Friday, April 13, 2012

The Hump isn't Always All it's Cracked Up to Be

Just as 'the hump of the week' means feck all to someone who works three weekends out of four, the hump of a piece of writing isn't always the glorious, sunset crest we believe it will be while we're struggling up the cliff face of an overwhelming idea.

As any of you who follow my blog will know, Red Wine and Words is intended as the first of a trilogy of short story collections. The sequel is, as I type, in the making, albeit temporarily on hold. I haven't been submitting short stories for submission calls lately, but spending my time writing up all those little ideas for short stories that have been hanging around since the year dot.

In early January I came across a half a4 page idea that has since blown out of all proportion. The first milestone was passing my current longest word count, which at the time was roughly 12,000 words. This I done with the Murder She Wrote theme tune playing in my head, fingers flying, words flowing.

It was after this milestone that things slowed. The next milestone was the halfway mark, which is a long way from 12,000 words. Achievement of this goal seemed far into the future, and it was rimmed with gold and diamonds.

Imagine my surprise, not a week ago, hitting 37,000 words - my believed halfway - and feeling like the cat that got the cream, only to sit down the next day and be hit with a crushing sense of doubt. Is the story really that good? Is it so very unique after all? Do my characters have as much depth as a cardboard cutout? Can I even write at all? And cue the violins, snot and tears.

A passing phase? Let's hope so. Rest assured I will plug away until it's finished; I'd rather end up with something that's fully useless than half useless. But at this point methinks a few beta readers wouldn't go astray. Come forth my beloved family members, and perform the duty of pandering to my self-confidence as you were destined.

10 comments:

  1. To clear a few things up

    1 - Yes you are that good a writer.
    2 - We are all plagued with doubt, but it is what keeps you striving to be better
    3 - I am looking forward to this story!

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    1. Now, see, I'm going to write whinging posts like this more often; I love the attention I get from them ;) Thanks for the kind words Suz. The last book I wrote - though to call it that is a disgrace to the word - was so long ago that I can't remember, but tell me this, did you get the doubts during Z Boat?

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    2. Here's my advice and take on it. I always wrote short stories, I could never get past 2000 words. Then one day I wrote a story and it came in at 9000 or so. When I did this I thought, wow, look at that.

      Then I got the big bollocks on and decided to write a book. Yeah a book, with lots and lots of words. I got to 40000+ and stopped dead. Why? I'll never know. I liked the story, liked the idea and had a start middle and end but I NEVER finished it. I always planned to but never did.

      So I sat thinking and moping for a bit and then branched off from horror and got the idea for Pony Fleming which became my first "full" book. 59000 words or so. I was chuffed with myself.

      That by a country mile was the longest thing I ever wrote....until now. This year PMP will unleash my second novel and as it stands before editing and that its over 100,000 words!!! So it can be done. You will hit a wall midway, you will wonder if its any use the only way around this is to write it. Force yourself down to write something, a page, a paragraph each day and soon it gets going again. You can change the stuff you don't dig later.

      As for that unfinished masterpiece...yeah well...it's now got itself a prequel. I ended up writing about certain characters in it in this new book coming out and all's right in the world. Someday soon I'll go back and knock it out.

      Bottom line...just do it!!!

      Jay

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    3. 100,000 words? Bithe hokey! The problem with me is I'm too much of a fecking perfecionist. I have to have it perfect before I can move on. If something is bothering me from a few paragraphs or pages back my subconscious won't let it lie, so I end up having to go back and edit everything. Not such a bad thing I suppose.
      By the way, I'm planning to set aside Washington Irving for a few days over the weekend, and give Pony a ride (pardon the pun) in preparation for... well... upcoming things :P And we must discuss more about our marketing thingamajig we were on about.

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    4. You betcha...reckon if you,me and Eric out our heads together and do some research we can find a way into the home market.

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    5. I reckon if anyone can, we can :) We should do it. Now... how to start!

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  2. I still have doubts about Z-Boat :) I look at it and want to change things and think I should have done better. Plagued with doubt, a writer's life.

    But Red Wine and Words is great, so quit worrying, you are a great writer!

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    1. Thanks Suz. I still have Z Boat waiting for me at home. Was going to get my sister to post it over, but I thought, that will be something else to look forward to when I get home. I'm really looking forward to reading that one.

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  3. Keep plugging away, in the end it will be worth it.

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    1. Thank you Mr. Toon. As one of my most loyal fans you'll be notified as soon as there's anything to notify ;)

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