WORLD-BUILDING – PRE OR ON THE FLY?
My original article on world building appeared in 2014 and I’d already alluded to the subject numerous times in the 186 articles I’d written by that time. Jump now to 2021 and the count is 563 articles. I’ve covered it in numerous forms, many more times.
Something that has come up lately is do you world build first, and then now what? The specific question that stuck with me is this one writer who spent a lot of time building a world, but is now stuck and doesn’t know how to start writing.
I had to do a double take on that.
This person had some huge inspiration to create this vast fantasy world, yet never bothered to do the basics, like had a story in mind before they ever thought of creating the world in the first place.
I suppose that could happen. The cart before the horse, and I don’t apologize for the cliché.
I may not have the circumstances quite right, and maybe the person DOES have a story in mind. The problem may be that he or she doesn’t know the fundamentals of story telling yet. It could be that they never formulated A and B. It could be a host of other things as well.
THE THING ABOUT WORLD BUILDING
I’ll say right off that world building isn’t story.
World building is just that. It’s building the world in which you tell the story.
It’s not like the world you build tells the story itself. It just sets up the environment, or the frame, in which you can now create some kind of tale without worrying about the semantics of place.
Therefore, worldbuilding isn’t story, it’s PLACE ONLY.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORLD BUILDING AND OUTLINING?
Aha!
Here we go. They aren’t the same thing. They could be blended in as you go, but strictly speaking, world building is creating a setting for the story, but has little (or may have) little to do with the story itself.
In general terms, creating a world may have certain influences and consequences of how the story develops. Things like the weather, creatures, magic or magick, races, geography can all have an effect on the plot, story, and influence the actions of the characters.
However, that’s not the outline.
The outline is a separate thing entirely.
With the outline, it would be prudent to refer to the already built world as you outline.
That would make your story come in three steps.
#1 Build the world.
#2 Outline.
#3 Write the story.
PLOTTER OR PANTSER?
If you’re a plotter, are you going to go through all three steps in order, like our hapless person who was stuck at stage two (or three)?
Or, are you going to go right into #2 and start outlining?
Or, are you going to do a combination of #1 and #2 before you ever start working on #3?
There’s no hard and fast rule.
As for me, being a pantser, I cut to the chase and just go for #3 and don’t even worry about either #1 or #2. That would just suck the life right out of all of my creativity. This is something I’ve discussed many times here at Fred Central.
It’s like I don’t agonize over every word, every sentence and every paragraph. I blurt it all out and get the ideas down and worry about editing later. Of course, over the twenty-six years I’ve been doing it (so far), I’m a good bit more proficient at it, so my chops are a bit better than when I first started. Therefore, when I get to the first edit, I have less of a mess to fix. That gives me the freedom to create on the fly. My key, of course is to always have A, B and the title before I ever start. That way, I have a start (A) and a finish (B) and a title (main theme) to write to.
Any world building I do on the fly. I keep track of it with an encyclopedia which I constantly refer to as I add new terms. NOTE: I also add new names and terms into the spell check so I consistently spell them the same way.
EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT
Not everyone can work on the fly.
World building first seems to me to be putting the cart before the horse, cliché again. Maybe that works for some people, but I’d think the writer should at least come up with the stories they want to tell first. At least jot the main ideas down, THEN build the world. During that world building process, the story may tweak a bit, but that’s okay. At least you’ll still have some idea of your direction when you finish building this big wide world.
I may have got this writer’s intent wrong with his question. If so, it still doesn’t change my point.
YOU NEED TO HAVE A STORY FIRST.
As tempting as it is to create this big fantastic world, you’d better come up with a story to tell and not expect this world to inspire you. Maybe it will, but it might tell you nothing at all. Don’t let that happen.
Happy writing!
THE THRILL OF WRITING A BOOK
Being a pantser, I can relate to this from the adventure of creating as I go. Maybe if you’re an outliner or some combination inbetween, it comes during that process.
