Relief! (Finished a chapter)

[Zodia195]

Sorry I am just SOOO relieved that I had just finished Ch. 6 of my Dragons of Fraidel series. This was part 6 of it. I just emailed it to my editor so hopefully within a week I'll get it back to upload here. This chapter gave me SOO much trouble and I think I know why too.

From Ch. 1 to 5, there wasn't as much 'downtime' in them. The pacing did flow nicely, but Ch. 6 only had one major plot point to it and that wasn't even the biggest part of the chapter. I had to come up with other scenarios to connect to the major event and that proved to be hard, especially since I was introducing key characters in this story. So I am soo happy to finally have it down. At least with Ch. 7, I know exactly what to include in it and it'll have 3 major events happen in it.

Have any of ya'll ever felt this way when finishing a particular hard chapter?

 

[NotWise]

I just posted a chapter for Unlikely Angels that caused me more trouble than I thought it would, and it sounds like it might be for about the same reasons. It finishes a couple points from previous chapters and introduces a new character but there aren't any major new plot points 'till the second half and that takes a lot of development.

My attitude is more pensive than relieved. I think I maintained a pace that will keep the target audience engaged, but I could be way wrong.

 

[Hypoxia]

Writing some chapters, especially finales, can be drawn-out torture or at least frustration. Were all the preliminaries finished and posted a few months/years ago? Have I the drive to take this tale to completion?

I've changed my ways. A couple of series need finales, but from now on, I'll finish a series before posting any of it. Delaying chapters sucks.

 

[Zodia195]

See I've thought of posting stories when they're done, but the problem with that for me personally is that once when someone read a 'completed' Story of mine, they and several others told me to basically make major developments for it and I hated doing that because by that point I was completely done and wanted to move on. I did go back and changed a bunch of stuff (for the better), but I decided than and there that I would rather get feedback as the story is progressing because I am still in 'work mode'. And my stories are WAY too long for me to write them and not want feedback or to share them with others. It be agony for me. It never bothers me to wait for a story but I know there are others who just aren't like that.

 

[NotWise]

See I've thought of posting stories when they're done, but the problem with that for me personally is that once when someone read a 'completed' Story of mine, they and several others told me to basically make major developments for it and I hated doing that because by that point I was completely done and wanted to move on. I did go back and changed a bunch of stuff (for the better), but I decided than and there that I would rather get feedback as the story is progressing because I am still in 'work mode'. And my stories are WAY too long for me to write them and not want feedback or to share them with others. It be agony for me. It never bothers me to wait for a story but I know there are others who just aren't like that.

So the feedback for an in-progress story works for you?

It has totally not worked for me. The story isn't written yet, but I know the characters and where the story is headed. Most of my readers have been clueless about where the story would go. I've had one (1) person comment who even noticed things like the meaning of the title, or placed why some things happened into the context of the story.

I would need a higher class of reader or a much weaker idea of the story to use a reader's comment about where the story should go.

 

[Zodia195]

Well the problem was that at the time (and we're talk over 10 years ago) my stories did have serious flaws within their format and things weren't completely connecting. I honestly don't have that much of problem of that now, but I've gotten use to it. In fact that story that I had to edit more than write up, it's on this site and it was the first novel I ever wrote completely (typing it out wise). As a kid and pre-teen I did draw and write a bunch of other stories but they were very short and seriously wouldn't hold up now lol.

 

[NotWise]

As a kid and pre-teen I did draw and write a bunch of other stories but they were very short and seriously wouldn't hold up now lol.

I remember writing those! Aside from the fact that they had a very limited purpose -- describing a single act or a single scene -- they were so adjective-heavy that I would probably puke if I had to read them again.

 

[Zodia195]

LOL 99% of them I did in my free time. I always had an active imagination and came up with my own stories because the ones I read bored me to death. Closest stories I enjoyed were simple fairy tales and being exposed to mostly Disney Princess movies, especially during the 90s had a major effect on me. Since my real life sucked, I wanted happy ever afters in at least a fictional world. It's actually why as a rule I don't like pure Dramas or anything too Realistic and lean more towards fantasy, romance, and even some comedy.

 

[FortySixtyFour]

The relief is indeed palpable. Working full time and with a nasty commute I have almost no time to write, basically just Saturdays. But most of my work day I'm thinking about what I want to be writing, stressing out over not getting the ideas out on paper yet, getting anxious that I haven't been making progress.

Finishing a chapter and getting it posted is a huge relief, it gives me a couple weeks of relaxation before the shouldn't you be writing guilt sets back in.