973 réponses à ce sujet

[Sialater]

Yeah, I was confused, too, since it was blank.

[Tryynity]

Hello my little Writers Lounge FanFic lovers - you may be interested in this tweet

https://twitter.com/#!/SueGrimshaw a Random House Romance Publisher.

You can win something if you make a comment on the blog post about FanFiction - Are you a fan?

Go and show your love of fanfic to the world and maybe win something.

Modifié par Tryynity, 17 février 2012 - 01:50 .

[The Sarendoctrinator]

I don't have a Twitter account. What do they win?

[Tryynity]

The Sarendoctrinator wrote...

I don't have a Twitter account. What do they win?

I have no idea - but you just have to click the link they have on their twitter feed to go to the blog to comment.

You do not need Twitter to do that or to read their feed.

[Corker]

If I read it right, you win free books. Romance novels.

[Rinshikai]

Sounds interesting, I'm not much for romance though.

[tklivory]

Sialater wrote...

Yeah, I was confused, too, since it was blank.

Dashing in from too much work to say that next time, I'll put the story in the Google Doc.  I had thought it could be just a blank slate for comments, but it could work both ways.

Noted for next time!

*dashing back out, muttering under my breath about TOO MUCH WORK!*  

[Corker]

Or even just a header, "Concrit for Story XYZ" so folks know they're in the right place.

[The Sarendoctrinator]

I think I was better at finishing what I started when it wasn't a full-length novel... really need to work on that. But I did manage to finish my Asunder contest entry three days early, after finding out about it late, so it's not like I'm terrible at finishing things. xD

Corker wrote...

If I read it right, you win free books. Romance novels.

I'll pass on it then. Romance novels have never really interested me.

[wangxiuming]

Follow-through is always a challenge with me too. For some reason reading always gives me a little boost though, makes me think "if so and so can do this, then so can I!"

At least, for a few precious minutes. =X

[BevH]

AmbraAlhambra wrote...

Yeah I agree with that too. Sometimes just reading something will be enough to spark my creativity and get me into the mode for writing. Taking walks also helps with that too (don't know why). Some of the best scenes that I've written (sadly unpublished because they're snippets for my Blight fic) came to me while I was walking or getting ready for bed or something like that. Basically away from the computer. Because my brain is awesome and doesn't like to function how I want it to when it's in front of a medium that would allow me to write everything down before I forget it. <_< Yeah....

That's been my problem too lately. I think of all these awesome (well, at least to me ) ideas when I'm driving or after I go to bed (my storytelling time) and then when I sit in front of the computer... nothing. I'm thinking I may just have to go back to my old way of writing: sitting in my comfy recliner with my spiral notebook.

[Bethadots]

I just want to point out that when I comment on the google docs I come up as "Bethamint" instead of Bethadots. So the random person dressed as an elf (really should change my G+ pic...) offering crits with the unfamiliar name is me. I'll try and remember to write "Bethadots" at the end of my comments as a reminder...

[tklivory]

I have updated the front page post!

New article for discussion:
Robin D. Law's Five Keys to Punchier Prose (submitted by Corker - thank you!)

List of previously discussed articles can be found here.


New sacrificial lamb concritter:
Sialater's The Maker's Will - An editable Google Doc has been created for comments here. You may also PM Sialater on BSN with a comment.

List of previous concritters can be found here.

--

Also, I'm so sorry I haven't been around to comment lately!  I'm hoping that work will ease up a bit this coming week.

NOTE: Please remember to send any article suggestions my way!

[Bethadots]

I notice that every single tip in this week's article is essentially telling you how to say things in fewer words. Two months ago I wouldn't have necessarily agreed that this is the path to punchier prose, but when we were writing for the Asunder competition and had to adhere to a strict word count I was doing some of this stuff just for the sake of getting in under the count but I definitely noticed that my writing benefited from it.

I think the most important thing to bear in mind though is what he says at the beginning about not worrying about such things in the first draft. "Stopping your first draft to wrestle with sentence structure kills momentum and may plunge you into the chill waters of self-doubt and frustration." This is definitely stuff to worry about once you get to the editing stage!

