McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
A Writer who can't Write
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Thats actually probably very good advice blgarver. Thank you. :)
I do have a few lesser projects floating around back there, and I've been wanting to try something first person. I find it easier for me to write, flowing more conversationally. But my original story had too many characters to work it well.
Side note, I too have a crazy map. I adapted a lunar map from like the 14th century that I found in a calender :P
meg_evonne:
Hi, I know what you mean. Frustrating as h***. Don't overlook the simple task of taking a typing/keyboarding course. Nothing slows up the flow faster than hunt and peck typing. You'll see a payoff in everything you do. Cheap mavis one out there to do on your own.
Give this a try...
1. Set your keyboard to Centered, rather than left side. That way you'll TRICK yourself into not being overly concerned with format. The goal is getting the structure down.
2. Skip ALL description and keep stage directions to a minimum. (They'll come back when you flesh it out.)
3. Get the dialog down (don't worry about the voice of each character), it won't be pretty but it will be fast paced.
It looks like a script. I can't tell you how fast you can get the bones down while they are hot if you do it this way. I'll try a sample below:
(Cha'dilly enters mac's, trouble with the door, scans the room, eyes one particular person, crosses and sits) Cha'dilly:Man it's cold out there. One ale.Guy in trenchcoat:Yeah, really cold.
These five sentences could break down to a full page of manuscript by the time you add the details in. It works for action sequence/fight scenes as well. Does that make sense?
This is the ONLY TRICK THAT I've learned to deal with my memory problems. i used voice recording typing programs, i've used dictaphones (little taperecorders), but they weren't as fast as my fingers. I've tried paper---forget it, you can't cut & paste and then you spend your life transcribing.
I hope it helps! A few key words will unlock the real memories if you trust your mind. If you trust the system, that beautiful dialog you wrote in your head will pop right out again at the memory jogger. i think you can train yourself to be better at this with practice. Keep writing!
blgarver:
Hmm....I think I might just try that too, meg.
Cresent Genisi:
What if it isn't so much the story your writing but how your writing it that you can't process correctly from you brain to writer's hands?
Like I already know I stop writing before I start because I can't sit down to write, if I do I leave out a bunch of important details from my head while if I write the details I forget where I'm at beyond the scene I am writing. So usually I record my voice and talk myself threw the story. Then I will write down key detail that will happen later on in the story that I want to put in or think more about. So when I sit down with my notes and my tape from it I end up just writing stuff that sounds like something a fifth grader could write, but coming up with some very interesting dialogues, scenes, characters, and scenarios that would seem to be the perfect base for the next bestseller if only someone with real talent was writing it. Then I start doubting myself as a writer only to "throw down the pencil" and come back to it months later. That's pretty much the cycle to my attempt at a writing career.
meg_evonne:
That's a pretty nasty bear in your room, Cresent. I wrote a thread called, "There's a bear in my room, does it ever go away?" about self-confidence. you might want to search for it---some great ideas from people. For your own reference, check out Jim's journal on the first page of jim-butcher.com---I think he has a bear also, but he's probably better at whipping it into a corner and telling it to behave! Why a bear? Ever hear that line about sometimes you eat the bear and other time the bear eats you? Just concentrate on increasing your odds of eating the bear. ;)
1. You obviously have put some hard work & time into your storylines AND I suspect the characters haunt you to get them down. So you end up frustrated, your characters get edgy in there and you end up repeating the process over and over. If I've mis-read STOP READING! hee, hee..
I took a couple on-line classes with professional writers (including a NYTimes Columnist, copywriters, editors, past agent, authors, etc) All were excellent writers in their fields (I was the duffer) and guess what?---same problem or they would obsess about making each line perfect and never get the past the first few pages. You are share your problem with other writers.
Finally, all writers, as far as I can tell, write a lot of pages---to get to one great paragraph. Remember, you don't have to share it with anyone, but you might be your own worse critic as they say.
Lighten up, let yourself write crud--just so the story gets out. Your soul will be happy with that for now. I suspect things will improve with time. That storyline isn't going to leave you alone until you get it down anyway, so give in and do it. Try that short script idea----was that great dialog? GAG...but i remember what was in my head and it's pretty good. You can go back and let the triggers remind you.
Keep writing. It's good for soul and for the heart and your characters will thank you. If it helps buy a whip and make that bear behave itself... ;D
Edited for one more idea. Try drawing it... Just an idea, maybe your strength is graphic?
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