It is only day 3 and already my story is being uncooperative. There is so much more that I want from it, but so far it is feeling so bare bones that it is ridiculous. I like writing stories that gets the reader so wrapped up that time passes without them knowing it. But I have to say that what I'm writing right now reads more like textbook than anything else. It is missing all the descriptive sparkle that I like to do.
I keep telling myself that I will go back and add that in once I get some of the main ideas out of my head, but it still frustrates me to know that I have left something so "undone" and I haven't gone back to fix it.
And on top of that, some of the mechanics in my story aren't exactly working out. Day 3 and I'm already finding plot holes. I'm freaking out, because this didn't happen last year. Last year the story just happened. I would sit down and type and there it was. Now I type and I'm not really happy with what ends up on the screen.
This has me worried, because it is only day 3. There is 27 more to go.
*lets head fall on desk*
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2008: Wrong Turn
2009: The Gold Eyed Sailor of Kingsbury (won)
50,412 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 21 18
I am feeling the same way today. Technically my story is horrible! Very much so, but I love the story that is hidden in all that mess. My writing the first few days was so much more descriptive. Now I am just writing dialogue to move the story along, mostly because I was finding it difficult to write today. My story is very much "undone" and to top it off, I decided today to change the point of view. That just makes me crazy because I really want to go back and re-write some of the other scenes, but I am not going to. Anyway, I too am finding frustrations on day 3. You are not alone. :)
1,418 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 22 11
I like the writing I've done. I just don't know what I'm sculpting out of this raw material... ya know, as if I am freeing the figure that will be seen, by chipping away the excess stuff. Which is the reverse of what writing is, really. Anyway... I feel as if I am a clueless Rodin. Except not as talented as he was.
But... the key, perhaps, is to remember that this is a ROUGH draft, and splinters are par for the course.
50,065 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 23 26
I really feel you on this one. I was freaking out on day one because it just wasn't what I wanted none of my characters have life. I write a comedic scene and it was blah it doesn't make a person laugh. I tried switching to first person and that actually had personality but less info. I felt that I was stuck with maybe a thousand words more to go. I was near actual tears from freaking out. I felt I had nothing to show for it all and that my work could not be salvaged in December.
I took yet another angle and it seems to be working I pretend what I did write doesn't exist but keeping the word count because really I wrote it for this novel and I might take from it again but with my new perspective. I'm not bragging here but trying to encourage you to try things from a new angle or perspective and it might come together again. Best of luck!
50,035 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 13 51
I, too, had a really hard time getting started. What I have written so far is very slow paced and it is starting to bug me. Things are starting to go a bit better now, but I have to keep myself from going back and editing. I may not be hitting the word count, but I am writing every day so I consider it good progress.
Good luck to everyone.