Lady Inspiration is a fickle slut. My muse has decided that no, she would not like to finish the high fantasy piece we have neatly outlined and set to go, but instead, she would like us to work on this slipstream modern mythos fantasy fusion thing that popped into her (our) head as I was driving home from work last night.
Dammit.
Part of it’s my own fault. I should never outline, apparently. As soon as I know exactly where and how a story is going to go, I lose interest in it. Or maybe I should just never try to write high fantasy.
On an up note, I’m over 2000 words into the slipstream modern mythos fantasy fusion thing. They just poured out of me, easy as smiling. Not sure where it’s going, but I like what I’ve got so far.
Damned slattern muse. Oh well, at least she’s still sitting on my lap and not larking about with some other writer. Take what I can get.
“Part of it’s my own fault. I should never outline, apparently. As soon as I know exactly where and how a story is going to go, I lose interest in it.”
That’s interesting. I’ve heard that same sentiment from a lot of writers. Me, I’m the exact opposite. If it’s longer than a short story (and sometimes even if it’s not), I have to outline it. If I don’t know what my next several steps are before I get to them, I flounder.
Of course, I never stick to the outline 100%, since lots of ideas come to me as I’m writing, but at least it gives me the necessary framework.
“Or maybe I should just never try to write high fantasy.”
Hope you don’t decide that’s the problem. High fantasy is your friend. 🙂
“Damned slattern muse. Oh well, at least she’s still sitting on my lap and not larking about with some other writer.”
Heh. My own muse has never failed to desert me at almost the exact mid-point of every novel I’ve every written. (That’s one of the reasons I have to outline; even if my inspiration fades, I already know the basics, so I can fake it. It makes the process of writing a lot more arduous, but nobody who reads them seems able to tell the difference, so apparently I’m a good faker.) 😉
That’s why, once I began working for White Wolf and realized I was going to have deadlines to meet, I stopped letting my muse roam free. I keep her locked in the closet in a French maid outfit, handcuffed, ball-gagged ,and…
Maybe I shouldn’t take this any further.
“That’s interesting. I’ve heard that same sentiment from a lot of writers. Me, I’m the exact opposite.“
Outliner!! *points fingers* Hey, are you a spewer or an agonizer, productivity-wise? I wonder if anyone has ever done a poll to see if there’s a correlation between spewers/agonizers and outliners/seat-of-their-peners.
Actually, I adore the idea of outlining. And I do jot down notes at the end of a story I’m working on as ideas pop up. But when my muse and I are in perfect accord, she’s coming up with scenes about two paragraphs ahead of me so it’s all I can to do keep up with her. I love writing when that happens. Hours disappear and words magically appear on the page. It’s a zen thing. But as soon as I’ve got everything laid out, I think my muse gets huffy, and without her, writing feels like trying to sprint through a quagmire while being picked at my three-inch mosquitoes. I usually get bogged down and itchy and end up quitting. Not that she doesn’t go skipping off when I don’t outline either, the whore.
“High fantasy is your friend“
:P~~~~ Tbbttth! Friends do not tempt one with visions of completed manuscripts, only to go dancing away at the first sign of an outline.
“That’s why, once I began working for White Wolf and realized I was going to have deadlines to meet, I stopped letting my muse roam free.“
Sigh. I wish I had a deadline . . . um, wait. That’s just wrong. Bad Mousie-fangs! Look what you’ve done!
“I keep her locked in the closet in a French maid outfit, handcuffed, ball-gagged ,and…“
Snarf! Ah, it all becomes clear to me now. You keep your muse pampered and happy, you Marquis de Mousie-Sade you. Well, I got the handcuffs and the flogger . . . maybe I need to lasso up my muse-wench and . . .
Ahem. We now return you to your regularly scheduled PG-13 journal entry.
“Hey, are you a spewer or an agonizer, productivity-wise? I wonder if anyone has ever done a poll to see if there’s a correlation between spewers/agonizers and outliners/seat-of-their-peners.”
*Blinks*
“Peners”?
Anyway, if I’m getting what you mean properly, I do some of both. I have ideas that just come flooding through me, and it’s all I can do to open the floodgates and let ’em pour forth into the keyboard. At other times, I have to sit down and consciously force myself to think, “Okay, I’ve got X, what should I do for Y to follow it up?” That’s yet another reason I outline, actually. I can get all the grunting and straining and mental constipation out of the way at that stage, so that when I actually get to writing, I know what I’m doing.
