"I'm going to finish my damn story!": a support thread

[StillStunned]

Question. Should there be a semi-colon after 'rabbit hole' instead of a period?

Strictly speaking, yes. And a full stop after "Elyse's paper". For fiction, though, this way works better.

 

[Statius]

Strictly speaking, yes. And a full stop after "Elyse's paper". For fiction, though, this way works better.

So you're saying it's fine as is?

 

[StillStunned]

Yup.

 

[Statius]

Yup.

Thank you for your input, much appreciated! 2 paragraphs in, and just to bitch and vent again .. rewriting an established story, doing away with info dumping (in my defence it was a 21k word one off, originally) and changing things since the story is becoming a novel is a real SONOFABITCH!

 

[Bazzle]

I've uploaded my 98th story, written The End on my 99th.

Yet I have not really finished what was going to be my 80th story.

I hate plot cul-de-sacs.

 

[old_prof]

I cleaned up the character introductions in my NYE party story. I now need to figure out how to better differentiate fourteen different voices in a bunch of dialogue.
Three of them have distinctive accents, although I'm not good at writing accents anyway, but the other eleven are all well educated, professionals living in suburban Boston (I guess except for the college Dean from Pennsuylvania, but she went to college in Boston, so she still speaks like that.)

It's the 23rd story directly in this universe, but I try to make them each readable independently for the most part. (I do think they are better if you've read the earlier ones.)

I'll ponder that one some more and try to go back to one of my novels. I'm struggling with the scene where my two main characters have sex for the first time, for one of them, her first lesbian experience. Other than that and one other sex scene I've avoided, I think that one's approaching done.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

please dont finish your story. dont be like all the rest.

 

[Statius]

please dont finish your story. dont be like all the rest.

Actually reading these threads has taught me one thing about AH writers. Most don't finish every story they start. There are probably more unfinished drafts in Lit than there are published stories.

 

[CalBishForNow]

I could use a thread like this.

From April to October, I was happily writing episodes of an ongoing series about a couple just starting the swinging/hotwife lifestyle, with minor breaks for other things. But the plot going in a direction I didn't plan coincided with a bigger break for other reasons, and I haven't been able to restart. I've written 1,600 words I'm happy with in Part 12 of that series. I've also written 2,400 words I'm unhappy with in that series before I figured out the new direction and 16,000 words of three other stories. I didn't want to leave that series half-done, but I also couldn't find a way to get the ending I had in mind and have it remotely make sense. Plot bunnies multiplied. One from an old story, two others from the Story Ideas forum. One of them will definitely be my longest work here so far; another could be an episodic series with more twists and turns than anything I've ever written. How does providing resolution to something in progress compare to that?

Well, just reading this led me to do that editing in Part 12, and decide to prioritize one of those works in progress over the other two. I'm definitely getting something out this month.

Update on Part 12: Most of what I already had written wasn't wasted, I decided, just in need of editing and moving around, so that's undeleted and I've churned out another 3000 words or so to finish the first draft at about 7000 words. If I wanted to I could probably hit Publish today.

I'm not going to, though. Partly to give it one more edit, I'm sure there are problems, but mostly to get further ahead on Part 13 and plans for further in the future, to hopefully prevent this from happening again.

I've uploaded my 98th story, written The End on my 99th.

Congratulations. Those are impressive numbers.

 

[StillStunned]

Update on Part 12: Most of what I already had written wasn't wasted, I decided, just in need of editing and moving around, so that's undeleted and I've churned out another 3000 words or so to finish the first draft at about 7000 words. If I wanted to I could probably hit Publish today.

I'm not going to, though. Partly to give it one more edit, I'm sure there are problems, but mostly to get further ahead on Part 13 and plans for further in the future, to hopefully prevent this from happening

Nice going, well done!

 

[NaughteeDragon]

Well, one of my Google docs just up and decided to load properly. But it's the one with the half finished short story about an orc in heat. I can finish it though! I just gotta figure out the girl's emotional state and how she's going to approach the orc and most importantly, I gotta stay focused long enough to do so.

Slightly of topic, but given your love of orcs, have you read Hos Orc Charioteer Bride by Treadway?

 

[NuclearFairy]

Slightly of topic, but given your love of orcs, have you read Hos Orc Charioteer Bride by Treadway?

No. I shall have to look it up sometime though.

 

[NaughteeDragon]

It’s good. I love the way he portrays his orcs. I think you’ll like it

 

[anthrodisiac]

Doing okay so far. I got a little over 2k done so far today, totalling about 4.5k since Sunday. I was originally shooting for 15k with this story, go figure it's probably going to be closer to 10k. Me and my long-ass sex scenes... It's why I usually only have one per story, but no, I'm throwing in two for contrast, given that they're narratively doing different things.

God, what a great problem to have.

 

[HyunnaPark]

I just wrote for almost a hour and got the word count on my story up to 1700 (so 500 new words).

