Of puddings, and knowing when to give up.
I have hit a dead end in the story that I have been working on (in
fits and starts, alongside other things) for nearly a year. I stood
back and reread it a number of times over the last few weeks,
during a renewed attempt to hammer out some mor, and to my
annoyance found very little satisfaction in how it reads, how the
characters act, and the ambiance of the locales described. It's
flat, one dimensional and dull, a story equivilent of a cheap Asda
victoria sponge.
The story world isn't at fault, here - I love the world. It's rich and complex, with the potential for so many different locations, dramatic and epic 'scenes' and some memorable characters and peoples, good, evil and most importantly the confusing grey inbetween.
It's my writing. The morsels of light, fluffy, moist, moreish prose, often coffee flavoured, are rare tidbits more often suffocated by the bland and stodgy suet pudding of uninspired exposition, moving the reader through the story like an unrisen cake through the digestive tract.
Think that analogy has died a gurgling death.
So, time to put it to bed for now. Let my enthusiasm recharge, and just start again. Get the story straight, get the characters straight, and more importantly, get some practice writing something I enjoy reading. If it's an effort to absorb, it doesn't belong. Might just put up more of my stupid Shadowrun indulgence, at least it's kind of funny, to mention fun and easy to write and read - a bit like a box of mini-rockyroad.
This seems a little drastic, Air reached about 40,000 words, with many more than that in notes and other documents of literary scaffolding. Time for a fresh document, white screen space like virgin icing. And that blinking cursor, promising so much potential, the little minx.
At what point do you decide that editing and reworking is just too much trouble, and start again?
FYI, hungry now.
The story world isn't at fault, here - I love the world. It's rich and complex, with the potential for so many different locations, dramatic and epic 'scenes' and some memorable characters and peoples, good, evil and most importantly the confusing grey inbetween.
It's my writing. The morsels of light, fluffy, moist, moreish prose, often coffee flavoured, are rare tidbits more often suffocated by the bland and stodgy suet pudding of uninspired exposition, moving the reader through the story like an unrisen cake through the digestive tract.
Think that analogy has died a gurgling death.
So, time to put it to bed for now. Let my enthusiasm recharge, and just start again. Get the story straight, get the characters straight, and more importantly, get some practice writing something I enjoy reading. If it's an effort to absorb, it doesn't belong. Might just put up more of my stupid Shadowrun indulgence, at least it's kind of funny, to mention fun and easy to write and read - a bit like a box of mini-rockyroad.
This seems a little drastic, Air reached about 40,000 words, with many more than that in notes and other documents of literary scaffolding. Time for a fresh document, white screen space like virgin icing. And that blinking cursor, promising so much potential, the little minx.
At what point do you decide that editing and reworking is just too much trouble, and start again?
FYI, hungry now.
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7 Comments
I like Athelstone's idea of unexpected outcomes to events. I have tried asking people what they would do in the situation that a character is in, to try and see if something unexpected fits. It tends to drive the story, sometimes on a tangent, but sometimes joining it up in an interesting way. I don't like having everything mapped out, indeed I find it very difficult to plan things in that way anyway - the characters hopefully drive the story, not the other way around.
Also, with that cooler head in mind, I did a word count out of curiosity to see if my estimates were anywhere close - main document was 36,234 words, and the notes and plans and character profiles and nations/worlds information added up to about 20k. Not so much an exageration as an annoyance fuelled blatant fabrication, so sorry about that. Nevertheless, felt drastic to me!
@ Drew: I am prone to that too; I have a bit of inspiration, rush to scribble bits down, stall, procrastinate and eventually consign it to the "Finish someday" folder. I have so many little snapshots that start as "ooh, that would be a good idea for a short story" that I never concentrate on or get invested enough in. After that initial rush, I struggle to draw them to a conclusion.
@Jaxx: That's kind of you. I guess I'm my own biggest critic. I can't remember when I showed you it, but I know we had chatted about the concept and the world before I'd formed it all, so it was early on. I will bring what I have down, next time I'm in your neck of the woods :). Still reading through Southlander, by the way - enjoying it immensely!
I wrote a great story...but I got the POVs all mixed up. So I rewrote it. Then the characters appeared one-dimensional and stereo - typed. So I had another long edit. While some scenes work well, I'm still not 100% satisfied. But I'm fed-up and bored with reading the same story over and over. So it's resting, and I'm moving on. I know my writing is improving, it's now competent - at least I think it is - until I post a piece on critique. All responses have been great and helpful - but when do I just stop and say enough is enough?
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