Writers of CS: Whatcha Doin'?

[Jester]

Body count is already at 2, with a minimum of 3 needed to make the story work and the possibility of more, if you're the kind that likes it when the antagonists start piling up like chordwood near the end... :P

Hello, Tim Dorsey!

[Argabarga]

I only WISH I had been creative enough to dream up death-by-can-of-fix-a-flat, most of my corpses are generated the old fashioned way, gunshot. But I've got a suitably horrific but karmically-delicious death lined up for the main villain, just trying to find a way to get them into the situation where it'll happen..... give me time :P

[Jay 2K Winger]

I thought about joining that, but I have discovered I'm like, a black widow of forum RP's. Not just here, but every single forum RP I've ever gotten involved in. If it's just getting started, it barely gets off the ground; if it's been going awhile and I join, it fizzles out shortly after.

I wonder if the D&D IRC game I used to be in is still running. That was able to withstand my RP touch of death :P

To be fair to you, Kara, H+ died not because of you, but because I think I was getting a little too ambitious with things. My Firefly-verse game does have a plot building-- and it'll kick off proper once the crew gets out in the black-- but I've only really planned that first plot out, and I'll try to keep it pretty episodic and less overarcing plot.

[KatherineB]

I had an occasion about 13 years ago to discover just how sadistic I could be for a piece of writing and had a wonderful time with it. If you want any tips, feel free to message me (assuming you have quite a strong stomach).

[Jester]

I only WISH I had been creative enough to dream up death-by-can-of-fix-a-flat....

If you lived in the center of the Weirdness Vortex, i.e. Florida, such things wouldn't seem that odd, and you'd be amazed with what you'd come up with.

[Argabarga]

I gotta give it to Hiaasen for coming up with some truly amazing ways to turn living people into non-living people....

Or just assaulting them if need be.

When was the last time you remember a guy fighting off an attacker with the frozen-solid corpse of a deceased pet lizard?

[AnaKhouri]

...never.

One of the characters I am writing at the moment acquired a dog. He's a curmudgeon who doesn't like animals, but the dog started following him and he grew fond of me.

She just died.

[Kaylyn]

One of my favorite things about writing is the stuff I find myself researching. Anyone checking my browser history when I was researching some of the finer details regarding a gruesome torture scene in the novel I'm editing right now might worry about me...

[Antisocial_Worker]

One of my favorite things about writing is the stuff I find myself researching. Anyone checking my browser history when I was researching some of the finer details regarding a gruesome torture scene in the novel I'm editing right now might worry about me...

My mother stopped by the hotel where I worked to drop off some supper one night years ago. She asked what I was researching there on the computer behind the front desk, and when I told her it was about child rape and murder -- and that it was for the fanfiction I was writing -- she looked at me, paused, and then said, "You always were a morbid child, you know that?"

[RecoveringKinkoid]

My second western adventure-romance is coming out next week. I'm about a fourth of the way through writing the third in the series and I have to get an anthology into edit in the meantime.

This is what I do now, and it's why I haven't been very active on the boards. But I decided I miss everyone, so I'm trying to at least check in once a day.

Kara (and others)...if you want to break through creative block, write anyways. Even if it's shit. Even if it's like tearing out your guts. Have the attitude that failing to meet your writing schedule is not an option. Give yourself a reasonable schedule (for me, it's been a thousand words a week, but I'm getting ready to ramp that up). Decide when every week (or even every month) you will start your x number of words, and when you will finish. For instance, I MUST start my thousand word goal sometime Tuesday. It must be a reasonably readable first draft by midnight Thursday. You don't find time; you grab it by the balls and hang on like grim death. Because time is not something you will EVER find. And motivation is almost as scarce.

If you're staring at a blank page, and you can't write what you mean to write, maybe it's not time for that yet. Write a different scene entirely. Write a backstory or a side story or a scene you may or may not end up using. Write as your character describing another one of your characters. Anything that gets your creativity centers lit up.

If you have to cancel shit or stay up all night to meet that goal, so be it. If you turn out crap, so be it. But you have to do it. Barring family emergencies, deaths, or you being utterly incapacitated, you have to do it.

If you can manage an unhealthy obsession, that's probably going to work out in your favor. You'll be mad as a hatter, but you'll be a frigging writer.

[AnaKhouri]

Good for you Kink! That's awesome.

My son writes stories too. He has wild ideas but trying to make him come out with something mostly coherant is a big job. I understand how the adult half of the Axe Cop team must feel.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Thank you!

Well, he's got to start somewhere, so at least he's writing.

I was a TERRIBLE writer when I started out. And I was a mediocre one as late as five. You get better as you go. Especially if you treat it as a discipline.

Another writer described editing as shaking sugar out of a paper bag. That's perfect. I edit the living hell out of my stuff, send it to my editor, she sends it back all covered with red pen. Sometimes she wants me to change stuff. I listen to her.

Then I take it back and edit the living hell out of it AGAIN. Sometimes I do it again more than once.

The writing is the easy part.

[Kheldarson]

See I find editing easy (any surprise I do it for tutoring?) and the writing ridiculously hard. I do need to carve out more time for it though.

[Kara]

Kara (and others)...if you want to break through creative block, write anyways. Even if it's shit. Even if it's like tearing out your guts.

Part of my problem is that, when I could write, I thought the stuff I had that was worth writing was total shit and it could never be good enough. It's not even a matter of time, I used to be able to write any time, anywhere. It's like, something has been broken. I can still think of ideas, things I've already written that I need to get back to as well as things I have yet to write. I just can't get them out of my head anymore. I try to write, and I blank. Everything just disconnects creatively. It frustrates my fiancee endlessly. She tries to motivate me and encourage me, but when I try, I can't produce anything.

Maybe all the years I listened to my ex tell me my dreams of writing were stupid and a waste of time and that I'd never make it as a writer just broke my creative streak.

[Kheldarson]

A thought occupy to me, Kara, because you sound like my husband does about his art.

Maybe try to get it out in another creative way? My husband keeps talking about wanting to draw his ideas and make comics, but has no confidence in his skill. But he paints the nicest pictures with his words.

Maybe you could try the reverse? Just as a thought.