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Depression has been hitting me hard lately, so no 50,000 words this year. I've decided to take the advice of one of my favorite writing YouTube channels and aim for 25,000 instead. It's a lot more manageable, but I'm feeling a little guilty about it, just like I felt guilty about quitting my job after one month even though it was too physically demanding. College is on hold until in-person classes come back, so I don't even have that to focus on.
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(It's past eleven pm, and I haven't made any written progress today; that's quite enough guilt added to all the other things I haven't done...)
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Writing well is hard. Writing badly is easy. Writing really badly is still hard because you're cringing so much you don't want to continue. I survived a particularly painful passage by telling myself it was just placeholder text for something better.
(It's past eleven pm, and I haven't made any written progress today; that's quite enough guilt added to all the other things I haven't done...)
Don't feel bad about that. Even the most prolific and successful writers have off days.
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I realized after about 7,500 words that while I knew what I wanted the story to be, I didn't know what it was about. I'd originally envisioned it as a coming-of-age story about a young man torn between following in his recently-deceased father's footsteps and his two oldest friends, but then the mystery subplot demanded more prominence, and then I got distracted by the main character's relationship with the villain (shamelessly inspired by Erik and Christine, minus the stalking and obsession)...I'll go into detail if you want to hear more, but I'm reluctant to do so, because I've inevitably given up on every past project I've ever talked about.
On a technical level, I had a very hard time keeping track of more than two or three characters in a scene, and I'm not very good at characterization in general.
I haven't abandoned the project--it holds too much personal meaning for me--but I'm feeling pretty discouraged, and wondering if it's simply beyond my current skill level.
It means a lot to me that you took the time to check in. Thanks.
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I think that's probably a good instinct -- in my observation there does seem to be a certain inverse relationship between talking about a project in theory and actually getting past the theoretical stage (also known as the risk of jinxing it)...
I don't generally worry what a story is *about* until I'm looking for a title, which is normally after it has been finished, or at least the main draft completed. When you know what actually takes place, then you can identify a theme -- and potentially rework the events to bring it out more, if needs be.
(Now that you mention it, I'm not sure I normally have more than two or three characters in a scene, either :-)
I usually let characterization build up by what a character says or does, and whatever fragments he lets slip about his past, rather than trying to create differentiated 'character-sheets' beforehand; perhaps it's a lazy way of doing it, but it's the way we learn about people in real life (which is why presenting a big info-dump with the introduction of every new character tends to feel very artificial), and the way that your audience will ultimately get their own sense of the character while they read the story.
Possibly, but you can always hold the concept in abeyance while you work on the skill level. (And maybe work Dallas back in!)
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I don't like character profiles, either--the character you describe in the profile and the character you end up writing might turn out to have very little in common! I only included a list of questions in my Pirates of the Caribbean OC guide because I thought it was the thing to do.
I've found the Enneagram a useful starting point in giving characters distinct personalities. It's character voices and dialogue that trip me up, particularly when there are several different people having a conversation and I'm trying to make sure they don't all sound the same...
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A-ha!
(It's always wonderful when something beautifully dawns on you...)
Well, the classic thing to do -- for radio drama, for instance, where it's a real problem -- is to give each character a different accent. Not in a Hagrid-type way, but a slightly stereotyped speech pattern ('now this character, he will be sounding Welsh, just a little').
Although if you're talking about a group of friends from a similar background, they probably *will* all sound similar; I certainly couldn't differentiate Merry and Pippin from the way that they speak, for instance, although they end up with different life experiences.