Discussion Q4 Volume 38

Tossing around between two stories - both are kind of in that false start category. One of them I technically finished but now realize there is a fairly major shift I want to do on it the other was flowing along pretty well then it stalled out because I got yanked back into the frenzy that is my brain when my paying job goes all wackadoo.

So I'll give it some thought for the next few days and decide which one I want to focus on then jump in on my long weekend. At least that is the plan (I also have to write a synopsis and cover letter that weekend so it could be a challenge).

Good luck to everyone trying to figure out their Q4!

Posted by: @lost_bard

I keep getting false starts on my stories. Great opener, interesting premise, then halfway through I realize that a key aspect isn’t working, a character goes in a direction I didn’t expect, or the ending kind of fizzles. 

I’m sure this is part of the process for learning how to write better, but it’s frustrating to rewrite 50% of my story multiple times. 

A lot of my writing used to do this too, with good openings, but fizzle endings and bloated or uninteresting middles. They tended to need a lot of editing to salvage.

These days, what I tend to do is write the opening, and if I find I like the opening and premise, I'll step back and leave it, to give myself a little time to stew on the central part of the story (usually a case of finding the central character, or characters less often, and then finding their core motivation to accomplish a very specific goal). Once I understand that part, I can usually write the rest quite fluidly--though also, quite often, I'll go back to revise that opening and ensure that the motivation is either explicit or significantly implied within it.

(As a side note to this, and feeding back into the source-of-ideas thing, I keep a fairly complete record of all the stories I write, and I have no small amount of intent to return to some of my old ideas later and write them again. In particular, I have some with interesting ideas and weak characters, others where I had strong idea and character but let the story grow too bloated, and a small handful more where delivering on a fairly complicated story premise was simply beyond my level of skill at the time I tried to write it. This is, for me, a kind of fall-back source of ideas--taking ideas that I could have done better with, and then doing exactly that. My Q3 entry is one of those, and a prior HM--edited as a Q4 prospect--is a mixture, mixing an old, failed story with a new idea to produce a much more interesting result. Old stories that didn't work are potentially a great source of inspiration when the well feels dry.) 

@disgruntledpeony, Glad to hear that the false start thing isn’t just me. @doctorjest, I like the idea of letting it rest for a moment so my subconscious can figure out what it’s doing. I think one of my weaknesses as a writer is that I tend to get excited and just write without identifying those key framework points like motivation (for all of my characters).

As I start again on rewrite #3 for my Q4 opening, I think I’ll take the long weekend to actually plot out my character sheets, 7-point plot, motivations, etc. 

@earthkeeper78, I tried the leash and those little buggers just chewed through it and gallivanted away. I’m trying to entice my villain back in line with cookies, but, well, she’s a villain and likes to do her own thing.  Maybe I can make her an antihero. 

@czing, I get the trouble with focusing on writing when the day-job gets crazy. I’ve discovered that my brain comes up with all sorts of cool ideas on the long drive to work, then I’m frantically trying to write them down in the parking lot before I go inside and face real life. 

Good luck on Q4!

@lost_bard

I'm having a weird time trying to wrangle the villains in my trilogy as well. One of them that I had pegged as a secondary antagonist (in draft one) decided to figuratively take my original Big Bad, open the car door, and kick him onto the highway at top speed. All the while, he's grabbing the wheel and screaming "Move it, ditch, I'm driving now!" ? ? 

My head is a strange place...

Posted by: @lost_bard

@czing, I get the trouble with focusing on writing when the day-job gets crazy. I’ve discovered that my brain comes up with all sorts of cool ideas on the long drive to work, then I’m frantically trying to write them down in the parking lot before I go inside and face real life. 

Good luck on Q4!

Yeah as much as I appreciate working at home and prefer not having all the going to work hassle of work clothes and doing my hair etc - I do miss that time I'd spend waiting at the bus stop with my notebook in hand and furiously scribbling things down.

I have been guilty of singing to myself, unaware of the sidewise looks from people around me. Now that I actively live the life of my MC's while walking, I have to contain my spontaneous outbursts of excitement.

Posted by: @storysinger

I have been guilty of singing to myself, unaware of the sidewise looks from people around me. Now that I actively live the life of my MC's while walking, I have to contain my spontaneous outbursts of excitement.

I do this too, but instead of singing, I speak entire dialogue between characters out loud trying to find the right thing that each character would say in certain situations. I've gotten a few odd looks from people in public for it, but to be fair, I stopped caring about that a while ago.

Still breathless from Q3, but I won't be able to sleep until I have at least a kernel for Q4. Write on!

Oh, hello Q4 my new friend.

What? I know, I was with Q3 just yesterday, but we're just friends.

It's you I truly care about.

I'm tending to find with my stories that I'm 'content' with the opening (meaning I'll need to go back and edit the daylights out of it later) and I'm often quite happy with my final scenes.

I think I'm killing my middles, though. I have to be mindful not to drag some things out, not to lose tension. If I can keep the pacing okay through the middle, the endings should hopefully be okay. But even after I've read over it numerous times, deliberately reading/ranking each section for pacing and tension, I'll get it to a point that I'm happy with. Then my readers suggest it slows in the middle.

