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Writer's Block
15 years ago
Journal Entry So I managed to break the 50,000 word mark again, even after that little snafu with OpenOffice.org Writer. Not by much, really, but I at least broke it and that's still quite the accomplishment.
My word count currently sits at 50,575. My original goal for November was 70,000 words, and I think the story, Lost to Love, will actually be around 75,000 or 80,000 total. But you know, I've been struggling so much on Chapter 8. This story is an anti-love story at first, where the characters are not like typical characters and try to refrain from falling in love for each other. There needs to be a catalyst that changes their feelings. I've gone back and forth with countless different ideas and possibilities ― many are plausible and would work ― but I haven't yet found the one that really sings perfect. I don't want to skimp on the characters. I don't want to skimp on what they should feel, particularly just to achieve that goal. Rushing won't make the story any better, and I would rather have a good story.
What I'm going to do instead is effectively end my NaNoWriMo run for now. I might give anyone looking to help give input or help with proofreading a copy of Lost to Love up to Chapter 8, you know, if you're up to it or anything. I will probably take a break for awhile until I can come back to the story with a fresh muse and a renewed sense of inspiration. Just send me a note or let me know in a comment here. The best way is probably by Google Docs and using comments or something (I think you can do that), but otherwise the old fashioned e-mail thingy works okay.
Tomorrow, instead of writing Lost to Love, I'm going to make an effort to pump out a ton of words writing whatever the heck I feel like. I'll probably start with my obligations on the 15 Story Challenge and try to get those all finished up. Then, I really, really want to continue writing Fleeting Friendship. I've been missing that story so much lately and all of the writing I've done on Lost to Love has really been giving me a lot of inspiration... Like, a lot. :O
Oh yeah, and by the way, I'm gonna continue using OpenOffice.org Writer, despite my previous complaints with it. I've tried several other writing programs and each one has problems with it. KWord has a perfectly matching word count to NaNoWriMo.org, but it's weird and has some goofy sidebar on the side. Abiword was even more off than OOo Writer. Google Docs sounded great at first, but it takes soooooo long for me to load all of the story so I can continue writing that, so it's not really practical anymore, and it's just kinda laggy for me, too. So guess that leaves a vanilla text editor or going back to OOo Writer. I'm going back to OOo Writer, and, rather than using curly quotes (which was what caused the inconsistency due to an odd counting mechanism), I'm using one curly quote at the end of a quote, and then I have the starting quote (which was the one giving me a problem) be just a normal quote. Then I can Find & Replace whenever I'm ready to publish the story. It looks a little uglier to me, but it at least works, so that's good.
Yeah, so, that's what's been going on. I'm on vacation on a little solitary retreat and have the whole place to myself, giving me more than enough privacy and control of my time to write at my leisure. That's why I'm hoping to pump out a lot of words this week, heheh...
My word count currently sits at 50,575. My original goal for November was 70,000 words, and I think the story, Lost to Love, will actually be around 75,000 or 80,000 total. But you know, I've been struggling so much on Chapter 8. This story is an anti-love story at first, where the characters are not like typical characters and try to refrain from falling in love for each other. There needs to be a catalyst that changes their feelings. I've gone back and forth with countless different ideas and possibilities ― many are plausible and would work ― but I haven't yet found the one that really sings perfect. I don't want to skimp on the characters. I don't want to skimp on what they should feel, particularly just to achieve that goal. Rushing won't make the story any better, and I would rather have a good story.
What I'm going to do instead is effectively end my NaNoWriMo run for now. I might give anyone looking to help give input or help with proofreading a copy of Lost to Love up to Chapter 8, you know, if you're up to it or anything. I will probably take a break for awhile until I can come back to the story with a fresh muse and a renewed sense of inspiration. Just send me a note or let me know in a comment here. The best way is probably by Google Docs and using comments or something (I think you can do that), but otherwise the old fashioned e-mail thingy works okay.
Tomorrow, instead of writing Lost to Love, I'm going to make an effort to pump out a ton of words writing whatever the heck I feel like. I'll probably start with my obligations on the 15 Story Challenge and try to get those all finished up. Then, I really, really want to continue writing Fleeting Friendship. I've been missing that story so much lately and all of the writing I've done on Lost to Love has really been giving me a lot of inspiration... Like, a lot. :O
Oh yeah, and by the way, I'm gonna continue using OpenOffice.org Writer, despite my previous complaints with it. I've tried several other writing programs and each one has problems with it. KWord has a perfectly matching word count to NaNoWriMo.org, but it's weird and has some goofy sidebar on the side. Abiword was even more off than OOo Writer. Google Docs sounded great at first, but it takes soooooo long for me to load all of the story so I can continue writing that, so it's not really practical anymore, and it's just kinda laggy for me, too. So guess that leaves a vanilla text editor or going back to OOo Writer. I'm going back to OOo Writer, and, rather than using curly quotes (which was what caused the inconsistency due to an odd counting mechanism), I'm using one curly quote at the end of a quote, and then I have the starting quote (which was the one giving me a problem) be just a normal quote. Then I can Find & Replace whenever I'm ready to publish the story. It looks a little uglier to me, but it at least works, so that's good.
Yeah, so, that's what's been going on. I'm on vacation on a little solitary retreat and have the whole place to myself, giving me more than enough privacy and control of my time to write at my leisure. That's why I'm hoping to pump out a lot of words this week, heheh...
Enjoy your vacation, Zeph, maybe you'll find some unexpected little spark when you're enjoying yourself.
This can reduce the chance of something goes wrong... I suppose.
I'll get back to it later on with a renewed vitality and inspiration. :3
It's a lot easier for me to go back and change earlier plot and stuff in case I change my mind if I don't release the stories on a continual basis. And I have a feeling I might be inspired to take a torch to some of the earlier parts. :p
But thank you anyway! I wouldn't mind giving you a preliminary glance so I can get an overall opinion, too. I've got it hosted on Google Docs at the moment, so if you'd like an invite (I think it requires a Google account? Maybe not?), I can hook you up. Or I can just e-mail you the file too lol