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What book is everyone writing right now?

I still just don't have the motivation to write. Everything I've tried has turned out looking like crap. I have a collection of short stories written for a class last year and I haven't even bothered searching for publications that might print them. I'm not interested and I don't see the point. This is to say nothing of the novel that I've postponed indefinitely after scrapping the original draft.

I don't even know why I'm posting this here right now. Right now it feels like there's nobody who shares my interests, or could relate to my situation. I'll put this out there regardless: It's YA urban fantasy, with themes of coping with loss, finding oneself, and science vs. supernatural. Yes, I do have a pitch for the book, but given that it's unwritten, I don't know if I should share it.
 
Is this "just" writer's block, or is it something deeper? Do the stories want you to tell them?

Rolfe.
 
Converted my YA/Adult Guilty Pleasure book-in-progress over to Scrivener today: that means I'm getting serious about finishing it.

What's an Adult Guilty Pleasure book? It's that book (like Harry Potter or maybe the Twilight series or Hunger Games) that "real" adults aren't SUPPOSED to read, so when you get caught with a copy, you say you're checking it out to see if it's suitable for your nephew/niece/son/daughter/grandchildren.

Thirteen chapters in.

Beanbag
 
Tiktaalik said:
I love Scrivener.
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I started warming to it as a development tool, for writing the early phases and first drafts of my screenplays. Once the first draft gets finished, I compile and export as a Final Draft file and do the subsequent rewrites in Final Draft. My latest screenplay, Relative Evil, was the first work I've developed ENTIRELY in Scrivener. It's probably the best software approximation of the old pasteboard accordion file where you can stuff anything into it that I've been able to find.

I know it works for screenplays; I'm hoping to have a similar experience for novels. I've got, like, four or five in varying stages of (non)completion, existing as MS Word and OO files. Best $35 I've ever spent on software.

Beanbag
 
Well frig, broke my finger, it needs surgery and a cast for 4 weeks. I already suffered through 3 days with a splint that was as bulky as a cast and it made typing very difficult. The base of the thing kept randomly hitting the arrow keys and I had to use my left hand to left click the mouse. :(
 
Rolfe said:
Is this "just" writer's block, or is it something deeper? Do the stories want you to tell them?

Rolfe.
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Right now it feels less like they want to come out on their own, and more like I'm trying to induce vomiting after swallowing corrosive poison.

I have ideas, but ideas don't make a book without a voice, without characters to drive the story. I suppose my problem is that I don't want the story to simply be "good enough." I think I owe it to myself to make it brilliant. And right now, I'm not in the right mindset to do that.
 
Frozenwolf150 said:
.... I suppose my problem is that I don't want the story to simply be "good enough." I think I owe it to myself to make it brilliant. And right now, I'm not in the right mindset to do that.
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My story will be brilliant .... after months more editing it. I'm not suggesting your experience parallels mine, but hearing you say you can't write it because it won't be perfect, that sounds more like a problem finishing a piece, not writing it initially.
 
I am writing a book called "Unsinkable". It's a tell-some book about my time in Hollywood.
 
I have often felt misplaced perfection is the death of creativity. Writers can easily block themselves when they get into a place of, who do I think I am calling myself an author? I am not saying that happened to you but I will suggest you consider excellent things are not written, they are rewritten, and writers write, so focus on telling your story not just as a writer, but as a reader. What do you want to see happen? Don't answer when pressure knocks and write as if your story is the only one in existence, so you can get lost in the creative flow. I hope that is helpful. The best thing about writing is, you can always look at your work objectively after a bit of time. best of luck
 
kerryoke said:
I have often felt misplaced perfection is the death of creativity.
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Amen to that. The thing I have to remember is: It's OK for the first draft to suck. Just get it down, set it aside for a while, then analyze it objectively to see why it sucks and how it can be fixed. With the help of computers, the logistics are a cinch compared to like, 30 years ago.
 
I've been meaning to post this for a while, but keep putting it off. I have two blogs I am currently writing that I hope to someday use to put together into books. Both are non-fiction. One of them would be quite technical and would lay out my theories about music composition. The other would be a humorous, autobiographical piece about our experiences with our two border collies.

The latter book I wanted to frame as a tale of redemption, describing first our somewhat negligent ownership of our first dog, a little Sheltie, and then how found ourselves owning two high-spirited hounds that absolutely refused to be neglected, and thus taught us how to be responsible dog owners.

The two blogs I have are a good way to get my thoughts down in some permanent form so I can go back later and use them as source material.
 
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Rolfe said:
I always assumed it would be a serif font, for some reason. I quite like his choice and certainly didn't have anything I preferred in mind.
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Just my innate prejudices. Like the Ford Focus...........

