I came to talk to you about it Mr. Dean, but once again, my "timing sucks".Quote:
Originally Posted by H Dean
Yeah, you'll be able to rip this a new one all right. It sucks about like my timing does.
~sighs~
Printable View
I came to talk to you about it Mr. Dean, but once again, my "timing sucks".Quote:
Originally Posted by H Dean
Yeah, you'll be able to rip this a new one all right. It sucks about like my timing does.
~sighs~
Mr. Mad is eager and oh so very willing to offer his input.Quote:
Originally Posted by tessa
Lews is straining to find the key (but lets not go there)
Meanwhile you could while away the time working on your assignment between super moderator missions (congrats on that:) )
Be good (if you must)
Mad & Lews
I didn't forget you, naughty mouse!Quote:
Originally Posted by anonymouse
Now that Tessa has turned in her assignment, perhaps it's time to bind you to the chair at my desk and give you some quiet time to work on yours.
* wicked grin *
What would help you put this story together?
Perhaps instead of a good long break, a 15 minute block here and there may help.
You can do it!
Ruby
Alas, I read this just as I was about to log off to go shopping. It's a delicious thought nonetheless. Will get busy soon :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruby
First of, there are different ways I go about creating a story. It’s never the same but there are some patterns that I have recognized:
1. Like Dean pointed out, stories are a lot about problems and solutions. Struggle is an integral part to my story writing and some start by envisioning an imaginative or arousing struggle/problem/conflict or two and the story evolves around it. Characters appear, develop a personality and interact or solve the problem in their own way. Along the way background and further problems to be solved pop up.
2. I never start with the ending but sometimes I write about a captivating problem/struggle or just stumble across a powerful sentence and in that moment I KNOW that I want my story to end with this conflict resolved or this sentence answered. Sometimes it will take half a page to get there, sometimes several chapters and it doesn’t matter because its fine either way. (hope this makes sense)
3. I rarely start a story based on a character. If I do, it’s usually not the protagonist but a central figure (usually in a position of power), that the protagonist and other main characters interact with. So he is more a living part of the background.
4. I have started several stories from the background alone. After creating a world setting, I just thought about what people in my world might do and thus a story was born. (Maybe this tendency of mine is explained by my background in roleplaying.)
Once my characters emerge from the setting, they quickly develop a personality and take over. Basically the background, that sets the rules of the world and the characters, who decide how to act in it, take control of me and I become a chronicler, simply writing down WHAT HAPPENED. There may be set goals (i.e. problems that I want to see addressed or scenes that I have planned out) that have to be reached but the characters will go there on their own time.
To flesh out all of my story ideas, no matter on what they are centered (including the fixed assignments of the writers block, I lean back and set my mind adrift (something I’m very good at :) ). Hopefully, after a while, problems with my initial idea pop up and are solved, additional details are revealed and a theme and tone emerges as I envision sentences and fragments of dialogue.
In this stage, the flow of the story that makes the thrill reading it, as well as basic erotic content is established.
Satan_Klaus
PS: I also want to comment on rabbits posts on outlining in this thread. I chose this single post becasuse I think it pretty much sums up his ideas.
So far, I have only done short stories and I was able to juggle the outline (if one existed) in my head. More often, it is just a collection of background details, topics that are to be adressed and personalities.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rabbit1
I keep a list of tiny details at the bottom of my digital drafts including names, ages, hair and eye colours, secondary characters, places and the like for reference but the important things I keep in my head.
I have started work on a longer story (25000 words at the moment) and I realize that an outline might have been a useful tool. However, when i started writing, I did not know myself in which direction it would develop so I could not have written it in the first place. I guess I will stick to my "background and key event" method for the time being.
I'm a child of the digital age. I do all my writing directly in electronic format. All of it. I still have my school handwriting because I never used and evolved it.
Sometimes I write a sentece or paragraph I like very much only to realize that it needs more built up before it can be used. I just cut/paste it down and keep it in store until it is ready to be used.
If I'm unhappy how a paragraph sounds, I cut/paste and move around the sentences and replace words until I'm happy.
For highlighting and comments to self I use the editing fuctions of my word processor.
Satan_Klaus
Thank you, Satan_Klaus,
This happens to me, as well. I find can be the most fun and also the hardest to manage time. Sometimes my characters take control of the story and truly surprise me.Quote:
Once my characters emerge from the setting, they quickly develop a personality and take over. Basically the background, that sets the rules of the world and the characters, who decide how to act in it, take control of me and I become a chronicler, simply writing down WHAT HAPPENED.
