I'm new here, so... hi. :-D This blog's basic use is ranting, isn't it? So, rant I go...
Three...
Two...
One...
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The Plot Bunny: an evil cute fluffy rabbit-like creature lodged into an author's brain and my or may not help you in certain situations.
Sadly, for me, it doesn't help; actually, in most cases, it dislikes me. A lot. Thus would be the reason for Holly's constant complaining of me deleting my entries over and over and over and then reposting them and ending up deleting them again anyway... Wow, that was a long sentence.
Such as now: I have four so-called stories posted up on FictionPress, all of which are over 5,000 words (save for one I recently started) and all of which are most likely saved three billion and ahalf times over. In actuality, I have about seven (going on eight) stories I'm supposedly working on, one of which I haven't touched in half a year.
How do you solve this? If you want that answer, don't look at me; I'm trying to solve it myself, obviously...
I dislike calling this illness (yes, illness) the dreaded Plot Bunny. I prefer to call it The Skipper. Why? Well, it all started when... Actually, it's bevcause I skip over too many important details when this illness comes over me.
I could also call it The Odd-essy just to make my English teacher (who grades on where you put commas; Heaven forbid you put a comma in when someone's talking and taking a breath...) daft.
She was the first teacher to ever mistake me for a guy. And three months ago I thought only Senior girls thought I was male... Ah, well. Life flows along a shallow river, so I suppose no good comes from it if there's a boulder in the way.
Getting myself on track again, I'm going to summarize what I had siad above: Plot Bunnies (or Skippers) can be a bad thing. Now, if you're not me: you're stuck on an idea and you're in the shower and POOF! there's your new idea and you can't wiat to get out of the shower to write it down before you lose it... that's a good thing, I'd think.
Or not, per se, if you're like me.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
The Tales of Rewriting
Some people may not understand what the point of a rewrite is, or why I'm even doing it. And when I'm at the brink of beginning chapter 2 of it, and I just edited chapter 1, I may question it too.
So here's what I think: A re-write is for the author to benefit the reader. I personally think ToN just sucked, and I had grown to hate looking at what I had written nearly three years ago. Why? cause I was a horrible writer then, that's why! My style has changed, my characters flip flopped personalities, and it just wasn't going together.
So why am I rewriting it if I hate it? Because I still love the plot. I still love my idea. I still love my characters to no end, and I believe this is the only way to save their story. I mean, so far, so good, right? And so what if it's all ready not matching up with the timeline of the last story? I thought it moved to fast, so I'm allowed to slow it down this time, aren't I? And I'm allowed to get new chapter names! In fact, I can make Dev/e/a/y/i/n a girly person and take a poll on what I want to switch it too! I mean! Look at my poll! There's one for the 'a' one for the 'i' and 7 for the 'y'! My personally favorite? the 'a'! The one I chose before was to fit a tomboy, the in between, I thought was the 'e'! and obviously it doesn't fit now if Lise is thinking it's a boy.
So that's my reasoning. You're stuck at a story. Finished it, whatever. And dead tired of working with what you have to make it look pretty. When there's no chance of keeping it and tidying it up. It's just impossible. The roof is caved in on the overall unconfusedness, the characters are all over the place, and the structure and walls are just crumbling down as we speak. There's only one thing to do. Gut it, keep the original idea, and forget the rest!
I may not have them go visit the Establishment! Maybe Sage will decided that's not a good thing to suggest to a grieving Cali the day after his dad is taken. And so she won't, but they'll still talk about it. They'll talk about finding information, and discovering about what goes on, and then Blaine'll get roped in just like before, but it'll be different. Then they'll have their first visit to the place. See? Problem solved!
After mine turning into more of a paper, just like Clarissa's, this is where I end. So good luck to you others out there, and before I can fully get into writing, I'm going to go kill this high with HW, which was what I originally came in here with the purpose of doing. Thanks for your vote Lauren, sure got my last 20 minutes of life completely diverted ;P but that's the fun in it all, isn't it?
So here's what I think: A re-write is for the author to benefit the reader. I personally think ToN just sucked, and I had grown to hate looking at what I had written nearly three years ago. Why? cause I was a horrible writer then, that's why! My style has changed, my characters flip flopped personalities, and it just wasn't going together.
So why am I rewriting it if I hate it? Because I still love the plot. I still love my idea. I still love my characters to no end, and I believe this is the only way to save their story. I mean, so far, so good, right? And so what if it's all ready not matching up with the timeline of the last story? I thought it moved to fast, so I'm allowed to slow it down this time, aren't I? And I'm allowed to get new chapter names! In fact, I can make Dev/e/a/y/i/n a girly person and take a poll on what I want to switch it too! I mean! Look at my poll! There's one for the 'a' one for the 'i' and 7 for the 'y'! My personally favorite? the 'a'! The one I chose before was to fit a tomboy, the in between, I thought was the 'e'! and obviously it doesn't fit now if Lise is thinking it's a boy.
So that's my reasoning. You're stuck at a story. Finished it, whatever. And dead tired of working with what you have to make it look pretty. When there's no chance of keeping it and tidying it up. It's just impossible. The roof is caved in on the overall unconfusedness, the characters are all over the place, and the structure and walls are just crumbling down as we speak. There's only one thing to do. Gut it, keep the original idea, and forget the rest!
