Letting go?

[JackLuis]

How do you let go of a story that you have put weeks, months of thought into?

I just put up three chapters of what was going to be nine. It all fits and the ending is open enough I could do the other chapters, but I just feel that leaving a clit hanger was good enough, or better.

I have been writing a novel, it started out and drifted through 38 chapters because I always found something else to say about the back story. Ha! Now I'm stuck again, with perhaps fifty chapters wanting to come, but held up by a logjam.

God I hate to just leave it.

 

[oggbashan]

You file it on your hard drive, with a back-up of course, and leave it alone for a few months.

When you look at it again, you might decide to continue, to revise it drastically, or to scrap it - but whatever you decide, don't delete it entirely.

It might eventually be the inspiration for your next great story.

If you have already posted it on Lit, you can delete it here, or leave it hanging. It took me three years (edited for: just checked. FIVE years!) to come up with the last chapter of one series.

My few fans sometimes pester me to finish incomplete series or to write sequels. Their messages might prompt me to look again, but the inspiration has to be there too.

Og

 

[Guest]

How do you let go of a story that you have put weeks, months of thought into?

I just put up three chapters of what was going to be nine. It all fits and the ending is open enough I could do the other chapters, but I just feel that leaving a clit hanger was good enough, or better.

I have been writing a novel, it started out and drifted through 38 chapters because I always found something else to say about the back story. Ha! Now I'm stuck again, with perhaps fifty chapters wanting to come, but held up by a logjam.

God I hate to just leave it.

You don't have to leave it. Not for good anyway. Shelve it for a week or two and write a vignette from a photo. That's what got me going again. I found out I had something different to say. When I said it, I got back to the business of finishing my other story.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Sooner or later every competent writer is forced to plot and outline. It cant be avoided.

Jon Franklin (2 Pulitzers) says he wasted years fighting plots and outlines, and when failure finally kicked his ass enough times, he plotted-outlined, started selling stories, and won 2 Pulitizers almost immediately.

No story ever wrote itself sitting in a drawer.

 

[JackLuis]

Thanks guys. "Spreading Seeds" has been kicking my ass for a year or more. I started it to work in First person and now I have a hard time working in third!

After 39 chapters I finally figured out how to transition into a "Plot centric tale", rather than a "stroker that won't die." Still I think a post-apocalyptic stroker with a cast of 10 women for each man and a different slant on sex can still tell us something about our sex lives.

However I still have to over come my 'reluctance' to have Josh butt fucked, for some reason I can't finish off the chapter so I can inject the "CRITICAL Plot chapter, even though it has another 13 women who want to get in Josh's pants.

Well I polished up another, unending tale and cut it to three chapters, it ends in a clit hanger and could be expanded, but with "seeds' still open I just didn't want to finish it.

I guess I had better admit that plotting and outlineing is the 'professional way to write and just get on with it. Thanks JB.

Hang on Josh, here comes the big one!

 

[OnlyByMoonlight]

Whenever I'm stuck like that I seek out inspiration. I look for some non-fiction that has something to do with my plot and read it. Example, when i was writing a story about a troubled heroin addict a while back I got all the psychology books about addiction and read them whenever I was stuck. It helped light the fire again.

 

[oggbashan]

...I guess I had better admit that plotting and outlineing is the 'professional way to write and just get on with it. Thanks JB.

JB admits he's still constantly trying to improve his writing.

On that, all of us could follow his advice, but we still have to find out what works best for us.

There are multiple ways of plotting and outlining. Some are suitable for those with CDO and are very time consuming. Others are more sketchy, but are better than nothing.

Og

 

[JackLuis]

Whenever I'm stuck like that I seek out inspiration. I look for some non-fiction that has something to do with my plot and read it. Example, when i was writing a story about a troubled heroin addict a while back I got all the psychology books about addiction and read them whenever I was stuck. It helped light the fire again.

Oh shit! I had figured to weave politics, sex and the various alternative views of sex into the plot! Now you say I HAVE to read politics!
Just when I thought I could avoid that nest of snakes, if only till the election cycle starts again. LOL

I guess I can do that, hell it's what I do anyway.

I had been using excell to hold my outline and using the various colors and columns to try to keep it together but the 3D space of the story defeated the 2D space in my mind and it got too complicated. Tleoz turned me on to ywriter5 and I'd like to try it but my computer is fouled up with MS xP and it refuses to work with ywriter5? SO rather than beat this computer into a pulp, I decided to avoid the violence of dealing with Bill.

Linux! I guess I'll switch. Is it Cyber-sexual to switch operating systems? You know you decide that you'd rather not get butt fucked my MS and try to cuddle up to a warm and fuzzy penguin? Maybe a bad analogy considering the hygiene of the average penguin.