Please come and talk to me. Just for some general writing chat and support...

[BiglyBadgers]

I am about a third of the way through editing my stupidly long book (this'll teach me for writing epic fantasy) and need some chat!

I really loved the chat and support on the nano thread, but now novel writing month is long gone and I am alone! There must be other people out there bumbling along needing a friend to chat to...surely....I can provide coffee, cake and excellent free WiFi

Funnily enough I did exactly the same with my dialogue on the first piece I put up and had lots of feedback from confused people. I've seen it a lot now, so I think it's one of those common things.

I started writing my new chapters last night. It feels good doing some actual chunky writing rather than just editing.

Sad to hear the news about Ursula Le Guin this morning. I love Earthsea. Need to read more of her work really.

I much prefer writing to editing, bigly. It's the fun bit!

Think I'm going to be brave and change what happens in my book, though the ending will be more or less the same. I can't get my original plan to work. But I feel excited about writing the new idea so hopefully that's a good sign.

Oh no how sad. Earthsea was one of very few things I enjoyed reading at school. I've got a soft spot for it.

I heard about Le Guin on the radio this morning. I remember my mum reading me Earthsea when I was little. I must dig them out and read them to dd soon.

Thought you guys would enjoy this letter from Ursula le Guin declining the chance to write the blurb for an anthology that only included work by men.

Oooh! As my ds would say "cutting"! Love it.

Hah, brill.

How's everyone getting on? I'm impatient to get this first draft done. It's frustrating not having more time.

I know what you mean Tippety I secretly wish I could just take a year off my degree to write, but I don't think my mortgage lender would go for it

I have done the first draft of the first chapter of the storyline I am rewriting and like the way it is going. I feel like I have got a bit past the fantasy fluff and have something a bit more nuanced and interesting. To me anyway. Other people might think all the talking and internal angst, not to mention some serious women's issues stuff, excruciatingly tedious. But sod them, I'm having a lovely time.

so, have fallen at last hurdle with one story because it's a sex scene and I hate writing those..., and started writing another one because it's just too fun not to write, managing to churn out 1,500 each time I sit down with it.
Not literature but fun.

I can barely keep track of one book, very impressed by people who can have multiple projects on the go at once.

3 stories on go, plus book planning

I used to write on my commute, on my lunch break if I could and occasionally in the day if the office was very quiet . But now I'm a sahm mum (sahm autocorrects to 'sham', cheers Apple) with a baby and non-napping toddler ... I honestly think the hardest thing about being a parent is giving up or drastically reducing my time to write. Writing is the one thing that really makes me feel like me. Oh well. I'll have more time when they're older. Maybe!

Good work bigly and honeyboo. It's always a good sign when you're enjoying what you're writing. And just write for you, bigly, don't work for about pleasing hypothetical readers. Anyway it sounds like my cup of tea! I'm fairly sure that, as sad as it makes me, my books are never going to be commercial. They're not light enough to be fluff and not clever enough to be literature and just not good enough to even be niche. But I can only write what I can write.

Yeah I don't think I could work on several stories at once, though I have one manuscript that's in second draft format and just needs a big final push to get finished, and this one which I only started to fill the time while I was letting the first one rest. It'd make more sense to get the first one finished and see if it was worth submitting anywhere but this other book has taken over. I also have other finished things but nothing worth doing anything with.

Tippety...I am sahm to a pre-schooler (age 4) and this works really well as usually I have the mornings free. But if all goes to plan there will soon be a newborn in the house and I think the sleep deprivation is seriously going to come between me and writing unfortunately. I should imagine the worse scenario though would be having a toddler around - mobile but not yet old enough for pre-school etc. I have all this to come (hopefully) but determined somehow to push through with my writing because as you said, writing is the one thing that makes me feel like me. I am currently just over half way of editing my book.

As others have said, I write for myself although the issues I write about are quite intense and if it helped somebody else, I would get immense satisfaction from that. I can't imagine writing another novel; I've definitely got the one book in me but I'm not sure I could write another novel...it has been a looooong process and unfortunately, I only seem able to write in short bursts.

lavender my dd is 3 months old. We're so fortunate that she sleeps well at night (unlike her big brother who was terrible) so I don't have much sleep deprivation. I think my body was expecting to be exhausted and the energy saved is now going into writing?! Anyway, just wanted to say that a new baby doesn't necessarily mean the end of writing. Obviously I doubt anyone could do much in the first month or two but if you get an ok sleeper you might still be able to do a fair bit!