What I’m talking about is the thrill of creating and/or discovering your story as you go along.
DISCOVERY OF AN IDEA
I’ve alluded to this many times, especially when I’ve talked about new writers who come online and beg others for ideas about what to write about. In my mind it’s like What in the hell are you even doing here?
Part of the thrill of writing, the joy of it, the urge of it, is the thrill of the discovery.
You may be sitting around, standing around, driving around, doing some of a thousand mundane things when the idea hits you for a story. It may creep up on you, or it may hit you like a bolt of lightning.
Whatever the case, when this idea hits you, it can and probably is a real thrill because all you want to do is drop everything (usually) and write it down.
For a good pantser, it’s figure out A then B and maybe the title. For an outliner, it’s well…sit down and outline it all out, maybe with an actual chapter by chapter outline, or maybe with a bunch of ordered sticky notes.
Whichever method you use, the thrill never wanes.
THE EXECUTION
This is where the excitement and thrill starts to wane for some people. While the huge burst of thrill is there when your grand idea pops into your head, once the reality of it all comes crashing down on you, well…you have some work ahead of you!
For some, that means actual work!
Not only the mechanics of writing are involved, but plotting and testing that thrill of an idea. Is your idea realistic? Can it be put to the smell test?
Uh oh!
IMAGINATION IS THE KEY
There’s nothing that says the thrill has to be dampened just because reality takes a swing at it.
Once your great idea gets that huge dose of reality thrown at it, you find while the original concept sounded great in your head, on paper, there were issues. That doesn’t mean you still can’t make it work. None of this means the thrill can’t be any less.
Imagination is a key part of all this. Your imagination is the doorway to maintaining that thrill, and in fact, is the key to keeping the thrill going.
MY CASE
While writing to some is considered work, because they may either not have the chops, or just don’t like the mechanics as well as the outcome, the thrill may wane considerably once they get to work.
In my case, the thrill never wanes from the time I first think of the idea until I type “the end” figuratively at the end of the book. Oh, and just to be clear, that IS figuratively because I never actually type “the end” at the end of my books!
I enjoy every part of the creative process. The whole thing is a thrill. To give an example. Right now, I’m editing Palmdale Gold. I wrote it over a decade ago and I’m still getting a thrill on the umpteenth edit! I got a thrill writing A and B and the title, and a thrill as I wrote every single chapter. It never ends for me.
SUMMARY
If you’re one of those tortured soul types, go ahead and grovel in your misery. There’s nothing I can do for you.
However, if writing is a passion for you, if you’re really in this for the thrill, then from the discovery of the idea right through the creation and on to the editing should be a thrill.
I wish you all the best of luck on your journey and happy writing!
DEPICTING RACES IN A FANTASY WORLD
This article isn’t about what we would normally consider race in the real world, such as African American, Latino, Asian, etc. While it could encompass that, this is more about employing some of the classic races or creatures, or icky bugs such as elves, dwarves, fairies, and such, drawn from Lord Of The Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, or other fairy tale and/or fantasy lore.
A question that comes up a lot is people asking about portraying these (or even more) creatures accurately.
Accurately? In a made-up fantasy world? Are you serious?
STICKING TO CONVENTION
When it comes to world building and research, this can be a two-edge sword. When writing fantasy, to me, at least, it’s kind of the point to make up the world. Therefore, any research involved is not so much races and creatures, it’s realistic physical things like castles and flora and fauna and sword fighting and geography, and basic science UP TO A POINT.
To me, in a made up world, you well…make it up. The only catch is that you have to have some basis for reality as a starting point before you can go off the rails, then it has to make some kind of sense. When you make up rules, you have to make sure these rules are based on logic and you stick with them. That requires you have at least an inkling of the real world before you bend things for your fantasy world. That’s where convention veers into fantasy.
When it comes to fantasy races and creatures, there never was much basis on reality in the first place! Therefore, why in the world are you bothering with convention in your made up world?
