Discussion
I did a lot of writing in my mid to late teens, a lot of teenage angst against the world, the usual tripe, but I did write some fiction. During my time in the RAF I did a bit of writing, mainly stories about what I'd been up to, but all I managed was to write what amounted to several short stories, and I had little inclination to join them together.
Despite original writing being my strong point since I was at school, I seem to have lost my creativity as I've gotten older; although I have plenty of ideas, they are just scraps of info rather than a full plot.
One day I'll actually sit down to do a good piece of writing, and it being published would be a bonus too!
Despite original writing being my strong point since I was at school, I seem to have lost my creativity as I've gotten older; although I have plenty of ideas, they are just scraps of info rather than a full plot.
One day I'll actually sit down to do a good piece of writing, and it being published would be a bonus too!
Yes, no, no...
I drove from England to South Africa about 4 years ago, and the journey was so eventful and full of drama that I felt it would be rude not to get it all down on paper. Researching and writing the book took me about a year, and was a very unpredictable and sometimes frustrating process - some weeks I'd get nowhere with the writing, while at over times I'd be on fire, and almost unable to stop.
Once I'd finished the first draft of 'Survival of the Quickest' (and drank far too much in celebration) I spent another year knocking it into shape and ironing out errors, before starting the process of trying to get it published. This I failed at - despite interest from various sources, full manuscript requests and plenty of positive comments, the book was always deemed a bit too niche by marketing departments to warrant the commitment of being taken on.
After about a year of such failure, I accepted defeat, had the book professionally edited and self-published it, initially on Kindle. I'm currently finishing off proofing the paperback version, and hope to have that available in a few weeks too.
So overall, my experiences of writing have been a mixture of hard work, satisfaction and frustration, in pretty much equal measure. There were certainly times when I regretted committing myself to the whole project, but the final satisfaction of having 'written a book' made all the effort worth it. So worth it, in fact, that I'm starting on the sequel next month...
There's a bit more on the book and the trip here if you're interested:
http://80breakdowns.com/2012/07/10/the-longest-roa...
I drove from England to South Africa about 4 years ago, and the journey was so eventful and full of drama that I felt it would be rude not to get it all down on paper. Researching and writing the book took me about a year, and was a very unpredictable and sometimes frustrating process - some weeks I'd get nowhere with the writing, while at over times I'd be on fire, and almost unable to stop.
Once I'd finished the first draft of 'Survival of the Quickest' (and drank far too much in celebration) I spent another year knocking it into shape and ironing out errors, before starting the process of trying to get it published. This I failed at - despite interest from various sources, full manuscript requests and plenty of positive comments, the book was always deemed a bit too niche by marketing departments to warrant the commitment of being taken on.
After about a year of such failure, I accepted defeat, had the book professionally edited and self-published it, initially on Kindle. I'm currently finishing off proofing the paperback version, and hope to have that available in a few weeks too.
So overall, my experiences of writing have been a mixture of hard work, satisfaction and frustration, in pretty much equal measure. There were certainly times when I regretted committing myself to the whole project, but the final satisfaction of having 'written a book' made all the effort worth it. So worth it, in fact, that I'm starting on the sequel next month...
There's a bit more on the book and the trip here if you're interested:
http://80breakdowns.com/2012/07/10/the-longest-roa...
davepoth said:
I'm intrigued by the idea and the process.
The process, indeed. I've written some short stories and I always have a few snippets on the go, althought I'm not so good at progressing any individual one. I'd like to be able to structure the story first, then write to that. In practice I tend to write freeform to a blank page and then edit.
Well worth checking out the blogs of various authors and look for videos from any panels they are on at various conventions (particularly for fantasy//sci-fi writers).
They often talk about how their process goes.
I have Pat Rothfuss and Paul Cornell in my feed reader as they often give great insight into their profession.
They often talk about how their process goes.
I have Pat Rothfuss and Paul Cornell in my feed reader as they often give great insight into their profession.
It comes in fits and starts for me. On my current project I'm averaging about 100 words a day. Some weeks I'll write nothing. A few weeks ago I was on my way to a stag do on a train with my mates and was inspired for some reason. I spent the whole trip in the vestibule typing a chapter into my crappy phone as a series of text messages.
I started writing pieces for magazines re fishing in the 80s and have been published here and in USA. Also write a lot of articles for our Lotus Seven Club Magazine (not just stuff re Sevens, but interviews with interesting folk- drivers, team mangers etc ). Two books pub;lished 2007 and 2012- both the angling equivalent of 'Fever Pitch '- ie not how to do it but reflections, middle aged rantings and some cod zen musing. Last book contains- possibly uniquely for the angling genre- a discussion of design philosophy of the MX5, ACBC added lightness discussion and a riff on NASCAR drivers....