Ruby
:rose:
Oof. Eesh. Wumph.
There's me trying to think about, not only the assignment I'm supposed to have done - and am also anonymousingly procrastinating over - but also the additional half-way there assignment of redoing my sum domming domme thing - and then I go and read THIS!!! And I've gone and read all those bits I wasn't supposed to as well - oh dear.
Tessa, Lews, Mad - lor luv us - I'm all of a thingy.
On a separate note - Satan K - fascinating. You sound frighteningly self-disciplined!
Self-discipline...don't make me laugh.
If I'm lacking in one thing, it's self discipline. Where did you get the idea that I had any?
Satan_Klaus
All my literate life, I have wanted, no, needed to write. It started with obssesive journaling, and led to making most of my personal decisions based on whether or not there might be an intersting story involved.
I was once a tour guide telling ghost stories (I also conducted purely historical tours) for 9 years, I only worked for tour operators who let me write my own 'scripts', these were basically retellings based on many older versions. I took them and twisted some of them not changing the crucial actions but rather interpreting the motivations, making the tourists empathize with the characters before they met their inevitable sad ends that turned them into ghosts...people really liked my tours. I loved it when people would cry, shed a tear for the dead. I don't do that job anymore.
It seems I can write a fairly wicked short story. I have a million ideas as I have been deliberately collecting inspiration here in my beloved New Orleans and other locations for many years. I have little murder stories, Voodoo stories, bar stories, travel adventure stories, disaster stories and love stories. I am a whore for the details.
I have also been bartending for over a decade, on and off. I am very approachable, and a good listener; people tell me their stories. I have plenty of my own, but I am continually studying, observing people and making up a story, seeing them as characters even if we don't meet or speak.
This is not how the erotica started. I have always liked sex. A lot. A few years back I had a lover who was a professional writer and a bit of a sadist. He adored my writing and to entertain him I would send him tons of short stories. I found his attention very inspiring, especially when it came to writing out sexy scenes.
Alas, our fairytale, happily ever after, was not to be.
This may sound like a copout, but it seems the quality of my erotic writing is related to whether or not I have a very sexy, sadistic man in my life. Thank goodness this is not a factor with my non-erotic attempts at writing.
I have not had much schooling; but I have decent intuition. Somehow I stumbled on this site; I didn't know I would find such a cool writing class. I liked the assignments in level one, taking a bit of suggestion and running with it was fairly easy for me. All it took was a sentence and I could easily get going. Level two was harder, the 'write whatever you want' assignments, well, I wanted to write something juicy, not just get through the assignment.
Outlines are something I feel I need but have not been able to grasp and use, but I want to. I have plenty of short stories and scenes and I want to be able to make them into a longer work. It helps when a character or two are really strong for the story to take it's own form around them. The writing just flows. If it isn't (I got all blocked up for a while in level two) I make myself write anyway.
How do I put a story together? I take everything I know, I sit down. and it flows. If it is an assignment, I just make myself do it, over and over, badly, until something better flows.
I have three abandoned, completely different attempts at my last assignment in level two which I think were just crap. Finally I decided to write something that might not have been very erotic but had been knawing at me...it is like the stories are using me sometimes to achieve existence. It turned out that I got some nice compliments on the last one and I was certain no one would like it.
Wow, I am really glad to be in this level; seems like I got here when things are getting pretty exciting. When I saw how many pages this thread was I got worried. I am happy it was mostly Mad Lews helping Tessa write.
Sadly, I could not read any of cariad's posts as the dark color of the back ground made it impossible. I really want to read her posts.
Thanks,
Beswitchingly
You can try highlighting the text. In most browsers the letters will turn white.Quote:
Originally Posted by Beswitchingly Positive
But I truly don't know why cariad is still writing in blue after the change in colors on the forum.
Satan_Klaus
Beswitchingly,
It's a pleasure to have you join us. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself.
Very interesting!Quote:
Outlines are something I feel I need but have not been able to grasp and use, but I want to. I have plenty of short stories and scenes and I want to be able to make them into a longer work. It helps when a character or two are really strong for the story to take it's own form around them. The writing just flows. If it isn't (I got all blocked up for a while in level two) I make myself write anyway.
I hear some future assignments being created for you and your desire to use an outline. Be warned, sometimes those strong characters will take control of the story and turn the ending into what it should be, versus what we thought it would be, when we started. Pushy characters!
