(no subject)

[megwrites]

Writing is lonely, I knew this.

I just didn't know it would turn me into a whiny five-year-old who's standing on the diving board saying "look at me! look at me! look at me!" to a mom who isn't paying attention and leave me with the sinking feeling that nobody's ever gonna give a crap and that I'm alone and there's a bigger, angrier kid on the ladder saying "jump already".

And there are no extra points for grace during a belly flop. Although, I hear there's a contest in Australia somewhere.

I have to keep reminding myself that it'll be okay.

That lots of people die penniless in obscurity and they're just fine.

Alternately, I need some writing advice:

Let's say you're working on Novel A and you've made a deep down sacred vow to yourself that you WILL finish this thing, come hell or high water.

But ideas for Novel B and Short Story C and Thingamabob D keep coming into your head. And you know yourself well enough to know that if you persue them, you will give up on Novel A.

And you have no way to judge if Novel A is any better than anything else. No way to know if Novel A is a hopeless case and that maybe going to Novel B is better.

What do you do?

Comments

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Well...

For me, if something keeps nagging me to write it, and I *don't* write it? I find that I'm stalled on writing anything else until I actually DO write it. I had this one fic that I really didn't want to write because of the subject matter (rape and the aftermath), but it was a plot bunny that simply would not go away until I sat down and worked it out. I still haven't decided if it's the best thing I've ever written or the worst.

I write what the Muse gives me at the time he gives it to me. Otherwise I don't write anything, and that's no good either, even though I have things on my plate that I need to be writing.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

What do I do or what should one do?

_I_ would probably ditch Novel A and write the things that want to be written and that I have the ability to write. I actually have a Novel A (and Novel B) of my own that I haven't touched in a year or so. 's okay. They'll be there when I'm ready to do something useful with them and in the meantime, I'd rather stretch for what's almost in my grasp. The stuff that's beyond will be there soon enough.

Someone else? My answer would depend heavily on whether they'd demonstrated to their satisfaction that they can finish things.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

In other news, it'll be okay. :-p

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

Thanks!