Waaah, writing is haaaaaard.

[megwrites]

This is one of those obligatory "talk about what you're writing" posts that I suppose I have to do every once and a while to keep up my cred as a writer and not just a talker-of-shit-on-the-internet. I think the formal term is blogger, but yeah.

Right now I've just written 10,000 words on the wrong story and before that I wrote 4300 on another story that was not what I was supposed to be working on. My brain does not want to stay on task, even though I am a mere six chapters shy of finishing Soul Machines. I'm near the end! Why can't my brain just motor through this last bit of the first draft. Then we'll have all the time in the world to work on these other things!

I suppose I should enjoy the time to be slow about drafts and have no formal deadlines. When I'm all published and famous I won't have that luxury. [/foundless optimism].

So what are you working on, internets? Tell me about your projects and plotlines. Is your brain staying on task any better than mine?

Comments

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

Uhm. Sort of. I wrote a query letter I like, but I'm back at editing my YA novel for what feels like the bajillionth time. (The first draft came out great, because I snowflaked the shit out of the outline before getting started.) There're also like, two other stories I want to be writing but somehow it's not coming out.

Also, the book I normally write by hand in is all grossed-up by a leaky chocolate milk bottle, so =/

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

Oh, I totally know that feeling! It's like "when can I stop editing?" when you've got a draft, because it feels like you constantly think of something else you should be doing with the manuscript or something else that's wrong and you don't want to send out anything but the best.

I've had the beverage-on-paper thing happen, too. It's the worst because it warps the paper. Though it's nice to meet another writer who does things by hand as well!

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

Well, I think I should be fine after this re-read? It almost feels like it's an excuse not to be working on other things >_<

Erk, yeah, paper warping is one thing, but this is like, a book? And the milk is making the sides STICK. Instead of several pages it feels like a single piece of cardboard =(

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

Doing my editor-requested revisions for my YA historical fantasy. It is a frustrating, frustrating, frustrating book and when I sit down it feels like my focus just slides off the page. I know that's a stress reaction but it's really hard to turn off...

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

*nods* I totally understand. I know if/when I get to a point where I am doing such things, I'll probably be screaming the walls down with pyroclastic frustration, so yeah. *sends good vibes to you for editing*

[corinneduyvis.livejournal.com]

I reached 40k on The Demon Book With No Name on Friday, but that brought me way closer to the ending than I'd have liked. With my current outline, I estimate finishing around 55k, which is just too short. I decided to take a break and sort out my plot - and have been spending most of my time since reading, drawing, sending out some queries, and tinkering with a short story. One that doesn't even have a proper storyline. Whoops.

So, no, not so much with the staying on task. But any productivity is good productivity, I figure. Like you say, we can still get away with it now.

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

But any productivity is good productivity, I figure. Like you say, we can still get away with it now.

That's true and it's not like I'm doing nothing, I'm just...yanno, doing OTHER things and that's still work that's getting done and it's still a story being told, so that's gotta count for something.

One day when we're all best selling, wildly popular, filthy rich authors, we'll look back on this and laugh, right? :)

[kaninchenzero.livejournal.com]

I am new, come by way of a recommendation at this ain't livin' (http://meloukhia.net) of your post on Victorientalism, and I've just enjoyed your posts on 'crazy' which were lovely to see. It's kind of a thing of mine? (Occasionally I'll even take on 'dumb' which gets no end of "You'll never take my WORDS!") Aaaaaanyway.

My brain is very bad at doing stuff! I have active right now: A Really Serious Essay on disability in speculative fiction, specifically the trope of "we can fix everything" whether technologically or magically. An essay on sexuality and gender identity in the role-playing game Exalted in a less-serious voice intended largely as a handout for the group I play with but which will be shared with the four people who read me the places I write at also. A new character for that Exalted game who is a shapecrafty-type person whose other True Shape is a blue-ringed octopus only a whole lot bigger than the real-world ones (whose arms, stretched out, might cover an average adult human's hand) and whose human True Shape has very dark brown skin and very dark very curly hair and is both intersex and androgyne because these are things relevant to my interests and I like poking at the other players. I have worked on none of them today! Written not a word. Bah.