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

That is reassuring Tippety if Stephen King says 10% is OK that's good enough for me.

Gosh! Only 2 weeks until your course starts? How exciting. I can't believe how quickly that's come about.

I've been working on my world building and history now. I've written loads of notes outside the novel about the backstory of the world and the different groups and things in it. I know this is the sort of thing most people do before they start, but hey ho. Once I've got it sorted I'm going to work my way through the novel again and gently sprinkle in world building and back story, and probably regain that 10k words in no time.

Mine starts on 23rd, that's 3 weeks away...gulp.
I'm 29k into current project. Why does writing about screwed up people make me feel sad and screwed up?

I think its something to do with inhabiting your characters honey. You spend all that time thinking like a screwed up person it sort of leaches into the rest of your life.

My course got cancelled due to lack of interest. Perhaps the universe is trying to tell me something . Signed up for a 1 day workshop instead. Not really feeling in the mood for it to be honest. So tired as children aren't sleeping much. Haven't written a word in weeks.

In other news, finally managed to watch The Last Jedi the other night. Made me think of your space ginger honeyboo . I think I liked the film though it wasn't as good as the first one. I found myself getting annoyed on an (un)professional basis about the writing. The plot had holes you could fly a Star Destroyer through. Or maybe I should say a dreadnaught. I don't see how they keep making these huge expensive movies without bothering to write a really tight story first. It's not like the world is short of people desperate to write for the screen. There must be the talent out there. On the other hand it did make me start to think about how difficult it must be to write something as universally crowd pleasing as Star Wars. I wonder how much is formula, like do Hollywood screenwriters have a hit list of scenes and tropes, and how much is native talent or just luck coming up with the right premise. Both I guess. I'm probably not cynical enough about how movies are made. I imagine one lonely screenwriter working long into the night, not a committee who need to appeal to both the US and Chinese market etc etc. Anyway, that's enough nerd musing ...

Hope everyone's writing is going better than mine!

My course got cancelled due to lack of interest.
:(
Hard luck! Hope the one day one is good anyway.

I don't think the Jedi film needed to be anything other than advertised. They'll get enough people watching anyway.

I know it'll be huge and do well but I just feel if you've been given something as culturally precious and iconic as Star Wars to look after you ought to make sure you do it justice. I couldn't fault the sound, score, set design, costumes etc. So why does the story-which is surely the point of the film- always seem so half-arsed and rushed?

Anyway. I went to the workshop yesterday. It was great. Really interesting and motivating. I heard about a couple of agents, and apparently the news from the industry is that thrillers and noir are on the way out and the new big genre is going to be 'uplit' - emotionally uplifting stories about friendship and kindness. So basically the opposite of noir. Which is encouraging for me as I've been worrying nothing I write is dark enough. I don't write anything particularly saccharine either but hopefully there's a middle ground... Now I just need my children to sleep so I can actually do some work.

Thought I'd post this tweet from Philip Pullman for all us non-planners: "Structure is a superficial feature of narrative. You can change it whenever you like. What's truly fundamental is tone. You do need a plan, but the best sequence is--write first, then plan. Then edit with confidence, knowing what you've got."

I watched the Rian Johnson doc that comes with the TLJ discs. Not very interesting, but one line stood out.
He said that he worked out what each character wanted most, and then gave them the opposite. I mean, that is sort of a standard approach - find out what your characters want and then find lots of ways to stop them from getting it.
So Poe wanted to prove his leadership and authority.
Rey wanted to find her past and her place in it all. Finn wanted to find and keep Rey safe. Hux (evil space ginger) wanted to be given respect and be a feared leader...
Thing is tho, while that makes sense from a character perspective, I think it lead to issues with the overall plot not coming across as cohesive...
Annoying your characters doesn't make for a great story overall...

That's interesting, because it's obvious now I'm looking for it. And yep I agree it doesn't lend itself to a great cohesive plot - not in an action/adventure film certainly. I'm thinking back to the originals and I wouldn't say they were character driven. They did have well defined characters but there wasn't much movement within those characters other than typical fantasy tropes (rogue to hero, farm boy to hero). Vader possibly has the most interesting but even that's fairly one-note (evil, evil, evil, moment of doubt, swift action, redeemed). But every character's journey is motivated by the same thing (stop the emperor, save the galaxy) and it makes everything feel cohesive.

