Welcome to Friday Rants and Raves

[sarillia]

Serria and I have talked about having a weekly post for everyone to talk about anything that's on your mind that you may not feel like making a whole post about. Story you're wrestling with being difficult? Or did you have an epiphany or meet a goal you set for yourself? We want to commiserate or celebrate with you!

Comments

[sarillia]

I am currently trying to work out some plot holes in a fairy tale retelling I'm trying to write based on The Troll's Daughter. I keep wandering away from it to work on something else instead, but I can't do that forever because I'm hoping to submit this story to an anthology with a deadline.

[inkdust]

Plot holes can be a nightmare. I hope you're surprised with sudden revelatory solutions!

[inkdust]

I think I'm about three quarters of the way through my second draft, so that feels good. Hopefully that means I'll finish before my self-imposed deadline. I've been pretty successful at tightening up the plot, I think.

[sarillia]

I'm glad things are going well.

I'm always very impressed by people who actually go back and fix up their work. I've done it exactly twice with short stories. Trying to revise a novel so it's better is just so daunting.

[inkdust]

It is definitely daunting, but this is what I want to do with my life, so I'm not giving myself a choice, haha.

[serria]

Good luck!! I'd love to be able to my work to the second draft phase, haha. Then again, making decisions about cutting/reworking/expanding/etc can be just as much work as the writing itself, if not more.

[inkdust]

Thanks! For me it seems like it's about as much work as churning out the first draft, but it feels like a slightly different kind of brain power. It was really frustrating and slow at first, but now that I feel like I have my feet under me I'm really enjoying seeing how I can make it better. I had no idea how much I would learn just by doing it.

[lunabee34]

I think this is a great idea for a weekly post topic. :)

What if you made a FAQ post, maybe a sticky post for the top of the comm, with the stuff on offer, like this weekly post and then links to resource posts, etc. that could be updated?

[sarillia]

That sounds like a good idea. Thanks!

[lunabee34]

No prob!

[agilebrit]

I'm at a convention and beating my head against this broken outline. Fortunately, the atmosphere is conducive to fixing these things, and so I've made actual progress on it.

I do not get how writers figure out how it ends before they know how the rest of the plot plays out. That is impossible for me.

[sarillia]

I've heard about some writers who start with the last sentence or page or whatever and then write to it and I don't get it either. I always leave the ending open when I start writing because I need to get to know the story better by actually writing before I know how I want it to end.

[serria]

My rant is that, I'm two weeks into my new job and have just felt too drained to write. Working shifts from 5am might have something to do with that! I get home and even if I don't feel sleepy right away, I feel like I don't have the energy to be creative. D: But, weekends are always going to be free now for me, so today is for writing! And hopefully after another week or so, I'll be adjusted to the new job's hours/demands and will have more energy.

[sarillia]

I hope you are able to adjust. I know that "too tired to be creative" feeling. I was that way yesterday. Hopefully today will be better but so far I just want to go back to sleep.