I adore them.
Have you ever tried using "character sheets"?
Thanks again,
Ruby
:rose:
I have not tried using character sheets, but it sounds like a good idea for a longer piece. I love the pushy characters too. I hardly ever know how a story is going to end when I start, unless it is autobiographical.
I am so happy to be here, thanks for the warm welcome Ruby.
I am ready to work hard.
Beswitchingly
Hello Beswitchingly,Quote:
Originally Posted by Beswitchingly Positive
Ruby just got me started on charactersheets as well. They really help on longer pieces. If you like, I can send you the one I created and write down my thoughts on using it.
Satan_Klaus
Sure I would love to see what you did. I am sure this is going to be a helpful tool and a template would be very helpful. Send it to me any way you like.Quote:
Originally Posted by Satan_Klaus
Thanks,
Beswitchingly
Basically I wing it. That's my style.
When a scenario gets into my head I play it over and over in there...like watching a movie. The conversation comes out, the conflict, the drama, the emotions...the rest of the world fits around their lives, the good and the bad of it.
I start up a Word Document and just type. Sometimes I close my eyes and don't look at the screen or the keyboard and just type what I have been watching in my head. Sometimes it's just bits here and bits there of a story. Sometimes it's an entire scene that ends up being hashed, rehashed and edited some more before I like it (and I never like it, it's never good "enough").
My handy dictionary and the tools in Word are my only assistants at this time. I've tried character outlines but I found them unnecessary because a character I want to write about it I already feel an understanding for, a connection with him/her, I already know them as if they're real.
*Slips back into my old desk hoping that my extended absence was not noticed.*
I hope that life will now permit me to properly start this level, and hopefully even complete it. Is good to be back.
cariad
Mishka, we have a lot in common. This is how most of my stories begin, often with the characters in my head telling me their tales and showing me different versions until they think I've gotten it right.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mishka
I find the longer the story, the more involved the characters, then those other tools can come into play and really help. It's not that I don't know the characters, it's that I have many competiting for attention.Quote:
My handy dictionary and the tools in Word are my only assistants at this time. I've tried character outlines but I found them unnecessary because a character I want to write about it I already feel an understanding for, a connection with him/her, I already know them as if they're real.
When you are done with a story or you done with those characters or do you write about them again?
Welcome back, cariad!Quote:
Originally Posted by cariad
It's great to have you with us.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruby
Depends on the characters. I don't mind. I've only written one story that had a part 2 and that was for an assignment. Half in Level 1 and the continuation in Level 2. I want to bring them back to Level 3. I'm open if someone wants some more attention...we'll see if I like the idea.
Thank you Ruby, will try to stay here this time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruby
*passes Ruby an apple*
Thank you, cariad
* Taking a bite of the pretty apple from cariad, I smile and wonder if anyone will notice if I go back and fix my silly spelling and "use of the wrong word" mistakes in previous posts. *
nope....there will only be the editing comment there for posterity.
Regardless of the genre I am writing, I start thinking about the setting and story structure well before I think about the characters. I'll always jot down a brief outline of what generally happens, but on one-shot erotica pieces that tends to not be substantial. I don't do full character sheets for short pieces, and instead opting to just write a few lines about them instead; if the story is only going to be a few pages, I do not believe a full character sheet would add enough, if any, to justify the time spent.
For a longer length story I plan to start writing during National Novel Writing Month (or whatever it is called), I am doing extensive outlining, character sheets, and world building. While characters are what make a story work, it is easier to design them once the world that they live in feels more 'real'.
Stories only a few pages in length, like those in my Bad End series, I can knock out in about 5 hours total, including editing. I've only been writing fiction since the beginning of the year, and I'm proud of my progress. but I probably have to keep an eye towards higher quality and longer length if I am going to ever make money writing (which is something I hope to do someday, but I know how unlikely that is).
In summary, I put my stories together by developing the world and setting, then the characters, then the words themselves.
Ah, very interesting, Razor.
Do you have any particular tips or tricks that you've learned over the last year that you'd like to share with the rest of us?
Always know the ending before you start writing the beginning. If you know the final state in which the characters and story end up, character development will fall into place, as each event will naturally bridge the gap between the present and ending.
Hi, My name is Nikita. I started writing bdsm stories a little over 3 years ago and posted my first one, Walking on the Wild Side, on this site. It's going to be a novella, but it's been slow going. The main reason is I get side tracked writing short stories. I like them...a lot.