And yes- it feels bloody GREAT to go into Waterstones and see your book on its shelves. You don't get rich doing most books but the feedback from readers(emails. leters even a gift wrapped bottle of whisky) is just lovely. And writing itself- when it's going well - is a real joy. On a very good day 5000 words; on bad ones - don't ask.
My plan is to do a motoring book next - start this winter.Sort of autobiog - 17 chapters planned - well, in the sense that I have an idea what they are all about.Won't be technical - will you folk buy it ?
And yes- it feels bloody GREAT to go into Waterstones and see your book on its shelves. You don't get rich doing most books but the feedback from readers(emails. leters even a gift wrapped bottle of whisky) is just lovely. And writing itself- when it's going well - is a real joy. On a very good day 5000 words; on bad ones - don't ask.
My plan is to do a motoring book next - start this winter.Sort of autobiog - 17 chapters planned - well, in the sense that I have an idea what they are all about.Won't be technical - will you folk buy it ?
Edited by coppice on Wednesday 22 August 08:11
I do a lot of news blogging, both for Londonist and my own stuff. I started doing something called Flash Fiction which I was introduced to a couple of years ago which is quite fun. For the uninitiated, it's when you write an ultra-short story, say 250 words.
As for writing a book, in all honesty, I don't think I have it in me. Over the years I've had a lot of ideas for books but I don't think I'd be able to stretch them into enough material for a book.
I love writing though and blogging's great because I pretty much get to write about whatever I like.
As for writing a book, in all honesty, I don't think I have it in me. Over the years I've had a lot of ideas for books but I don't think I'd be able to stretch them into enough material for a book.
I love writing though and blogging's great because I pretty much get to write about whatever I like.
Silver said:
As for writing a book, in all honesty, I don't think I have it in me. Over the years I've had a lot of ideas for books but I don't think I'd be able to stretch them into enough material for a book.
That was my big worry. I always tend to undershoot massively whenever I try to write anything (my BSc dissertation was roughly 30% padding; I ended up writing a whole other fairly unrelated essay in effect), but I'm just shy of 2/3 of the way through my first draft and I'm around 5% shy in terms of word count of where I thought I would be by now. I've found it is a lot like restoring my old car in terms of a project. Sometimes I go down to the garage and I see the bare shell with dusty cardboard boxes piled high around it, and then I just shut the garage and go home again. Looking at it as a big lump, it's quite daunting.
On a good day I'll go down, and look at one of the many spots where something should be bolted to the car. I'll rummage in the boxes for that bit, take it home, fix it up and repaint it, and bolt it back to the car. It's only a small piece; some days it might just be a single bolt and washer.
But each time I do that, the boxes of parts get a bit emptier. One day I'll go down to that garage and there'll be nothing left to bolt on. Hopefully I'll have a working car by that point. Or a book.
davepoth said:
That was my big worry. I always tend to undershoot massively whenever I try to write anything (my BSc dissertation was roughly 30% padding; I ended up writing a whole other fairly unrelated essay in effect), but I'm just shy of 2/3 of the way through my first draft and I'm around 5% shy in terms of word count of where I thought I would be by now.
I've found it is a lot like restoring my old car in terms of a project. Sometimes I go down to the garage and I see the bare shell with dusty cardboard boxes piled high around it, and then I just shut the garage and go home again. Looking at it as a big lump, it's quite daunting.
On a good day I'll go down, and look at one of the many spots where something should be bolted to the car. I'll rummage in the boxes for that bit, take it home, fix it up and repaint it, and bolt it back to the car. It's only a small piece; some days it might just be a single bolt and washer.
But each time I do that, the boxes of parts get a bit emptier. One day I'll go down to that garage and there'll be nothing left to bolt on. Hopefully I'll have a working car by that point. Or a book.
Nice analogy and accurate.I've found it is a lot like restoring my old car in terms of a project. Sometimes I go down to the garage and I see the bare shell with dusty cardboard boxes piled high around it, and then I just shut the garage and go home again. Looking at it as a big lump, it's quite daunting.
On a good day I'll go down, and look at one of the many spots where something should be bolted to the car. I'll rummage in the boxes for that bit, take it home, fix it up and repaint it, and bolt it back to the car. It's only a small piece; some days it might just be a single bolt and washer.