Feel free not to hold onto that image, BTW.
“But when my muse and I are in perfect accord, she’s coming up with scenes about two paragraphs ahead of me so it’s all I can to do keep up with her.”
*Whimpers*
That happens to me far less often than I’d like. It does happen, but… Sigh. Even kept in the closet as she is, she does her best to thwart me. Clearly, I’m not spanking her enough.
“Sigh. I wish I had a deadline . . . um, wait. That’s just wrong. Bad Mousie-fangs! Look what you’ve done!”
Ah, another pure soul, corrupted. Any day now, you’ll be submitting your first proposal to White Wolf, and then you, like me, will be naught but a plaything to that foul master we call Deadline. 😉
Speaking of which, why don’t you? Consider proposing something to WW, that is. I’d be more than happy to give you what pointers/suggestions/critiques I can.
“Ahem. We now return you to your regularly scheduled PG-13 journal entry.”
Aw, but it was just getting good… 😉
On writing styles and white wolves
“*Blinks*
“Peners”?“
Oops. Sorry. Referring back to a conversation on writing styles from a couple days ago. Spewers being those folks who can sit down and just dump a load of words in a single writing session (It’s not unheard of for me to write 3.5K in a single sitting) and then go back and revise and edit and tweak as needed ad nauseaum in draft after draft until done. And then there’re the agonizers who have a good day when they can eke out 200 words or so in a session. But they don’t re-write or edit beyond a final spit polish.
I’s just curious what the correlation between the two styles of writing and outliners is.
“That happens to me far less often than I’d like.“
Get out the nipple clips and the violet wand!
“Speaking of which, why don’t you? Consider proposing something to WW, that is. I’d be more than happy to give you what pointers/suggestions/critiques I can.“
*meep* I periodically peep over at the WW guidelines site and then go scampering back to scribble in my own, Eugie-created, nice safe universes. I do and have played in WW games–Vampire and Werewolf LARPs primarily–and we own many of the WW books (including several LotNs of various editions, a couple of which appear to have mysteriously manifested on our bookshelf to make up for the several that always get eaten during any Vampire LARP we engage in). But I’m a little intimidated ’bout the idea of sending them something. I don’t feel comfortable enough with my level of expertise in either the WW game mechanics or the World of Darkness to submit a proposal on the game writer’s side of things.
I have thought about submitting a writing sample to see if I can get into their pool of fiction writers, but their guidelines seem to indicate that they’re looking primarily for novel writers, which I’m not (yet). I’m a short story/novelette writer. What I don’t want to do is manage to get into their pool and then have them send me an assignment, and then be unable to fulfill the obligation. And I’m not sure if they’ll take me seriously if I say “I write shorts. You don’t publish many anthologies, but here’s a sample of my writing. Please keep in mind I write shorts.”
You wouldn’t know if they’re planning on putting out any open anthologies any time soon, would you? I keep an eye on the markets fairly fanatically, and I’d be the first one in line at the post office to send them an anthology submission, but it really sounds like they’re exclusively invite-only when they put out their occasional compilation number.
“Ahem. We now return you to your regularly scheduled PG-13 journal entry.
Aw, but it was just getting good… 😉“
I did mention nipple clamps and violet wands, didn’t I? ;).
Re: On writing styles and white wolves
“Spewers being those folks who can sit down and just dump a load of words in a single writing session (It’s not unheard of for me to write 3.5K in a single sitting) and then go back and revise and edit and tweak as needed ad nauseaum in draft after draft until done. And then there’re the agonizers who have a good day when they can eke out 200 words or so in a session. But they don’t re-write or edit beyond a final spit polish.”
Ah. Well, I guess I’m closer to a spewer, but…
I do 2,000 words a day. No less, and–at least until the tendonitis is 100% cleared up–no more. It’s a rate I’ve trained myself to keep over the course of the various WW projects. Some days take longer than others, of course, based on mood, my enthusiasm for the project, etc.
I’ve had days (again, back when the fingers were up to snuff) where I’d do more. In fact, on the occasional rush job, I’ve done 8,000-word days. But those are extremely rare, and they happened because I made them, not because I just couldn’t stop.
