make it more confusing, "rended" is a secondary rending of the verb "rend" (but publishing goes with the first-listed rending of a word in the dictionary).

 

[Zeb_Carter]

On longer works when you come to a scene you either aren't feeling or are just stuck on will you go to your next chapter and go back and add the scene or will you stubbornly stay with the scene until you are done?

I'm in that spot for the first time since I've begun writing and wonder how other authors handle it.

As I usually know where the story is headed and where it will end up I sometimes just skip the current scene or chapter and move on. Other times I will stubbornly stick with it until it's done. Then there are the time I just move on to a different piece. I have a lot of those....works where I just moved to another, meaning to come back to...which one was it now?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Rent....


rent2 [rent] Show IPA
noun
1.an opening made by rending or tearing; slit; fissure.
2.a breach of relations or union between individuals or groups; schism.
verb
3.simple past tense and past participle of rend.

 

[Saxon_Hart]

So.....

I came up with a fairly creative solution. It was a lesbian sex scene so I went into my "remnants" folder and found a girl/girl scene I wrote and never used. I switched out the names, plugged it in and with about twenty minutes of tweaking it came out pretty good.

That is why I never delete anything I wrote.

On the other hand I feel like a kid who just cheated on a test.

Cheating would be going out into litland and swiping girl/girl scene. You wrote it, it's never been published so go with it.
I've never written ahead, but I have gone back and added paragraphs to allow some idea that struck me closer to the end.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Cheating would be going out into litland and swiping girl/girl scene. You wrote it, it's never been published so go with it.
I've never written ahead, but I have gone back and added paragraphs to allow some idea that struck me closer to the end.

So if I use a piece I have already had published in a new work, it's cheating?

Even if the two overlap?

 

[sr71plt]

So if I use a piece I have already had published in a new work, it's cheating?

Even if the two overlap?

No, you can repurpose previously written/published material.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

No, you can repurpose previously written/published material.

Doh! Really?

 

[sr71plt]

Doh! Really?

Perhaps you should translate your question into English, then. Do remember that you're the one who asked a question, therefore you're the one who doesn't understand something. Don't expect me to help you out though.

 

[desertslave]

Cheating would be going out into litland and swiping girl/girl scene. You wrote it, it's never been published so go with it.
I've never written ahead, but I have gone back and added paragraphs to allow some idea that struck me closer to the end.

I agree. It's still the author's original words, just stashed for a rainy day. (Blessed foresight)

I'm not a regular writer, but sometimes I get flashes of stories that want to be, usually in the middle. I have to work to frame it with the beginning and end. The flash part just about pours out of my fingers, sometimes giving me hints about how it all began and/or ended. Other times, like LC, the snippets get stashed until I can add the rest to make it make sense.

 

[3113]

"Rent" is a noun ("rent in his pants"). "Rend" is the present tense of the verb ("he will rend his pants", with "rent" being the past tense ("he rent his pants by doing the splits") and the past participle ("his pants were rent").

You usage should have been "rending," yes.

To make it more confusing, "rended" is a secondary rending of the verb "rend" (but publishing goes with the first-listed rending of a word in the dictionary).

Ah-ha! Well, I'm glad we got that cleared up. Kinda. Sorta...

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Perhaps you should translate your question into English, then. Do remember that you're the one who asked a question, therefore you're the one who doesn't understand something. Don't expect me to help you out though.

Gee, then next time I'll have to use my sarcasm tags.

And do you always have to be such a prick? No need to answer, I already know, it was a rhetorical question.

 

[lovecraft68]

So if I use a piece I have already had published in a new work, it's cheating?

Even if the two overlap?

Well not really, if its yours then you can't be stealing it.

I consider it a form of cheating because for whatever reason my mind sort of let me down with these two characters and the setting so I went to a generic scene and bent it to fit the characters and place.

Then again it was a bit of a writing exercise in itself to mesh it in

An erotica rubiks cube

 

[damppanties]

Funny you should say that...

 

[sr71plt]

Gee, then next time I'll have to use my sarcasm tags.

And do you always have to be such a prick? No need to answer, I already know, it was a rhetorical question.

Where you lead, I will follow, Zeb. The prick is the one who asks a question and then shits on the one who tries to answer it. I'd forgotten how you were.