But each time I do that, the boxes of parts get a bit emptier. One day I'll go down to that garage and there'll be nothing left to bolt on. Hopefully I'll have a working car by that point. Or a book.
Part of the thing is though that when I started trying to write many years ago, books were the only outlet for that creativity that I could imagine. Blogging didn't exist, journalism was an unachievable target and all my experience up to then was in creative writing. Yes, I enjoy it (hence the flash fiction), but it's not my metier.
I love writing. When I get into the flow of something it feels fantastic and the words pretty much put themselves on the screen. Sometimes my ideas can't translate themselves into words and that's frustrating but then I get what feels to me to be the perfect article and it's a lovely sense of achievement.
However, and I don't know if other writers feel this too, but I doubt myself massively, especially if people make adverse comments. I always feel I could be better, that I haven't done enough research, that I don't know enough long words, that I'm not a proper writer. I'm not trained, I have a degree in English but apart from one week of a journalism course at Reuters, no training at all. It's all been on the job with blogging and feedback from more experienced freelancers who I work with.
I'd be interested to hear what other people on here who write thing about this too.
Don't worry about it; I never trained as a writer but I was always good at English - which helped - and working as a lawyer certainly immersed me in language.Nothing clever about using long words-easy to make the simple things complicated by doing so (with apologies to The Who) but the art is making complex stuff sound simple. Criticism? Great when people think you are brilliant and yes bloody painful when somebody slates your stuff. Have been called everything from somebody who writes as well as Shakespeare(God , if only ) to a pretentious a*se. Sticks and stones...
If you want to write just do it- practice, practice and evolve your own style. Don't try to be funny unless you know you can succeed and keep trying is what worked for me. And the best tip of all- read your stuff out aloud - does it flow , does it have a rhythm ? Or does it clunk ? If so - redo it !
If you want to write just do it- practice, practice and evolve your own style. Don't try to be funny unless you know you can succeed and keep trying is what worked for me. And the best tip of all- read your stuff out aloud - does it flow , does it have a rhythm ? Or does it clunk ? If so - redo it !
I thought about starting a similar thread to this.
It's my big ambition to get published. I've been writing for years and I'm getting towards the end of something now. The trouble is I'm fairly sure I've gone about it all wrong!
I started off several years ago with a page-a-day diary, on new year's day. By the end of the year I read through it all and it had the makings of a good story so I wrote it all out and it amounted to around 300 pages worth which I started re-writing. In the meantime I had an idea for a sequel so wrote a sketchy outline for that, then for found myself writing a Part 3 (the one I'm almost at the end of). I've recently read through the first one again and it doesn't really fit in with everything else I've written, so adjusting it and making everything fit together will take forever. It's a challenge I'm enjoying though!
It's my big ambition to get published. I've been writing for years and I'm getting towards the end of something now. The trouble is I'm fairly sure I've gone about it all wrong!
I started off several years ago with a page-a-day diary, on new year's day. By the end of the year I read through it all and it had the makings of a good story so I wrote it all out and it amounted to around 300 pages worth which I started re-writing. In the meantime I had an idea for a sequel so wrote a sketchy outline for that, then for found myself writing a Part 3 (the one I'm almost at the end of). I've recently read through the first one again and it doesn't really fit in with everything else I've written, so adjusting it and making everything fit together will take forever. It's a challenge I'm enjoying though!
I have been halfway through a thriller for the last couple of years. Problem is whenever I sit down to write new stuff I end up reading what I have already written and re-writing it. I have written some scenes over and over again, they always end up better and more polished, but I find it hard to think 'enough already!' and move on.
Ayahuasca said:
I have been halfway through a thriller for the last couple of years. Problem is whenever I sit down to write new stuff I end up reading what I have already written and re-writing it. I have written some scenes over and over again, they always end up better and more polished, but I find it hard to think 'enough already!' and move on.
Reading over various peoples' strategies, many people like to go with a planned structure, and then write the book out of order, leaving it to the end to put it all together again.I didn't bother planning (some people do spreadsheets), but I had an idea in my head about how it was going to go. Every so often when I have been stuck with a particular bit, I've either skipped it, or had a go at one of the bits I had fleshed out a bit more in my head from later on in the book.
Quite often I find that having written some of that later sections, it leaves me with certain things that have to be dropped into the book a bit earlier; however, I have made a pact with myself to not go back and change anything I've already written until I've finished the first draft. That way I think I'll have a good handle on how I want the story to work. I now have a big list of things to change.
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