Honestly struggling to make myself get through this latest story. Got the main concept, got the tentpole scenes, but as is often the case for me, too little to string them together without feeling like I'm stretching out stringing them together.
So now I'm working toward the finale of what feels like it should be a longer story but that's almost entirely unsatisfying thus far and to work on.
BUT, I don't want to abandon it to work on something more satisfying. I've had too many decades of leaving one project undone for the alluring sparkle of a new idea. Then abandoning that one for another, etc.
I want to finish what I start (assuming there's ANY potential in the story and it isn't just DOA) so I have something I can edit and reshape later.
But damn if this doesn't feel like a daily slog to make myself get through purely to just get it closer to being finished.
@Aviva_Gary I'm finding I'm a a hybrid planner/pantser. If I plan everything in detail then I don't have the interest in re-writing it again but longer.
I like the freedom to wander bit between key scenes.
But if I don't have enough detail to string those key scenes together organically, then it feels like I'm too far adrift or I paint myself into a corner and have to reel it back in to try again, or bring it back around, which is frustrating.
@reay Probably... also play with them. Daydream them in different circumstances and see what they would do (this helps for figuring out plot issues etc).
Also have fun! If the story isn't doing it for you any more maybe you need a different story or you can scrap all together... 🤔
@Aviva_Gary Thanks.
And yeah, I know the whole, “If you aren’t having fun then it’ll come across in the writing and the reader won’t have fun” advice, but that’s offset somewhat by plenty of writers saying that yeah, writing can be real nose-to-the-grindstone work at times.
Plus this is just a first draft. So I don’t mind it not being anywhere near my best, I just want to get it out of my head and on paper.
@Aviva_Gary I figure I should really go back and re-read the books on approaches to writing I've collected for ages: How writers I like have navigated developing original ideas into (in their case, successful) novels. Some admit that different approaches were needed to fully realize each story, but maybe a referesher on what some of those approaches were would do me some good.
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