My first book, a collection of those short stories called The Whipping Post, was published earlier this year. My reward was seeing it on an ebook site with a price tag next to it. :) Let's say, with the money it's generated to date, I can pay for a couple of months' worth of Starbucks lattes.
One of my short stories, was accepted for publication by Carol Queen, More Five Minute Erotica: 35 Tales of Sex and Seduction. She sent out a call for submissions with general guidelines on what she was looking for. The book will be sold on Amazon.com in December.
Why am I here? I want/need to learn more, move out of my comfort zone and work on writing assignments set by someone else, AND, be another set of eyes for Ruby and Dean.
How do I put a story together?
I just tell a story. Sometimes, the need to put it down is so strong, I can close my eyes and type away until I have to stop. This can go on for 10 min. I peek once in awhile to make sure my fingers are still on the right keys.
Characters drive my stories. I think they are the most important part of a story. I'll go even further and say they are the story. They each have a part that I know, can relate to, have seen at one point or another. In other words, drawing from personal knowledge and experience makes it easy to write.
Like Rhabbi, an outline stifles me, but after I've written several scenes, one is needed to put the story together. It is easier to connect the dots on paper than on the computer screen.
I don't have any tools other than reading books and stories I like. Observe how the author put it together, etc.
There are two books I refer to often, Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint : (Techniques and exercises for crafting dynamic characters and effective viewpoints) and Plot & Structure: (Techniques And Exercises For Crafting A Plot That Grips Readers From Start To Finish).
As to tricks...music feeds a side of my brain that needs to be occupied while I write. The selection is relative or random.
These days, I work on pottery, tinker with photography, and draw. These activities keep me from being so anal retentive. hahahaha To be honest, my brain needs rest from over thinking.
I also write a little everyday. It maybe the constant stream of emails, blogs, responses to forum topics, etc. But, it is still writing.
Looking forward to the writing challenges and interacting with you.
Hi Nikita,
Welcome to the Level Three.
You get sidetracked? :) Me, too.
I agree, the characters make the story. If I don't have any strong feelings for them, then I can easily put down a book or stop reading any story.
Thanks for the book recommendations. They sound great.
I'm looking forward to having you as both a student and extra set of eyes.
Ruby
:rose:
I too have a problem with getting sidetracked, but I don't view it as a problem like some people seem to do.
Too many of my friends have a 'linear' stack of books, videogames, or stories that they want to complete, one-by-one, in order. I have great difficulty imagining any process less productive than that, as I am many times more productive when I am focusing on what interests me rather than what I feel obliged to do.
Ok. I read all five pages of that thread (well sort of skimmed some of it.)
How do I put a story together… Well, I don’t really know. I suffer a lot from blank page syndrome. I have a hard time coming up with stuff to write about but once I know. It’s a piece of cake. I found using a character sheet for my second assignment in level One helped a lot. For the third assignment I was stumped for a while. I thought and thought about it. (Big secret – The real reason I love this forum is the assignments give me something to do during my commute. Nothing makes a commute go by faster than thinking up a really steamy story :D
I haven’t written a lot of fiction since I was in school and that was too long ago to reveal:) . Now as a mature adult I find that I like dirty stories A LOT better. I like to read them but the ones in the bookstores are not so interesting. And you begin to feel like a perv surfing the net for them (Not that that has stopped me! – I guess that makes me a perv too! Lol.
Ruby asked - Do you have any tools that you recommend to others?
I have no tools. I write because I read. I like all kinds of genre depending on my mood (except maybe westerns – But if it was sexy enough even a western may work)
I am allergic to outlines. Outlines make me feel penned up. I suppose I do outline in a way… I sort of sketch out what I want to write about (ion those long drives) and capture the gist beforw I truly start the real writing. I am an old RPG’er so the character sheet was a great find. But I think it would be tedious for many short stories. It's probably something I need to do but methodical things make me stop.
I’m not sure I’m ready (translate that to patient enough) to write anything much longer. Eventually I'd like to but I think I need to build my confidence. That's why hanging out here has been so great.:cool:
ladychipmunk,
Welcome to this level and thanks for your input.
Hoping to make your commute go even faster,
I'll be preparing an assignment or three for you.
Being allergic to outlines? I can relate. I write them, my characters trash them and I think, why did I bother?
I only use character sheets on my short stories, if they have the same characters in them. Then it's proved to be a huge help.
Have fun. We're all looking forward to your feedback on the various assignments of your peers,
Ruby
Hey Y'all! What a great thread.
