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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Jul 10, 2018 21:31:03 GMT
For me my greatest struggle is my brain. I have a lot of conflicting mental differences (I prefer mental difference to mental illness, cos it's not really an illness, my brain is just wired differently.) So I struggle a lot with a ton of internal turmoil that makes focusing long enough to actually finish and publish a book a struggle. That's why all of the books I have published so far have been short. I haven't published anything since 2017. And the longer I procrastinate the harder it gets to go back to being somewhat productive. But I keep trying, that's what we all do, isn't it? Last year I started a Facebook group for public accountability, and that helped for a while. I did 12 short books last year. But then I kept missing deadlines, and the more often you announce you're going to do something and then don't do it, the easier it becomes to quit taking the accountability seriously, and it stops working. That's what happened for me, anyway. So it's important that if you start out on the public accountability track that you follow through as often as possible. Your future productivity is at risk if you don't. I still have the FB group cos I think it still works for the other more productive members, and it's a nice, small, cozy group. I'm hoping this new forum will at least get me back in the habit of daily writing. Because the way I see it, writing is writing, whether it's stories, poems, blog posts, or forum threads. The process of typing words in a certain order to express thoughts and emotions is powerful motivation juice. For me, at least.
What are you currently struggling with the most?
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Post by convictedweirdo on Jul 11, 2018 1:09:32 GMT
For me my greatest struggle is my brain. I have a lot of conflicting mental differences (I prefer mental difference to mental illness, cos it's not really an illness, my brain is just wired differently.) So I struggle a lot with a ton of internal turmoil that makes focusing long enough to actually finish and publish a book a struggle. That's why all of the books I have published so far have been short. I haven't published anything since 2017. And the longer I procrastinate the harder it gets to go back to being somewhat productive. But I keep trying, that's what we all do, isn't it? Last year I started a Facebook group for public accountability, and that helped for a while. I did 12 short books last year. But then I kept missing deadlines, and the more often you announce you're going to do something and then don't do it, the easier it becomes to quit taking the accountability seriously, and it stops working. That's what happened for me, anyway. So it's important that if you start out on the public accountability track that you follow through as often as possible. Your future productivity is at risk if you don't. I still have the FB group cos I think it still works for the other more productive members, and it's a nice, small, cozy group. I'm hoping this new forum will at least get me back in the habit of daily writing. Because the way I see it, writing is writing, whether it's stories, poems, blog posts, or forum threads. The process of typing words in a certain order to express thoughts and emotions is powerful motivation juice. For me, at least. What are you currently struggling with the most? I've found similar successes to my writing habits when making it more public. Currently, I'm working with someone on discord and we both push each other towards our daily and ultimate writing goals, it's been a small win for me, but a win none-the-less. I've been writing for over twenty years (oh god that makes me feel old), but I have never, never, finished a book. I've gotten hundreds of projects which are four or five chapters long, and I've abandoned them because I feel they aren't good enough or I feel like I'm not making the right choices with it. I'm proud that I have collectively written around 500,000 words in that time, and it's made me a better writer, but without a finished product, I feel I'm not a real writer. Get-together's with my family are always fun. "How's your book going?" they ask. "Slowly..." I say. It's never the same book either. But I do find myself wanting to write more when I'm interacting with other writers. My friends and wife look at me like I'm speaking another language when I talk about it. So being able to talk about the craft, the struggles, which I guess only other writers would understand, it does help push me past those hurdles. |
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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Jul 11, 2018 1:19:01 GMT
For me my greatest struggle is my brain. I have a lot of conflicting mental differences (I prefer mental difference to mental illness, cos it's not really an illness, my brain is just wired differently.) So I struggle a lot with a ton of internal turmoil that makes focusing long enough to actually finish and publish a book a struggle. That's why all of the books I have published so far have been short. I haven't published anything since 2017. And the longer I procrastinate the harder it gets to go back to being somewhat productive. But I keep trying, that's what we all do, isn't it? Last year I started a Facebook group for public accountability, and that helped for a while. I did 12 short books last year. But then I kept missing deadlines, and the more often you announce you're going to do something and then don't do it, the easier it becomes to quit taking the accountability seriously, and it stops working. That's what happened for me, anyway. So it's important that if you start out on the public accountability track that you follow through as often as possible. Your future productivity is at risk if you don't. I still have the FB group cos I think it still works for the other more productive members, and it's a nice, small, cozy group. I'm hoping this new forum will at least get me back in the habit of daily writing. Because the way I see it, writing is writing, whether it's stories, poems, blog posts, or forum threads. The process of typing words in a certain order to express thoughts and emotions is powerful motivation juice. For me, at least. What are you currently struggling with the most? I've found similar successes to my writing habits when making it more public. Currently, I'm working with someone on discord and we both push each other towards our daily and ultimate writing goals, it's been a small win for me, but a win none-the-less. I've been writing for over twenty years (oh god that makes me feel old), but I have never, never, finished a book. I've gotten hundreds of projects which are four or five chapters long, and I've abandoned them because I feel they aren't good enough or I feel like I'm not making the right choices with it. I'm proud that I have collectively written around 500,000 words in that time, and it's made me a better writer, but without a finished product, I feel I'm not a real writer. Get-together's with my family are always fun. "How's your book going?" they ask. "Slowly..." I say. It's never the same book either. But I do find myself wanting to write more when I'm interacting with other writers. My friends and wife look at me like I'm speaking another language when I talk about it. So being able to talk about the craft, the struggles, which I guess only other writers would understand, it does help push me past those hurdles. I definitely know how you feel. I hate being asked about my writing for the same reason. I actually managed to finish the first draft of a novella, but I pantsed it, and now the editing is like teeth being drilled through my eyeball. That's great you found a writing accountability partner to work with. That can be very helpful. I write my first novelette by writing it a chapter at a time on my SFF world blog. I hope your partnership with the other writer holds up until the end of the first draft and on through the revisions! Hopefully this forum can help, too. You are always free to report on your word counts here or to ask for encouragement if you're feeling discouraged or stressed. Post excerpts if you're feeling unsure about your writing, etc. We're here to help.  |
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Post by thanos on Jul 12, 2018 5:04:23 GMT
greatest struggle is thinking up a compelling enough story that I'm prepared to put the effort in to creating it! Thinking up a "good" story is easy, thinking up a "great" one is much harder.
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Post by possiblyderanged on Jul 17, 2018 21:11:33 GMT
I've found I can't do deadlines. At all. It's funny, because I used to do all my reports and essays and stuff at the last minute. Once I wrote a forty page report a half hour before class, and got an A+. I happened to mention it to the teacher, and she was shocked. She said it looked like I worked on it for weeks. Maybe in a way I did. I would take the assignment, go research it, take notes, get my sources, and then forget about it. Right before it was due, I'd sit down and write it, make sure my references were written up right, and turn it in.
No way I could do that now. I get too stressed out. I don't like announcing plans, word count goals or much of anything else. I'm finally managing to do a report on another forum with my writing from the previous day, but I know I'm pushing my quirk. I'm trying really hard to be all zen about stuff and follow my new motto: just tell the story. All the publishing stuff will happen once I actually have something to publish. Without the story, the rest of it is a waste of time.
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