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

[Statius]

I know, right!

Hey! The way I see it you were actually the problem here

 

[NuclearFairy]

Hey! The way I see it you were actually the problem here

I know, I was just poking fun because I also have ADHD. =P

 

[Statius]

Ohhhh so knowingly releasing plot bunnies around others with ADHD. Where's that banning thread when you need it?

 

[StillStunned]

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

 

[StillStunned]

I managed to make a bit of progress on my Dungeon of Desire chapter yesterday, but today I've stalled. The party are about to encounter the demon, but I can't decide how to play it out. Is Theayala going to betray Xunaxa? Or will Xunaxa be the difference between death and survival? What form does the demon take?

On the plus side, I think I've got the paladin's Aura of Courage and Detect Evil working as narrative elements. Perhaps a Bless spell too.

 

[dirk2024]

I know, I was just poking fun because I also have ADHD. =P

 

[dirk2024]

I HAVE to finish my story for the Valentines Days challenge. Ugh.

 

[StillStunned]

I HAVE to finish my story for the Valentines Days challenge. Ugh.

 

[NaughteeDragon]

KoS, if you’re running this weekend, you should be doing prep anyway, so you’re good.
That reminds me, I need to prep my ancient temple with its Cthulhu-esque version of Groot for Sunday. Thank you for the reminder.
Now, go forth and prep, then go write.

 

[Erozetta]

I'm struggling on a current WIP.

Not on what I want to write or having time to write, but with not dissociating while writing. I'm writing what is probably the most "me" story I've ever written and it's hard to be that vulnerable even under the veneer of fiction.

I'm basically writing it in 1k word chunks before I simply can't add to it without it affecting my mental health. So, that's been fun!

I could ditch it, but I *want* to write it. It feels important for me to write it for myself. To get the thoughts out in the open and just sit with them knowing I'll be judged pretty harshly for them.

But, yeah, it's proving to be a struggle to bring the real parts into the fiction.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I'm up to 13k on my Valentine's story and warily eyeing how much I have left. Just finished section three, so only one or two left. Shooting for this weekend to get the RD finished.

I feel like there's a lot of repetition I'll need to strip out. Editing is going to be a fucking nightmare fun.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I hit 1600 words today (4000 total). That's the stretch goal for me. A thousand is a good day, and 1600 is a really good one.

Well done! Keep up the good work!

 

[StillStunned]

If anybody needs some extra motivation, just remember that it took Dr Johnson ten years to write his Dictionary:

Blackadder: "I believe, Sir, that the Doctor is trying to tell you that he is happy because he has finished his book. It has apparently taken him ten years."
Prince George: "Yes well, I'm a slow reader myself."

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Blackadder: "I believe, Sir, that the Doctor is trying to tell you that he is happy because he has finished his book. It has apparently taken him ten years."
Prince George: "Yes well, I'm a slow reader myself."

And to that I say ... MacBeth.

 

[Statius]

Woohoo! Got my first two paragraphs on my rewrite of Ria, look good, sound good, AND best part? Kept the opening line, hell yeah! Nice to have that figured out.

 

[StillStunned]

Woohoo! Got my first two paragraphs on my rewrite of Ria, look good, sound good, AND best part? Kept the opening line, hell yeah! Nice to have that figured out.

 

[Statius]

View attachment 2590333

Hey just wanted to say thanks for the thread, thanks for the support here. I know you've struggled recently with writing as well. I lost all motivation for almost a year, it's nice to be excited about writing again, and glad you've made progress as well!

 

[StillStunned]

Hey just wanted to say thanks for the thread, thanks for the support here. I know you've struggled recently with writing as well. I lost all motivation for almost a year, it's nice to be excited about writing again, and glad you've made progress as well!

Thanks for saying so! Just having this thread has kept me motivated to focus on finishing some stories, and break the habit of giving up as soon as I get bored.

I'm glad it's worked out for you too. For all the discussions we have hear, there's very little in the way of mutual encouragement. It's almost as if we're by ourselves when it comes to the actual writing, even though there are dozens of us facing the same struggles.

I feel that this is one of the things we should be doing as a community: encouraging and supporting each other when we're struggling. And I'm happy to see so many contributing, and benefitting from the encouragement.

 

[StillStunned]

I managed to make a bit of progress on my Dungeon of Desire chapter yesterday, but today I've stalled. The party are about to encounter the demon, but I can't decide how to play it out. Is Theayala going to betray Xunaxa? Or will Xunaxa be the difference between death and survival? What form does the demon take?

On the plus side, I think I've got the paladin's Aura of Courage and Detect Evil working as narrative elements. Perhaps a Bless spell too.

I'm no further with the plot decisions, but I just wrote 650 words that will get the party closer. They've found the demon's lair, and it's a bit more "normal creepy pit of doom" than I originally envisioned. That will make it easier to write a gripping encounter, I think, than if the setup is so weird that it distracts or confuses the reader.

 

[StillStunned]

 

[KittyOfSteele]

• Chapter I - 874
• Chapter II - 1500
• Chapter III - 1057
• Chapter IV - 868
• Chapter V - 819
• Chapter VI - 939
• 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

I'm still writing it. I just read the whole outline and I got pumped to just write the whole story because the outline grabbed me. I think I'll do a couple of chapters more before working out.

Confession: I had to enable harder settings on Unhook to just have music playing.

 

[ADirtyPerv]

I have a submission for Valentine's, though it wasn't intended as such when I wrote it. But I think I need a revision phase to make it really good, and work is killing me. Late night revision party let's gooo!

 

[anthrodisiac]

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

No one said anything about this work being "good". I did not commit to that characterization and cannot, in a legal sense, be held to it.

I can't back that up.

Keep up the work of indeterminate quality!

 

[Statius]

Keep up the work of indeterminate quality!

That's supposed to be reserved for me

 

[anthrodisiac]

Okay, could have been better today, but not horrible. I wrote over 2k but chucked half after I realized I was diffusing tension by having the MC ask her boyfriend why she wasn't invited to his Super Bowl party. I need the uncertainty to gnaw at her, not resolve and weaken her spiraling in the next scene.

But the whole scene is complete. Much shorter than the others, which were both around 6k, this is sitting at 1.2k. Currently at 14k total, so it looks like I'm on track for my 20k goal.

All-Father willing, I'll get the RD finished this weekend and published mid-next week. Ahead of my Jan. 25 self-imposed cut off!