How do I put a story together? Like many others here, I tend to shoot from the hip. The two novella length stories I'm working on started out as short stories that I couldn't seem to finish. Once the characters came to life, they had stories to tell that couldn't be told in 2,000 words. I'm not certain I will finish either of them without quite a bit of re-writing, but I'm determined.
I have never used an outline for fiction. I spent so many years doing technical writing as a job that when I began to write fiction again, I wanted nothing to do with structure! lol! On the other hand, I have tried to put some general structure in anything new I write.
I'm currently on hiatus from the novella and writing primarily short stories and poetry. One important thing I've found is that writing poetry is making my prose writing tighter. I'm learning to use far fewer words to say the same thing. I recommend poetry writing to anyone who suffers from excessive word usage! Haiku is especially helpful at cutting out superfluous words.
I wrote my first erotic short story last year and was quite pleased with the reaction from my friends and dom (who is also my husband). All that positive reinforcement made me want to write more. :-)
I start putting a story together by getting a wicked idea (usually at 2am) and must make sure to write it down or I will have the devil of a time going back to sleep. Of course, if I do manage to fall asleep without having done so, I will be tormented for the next several days about how the perfect story got away.
From my hastily scrawled notes, I create a Word file for the new idea and roughly draw out the main characters--they won't get names yet but I might already start to hear their voices in my head. I'll put down those conversations and any other brilliant ideas and then put it away to marinate for a few days.
When I come back to it, I usually have a better idea of what kind of story it will be--a short story or a novel, erotica or mainstream, or maybe it is something that isn't ready to be written yet. If it is clamoring to be written, I then write a basic outline of the plot arc. By this, I mean I figure out the set-up, the action, and the resolution.
I have really found that an outline is very helpful as a starting point, especially for the longer stories to make sure that I tie up any loose ends. However, I find I get more use out of a pack of yellow stickies (aka post-it notes) than the outline process I was taught in school. I basically create a storyboard for each of stories I may be working on at any one time.
On my stickies, I put character descriptions down as I write them in the story (hair and eye color, background info like job or parent’s names, their particular kinks, etc) and stick 'em up on the bulletin board. I also put down the main plot points to make sure that I'm keeping the tension high. I can quickly and easily rearrange things as I write and reference back (were her pubes shaved?) as I work.
I try to write something everyday. If the muse isn’t cooperating, I end up hopping around from one story to the next. Instead of having to reread everything I’ve written so far before I can start the days work, I can glance up on the board and see the stickies for each project.
When writing the story itself, I rarely work in a linear fashion. Mainly because I am easily bored, I jump around and write the fun stuff and then have to buckle down and write the nitty gritty transitions and explain how we got from point A to point D and why they don’t have any clothes on.
As I get close to finishing, I start rereading the story, making obvious corrections as I go. These read throughs help me to fine tune the story and resolve any plot holes. Once I finish, I usually put the thing down for a week or better before I start editing. I have to get some distance and perspective first. If I start editing too soon, I might catch the grammar errors but I won’t see the extraneous paragraphs that don’t do anything to move the story forward.
Hello, all. Quite an interesting, not to say provocative, thread. ;) I’m afraid I have no chance of holding my own with that part of the conversation, so I’ll just get on with my assignment and try to explain (at least to myself) how I put a story together.
Ideas for stories come out of the blue. I have no idea from what dark crevice of my mind they appear. Once I have an idea, I start writing. I put the idea down on paper, and any character info I can think of.
I don’t use an outline because I never know where my story is going to go. I do use character sheets, but only after I’ve been working with a character for a while. My characters tend to quickly develop their own “voice,” and that allows me to “ask” them about themselves. I am not clinically schizophrenic, I promise, but after I’ve been working with characters for a while, they just start talking to me. I write down what they say, and, voila! I have a story.
This is not always good. Often, they take me places I hadn’t planned on going, did not want to go, and have no idea how the hell I am going to get out of there. Sometimes a solution eventually occurs to me. When that happens, I produce some of my best stories. When it doesn’t, the manuscript sits on the shelf, often for months, until I decide to take another stab at it.
