One shot Wonder

[Hitchhiker]

You lot make me laugh you whine on about writers block and editing.
Then you all write a bucket load of crap on this thread.

Go for a walk get out in the Sun and breath the air, let your mind run free as you and look at the trees and plants the sky the ground or even the sea. Watch the clouds and look into the blue, go out for walk at night and look up at the stars let your mind be free.
And don't be lazy, and make excuses.
Thats all you're getting I'm off outside in the Sunshine

 

[wildsweetone]

wow

hmmm sounds nice... the starry night an' all i mean.

 

[christo]

Its always best to wait a day or two before you submit something. Get some distance, some perspective. Its hard to resist hitting that submit button as soon as you're done, but when you have a day to think, some of the choices you made don't make as much sense.

Sorry, k-dog, but I love whittling away at a story, hacking and slashing. I had a teacher who said that writers have to be able to "kill their babies". Take that breathtaking sentence that really doesn't fit the scene and zap! Cut it.

I also add stuff as I edit, but once the actual writing is done, that's when I start to have fun. For me, the initial composition is time in the salt mines. Thinking about the story, composing it in my head, that's fun. Editing the finished story, lots of fun. Staring at a blank screen and filling it with letters? It's like running laps. It's good for you, but it wears you out.

 

[christo]

Its always best to wait a day or two before you submit something. Get some distance, some perspective. Its hard to resist hitting that submit button as soon as you're done, but when you have a day to think, some of the choices you made don't make as much sense.

Sorry, k-dog, but I love whittling away at a story, hacking and slashing. I had a teacher who said that writers have to be able to "kill their babies". Take that breathtaking sentence that really doesn't fit the scene and zap! Cut it.

I also add stuff as I edit, but once the actual writing is done, that's when I start to have fun. For me, the initial composition is time in the salt mines. Thinking about the story, composing it in my head, that's fun. Editing the finished story, lots of fun. Staring at a blank screen and filling it with letters? It's like running laps. It's good for you, but it wears you out.

Another thing that's hard is fighting the need to write the story all at once. Maybe once in awhile you can crank out 5000 words in one sitting, but if you do that a lot you risk burning out. I shoot for 500-1000 a day. Or, maybe three, four thousand a week. Some weeks I do better. You write 3000 words a week, in a month you have 12000 words (I can multiply!). In four months, that's around 50000 words. That's a novel. Slow and steady really adds up.

 

[Quint]

i could get 400 posts if i posted everything twice, too

Sorry, k-dog, but I love whittling away at a story, hacking and slashing. I had a teacher who said that writers have to be able to "kill their babies". Take that breathtaking sentence that really doesn't fit the scene and zap! Cut it.

Er, I would say "take it home and save it for later." Though this hasn't happened in a story yet, I have had several occasions where I think of a fantastic phrase that I end up building a new poem around. If such a sentence exists, out of place, in an existing story, don't just cringe and cut it! Make a separate document of one-liners, and perhaps when you dabble in the Romance section, you'll find a loving home for them.

That advice on killing babies is chilling but true. I'm debating if it's more chilling or true as I type.

 

[VeraGem]

I tried that: saving the stuff that wasn't working and using it later. I ended up with something else that wasn't working.