So I guess, just to thwart you, that I’d have to say I’m somewhere in the middle. 😉
As far as rewriting or editing…
I go back and look for typos, akward phrasing, mistakes, etc. I have George, and sometimes other friends, do the same. And I will occasionally get to the end of a section and realize that it didn’t work, and rewrite it.
But I never do complete rewrites. 95% of the time, when I’m done with something, it’s done except for corrections. (Well, and except for making changes demanded in redlines by game developers, but that’s not quite the same thing.)
I’ll admit, this may or may not be a good thing. It’s possible that some of my stuff would be better if I went back to it after, say, a month or two, and did complete rewrites. But a lot of it would be worse. I, like so many authors, never think my own stuff is good enough once I’ve got a few weeks’ distance on it. So if I did try to go back and rewrite, I’d be more likely to screw it up than fix it.
“I have thought about submitting a writing sample to see if I can get into their pool of fiction writers, but their guidelines seem to indicate that they’re looking primarily for novel writers, which I’m not (yet).”
Actually, I don’t think they’re even looking for that right now, to be honest. Their novels, and the stories in their anthologies, usually come from the ranks of writers they already know. To the best of my knowledge, there’s only been one fiction anthology that was open in the last several years, and that was for the Scarred Lands D&D setting.
Sorry. 🙁
“I did mention nipple clamps and violet wands, didn’t I? ;).”
Okay, you did, at that. Thanks. No conversation on writing is complete without some ongoing discussion of BDSM. 😉
Re: On writing styles and white wolves
“I do 2,000 words a day.“
Way cool. I started setting a goal for myself of 1000 words/day a couple weeks back in response to an annoying period of writer’s block. I don’t think I could manage 2K consistently. I’m sure there’d be times when I simply couldn’t, and I’d end up pissed at myself and discouraged.
What happens when you’re really on a roll? Do you just force yourself to stop? There are days when I can write for twelve hours straight (and I have) and when I get interrupted, I become all snarly and snappish.
“I’ve done 8,000-word days.“
Ack! I bow to your ubber productivity! Guess that’s how come (well, undoubtedly only one “how come,” as I’m sure another is your writing prowess) you’re a big time WW writer with shiny deadlines and stuff, huh? Wow. That’s downright amazing, Mousie-fangs.
“Actually, I don’t think they’re even looking for that right now, to be honest.”
Sigh. No shockers there. But still, sigh.
Hey, on something of a tangent, do you know Pixie? She’s another WW writer. She used to be in the same belly dance troupe I’m in. Don’t know her very well and she dropped out of the troupe due to health issues, but I wondered if you WWers all knew each other and stuff.
“Okay, you did, at that. Thanks. No conversation on writing is complete without some ongoing discussion of BDSM. 😉 “
That means the ball gag’s back in my court, huh? 😉
Re: On writing styles and white wolves
“What happens when you’re really on a roll? Do you just force yourself to stop?”
Yeah. Unfortunately, until I’m sure the Tendonitis is 100% gone, gone, GONE, I have no choice. I can’t afford to risk a relapse. 🙁
“That’s downright amazing, Mousie-fangs.”
Thanks. 🙂
To be honest, I’ve only managed that something like four times in the past 20 months. It isn’t something I could maintain. For that matter, it might have been the last rush job for which I attempted this that led to the Tendonitis in the first place. So I can’t say I’d recommend it.
“Hey, on something of a tangent, do you know Pixie?”
Don’t know anyone by that name… That’s not the name she writes under, is it?
“That means the ball gag’s back in my court, huh? ;)”
I dunno, I kinda figured that, by the time ball gags were brought into it, the courting would’ve been long over with. 😉
*rimshot*
*Reconsiders the use of the term “rimshot” under the circumstances*
*Should probably reconsider this entire post, but won’t*
Re: On writing styles and white wolves
“Don’t know anyone by that name… That’s not the name she writes under, is it?“
I’m pretty sure it is. There’s a last name involved too, but I can’t remember it. It’s actually her real name, apparently, which is pretty amazing considering that she’s tiny and pixie-ish.
“ I dunno, I kinda figured that, by the time ball gags were brought into it, the courting would’ve been long over with. 😉
*rimshot*“
*groans and whimpers* Quit flaying me with your double entendres.