Achievements

[Don Alexander]

Ohhhh. right.

Well, then definitely none.

[Artemisia]

Ah, okay...I was trying to tease you a bit, and I think you turned it back on me

Need a literary agent...sigh....oh, and Don, you never know what might happen with something you've written. My EC fan fic inspired an entire novel...which looks absolutely nothing like the fan fic any more.

[Dirty n Evil]

Ugh. I hit a major snag. I'm doing my best not to be discouraged, but I'm currently floundering for inspiration of what to try next.

The problem is that I hadn't written this much in so long, I had misjudged my own typical word count for the passage of events. I know I'm long winded, but I realized that at the level of description that I prefer... the plot that I had planned simply will not work in 100,000 words, even paired down. It's a mental change of focus, I get that. I like complex stories as well as written language with quite a lot of flourish to them. I'm having to accept that my current plot is far too grand in scope, and I'm going to have to step back from it.

Now, I'm taking the positives in this that I'm still wanting to write. If anything, I'm anxious to keep writing. To maintain the habit. That in itself I consider an achievement. There were many times over the last several years the act of writing felt like I was simply going to a dry well. Now, it feels like the desire to create is very much there... but I'm at the point of redefining the limits of what I should attempt.

[Don Alexander]

I in your case would not limit myself like that. If what you are writing feels good, then do so - even if everything becomes twice as long as planned.

I suspect this will turn certain readers off, but perhaps others on.

[mikbuster]

I agree with Don. If nothing else, you'll have two or three books, if you need them to be shorter.

[Artemisia]

DnE...don't worry about length right now. If it is too long in the first draft- it does not matter. What matters is you get the story out. Then, go back and rewrite it. Maybe take scenes out that do not advance the plot or subplot. Put them into a file for later. Not to mention the fact that 100,000 is roughly a 300pg book. Maybe a little more. I would recommend knocking only about 15,000 words off of it.

Remember, this is a rough draft. This is your first draft. I knew a woman who had to take a 600pg manuscript and par it down to 300pgs. So, do not be discouraged. It can be done!

[TellusEidolon]

Don, you never know what might happen with something you've written. My EC fan fic inspired an entire novel...which looks absolutely nothing like the fan fic any more.

^This. I mean - i once wrote a character biography for a forum rp that turned into a short novella because i had good inspiration and writing motivation that moment.

[Dirty n Evil]

Thank you, everyone. You're very supportive and encouraging, and I wanted to let you know that it's very much appreciated.

However, I think the smartest thing to do is to save what I've written and attempt a different story. I had already "cut out much of the fat" as you might say, in my mind, which is why I was able to come to the conclusion this early. I'm trying to adhere to the 100,000 word limit because I want to seriously pursue this in hopes of being published. To get my feet wet, so I can get momentum behind me when I want to write books that are so thick they'll cause people back problems to carry around. ;)

Part of my problem is that I see most things as a tangle of every little element involved in it. I like the impact of dramatic conversation as opposed to always pressing events forwards exclusively by action, and to an objective editor if they're looking for something to slim down a novel, that's where they're going to chop away at first. So, I'm saving what I've written for when I want to get back to it. Don't worry, it's not going to be abandoned.

The good news is I have a far more reasonably lengthed story to tell - and I'll enjoy writing this because while the other story was more inspired by characters that I'd long imagined, this one is a bit more inspired by sentiments I want to express. It will be a story about the dangers of petty men in positions of power... a belief I hold dear to my heart, so I think it should write well. It'll also give me a chance to write a character I haven't had a chance to stretch the legs of in any story or role playing circumstance, so I look forwards to how it'll turn out. But again - thank you, everyone, for your encouraging urgings. I really appreciate them.

[Dirty n Evil]

Shhh. It's a secret.

I'm writing again. I'm writing for the sake of writing. I'm pushing myself to write a little bit every single night, no matter what. There's a site where people post their unpublished writing projects, and I made an account. I don't have an outline or even a plan. I'm simply writing and seeing where the story takes me. I won't post the link until possibly anything is finished, or share the name it's under (because I'm using a pseudonym). I'm restraining myself because I've discovered I'm too worried what my friends think, and it's far better to share what I've finished than to hear a comment that might cause me to stumble in my progress.

What I do like about the site is that it has an option where people can make comments onto the very story, and you can have these little notes where you can communicate back and forth to get their input. They also encourage you to write in 'chapters' where people will be notified when you're done a chapter so they can come and check out what you've most recently posted. I'm currently around the 9,000 word mark and I haven't even gotten the main character out of his school much less introduced the main villain. I'm wondering how long the story might stretch out, written out in this manner.

I'm enjoying myself writing, too, which is very important. I actually find myself staying up late to finish a passage, or pushing myself to get to a certain point in conversation before I'll step away. For example, it's my day off... and I've written so much today that I've started to get a slight headache. But, it feels good. I'm glad I'm writing.

[Azrael]

Good to hear, DnE.

[yiraheerai]

YAY

[Don Alexander]

So, I have an achievement to report. As such go, it's not very much, but I'll splurge on about it anyway.

I get a regular newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). It's one of Germany's premiere national newspapers, next to the likes of Die Zeit, Die Welt, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

For many a year, I read this newspaper on a very regular basis. But these last years, it seems I have less and less time... (This must be linked at least partially to this forum ) The first big cut happened in summer 2010, during the football World Cup in South Africa. I had wanted to read at least all the articles on the games, and failed. But I did not throw the newspapers away, but stored them.

I think it was February 2011 then that I stopped reading for quite a long while. Especially when the Tokohu earthquake happened. Over the following years, I on and off resumed reading... Especially during the periods when I worked near Munich in late 2012 and 2013, I didn't have much to do in the evenings and tackled these newspapers. I nearly finished them. Nearly...

Anyway, at the same time, I stayed current. Until, it seems, March 2013. There, I decided to continue reading everything but the title page (which contains politics as well as general news, and usually takes me an hour or so to read). The rest of the paper is usually a quick read, except for Wednesdays, with the Nature & Science section.

But even this principle broke down in late April 2014. I just stopped reading newspapers altogether. This is also pretty much the same time I started reading books again after my multi-year pause...

Newspapers piled up. April 2015 passed, one entire year, nothing was being done. Finally, about a month later, this guy had to come into my apartment to affix some steel slats to the lower window frames. For that, I had to clean up my room, which was a REAL mess at that time... And one of the first things I did was to collect all the disparate paper piles, remove the sections I was definitely not going to read, then stack them in my bathroom, including the oldest on top, in order.

And I started up reading newspapers again! I'm pretty sure it was late July when I was really close, just a few issues away from reducing the gap to one year. And then my father died, and I traveled to Trier...

Finally, on October 12th (2015), I got to October 15th (2014)!

And in the following week, I procrastinated quite a bit on other things, and stormed onward - and by Sunday, I had finished 2014!! I then also added the newest 2.5 months to the stack (it had looked so nicely reduced, sniff...), sorted all of 2015, and also created a single stack of the title pages - that's where I found they reach back to March 2013... And I also discovered multiple completely unread newspapers in there, and then also, that I have some left from April 2011, from the old catching up... Oh, well! It shall get done!

Meanwhile, I've not looked into a book since late June!

[Don Alexander]

4.5 years in the making. Now done.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1606.06791

[Azrael]

Far out. Conga-rats, man.

[mikbuster]

grats old boy