Modifié par Bethadots, 20 février 2012 - 01:05 .

[wangxiuming]

Bethadots wrote...
I think the most important thing to bear in mind though is what he says at the beginning about not worrying about such things in the first draft. "Stopping your first draft to wrestle with sentence structure kills momentum and may plunge you into the chill waters of self-doubt and frustration." This is definitely stuff to worry about once you get to the editing stage!

Totally agree with this, I still have trouble with it too though. It's so hard for me to leave what I feel is shoddy writing unaltered. Still, I realize for the sake of finishing projects, it's probably best to save the editing for later.

[Klidi]

AmbraAlhambra wrote...

wangxiuming wrote...

Bethadots wrote...
I think the most important thing to bear in mind though is what he says at the beginning about not worrying about such things in the first draft. "Stopping your first draft to wrestle with sentence structure kills momentum and may plunge you into the chill waters of self-doubt and frustration." This is definitely stuff to worry about once you get to the editing stage!

Totally agree with this, I still have trouble with it too though. It's so hard for me to leave what I feel is shoddy writing unaltered. Still, I realize for the sake of finishing projects, it's probably best to save the editing for later.

Yeah I'm still learning that myself. I've had to remind myself multiple times to leave something, and that it's alright for it to sound bad because I'm getting the 'skeleton' of it down first and the flesh can come later. Since doing this, however, I've noticed that my writing has gotten more focused (which is also a problem for me).

It's hard - you want things to come out perfect the first time like some divine inspiration. It means you're a true writer if you can do that, right? At least, this was the thought process I had to break for me. I had to learn that it's okay to write terribly at first, and that getting the outline and where I'm going with the scene helps to later build it in my head and enable me to write it.

I can't do that. If something sound bad, I can't move forward. I don't really have 'drafts' that would only be an outline of the scene on which I would build it then. I write a sentence or a paragraph, work on it until I'm satisfied, then move to the next one. That way even if I stop working on the story, I can continue from where I left it without problem. I read it for a few times, to get into the mood of the story again and start  writing.

And if sometimes feels bad when I'm done, it's then more than just wrong word or two, and I start over but I take different approach, different POV etc. If it's just one paragraph that is 'extra' or I think it doesn't really fit the story, I cut it out and turn it into a oneshot. If it's just few lines, it's goes to my database of  things I might use one day in some other context. 

If I finish the a depends only on the motivation. Some stories I scrap almost immediately, some I don't have a problem to rewrite them even five times, if necessary - because I want to write that story. What causes that... I'm not really sure.

[Mahati]

Divine inspiration would've saved so much trouble!

But nothing ever comes out *perfect* the first time, at least not for me. There are always little things that bother me, sentences that need to be rewritten...but hey, that's what editing is for Polishing a gemstone is what makes it alluring.

Speaking of which, I wish I could post here more often. Must go now, I'm up to my ears in work.

[Sialater]

Thank you all for commenting on my Story. It's been a great help! Just a small author's note, the original working title was "Dimples." If that helps some of the comments.

[Rinshikai]

Thank you to everyone who gave me a review last week. This will be instrumental in helping me.

[Bethadots]

AmbraAlhambra wrote...

It's hard - you want things to come out perfect the first time like some divine inspiration. It means you're a true writer if you can do that, right?

My scriptwriting lecturer used to always say "writing is rewriting" and would assure us all that nobody gets it perfect the first time. Even if your first draft is really good, there's room for improvement. He would show us early drafts of the scripts for famous movies to drive his point home, and some of those were truly shocking.

[Corker]

The part of that article that hit me like a sandbag was the "was verbing" thing. I use that so much, particularly in my smut writing, because that's just full of extended actions going on, sometimes while other things are going on, and it just seemed like the natural way of writing that.

When I made the effort to stop (or at least not automatically default to) "was verbing," it really did seem to make a difference, and a good one! Not only were the words more vivid, I think it helps with the rhythm of the prose. When he's doing this and she's doing that, and then the dog was running past and Oghren was chasing it, it gets a little... repetitive.