Writer's Block: Coyote Howard Edition

[CoyoteHoward]

I'm cataloguing my personal bouts of writers block.

I'm currently in one, for about 4 months now, I think because I've painted myself into a bit of a wall with my Demigod story.

But mostly because I signed up to be a volunteer editor and people kept asking for help but what they were providing was just... garbage.

It wasn't anything even close to being ready, and that sucked the life out of me.

On my way to work today though, I popped open my Freeuse chapter 3 I'd started about 3 months ago and put some more down. And it feels great. I can feel my imagination comjng back.

Now I can't wait for the trip home to, hopefully, finish.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

But mostly because I signed up to be a volunteer editor and people kept asking for help but what they were providing was just... garbage.

Wow, glad I read this. I was tempted myself but now I think I won't. The story feedback forum might be enough to scratch that itch for the time being.

 

[Altissimus]

I'm cataloguing my personal bouts of writers block.

I'm currently in one, for anout 4 months now, I think because I've painted myself into a bit of a wall with my Demigod story.

I get this on a story sometimes. I find writing something else - completely different - helps. Even (especially) if the 'something else' is well out of your comfort zone. It kinda makes you want to get back to something 'easy', in your comfort zone, like your original story!

But mostly because I signed up to be a volunteer editor and people kept asking for help but what they were providing was just... garbage.

Bullet dodged.

 

[CoyoteHoward]

I get this on a story sometimes. I find writing something else - completely different - helps. Even (especially) if the 'something else' is well out of your comfort zone. It kinda makes you want to get back to something 'easy', in your comfort zone, like your original story!


Bullet dodged.

Great advice.

 

[CoyoteHoward]

Wow, glad I read this. I was tempted myself but now I think I won't. The story feedback forum might be enough to scratch that itch for the time being.

I haven't dived into story feedback yet.

What's your experience there been like? Positive?

 

[joy_of_cooking]

I haven't dived into story feedback yet.

What's your experience there been like? Positive?

Yes, quite positive. I've gotten helpful comments and people have taken my comments well. Plus, nearly everything I read passes a certain bar, and if it doesn't, I am under no obligation to continue. Five stars, would recommend.

 

[CoyoteHoward]

Yes, quite positive. I've gotten helpful comments and people have taken my comments well. Plus, nearly everything I read passes a certain bar, and if it doesn't, I am under no obligation to continue. Five stars, would recommend.

I went looking for a link and didn't see it, help a brotha out?

 

[alohadave]

I went looking for a link and didn't see it, help a brotha out?

https://forum.literotica.com/forums/story-feedback.1/

 

[Rob_Royale]

It wasn't anything even close to being ready, and that sucked the life out of me.

I recently had the same experience. I'm just glad it was only 2100 words.

 

[CoyoteHoward]

https://forum.literotica.com/forums/story-feedback.1/

Obviously didn't look very hard.

Thank you!

 

[CoyoteHoward]

I recently had the same experience. I'm just glad it was only 2100 words.

Yeah some of these things people sent I sent back to them just saying, "I think you need to work on your basics like simple grammar, spelling, paragraphing, etc before we go further."

 

[ronde]

But mostly because I signed up to be a volunteer editor and people kept asking for help but what they were providing was just... garbage.

It wasn't anything even close to being ready, and that sucked the life out of me.

My suspicion is that a lot of writers who are almost begging for someone to pre-read, edit, or whatever they call it are in reality looking for someone to grind the rough edges off their work and give it a professional polish. It is truly amazing what some people out there consider to be acceptable writing. It makes one wonder if they ever set foot in an English class in their lives. Most writers suffer from the "there, their" sort of mistakes, but I've read stories where my spellchecker turned half the screen red. I've seen stories of 2k words crammed into a single paragraph without even the hint of any punctuation.

As a result I've edited only a few stories in the last several years and both were from writers I knew from other stories to be pretty good. I was glad to help them out, and especially one woman who's first language was Italian. She had really good character development and plots, but struggled with the difference between thinking in Italian and writing those thoughts in English. Unlike the very messy language of English, Italian has definite rules about sentence structure and more than a few words that can be used in several different ways depending upon context. Helping her was a pleasure because she understood her problem and was more than willing to accept constructive criticism.

 

[CoyoteHoward]

Put up another chapter of Freeuse today. It's pending, but it's got me looking at my Demigods outline and ready to write Cobalt 01.