Rolfe said:
Thanks for the offer, but I don't think it's worth trailing to Ireland to promote the book. It's mainly going to sell in Scotland I imagine, as that is where Lockerbie is a hot topic. Mainly because the way the Crown Office in Scotland is handling it, which is frankly scary. If you happen to be a Scottish citizen, anyway. Or even if you aren't, seeing as they got Megrahi and he'd never set foot in Scotland.
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I'll poke HF and get them to order a few copies anyway.

Rolfe said:
Funnily enough, if it hadn't been for the very high wind on the night of the disaster, there's a pretty good chance the plane would actually have crashed on Dublin. It was only routed north to avoid the weather over Ireland at the time, and avoid flying head-first into a 95 mph gale. Dublin is about the same distance from Heathrow as Lockerbie.
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IIRC from my time in the airport the probable route would have been north of the city (as was) so the crash would have been over a fairly unpopulated area.

Rolfe said:
Anyone think Gaddafi would have set a bomb that was likely to take out Dublin, given that he was arming the IRA at the time? Just a passing remark.
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I don't think he'd have cared much (assuming he was involved).
 
catsmate1 said:
Just my innate prejudices. Like the Ford Focus...........
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I like it well enough, and I have a poor visual imagination. I'm not going to micromanage it.

catsmate1 said:
I'll poke HF and get them to order a few copies anyway.
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Every little helps, as they say.

catsmate1 said:
IIRC from my time in the airport the probable route would have been north of the city (as was) so the crash would have been over a fairly unpopulated area.
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Looking at the routes aircraft take nowadays, it seems almost random exactly where they'd be at the time of the detonation in a fairly wide arc around Heathrow. Most of it is unpopulated, and some of it is the Irish Sea. It was desperately unlucky that the plane hit houses as it was - Lockerbie is a very small town surrounded by an awful lot of open countryside. The street where the fatalities occurred was mere yards from the open fields.

I just thought it was mildly interesting that Dublin was within the arc, and in fact these flights went Ireland-wards a lot more frequently than they went Scotland-wards.

catsmate1 said:
I don't think he'd have cared much (assuming he was involved).
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Maybe not. Weird and deeply unpleasant man. However, he wasn't just enthusiastically arming the IRA at the time, he was quite vocal in his support for Irish unity if I recall correctly. Probably just mischief-making, but that was his position. The Official Version declares that he was responsible, but when you look at the routes you realise that Irish fatalities were actually more likely than Scottish fatalities.

This isn't a serious argument though, it's just an observation.

Rolfe.
 
Frozenwolf150 said:
I still just don't have the motivation to write. Everything I've tried has turned out looking like crap. I have a collection of short stories written for a class last year and I haven't even bothered searching for publications that might print them. I'm not interested and I don't see the point. This is to say nothing of the novel that I've postponed indefinitely after scrapping the original draft.

I don't even know why I'm posting this here right now. Right now it feels like there's nobody who shares my interests, or could relate to my situation. I'll put this out there regardless: It's YA urban fantasy, with themes of coping with loss, finding oneself, and science vs. supernatural. Yes, I do have a pitch for the book, but given that it's unwritten, I don't know if I should share it.
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Go ahead and write a crappy draft then. It's not important that the first draft be great; it's important that you can see its weaknesses and strive to improve them. It sounds like you might be a bit depressed right now. Perhaps the task of writing and rewriting will be a bit therapeutic.
 
Frozenwolf150 said:
I have ideas, but ideas don't make a book without a voice, without characters to drive the story. I suppose my problem is that I don't want the story to simply be "good enough." I think I owe it to myself to make it brilliant. And right now, I'm not in the right mindset to do that.
Click to expand...


I'd second the comment of several others here; no one writes a brilliant book on their first pass; you have to get it out, then you go back and make it good. The biggest mistake a writer can make is trying to get it "perfect" on their first draft. That's a sure fire way to ensure you never finish.
 
gumboot said:
I'd second the comment of several others here; no one writes a brilliant book on their first pass; you have to get it out, then you go back and make it good. The biggest mistake a writer can make is trying to get it "perfect" on their first draft. That's a sure fire way to ensure you never finish.
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I have a couple of Star Trek fanfics tumbling around in my head; the most fleshed-out one involves Bailey, the guy who got left behind in "The Corbomite Maneuver", getting Clint Howard drunk on tranya and dumping him out an airlock. Now Bailey's got the biggest, baddest mutha of a ship in the galaxy, and he's looking for Kirk. Mayhem ensues.
 
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