Thread: Do you start to question your writing the further you get into it?

I'm having this problem at the moment.

I'm 3000 words into a short story I have been working on. I stopped writing on thursday as I found it mighty difficult to find the final link I need between where I am now and the ending I have all planned out in my head. However, as I began thinking about possible connections, I started looking back at my story and finding loop holes and things that could be deemed unrealistic. But because it isn't finished and I haven't showed to a vast amount of people, it's difficult to know whether it's just me or not. I began to question the development of my characters and the setting it is in. And now, I am questioning the ending, of which I haven't written yet.

Do you get this?

Do you begin questioning what you've wrote or what you're about too? What do you do about it?

I don't want to change it though, because I feel as if, if I did, I would be ruining one of the aspects my short needs to fulfil it's purpose. I'm just a little unknown to how to handle it. I don't want to destroy the 3000 words I've put time and effort in because certain structures don't seem realistic or right to me. Should I edit it now and, theoretically start over, or should I go on writing, look it over and then post it for people to see and get there general opinion on whether it's realistic or not?

Thanks in advance to any replies.

Tom.

P.S. Another small thing that has been bothering me. A piece of work around 4000-4500 words, is it worth posting up in one thread, or should I split it into two? I know this may have been answered elsewhere, but I can't seem to find a thread specifying anything about it. Thanks for any answer to this.

It sometimes takes me different ways, for example I can start editing the thing to sound fluent and end up with something that is practically a poem but has lost a lot of the meaning, or sometimes the energy, of the original. I also know what you mean about the improbable, then I think about reading Sherlock Holmes, look at the story reasonably and rationally and it is often totally ridiculous, Baker Street irregulars indeed! But it is told in such a way that it is a darned good yarn that sold like hot cakes in its day and is still very readable over a century later. If you can carry them with you you can spin them any yarn you want, blue six legged birds on Mars.

Sorry, PS, Yes, split it up. people wanting to give good detailed crit may be put off by big chunks, people who enjoy it will follow up the next installment.

Tom, I've been working on one story for the last week and a half because of precisely what you've mentioned. "How the hell am I supposed to writ this?" On another note, I had the same problem three parts into a five-part novel series... and have been stalled on that for three years.

Thanks Olly, I guess you're right. I mean, when you mentioned how books like Sherlock Holmes seemed unrealistic I began to think of books that felt unrealistic that I had read, and enjoyed and I think I get your point. + Thanks for the P.S. Issue, I thought so, I just didn't want to do it and get persecuted for not putting it all up at once.

It's nice to hear it's not just me Seig, but I'm also sorry to hear you're suffering from the same problem. It's painful when you're writing and thinking 'this wouldn't happen'. It sucks all the fun out of it.

Possibly this'll be the most common advice you'll get, but just type. Editing is always an option. 'Course, if you end up with something totally impossible - like, I don't know, a kid getting life in prison for playing hookie - then you can question yourself

Originally Posted by SparkyLT

Possibly this'll be the most common advice you'll get, but just type. Editing is always an option. 'Course, if you end up with something totally impossible - like, I don't know, a kid getting life in prison for playing hookie - then you can question yourself

Seems perfectly reasonable to me, let them know who's boss early on I say, eight to twelve inside and they would really appreciate school. If that didn't work you could put them in the army.
Oops, sorry, getting carried away there.

You, dear Olly Buckle, sound like my grandpa. You can decide for yourself if that's good or bad.

Originally Posted by Olly Buckle

Seems perfectly reasonable to me, let them know whose boss early on I say, eight to twelve inside and they would really appreciate school. If that didn't work you could put them in the army.
Oops, sorry, getting carried away there.

I say why punish them when they're already punishing themselves?

Most of the pople playing hookie where I live are usually up to no good anyway so they'll be put away for something else anyway.

yes. yes, i do. its a curse, you write and you thinkks amazing at the time and then you look back and you don't like half of it. i'm on the second book of a mini series i'm writing and i'm really upset with the parts i need to edit. there's a lot.

Yes I do! Sometimes I push through it and just keep on writing --even if I know it's utter rubbish-- with the intention of doing a brilliant edit later. Other times I hack and chop at the piece with a machete --I recently binned nearly half of a 70,000 word unfinished draft – for the past week I’d been suspecting something seriously wrong with the plot, but I kept saying to myself, ‘just push through, just keep writing’. Now a lot of that work has been wasted.

Maybe it would help to do a thorough outline of your short story again, detailing the goals of every person, scene and chunk of dialogue. It might give you fresh perspective on where your story is going, the central conflict ect.
Good luck!

I am re-writing my whole last novel because after going through it I think half of it is crap. You are not alone. I wish that I would have taken more time when writing it, instead of just writing and thinking that at the end I'll go back and edit. That doesn't work for me. I'm sure it works for others.

I often think what I'm doing is crap. I'm luckier than a lot of people here, in my opinion that is, because I have a mentor and a class full of novelists who are with me nearly every step of the way on my novel. So when I start to doubt things I have 18 other voices who either agree with me, that I'm being terrible, or disagree passionately and help keep me on the right track

It's quite a decadent way of doing things. I don't know how I'll become a real novelist once I'm sans a support system like that.

Oh and I would put 4500 words in the one thread. Just inform your readers at the top, but having it in two threads is a pain when critiquing, I think. Better you give us the whole lot. My last story in the workshop was between 6-7 k, and you read it, Tom, and so did a bunch of others. Should be fine

I suppose if four other people can dig around in a thread that hadn’t had a post for eighteen months, I might as well join in too. It makes me feel better, finding out I’m not alone with my blank mind that can't figure out what to write next.

Yeah, it’s happened to me. It’s a current problem. I haven’t needed to scrap 000s of words; I have just one scene where I know what I want the end result to be, but can’t find the words to take me there.

Generally speaking, this isn't a problem for me. I adore the process of writing. I'm not your stereotypical 'tortured' writer, hunched over my keyboard, tearing out fistfuls of hair, grinding my teeth as I fret over the next sentence. I love creating something from nothing and watching it grow throughout the course of a novel. I enjoy writing action scenes and cliffhangers and twists. For that reason, motivating myself to continue (even if I reach a point where I think the writing's shaky) is easy.

If you were to take a novel approach to this, you'd understand that you haven't the luxury of starting over. With short stories you can always toss them to one side and start a new one. When you're 105,000 words into a novel, that choice isn't there. I'd say, "Push on through the tough parts". There's always a solid editing awaiting you at the finale. That's where you'll fix any problems, and the satisfaction of finishing will spur you on.

Writing takes a lot of self-motivation, so you have to really love what you're doing -- and that means wanting to tell the story you're telling. If you have one to tell, no-one will force you to write it. You have to want to -- even at the toughest times. For me, writing is one of the most incredible and invigorating challenges in the world. It can be hard. Thrilling. Frustrating. Tear-your-hair-out-and-scream-annoying. But when you see the finished article printed out and sitting on your desk, it is enormously satisfying. For me, any doubts I have about my writing are laid to rest when I hand a novel to someone to read and they say, "Man, that was a hell of a story!"