Although I’ve been a technical and business writer for years, I have no formal training in how to write a story, a novel, etc. In fact, some of the terminology I’ve run into on this forum is unfamiliar to me. I just put ideas on paper, make sure the spelling and grammar appear to be correct, read it aloud once, and hope for the best. I am terrible at editing my own work, because I fall in love with my own writing. * Sigh *
While I don’t use an outline, ideas for bits and pieces of the story tend to come to me at odd times, including 2am, so I keep my laptop with me everywhere I go (it’s on the bedside table at night). When an idea or a scene leaps to mind, I just scroll to a new page and start typing. When the rest of the action gets me to that point, I revise as necessary, but those scenes that come to me in toto, and out of the blue, tend to be pretty good and need little revision.
I’m usually at the halfway point of a story before I know what the crisis is going to be, or how it will end. So, that is my willy-nilly way of putting a story together.
Tips and things I’ve learned:
1) Draw from your own experience. It sounds more believable that way.
2) In general, draw characters and surroundings lightly; it allows the reader to “buy-in” to your story by making the hero(ine) and locale into whatever they feel comfortable with.
3) If you don’t like it, don’t write it.
4) This one isn’t a tip so much as something I’ve learned, plus a query. I find writing the crisis part of a story to be very difficult. I always fall in love with my protagonists, and usually hate my antagonists. So when I do awful things to my heros, it hurts. My brain also usually wends its way through some VERY dark corridors as I imagine what is happening. The stuff that ends up on the page is usually much milder than the creepy and icky stuff that slimed up my mind while I was working on it.
My query is this: do other authors have a difficult time writing these hard bits? And, if so, do they have any tips on how to deal with it?
Well, that's my two cents...
Lady C
A good two cents it was, too. Thank you.
Oh, yeah, I certainly have trouble. Especially when I've come to care for my characters. And, sometimes, my fantasies disturb even me.Quote:
Originally Posted by theladystouch
The best way that I've learned to handle it is to just take a break. Let the ideas marinate for a day or two before I committ unspeakable acts on my heroines (boy characters are icky and they don't count lol). Let the light of day shine on on the creepy stuff and see if it still makes your pulse race.
ER
3) If you don’t like it, don’t write it.
Are you speaking of subject matter or your tale in general? I tend to look at things that I don't necessarily like to write about and push myself by writing about it a bit. That isn't to say that I write on subject matter that i really dislike. I've no want to commit a M/m story to the printed page since I have no passion for it. Still, it may be a way for me to expand my abilities and I have thought on it once or twice.
4) This one isn’t a tip so much as something I’ve learned, plus a query. I find writing the crisis part of a story to be very difficult. I always fall in love with my protagonists, and usually hate my antagonists. So when I do awful things to my heros, it hurts. My brain also usually wends its way through some VERY dark corridors as I imagine what is happening. The stuff that ends up on the page is usually much milder than the creepy and icky stuff that slimed up my mind while I was working on it.
My query is this: do other authors have a difficult time writing these hard bits? And, if so, do they have any tips on how to deal with it
Oh, but I enjoy the dark stuff. I can't recall a story I wrote where bad shit didn't occur. In fact, the story I was most proud of writing was extremely nasty to my protagonist. The ending was entirely written (in my head) before the rest of the story was even thought of.
I do have a tip, though: Compartmentalize. Write the bad shit as the bad person doing committing the evil acts. Get rid of the nice person and write like you are evil. It sure worked for me on "Mel and the Sadist". The main character was a real prick and I relished eliminating the nice guy from me while I wrote that little tale. I just wish I had not been in a hurry to get that one in the library - oh, the mistakes!
My query is this: do other authors have a difficult time writing these hard bits? And, if so, do they have any tips on how to deal with it
I do. There are a couple of stories that are hanging around because I still have a difficult time with the 'hard bits.' In fact, I'm generally not happy with bits that I've written to 'just do it.' It leaves a sick feeling in my gut. I don't want to put a piece like that out there.
One of the exercises in level three helped me push through that wall. The assignment was to write a piece from the pov of the opposite gender, first person. The first try was appalling. :rolleyes: So, I put myself in the mental space of the character, to be him and think like him. It turned out okay. I can live with it.
I like the compartmentalize tip. Most of my stuff has some dark stuff in it somewhere, that's where the drama comes in, but nowhere near the coal black stuff you write. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by H Dean
Thanks for the perspective, Nikita. I'm working on the same assignment, LOL, and having the same difficulties. I'll try your advice before submitting it to H Dean, but I still expect him to shred it. I just don't know how to think like a man! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Nikita
Oh oh oh.... :rolleyes: I just can't say it. We are outnumbered. :span: <stares at ground...> Nope...I can't.Quote:
Originally Posted by theladystouch