Something to keep working on for me.

Posted by: @axeminister

Oh, hello Q4 my new friend.

What? I know, I was with Q3 just yesterday, but we're just friends.

It's you I truly care about.

You know Q3 will remember you left her even though you and she together had plans for a ceremony in Hollywood.

Lately I keep telling myself I will not wait until the last minute to sub.  

Some things may never change.

Well I'm going to post here for some accountability, to ensure I try and meet the deadline for Q4 (I also keep finding myself browsing these forums, can't help myself). I've got a new story some ?k words in already for Q4 but there's a part of me that still wants to revisit my Q2 submission. I usually bounce around between pieces and I'm not sure how this mentality will hold up with me actually trying to hit a deadline. 

I'm wondering if I should try to exchange critiques with someone on my Q2 piece, but I'm not sure if I should try to edit it first, or wait until I can get fresh eyes to confirm my own issues with it (or to shed light on stuff I may be blind to). 

Anywho, happy writing all! Hope these are a fruitful few months for everyone.

UGH is anyone else thinking about ditching their other story ideas in favor of ones featuring sweltering heat waves so you can write what you know right now?

Suspect all my plans to get to work on something for q4 this weekend are going to get burnt to a crisp in the heat.

Posted by: @czing

UGH is anyone else thinking about ditching their other story ideas in favor of ones featuring sweltering heat waves so you can write what you know right now?

Suspect all my plans to get to work on something for q4 this weekend are going to get burnt to a crisp in the heat.

I've managed to side-step the worst of it, but my sister has been getting slow-roasted recently. Best wishes for surviving the worst of it!

I would add, though, that (and I acknowledge, this was probably tongue-in-cheek, and yet bears mentioning anyway) that it's a good idea to avoid stories set in a present zeitgeist, as whatever is in the current collective consciousness also tends to make a very dominant appearance in submissions to markets near and far. So while you may be able to write a good story about it, you'll be directly up against a lot more similar competition with a much greater difficulty of standing out.

Anyone else unable to submit? All I can see is the button to enter Q3 and that leads to a page telling me that submissions are closed.

ETA: All sorted, and I'm in.

@foxed I can take a look at your Q2 if you’d like. Getting an outside opinion is always helpful because everyone sees something different.

Send me a PM if you’re interested. 

Well, I've selected my Q4 prospect from my options, and I'm working on polish and final tweaks to it now. Looking forward to seeing how it fares...

In for Q4 bright and early because... *gestures vaguely around at the world* ...reasons. (I just like not knowing where I'm at three quarters in a row, I guess.) I went with a story I have a great deal of faith in but is too long for most markets. (I will note, I did trim it up a bit, but I can't cut any more without killing what I feel to be the heart of the story.) I don't usually write this long, but in this case it felt necessary.

Goodness @disgruntledpeony and @doctorjest, you’re on it. I’m just happy to have my opening scene done and I still haven’t figured out how it all ends yet. I tried plotting this one, but it came out stilted. So I’m using the pantsing technique. Again. I’m sure I’ll figure it out around September 30th. 

Posted by: @lost_bard

Goodness @disgruntledpeony and @doctorjest, you’re on it. I’m just happy to have my opening scene done and I still haven’t figured out how it all ends yet. I tried plotting this one, but it came out stilted. So I’m using the pantsing technique. Again. I’m sure I’ll figure it out around September 30th. 

Haha! 😀 I actually had a new story written for Q4, but I decided to shelve it in favour of revising a previous entry that I really wanted to give a second chance to. My originally intended Q4 may well become my Q1 for the next volume instead, we shall see...

I find pantsing to be a fun way to write, but how well it works for me tends to depend on the length of the story. For shorter, more compact ideas, it works well--for longer, more complex ones, it tends to spit out a lot of junk unless I have at least a skeleton of a framework to work against. But that's me, and I know some other folks have a lot of luck with writing their stories like that!

I'm more of a pantser than a plotter. I enjoy the way a story forms in unexpected ways. I like to keep my stories at the suggested length to enter the contest, somewhere between three to eight thousand words.

@lost_bard I write a story completely then toss it and start over. I have found that doing this helps me understand my MC. Who they are and their motivations. Weird, but I have done this for my past couple of WoTF stories.  

I subbed to both quarter 3 and 4. I got the e-mail confirmation for Q3, but not for Q4. Is this normal? Does it take a while?

@crlisle That’s certainly a technique! I find myself getting about 1/3 to 1/2 through my story before I figure out what’s going on and realize that I’ve hopelessly boxed myself in, toss it and start again. These false starts frustrate me no end, but it seems to be my technique. 

@alexvss thank you for the heads up on the email confirmation Q3 was on the older portal and Q4 is on the new system. The new system just confirms your submission was accepted right on the submission page, no second email is sent. As noted in my other post we can review this to see if it needs to be added.

I've got a fresh one cooking for this quarter. Fingers, don't fail me now. 

i am preparing to write the story of my life.  

@storysinger I believe that a writer's next story is always his best, because this craft is much like working out: you're always lifting heavier or doing more reps!

So far, my work in progress is always slightly better than the previous one, and that comes naturally. We just must never stop!