Hey everyone. I want to be honest. I’m not feeling very good about my writing at the moment.
So I’ve created a list of challenges.
Challenge 1: Argue with that little voice inside my head that keeps telling me I’ve no business writing a novel.
Challenge 2: Find time for my book. My free time just isn’t cutting it. Not even close. Whenever I get geared up for writing, something always seems to come up that demands my immediate attention. So I suppose I have to make time by sacrificing something, somehow.
Challenge 3: Finish organizing my data. Thankfully, this is something I know I can complete within the next few days, since I’m down to just a few more files.
Challenge 4: The middle of Five Rings is bloated and boring. I need to figure out how to make it more interesting.
Challenge 5: The last scenes of Five Rings are a jumbled mess. I need to sit down and seriously figure this out, or figure it out while I’m writing. The latter option is looking better at this point.
Challenge 6: My plot is apparently contrived and cliché. I need to figure out some seriously good angles if I ever hope to get this book off the ground.
Challenge 7: I need to complete my prologue as soon as possible.
Challenge 8: I want to prove all those naysayers wrong who think I’ve spent too much time worldbuilding and talking about writing a novel. But this can only come with time.
My hopes are that overcoming each of these should help me perservere and find the strength to continue writing.
While I’m not feeling too good about my writing lately, I do feel proud for another writer out there. Steph VanderMeulen (known here lovingly as ‘Other Steph’, or OS, for short) has created an impressive website to use as her base of operations to copyedit fledgling fantasy writers-> EditQuest. If you can spare the time, please visit it and take a look around.
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What I’m trying to say is that if you weren’t writing, you’d be doing something else that you loved, but there would be everything on his planet, whether it be tangible or not, trying to make sure that you never accomplish a different goal. A large part of pursuing something that you love is that you have to fight for it, which can make or break a man’s spirit easily. Be fearless. Don’t give in.
Read “The Man Who Walked Between The Towers.” It’s a picture book, but, sometimes, they’re the best books to read.
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Comment by christopher. — September 30, 2008 @ 10:25 pm
As for the naysayers, forget them. I applaud all the thought and time you are putting into this novel. It’s not being rushed, which can ruin a story. You’re doing fine, just keep doing what you’re doing and make the best of your free time. But remember to get out and do other things as well, every one needs a little break once in a while.
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Comment by Latrina — September 30, 2008 @ 10:54 pm
My heart is broken that you feel so down about your writing. You’re so not alone. This is so much why I created EQ, though don’t take what I’m about to say as all business.
I don’t know that it ever really does any good to tell you otherwise when you feel like shit, but for what it’s worth, there is no such thing as having no business writing your novel. You as much as anyone else are totally entitled to write. You’ve got a story to tell, so tell it. There *will* be people out there who will love it.
You’ve done a ton of research, you’ve got this story and the world and the characters and all the elements so concrete in your mind. That’s so much more than so many others have done. you’ve put so much into this; I know you’re not giving up, but try to keep in mind when you feel crappy, that your characters need you to tell their story. And readers need you to share it with them. Your talent belongs to others, but it has to be cultivated by you. :)
All it takes, as simple as it sounds but as hard as I know it is, is to get what’s in your head on paper. You don’t have to be perfect at it. Just tell a great story. You can have help improving, from all your readers here, from the editor at the publishing house, from a copyeditor if you choose. But also, having read all the details in your head, I think it’s really a matter of being too close to your material right now.
I totally understand how you’re feeling. I’ve gone through it – I’m going through it now with EditQuest – and thousands of writers experience the same feelings of discouragement, fraud, even despair. But many come through, and even get published, much to their delight and surprise. You can come through, too.
The stress you’re feeling about having time to write more and also fix things is probably what’s also preventing you from doing so. Let yourself relax, think about other things. There is no rush, a common plague of the writer who just wants to experience what it’s like to be happy with a finished manuscript. A good story is never rushed, as you know. And one of your magnitude is best savoured, as is your writing experience of it.
Both Christopher and Latrina gave good advice. Christopher especially pinpointed that it’s all about mindset first. I agree.
If you need any help, shoot me an email. And thanks so much for adding EQ to your blogroll and for referring it. I feel really honoured.
Courage, Nick!
-Other Steph
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Comment by Steph — October 1, 2008 @ 8:43 am
[...] friend and fellow blogger has been working on his very detailed and crystal clear labour of love, Five Rings, for a long time. His vision is enormous and impressive. He’s done research. His characters [...]
Pingback by When You Feel Like a Fraud | editquest.com — October 1, 2008 @ 10:47 am
I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s written an entire book and didn’t feel like they were wasting their time at some point along the way (usually in the middle).
I don’t know how far along you are with completing, but what I tell everyone (myself included) is to just get the thing down. Write the book according to what you had planned. There’s a whole bunch of reasons why, the most important of which is that 1) you’ll feel great when you’ve finished your first draft, no matter how much work you feel is still left, and 2) once you’ve gotten the first draft done, you can take a break from it, without pressuring yourself to work on it (and feeling guilty when you can’t squeeze it in), while you give yourself the time to approach it with fresh eyes in a month or two.
And besides, I’ve read some of your work and I have high hopes for it. Plus, from what you’ve talked about with Five Rings, you don’t seem to have more clichés than the average (best-selling) fantasy novel. Remember, the genres themselves are defined by so-called cliché.
Good luck, and don’t forget, I’m more than willing to beta read so that you can get some unbiased feedback.
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Comment by aeronwy — October 1, 2008 @ 5:02 pm
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Comment by Alex Moore — October 1, 2008 @ 10:26 pm