That Moment: Wait, this is much better ...

[ShelbyDawn57]

I made it through the first nine and a half books, plus the prequel - in both its forms, for those who know, plus the graphic novel - and I think the best way to approach it is as the same story, just a turn of the Wheel later. The details are different, but the story's the same.

And besides a few bumpy moments in S1, I've enjoyed the whole thing so far.

Thanks. I'm encouraged. I'm enjoying it as well. I'm still going to wait to read the books.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

On the other hand, a lot of new writers also benefit from just getting something out there. Saying "Now I'm going to publish" and taking that leap for the very first time. Once they've done that, they'll quite possibly be more motivated to keep writing and publishing, rather than running out of steam, giving up and never publishing anything.

I wonder how many would benefit more by having beta readers that they could share their work with before publishing? I believe too many are ashamed to reveal their "hobby" to friends and family, and that is what limits their access to more private feedback.

I know that I am fortunate to have several people that review my works as they progress, which allows me to "test the waters" in a more controlled manner. Some may read only the first few chapters, and they're usually surprised when the final version is completed and so much of what they had read previously has been changed.

 

[lovecraft68]

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. Even in it's current state, GoT is absolutely worth reading. World building, character development, story telling on an epic scale with a quality I haven't found outside Tolkien. GRRM, is a fricking genius. One I'm very perturbed with right now for reasons you are alluding to, but a master all the same.

I think its too much of an investment knowing you'll never get the end-or most likely even the book before the end-I also have issues with him and his content, but that's a personal thing.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I'm sure it happens to us all.

I'm 49,000 words into a story. A key part of the story is that my protagonist's whole appearance (and identity) have changed. Part of it is an inquiry into whether one can be the same person when you look different and act different and almost no one from your past would recognize you.

In the draft as of this morning, the protagonist meets someone who is a lot like their previous self. It's meant to draw the contrast, to show that them-now is very different from them-on-page-1. I was driving around shopping today, and thinking about something highly tangential, and it came to me: they could know each other. It makes their interactions more intense and interesting, it makes more sense than their not knowing each other, given they share a hobby in a fairly small area, and it gives both of them reasons to be both happy and apprehensive. I have to rewrite some scenes, but the end result will be improved substantially.

(This is a Literotica story. "Their interactions" involve sex.)

When I first started writing fiction, I was sure that I'd be a plotter. I expected to create highly polished, perfect outlines, and then just turn them into stories without much deviation. I turn out to be mostly a pantser. I know how a few scenes might go, and then I write and discover what the story is as I go. It was surprising.

--Annie

Plotting is basically pantsing, in my opinion. The story has to come from somewhere, the plot has to be concieved. It's just the extra step of turning it from summary and key points, to an actual story.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I think its too much of an investment knowing you'll never get the end-or most likely even the book before the end-I also have issues with him and his content, but that's a personal thing.

Im curious what parts you object to. I mean we’re on an erotica site, so I’m guessing it’s not the sex.

 

[StillStunned]

Im curious what parts you object to. I mean we’re on an erotica site, so I’m guessing it’s not the sex.

There's some controversy about how GRRM includes non-consensual sex. Or rape, to use plainspeak. He's argued that it was a part of reality in the historical period of real-life Europe that the books are based on (by way of Maurice Druon's series "The Accursed Kings"). Others have argued that yes, it was, but was so were a lot of other things, like bodily functions, but he didn't include those.

Make of that what you will. Nobody complained about it before the TV show, though, presumably because they didn't have Emilia Clarke and Sophia Turner's pretty faces to attach their outrage to.

 

[Voboy]

Others have argued that yes, it was, but was so were a lot of other things, like bodily functions, but he didn't include those.

Tywin has entered the chat. From the privy.

And then he's left the chat.

 

[iwatchus]

Make of that what you will. Nobody complained about it before the TV show, though, presumably because they didn't have Emilia Clarke and Sophia Turner's pretty faces to attach their outrage to.

I certainly knew people who complained prior to the show.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

The idea that publishing when the story is complete is the only and bestest way to go seems to ignore the number of successful professional authors who've published their stories in multiple volumes.

And many of them despite their popularity are panned by critics for implausible plots full of contradictory motive - like that author who has that series about sexy dragons that someone linked to a couple of months ago just full of eye-rolling plot because the whole thing meanders with no care at all for any consistency, but hinges on whatever is convenient for the scene at hand with no regard for previously established tenets. This is nothing to do with pantsing or plotting and everything to do with editing. But it's popular because it has ... sexy dragons n stuff.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

There are a ton of major authors and classic novels that were serializations.

