NYC Midnight : Creative Writing & Screenwriting Homepage
Forum Home Forum Home > GENERAL DISCUSSION > Creative Writing Corner
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Bad Habits Learned Here
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Bad Habits Learned Here

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Message
Random View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 17 Nov 2017
Location: C. of Letters
Status: Offline
Points: 5401
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote Random Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Bad Habits Learned Here
    Posted: 13 Oct 2021 at 11:15am
I have a really big project I've worked on here and there since forever.  The pace and sequence were a source of constant struggle, so I wrote the entire piece from a different perspective.

Sort of the Maltese Falcon from the standpoint of the statue.  It's a McGuffin view.

It took two months and worked out to about 143,000 words.  Edit a bit to tighten up the pace and sequence, add some detail, and I set an arbitrary goal of 150,000 words total.

And here I am, one eye obsessively on the word count, add two here and remove two there.

On a piece with, currently, 150,000 words.  Exactly.

This is, easily, NYCM's fault.

150 times the size of flash fiction.  60 times a round 1 short story.  Still have to watch that word count...

...but I can still write an entire post without a single gerund.  Some of the habits I learned here are good.
This sig intentionally blank
Back to Top
LadyArkham View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 21 Nov 2020
Status: Offline
Points: 3806
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote LadyArkham Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Oct 2021 at 11:59am
Congrats on the impressive project!!! That is a fantastic accomplishment.


Back to Top
Random View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 17 Nov 2017
Location: C. of Letters
Status: Offline
Points: 5401
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Random Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Oct 2021 at 3:26pm
Originally posted by LadyArkham LadyArkham wrote:

Congrats on the impressive project!!! That is a fantastic accomplishment.


Now I have to finish the real project.  Those 150,000 words just gave me the cadence and sequence of events. 

No more excuses!  Big smile
This sig intentionally blank
Back to Top
Mrsnetpro View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Addict
NYC Midnight Addict
Avatar

Joined: 20 Nov 2020
Location: NJ
Status: Offline
Points: 601
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mrsnetpro Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Oct 2021 at 9:08pm
You are my idol, I've been stuck at 65,000 words on my fiction for a year now. Every time I go back to it all I want to do is rewrite.... I think having interest from agents (who have probably long forgotten about me as I fully expected to be done with it in a reasonable amount of time!) makes me feel I need to keep changing it.

And to your point when I do edit, I am making my words count and apparently that's part of my problem.
Back to Top
Suave View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Location: Thailand
Status: Offline
Points: 25027
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suave Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Oct 2021 at 12:32am
Originally posted by Mrsnetpro Mrsnetpro wrote:

You are my idol, I've been stuck at 65,000 words on my fiction for a year now. Every time I go back to it all I want to do is rewrite.... I think having interest from agents (who have probably long forgotten about me as I fully expected to be done with it in a reasonable amount of time!) makes me feel I need to keep changing it.

And to your point when I do edit, I am making my words count and apparently that's part of my problem.

I have found the only way to avoid what you are doing is to skip
rereading before starting, haha. Just like you, I can't help starting
to tweak and before I know it I am working from the beginning.
Back to Top
Random View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 17 Nov 2017
Location: C. of Letters
Status: Offline
Points: 5401
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Random Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Oct 2021 at 11:14am
Originally posted by Mrsnetpro Mrsnetpro wrote:

You are my idol, I've been stuck at 65,000 words on my fiction for a year now. Every time I go back to it all I want to do is rewrite.... I think having interest from agents (who have probably long forgotten about me as I fully expected to be done with it in a reasonable amount of time!) makes me feel I need to keep changing it.

And to your point when I do edit, I am making my words count and apparently that's part of my problem.


Don't think for a second you're in any way unique.  I can tell stories about hours, days, and weeks spent with a book that hasn't been written yet.

I know the general story layout so the McGuffin view, which is limited and first person, was easier than expected.  It also changed the story, because big plot points I had 'planned' simply didn't make sense.  One of them turned into something else entirely.

There is a notebook with 200,000 words or so, and a lot of those words went quietly into that good night.  I'll have to revisit some of the 102,000 words in the main story because the new direction makes much better sense.  That's the business we're in.

If you're stuck it might be because you've put yourself into a corner.  That's generally what sticks me...I'm off somewhere the story doesn't belong and at a dead end.

So start a new document and write your 65,001th word and just...play.

If they were in the middle of a firefight have them drop their guns and do an impromptu ballet.  Just get the characters back into your head and off in a new direction.  It doesn't have to make sense.

If you're me you might have to revisit a lot of those first 65,000 words, because I learned how to write as I went.

I still have the original drafts.

[Gerund Count: 0.  Take that, Nod!]
This sig intentionally blank
Back to Top
Suave View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Location: Thailand
Status: Offline
Points: 25027
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suave Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Oct 2021 at 11:54am
Originally posted by Random Random wrote:

Don't think for a second you're in any way unique.  I can tell stories about hours, days, and weeks spent with a book that hasn't been written yet.

I know the general story layout so the McGuffin view, which is limited and first person, was easier than expected.  It also changed the story, because big plot points I had 'planned' simply didn't make sense.  One of them turned into something else entirely.

There is a notebook with 200,000 words or so, and a lot of those words went quietly into that good night.  I'll have to revisit some of the 102,000 words in the main story because the new direction makes much better sense.  That's the business we're in.

If you're stuck it might be because you've put yourself into a corner.  That's generally what sticks me...I'm off somewhere the story doesn't belong and at a dead end.

So start a new document and write your 65,001th word and just...play.

If they were in the middle of a firefight have them drop their guns and do an impromptu ballet.  Just get the characters back into your head and off in a new direction.  It doesn't have to make sense.

If you're me you might have to revisit a lot of those first 65,000 words, because I learned how to write as I went.

I still have the original drafts.

[Gerund Count: 0.  Take that, Nod!]

Well, I have one that I am editing and changing most of the names in.
It is nerve wracking.
Writing my way into a corner is what i do constantly, one of the reasons it
takes me so long to write big projects, it comes form not having it all 
ironed out before I start, the thing I do, haha.
Back to Top
Random View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 17 Nov 2017
Location: C. of Letters
Status: Offline
Points: 5401
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Random Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Oct 2021 at 2:37pm
Originally posted by Suave Suave wrote:

Well, I have one that I am editing and changing most of the names in.
It is nerve wracking.
Writing my way into a corner is what i do constantly, one of the reasons it
takes me so long to write big projects, it comes form not having it all 
ironed out before I start, the thing I do, haha.


Search is your friend when a character's name needs to change.  Saved me a couple times.

As for corners, you can get into those in short pieces.  Sometimes the point where the story went off the rails was the second word.

Put down the big reveals or twists so you write to a destination that's closer than the end.  It's a little like binary division and can simplify the problem.
This sig intentionally blank
Back to Top
Suave View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Location: Thailand
Status: Offline
Points: 25027
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suave Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Oct 2021 at 11:24pm
Originally posted by Random Random wrote:

Search is your friend when a character's name needs to change.  Saved me a couple times.

As for corners, you can get into those in short pieces.  Sometimes the point where the story went off the rails was the second word.

Put down the big reveals or twists so you write to a destination that's closer than the end.  It's a little like binary division and can simplify the problem.

I have the fear that the search will not find them all due
to some code being left over or some such thing that the 
search does not recognize anymore. I do use the search 
destroy, but as I have seen other books where things such
as names can appear as other, I still do read through for each,
and am betting that I still miss something, haha.
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 12.05
Copyright ©2001-2022 Web Wiz Ltd.

This page was generated in 0.172 seconds.