I may not have them go visit the Establishment! Maybe Sage will decided that's not a good thing to suggest to a grieving Cali the day after his dad is taken. And so she won't, but they'll still talk about it. They'll talk about finding information, and discovering about what goes on, and then Blaine'll get roped in just like before, but it'll be different. Then they'll have their first visit to the place. See? Problem solved!
After mine turning into more of a paper, just like Clarissa's, this is where I end. So good luck to you others out there, and before I can fully get into writing, I'm going to go kill this high with HW, which was what I originally came in here with the purpose of doing. Thanks for your vote Lauren, sure got my last 20 minutes of life completely diverted ;P but that's the fun in it all, isn't it?
Friday, December 7, 2007
"Oh, How I Envy Them."
Okay. We all have this little thing that decides to come annoy us once in awhile. Sometimes it leaves as quick as it has come; sometimes it sticks. And sticks. And sticks. It's called a block. A block that can ruin up many many things; especially writing. There is a term known as a pain in the butt= Writer's Block. Yes, we have probably all experienced it, little or to the extremes. Just hearing it can make a person go, "Ugh!" Yeah. Ugh.
So this is my rant about my Writer's Block.
No, it's really there; it's almost constantly in my mind, telling me that I have to get to writing, but absolutely nothing imaginative is coming up in my mind. Nothing at all. Okay, so maybe a few things might pop up, but they suck. I want to sometimes end my stories with these such scenarios (using some of my characters as examples-the very ones that are currently in my uncompleted story) :
Tekachi walked up to Whisper, his gait determined and his mind set. He would do it. He walked up to her and leaned down, quickly feeling her lips respond to his. The whole world ended around them and no war took place. THE END.
Did you watch as the scene slowly, just slowly, then quickly die? That's how quick my mind depletes everything good out - hence the Writer's Block sets in and I soon become ignorant and refuse to go on, because I know that I couldn't write anything better.
Just what is the problem behind my Writer's Block? I know what I want; I just don't know how to put it in words. I want to make it longer than normal and make everything seem to flow. But now why don't I get it to flow as easily as I want it? The last chapter I wrote I was criticized for making it short; that was a result of my Writer's Block. I didn't know how to make it flow; I didn't know how to make it longer.
I'm ready to just quit the story because of my Writer's Block because I'm beginning to lose what I want and the I know I'm losing the focus of how I wanted my characters to develop and how I wanted it to end.
Some authors say they are never affected by Writer's Block, and some are actually published authors. I wish I could say, "Oh, how I envy them." But no... somehow they must have problems of their own, but they also know how to take care of it.
"Oh how I envy them..."
Yeah, it doesn't do anything for me or my story. Heck, I think the best thing to try to get a story re-started or getting back into it is print it out, re-read the story, and write down notes as you read through it then write down thoughts once you're done with it, the thoughts being of what will happen next; don't laugh at the ideas, but write them down and sort them out.
And look at this blog.
It was going to be a rant, but it turned out to be alike a paper, and it helped me develop ideas to overcome Writer's Block; some people say that it will go away by itself- but why not just try overcome it while you still have the chance? Or...
- Yoda
So this is my rant about my Writer's Block.
No, it's really there; it's almost constantly in my mind, telling me that I have to get to writing, but absolutely nothing imaginative is coming up in my mind. Nothing at all. Okay, so maybe a few things might pop up, but they suck. I want to sometimes end my stories with these such scenarios (using some of my characters as examples-the very ones that are currently in my uncompleted story) :
Tekachi walked up to Whisper, his gait determined and his mind set. He would do it. He walked up to her and leaned down, quickly feeling her lips respond to his. The whole world ended around them and no war took place. THE END.
Did you watch as the scene slowly, just slowly, then quickly die? That's how quick my mind depletes everything good out - hence the Writer's Block sets in and I soon become ignorant and refuse to go on, because I know that I couldn't write anything better.
Just what is the problem behind my Writer's Block? I know what I want; I just don't know how to put it in words. I want to make it longer than normal and make everything seem to flow. But now why don't I get it to flow as easily as I want it? The last chapter I wrote I was criticized for making it short; that was a result of my Writer's Block. I didn't know how to make it flow; I didn't know how to make it longer.
I'm ready to just quit the story because of my Writer's Block because I'm beginning to lose what I want and the I know I'm losing the focus of how I wanted my characters to develop and how I wanted it to end.
Some authors say they are never affected by Writer's Block, and some are actually published authors. I wish I could say, "Oh, how I envy them." But no... somehow they must have problems of their own, but they also know how to take care of it.
"Oh how I envy them..."
Yeah, it doesn't do anything for me or my story. Heck, I think the best thing to try to get a story re-started or getting back into it is print it out, re-read the story, and write down notes as you read through it then write down thoughts once you're done with it, the thoughts being of what will happen next; don't laugh at the ideas, but write them down and sort them out.
And look at this blog.
It was going to be a rant, but it turned out to be alike a paper, and it helped me develop ideas to overcome Writer's Block; some people say that it will go away by itself- but why not just try overcome it while you still have the chance? Or...
- Yoda
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