Hey guys! I've been a bit off grid for a bit, but still slowly plugging away and rewriting again. It's getting there though I think

Sorry to hear about your writing course Tippety that's a bummer.

So went to my new course last night. Real mix bag of people, someone who has written a novel but not published, a few dabblers and me. I outed myself as a fanfic writer and the tutor was very supportive. Had to write something in 20 minutes and then read out, which was arghhh but fun. Need to take work in each week for critique and constructive feedback. I hope they like star wars ..
Ooh one other thing, got a review on one of my older stories saying how my writing flowed effortlessly. Fell off my chair laughing...if only they knew!
Oh well off to write, need to write a sex scene...my poor readers have slogged through 42k words for this...better make it good.

Well done honeyboo! Sounds scary but good. Surely everyone likes Star Wars?!

Just popping in to say that definitely have been feeling sad and screwed-up due to sad and screwed-up characters. It's awful!

Wow! That sounds really good Honeyboo. I am very impressed with you reading out something written in 20mins. It sounds terrifying.

Poor you Banana. All my characters are sad and screwed up, but I find it sort of therapeutic. It gives me the chance to write around things with some distance (because I am a bit sad and screwed up). Maybe you need to make sure they have some redeeming and sympathetic features, or just pack them off the therapy.

It was sort of scary but you are all in the same boat and the pay off is you get to talk to a real life full time published novelist so that's a huge payoff!

Ohhh Bigley I'm so chuffed your still plodding on after nanowrimo!

Ohhh Bigley grin I'm so chuffed your still plodding on after nanowrimo!

I am still plodding! I'm kind of addicted now I think. There is no hope for me. In fact just the other day I was thinking about what I'm going to do for this year's nanowrimo. I'm already really excited about it. Roll on November.

Saying that I just had that moment when you read a chapter you sort of convinced yourself was OK and finally have to admit it's terrible and needs completely rewriting. I'm hoping it's the last chapter I need to redo though...(eternal optimist that I am)...

I find my opinion of which chapters I think are passable or dire depends on my mood. But in general I think everything I've just written is genius and everything I wrote >1 day ago is utter shite.

I need to vent my frustration at the lack of time I have to write. I spend each day feeling sick at the feeling of time going by and still no progress made. Not that the world is waiting with baited breath for my next novel, but the two I have in progress were vaguely topical when I started them and I feel like I'm standing watching the boat sail by. Yes, write the book you need to write, don't write for the market etc etc but surely it helps a little bit in the fight to escape the slush pile if what you've written happens to chime with the zeitgeist. Or maybe mine doesn't. But it did once chime with my own internal zeitgeist (if there's such a thing). I wonder if a book can die if it's not written in time... do they have a self expiry or can they just keep mutating as your own ideas and interests mature and change. And waffle waffle. And the baby has just woken up again. Sigh.

Bated. Gah.

So the perk of writing fanfic is the feedback from readers... had two readers absolutely gushing and so invested in the story. I don't have a huge readership because its a niche romance but it's lovely that if they are the only two out there...they care. So yeah, I keep plotting and plodding on.

I don't think that's a big deal at all Bigley. I'm not sure you can ever be 100% happy with your writing. I thought my nano novel was so awful I've put it on the back burner for a bit.

Topical I completely relate. DS is such an unreliable sleeper I rarely get proper time. I've ended up using the pages app on my phone so I can write on the loo and whenever I can snatch a couple of minutes its all you can do sonetimes to keep going.

Ugh. Correction, *sometimes. Bloody auto correct.

I find my opinion of which chapters I think are passable or dire depends on my mood. But in general I think everything I've just written is genius and everything I wrote >1 day ago is utter shite.

I agree!

everything I've just written is genius and everything I wrote >1 day ago is utter shite.

I need this on a t-shirt or a mug!

I think you could make millions Tippety.