Writing Flow Style

[lovecraft68]

Going over 3.5k is a worry? My chapter avg is 10k and some even longer, some shorter. 3500 words is just a decent day of writing for me. When I'm cooking on a chapter, I'll hammer out 7500 words in a day, going from 9-9. Retired does have some benefits to do that, lol

I just put in the words that count and let the reader take it from there. 10k is a good chapter size for a series. As noted, most want no more than 3 Lit pages of reading, unless it's a riveting story and can carry it.

I started Blood long before R9 and I'm jumping back and forth, as ideas for both come to me. R9 is easy to keep going, the end was already written for me and I just have to get there, whereas Blood requires me to conceive the whole thing and I'm hurting bad right now to end it. It's gotten out of hand and won't stop writing itself. I started with a 50 ch limit and I'm past that with 15 more to go before it even comes close to an ending.
Getting to be more like Blood of the Hands, lmao

Going over 3.5k isn't a worry unless you make it one.

or you're trying to sound pretentious.

 

[RoyceConnors]

Going over 3.5k isn't a worry unless you make it one.

or you're trying to sound pretentious.

No, hopefully not the latter, but 3500 sounds so small a number.

I can't imagine losing a reader's interest in that short amount of words, or a writer having a hard time going more than that.

 

[mikoli5763]

No sure if it

qualifies as a style, but most of my stories start with an idea or two which ruminate in my head for a time (some short and some longer) until I feel that I'm ready to write the story at which time I begin writing. Some have been finished in one session and some take multiple sessions.
I have found that once I start writing, they seem to write themselves. After finishing the story, I usually leave it for awhile then come back and edit, tweak, or rework sections that I feel need it. The one time I didn't follow that timeline, the story was full of mistakes that should have been caught by me but weren't because I didn't give myself time to "forget" what I'd written so I could catch the mistakes.

 

[CeasarBoobage]

qualifies as a style, but most of my stories start with an idea or two which ruminate in my head for a time (some short and some longer) until I feel that I'm ready to write the story at which time I begin writing. Some have been finished in one session and some take multiple sessions.
I have found that once I start writing, they seem to write themselves. After finishing the story, I usually leave it for awhile then come back and edit, tweak, or rework sections that I feel need it. The one time I didn't follow that timeline, the story was full of mistakes that should have been caught by me but weren't because I didn't give myself time to "forget" what I'd written so I could catch the mistakes.

Pretty close to my style of writing and editing as well. Maybe every fifth of my stories are done in one sitting, the rest take several sessions since I seem to run out of steam or get an idea for another story and switch. I'm usually working on 5 or 6 stories at once, but my 'in progress' folder has about 75 partials, ranging from a few hundred words to 10k. My problem is that frequently I get bogged down in certain parts and can't move past it, then I have to leave it for a while to forget it. Then I come back and read it, getting upset I stopped where I did. By then I (sometimes) have a path for it to follow. Until I get stuck again, that is.

For the OP, as long as I have some key scenes in mind, I can write start to finish. Otherwise I start in the middle, then the story tells me how to do the rest. Sometimes it goes too far and I end up building out several alternate endings. Choosing can suck because I'm never sure I used the right one.

 

[CrissySnow]

advice is good!

You know I have been reading this thread and it's helping alot. I have a scattered mind because of adhd. I try my hardest to focus something in my head just once. The beginning for me is actually the hardest part. I have to start in pieces then throw everything together. It's like a puzzle for me when I start a story. Piece it together later. But I like what everyone is saying. Pick a scene let it go from there.

The other thing is reading writer's pro advice like a do and don't book. I say well you know what it's just Lit but I like to please myself first when it comes to style and flow. Then the editor and reader decides later if the story has a nice flow.

I've been writing erotica since high school. It use to be so easy to just sit there in front of the computer and write for hours. Not so much now.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

You know I have been reading this thread and it's helping alot. I have a scattered mind because of adhd. I try my hardest to focus something in my head just once. The beginning for me is actually the hardest part. I have to start in pieces then throw everything together. It's like a puzzle for me when I start a story. Piece it together later. But I like what everyone is saying. Pick a scene let it go from there.

The other thing is reading writer's pro advice like a do and don't book. I say well you know what it's just Lit but I like to please myself first when it comes to style and flow. Then the editor and reader decides later if the story has a nice flow.

I've been writing erotica since high school. It use to be so easy to just sit there in front of the computer and write for hours. Not so much now.

There's a school of psychology whose philosophy is this: If you wanna be Shakespeare, do what Shakespeare did. That is, read him obsessively and improve on his stuff. In fact, I suggest you do this with 3 authors you love, and let them blend in your noodle. The process is called THE EMPRINT METHOD.

http://www.amazon.com/Emprint-Method-Guide-Reproducing-Competence/dp/0932573029

Look for it at the library or wherever.

Ignore the critics. Its all about the acquisition of competence from the best teachers. Pretty simple, really.

 

[HeyAll]

Lately all my stories have been written from beginning to end. Sometimes I don't even know all the details, I just figure out certain plot points while I go.

But I've written the end of the story first before. I've done it when I had a clear vision of the ending I wanted. Then I went back and filled out various parts. It's no problem if you have the entire story figured out so that it still flows well.

 

[SamScribble]

Just remembered a guy who I used to drink with who used to outline each 'scene' of his story on an index card. Once he had what he felt was a full set, he then started to play with the sequence. I don't know if it had anything to do with the fact that his 'day job' was writing scripts for training films. Whatever the reason, it sort of worked for him.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I haven't read how anyone handles plot problems. I guess no one has them but me.

 

[sr71plt]

Probably because "plot problems" is far too broad an issue to be discussed in any meaningfully way.

 

[MrFoxwood]

There's a school of psychology whose philosophy is this: If you wanna be Shakespeare, do what Shakespeare did. That is, read him obsessively and improve on his stuff. In fact, I suggest you do this with 3 authors you love, and let them blend in your noodle. The process is called THE EMPRINT METHOD.

http://www.amazon.com/Emprint-Method-Guide-Reproducing-Competence/dp/0932573029

Look for it at the library or wherever.

Ignore the critics. Its all about the acquisition of competence from the best teachers. Pretty simple, really.

I think I might've started doing this with Martin Amis.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I think I might've started doing this with Martin Amis.

Sure. If you aint Amis, learn from Amis!

 

[soflabbwlvr]

There's a school of psychology whose philosophy is this: If you wanna be Shakespeare, do what Shakespeare did. That is, read him obsessively and improve on his stuff. In fact, I suggest you do this with 3 authors you love, and let them blend in your noodle. The process is called THE EMPRINT METHOD.

http://www.amazon.com/Emprint-Method-Guide-Reproducing-Competence/dp/0932573029

Look for it at the library or wherever.

Ignore the critics. Its all about the acquisition of competence from the best teachers. Pretty simple, really.

That's not always great advice. In my last year of college I became enamored with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, circa 1975. I started writing page-long paragraphs, compound sentences linked with other compound sentences, and everything was imbued with magical realism. My Lit. professor knew what I was doing and tried to dissuade me, while my other professors were apoplectic. It wasn't until I got a failing grade on a history midterm that finally snapped out of it.