I have two DC, and work 4 days a week with one day with pre school DC around. I have to write in evenings, or in lunch hours at work. It seems to have taken over watching tv in the evenings which is good, although I feel sometimes like my life is split into Real Life and Writing Life.
My idea of a guilty pleasure is now going to a cafe, alone, and writing. With cake.
I've always wanted to be a writer, since I was small and wrote a book about Robin of Sherwood. As you do when you are 10. Not much has moved on ;)

My TV hour is now writing hour too. Feel bad as I hardly spend any time with dh but I feel miserable and fidgety if I don't get my writing time. I once had 4 months off between jobs and before children. It was bliss. I wrote a whole first draft.

I sneak in bits of writing whenever I can. DD is 5 so in school and while I am studying I get some time alone at home. Otherwise it's evenings and snatched moments of peace. I start my first placement Monday though so not sure how I am going to manage working full time with study to do on top.

I know what you guys means about writing withdrawals. I've only been really into it a short time, but I have noticed I get particularly stroppy when I don't get a chance to work on it for a couple of days.

Yes, I start feeling wound up if I've not been able to write for a while. At the moment, it is bliss - I have every morning to write - but find for one reason or another, I don't make the most of this opportunity - or can only do an hour or so before I lose concentration. It also often involves sitting in a café with cake! However, baby on the way very shortly and I am going to have to relinquish 'my time' eventually probably in favour of attending toddler groups - it is difficult to do once you have got use to having this time as your own (this is dc3) Wouldn't change it though (but would change having extended family who could give me a break from time to time, instead of the toxic and therefore estranged family that I actually have), sorry going off at a tangent now. Would love one day, to aspire to go on one of these writing breaks...but that is a long way off in the future!

@TippetyTapWriter
Witchend your name isn't Malcolm Saville related by any chance? Probably not but I remember the name from one of his books. Wings over Witchend?

Sorry I missed this comment earlier in the thread.
Absolutely. It's the house from his Lone Pine Series. Wings over Witchend is number 9. There's also number 1: Mystery At Witchend, number 17: Strangers at Witchend and number 20: Home to Witchend.
Wings is one of my favourites, I like to read it at Christmas. I have a bookshelf full of his works. (and several others full of other books)

Oh brill! I loved the Lone Pine books growing up. They're all up at my parents' house waiting until my dc are old enough for them (and about a hundred other books I've put away for them). I'd probably enjoy rereading them myself!

How's everyone doing this weekend?

I started tweaking a chapter I thought just needed a paragraph changing and have ended up realising the whole things needs rewriting. Ho hum.

Hi Bigly...Feeling a sense of achievement today because I have submitted my latest (edited) chapter (7) to the writing group I belong to. It also means that I am officially half way through editing my novel but like you, I am in the process of practically re-writing Chapter 9, (Chapter 8 is being shelved for the moment.) It seems that I have written some parts of my book with more enthusiasm than others and when I'm drafting out a chapter it feels as if there is a long way to go, as if I am diving very deeply but sooner or later will come up for air - and eventually will have another refined, edited chapter (this is the point where major procrastination sets in, until I actually knuckle down to write because initially, it feels that with each new chapter, I am starting all over again and it is unsurmountable.) I have also plotted out my remaining chapters so have a clearer structure to follow.

Finished one story and need to finally finish another one tonight but its been a hard slog. Reading a how to plan and write a novel book.

seems that I have written some parts of my book with more enthusiasm than others

Yup, I can sympathize with this. I have chapters I just sort of scuttled over when I drafted them in the hope that they would magically become awesome if I didn't look too closely. Sadly this tactic doesn't seem to have worked and I am now forced confront them.

I'm thinking that as some planners on here have been having a go at non-planned writing I might have a go at actual planning for my next part and see how it goes. I feel I now have enough of a grasp on the characters and what basically needs to happen to maybe not end up in a complete mess. It might be fun

I have chapters I just sort of scuttled over when I drafted them in the hope that they would magically become awesome if I didn't look too closely.

This is how I write whole books...

I've made some progress taking the middle of my book in a different direction but I've now hit one of those scenes where I thought I had a really good idea of how it would pan out and why it was important and revelatory and all I have in reality is a mental image of someone sitting in a chair.