Why? For the money. These guys were selling the stories to magazines and papers and they got paid for every chapter.

I guess that could be the equivalent of PSG's 'writing for the likes' thing, given we don't get paid here and our currency tends to be views and stars.

That's exactly what it is. That's also why War and Peace isn't a great novel. It was never intended to be. It does have value but it's really just a sprawling soap opera with bonus themes about how history is recorded. Tolstoy wrote a soap serial to make some money, and the result shows.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

However, there are a lot of new writers here who could benefit from the experiences of others. Being impatient and writing themselves into a corner isn't usually a preference, but something that one experiences, and hopefully learns how to avoid it in the future.

On the other hand, a lot of new writers also benefit from just getting something out there. Saying "Now I'm going to publish" and taking that leap for the very first time. Once they've done that, they'll quite possibly be more motivated to keep writing and publishing, rather than running out of steam, giving up and never publishing anything.

Sure, but if that continues as the MO, it is very limiting. It's also almost always an addiction.

 

[Belegon]

Like so many other concepts, the idea of pantser vs plotter is a spectrum that at its core is a binary. The reality is that well all live somewhere in the middle. Very few of us are 100 percent either.
My personal style is to start with a what if, and then see where it goes. ("What if a young man saw a murder and had to hide as a girl to avoid getting killed?" turned into a short story and a novella)

Sure, I have to decide on a general direction for the story, and give some thought to my MCs back story, so I guess that's planning. But the story itself, I let that unfold as I write. I love the internal discovery as my characters come alive as I write. The downside is I have too many partially written stories sitting on the shelf just waiting for that flash of inspiration necessary to get me out of the corner I've written myself into.

I hear that!!!! and identify with it.. my biggest one has been sitting as a work in progress for about twenty years now...my basic issue is a character that was created in order so that she could die took me over and said, "But I don't wanna die" and I loved writing her enough that I listened... Oh the series working title, which will probably be it's actual title*, is the very ironic (at this time) Things Left Undone...

*since cover art has already been created

 

[alohadave]

There's some controversy about how GRRM includes non-consensual sex. Or rape, to use plainspeak. He's argued that it was a part of reality in the historical period of real-life Europe that the books are based on (by way of Maurice Druon's series "The Accursed Kings"). Others have argued that yes, it was, but was so were a lot of other things, like bodily functions, but he didn't include those.

I wonder how people who have read both ASOIF and Outlander would compare them.

Outlander is notorious for the amount of gratuitous rape it contains.

 

[Lathanar1]

I've been writing in chapters, novel length stories with a defined path and predetermined outcome, and I try to keep at least 3 chapters ahead of what I've published because sometimes a scene I had planned will change on me while I'm writing and I have to go back and retro fit some content in an earlier chapter to support it. It's funny how the characters live in my head and sometimes go 'Nope, I don't do that. But I might do this.'

My wife gets upset with me with movies and shows because I'm fairly decent at spotting the formulas and how the ending is going to take place. Sometimes I'll blurt out what will happen because I don't like how the script handled the setup, and she'll scold me, 'Why do you bother watching if you already know the ending?' My answer is it's all about the journey, not the destination. My writing has become the same.

 

[Lathanar1]

I've been watching the series. I'm going to read the books after because I know the series really sucks, but, in my ignorance, I can enjoy it.

This is the only way to enjoy the show. GoT got away with changing the books because it still resembled the books through season 3, but WoT is so far removed from the books the only thing the same are the names. It should have a tag 'Loosely based on.'

Others have argued that yes, it was, but was so were a lot of other things, like bodily functions, but he didn't include those.

Lol, pretty sure he included those.

 

[crookedletter]

Lol, pretty sure he included those.

Yeah, I recall at least one privy assassination.

 

[TheRedChamber]

There's some controversy about how GRRM includes non-consensual sex. Or rape, to use plainspeak. He's argued that it was a part of reality in the historical period of real-life Europe that the books are based on (by way of Maurice Druon's series "The Accursed Kings").

Martin has three major characters who are eunuchs and a whole army of the poor sods. He has major characters suffer dismemberment, disfigurement and decapitation. At least two of his characters are suffering serious mental trauma as a result of war or torture. He regards rape in wartime as a fact.

His world works almost exclusively on arranged marriages. These run the gamut from 'became a warm and loving family', 'completely passionless but respectful', 'red hot passion', 'she hates him, he womanizes, but also rapes her 'because its his right' and 'she hates him and he makes no move on her'