Found another hour yesterday and got up to 2400 words (so 1200 for the day).

This morning I wrote for a little more than an hour and got to 3002 words, mainly because I told myself that if I got to 3000 words I would reward myself by getting breakfast & coffee instead of making it, which I am very excited about.

 

[millamomud]

I’m about 10k words in, chapter six, and the burn has become painfully slow.

I’m setting up a big poker game where the supposed "slave" is… still not being used. That’s intentional, but I’m starting to worry I might be boring my readers to death in the process.

On the other hand, anyone who’s been following my stuff knows what I write and that I tend to take my time with buildup. I know the story I want to tell and where it’s heading.

The temptation to just end it in a big, cathartic orgy is definitely there.

What’s really getting to me isn’t uncertainty about the plot, it’s fatigue. I’m exhausting myself by pushing through.

I’m starting to think the smarter move might be to take a short break, read something else, and come back with a bit more distance rather than forcing progress for the sake of momentum.

 

[ICantLeafYou]

I will finish my 750 word project submission before I go to bed. 90 more words can't be that hard.

I have this song from my sex writing playlist on repeat helping me along.

 

[StillStunned]

What’s really getting to me isn’t uncertainty about the plot, it’s fatigue. I’m exhausting myself by pushing through.

I’m starting to think the smarter move might be to take a short break, read something else, and come back with a bit more distance rather than forcing progress for the sake of momentum.

I was thinking about posting this pic again:


...but no, sometimes there's no use forcing it. This thread is to help us get through our procrastination, not to drive us into a brick wall.

Take a break and come back later.

 

[StillStunned]

I will finish my 750 word project submission before I go to bed. 90 more words can't be that hard.

You can do it! Ninety to go, not a single word more!

 

[ICantLeafYou]

And it's done!!

 

[old_prof]

I'll ponder that one some more and try to go back to one of my novels. I'm struggling with the scene where my two main characters have sex for the first time, for one of them, her first lesbian experience. Other than that and one other sex scene I've avoided, I think that one's approaching done.

I wrote that first scene and I think it works. One more sex scene. And I think I want to rewrite the ending subtly. It's too outright sad right now and it's supposed to be more bittersweet.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I haven't actually written a word on my story since I last posted about it. But I think I'm much closer to figuring out the vibe I'm going for and so will be able to actually write soon.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

HELP! MY NANONOVEL FOR VALENTINE'S ISN'T WRITTEN YET AND MY ADHD IS OVER THE TOP TODAY!

No, seriously, I'm getting pull to do my D&D prep, not read any of the books that I've already started, two plot bunnies that came to me yesterday WHILE I WAS WRITING, and something that I promised a friend to do... plus work.

So far I have...

• Chapter I - 874
• Chapter II - 1500
• Chapter III - 0
• Chapter IV - 0
• Chapter V - 0
• Chapter VI - 0
• Chapter VII - 0
• Chapter VIII - 0
• Chapter IX - 0
• Chapter X - 0
• Chapter XI - 0
• Chapter XII - 0
• Chapter XIII - 0
• Chapter XIV - 0
• Chapter XV - 0
• Chapter XVI - 0
• Chapter XVII - 0
• Chapter XVIII - 0
• Chapter XIX - 0
• Chapter XX - 0

And I was supposed to have the first 5 ready by yesterday! Someone pull my ears!

 

[NuclearFairy]

HELP! MY NANONOVEL FOR VALENTINE'S ISN'T WRITTEN YET AND MY ADHD IS OVER THE TOP TODAY!

No, seriously, I'm getting pull to do my D&D prep, not read any of the books that I've already started, two plot bunnies that came to me yesterday WHILE I WAS WRITING, and something that I promised a friend to do... plus work.

So far I have...

• Chapter I - 874
• Chapter II - 1500
• Chapter III - 0
• Chapter IV - 0
• Chapter V - 0
• Chapter VI - 0
• Chapter VII - 0
• Chapter VIII - 0
• Chapter IX - 0
• Chapter X - 0
• Chapter XI - 0
• Chapter XII - 0
• Chapter XIII - 0
• Chapter XIV - 0
• Chapter XV - 0
• Chapter XVI - 0
• Chapter XVII - 0
• Chapter XVIII - 0
• Chapter XIX - 0
• Chapter XX - 0

And I was supposed to have the first 5 ready by yesterday! Someone pull my ears!

Do you want the disappointed mother ear pull, the irritated friend, or the horny lover? Cause I don't think I can do that last one for you.

 

[HyunnaPark]

I haven't actually written a word on my story since I last posted about it. But I think I'm much closer to figuring out the vibe I'm going for and so will be able to actually write soon

This oftentimes takes me as much time to figure out as the rest of the story. I think most of my grumpy "I hate what I'm writing" posts to the coffee shop were me struggling to either find or connect a tone to a story.