FANTASY RACES HAVE LITTLE BASIS IN REALITY
This is the biggie.
Fantasy races and creatures have little to no basis in reality. They all came from fairy tales, legends, and most were just plain made up.
A few were obviously based on reality such as dwarves. Then again, given the way they’re portrayed in fantasy, they’ve gone far astray of reality in many cases.
If you’re building a world and are sticking to convention because you don’t want to be called on it, my question is why?
It’s your world! It’s fantasy and is totally made up! There are no rules that say you have to stick with Lord Of The Rings or D&D tradition.
You don’t have to stick with Grimm specifics for your story.
While it may be fun to research this stuff, why get uptight about it or freak out because your elves don’t have the correct shaped ears or hair the correct color?
Why worry because your fairies don’t have the correct color wings or don’t weigh the correct amount?
Why worry because the dwarves in your world aren’t all miners and some practice magick?
Why worry if your dragons can’t fly?
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
In a completely made up fantasy world, even urban fantasy, which is based on fantasy mixed with the real world, you have a free reign to do what you want. There ARE certain conventions you have to follow.
The biggest one is that IT HAS TO MAKE SENSE, whatever you do.
That’s it.
Does it have to comply with Rule #17B of the D&D Monster Manual (I just made that up – not a direct quote) or Lord Of The Rings, Chapter 37, paragraph 44?
No, it does not.
Get over it.
SUMMARY
The reason the genre is called fantasy is because that’s what it is.
Fantasy.
It’s a made up world.
It only has to make sense, and the writer, YOU, has to set rules based on some kind of reality that you set. The biggie is that these rules have to make sense to the reader.
Sure, they may have to follow convention to some degree, but that’s the physical aspects of the world. The populace doesn’t have to comply with any of that.
If you’re going to have an elf that’s eleven feet tall, that might be a stretch. Or, maybe a dwarf that comes in at five hundred pounds? Both of these examples compared to normal sized humans are pushing it. Then, you might want to think of another name for them. I’m just saying.
Happy writing!
NEW IDEA PREDICAMENT
Over the course of the past year or so, just to pick a timeframe, I’d say the subject of working on multiple projects at once has come up at least a half a dozen times on the various forums I participate in. While not the most popular question, it still comes up often enough.
My usual answer is to stick with one and finish it before you move on.
Why?
If you work on multiple projects at a time, you can lose focus, and therefore, the quality doesn’t necessarily win. It’s plain as that. Plus, you can have issues with mixing up stuff between the projects, to the point where you can’t recall which is which.
How do I know this?
I’ve done it very early on with short stories.
Luckily I’ve never had to worry about this with novels…yet.
Why do I say yet?
MY PREDICAMENT
Currently, I’m working on a new Meleena novel, Rumblings.
I’m also doing an edit to my very first novel The Cave.
Plus, eventually, I need to get back to book #3 of the Meleena series, Across The Endless Sea, which I finished, but which I set aside for a few months, more like a year now, to start the fresh-set-of-eyes edit.
That’s three projects on my mind.
As Lloyd Bridges infamous line from Sea Hunt goes, “And then, it happened.”
Yup, Thursday, a week ago, out of the blue, I came up with a super duper, ultra-spiffy idea for a new icky bug. A supernatural thriller that takes place in Las Vegas. I’d tell you more but I’d have to kill you. At least right now.
As this idea formulated on Thursday and Friday, I wanted to drop everything and start writing furiously at my new icky bug.
The issue?
I had not completely formed either A nor B.
As of that Friday, I had not decided on a title.
All three of those things are a big no no before starting ANY story, novel OR short.
Well…that Friday evening, as I was lying down for bed, about to go to sleep, the title hit me. I also had inklings on how to begin (A) and just the beginnings of the ending (B).
As of that, Sunday, I still didn’t have a fully formed B yet.
A CROWDED HOUSE
My plate is already full.
Okay, The Cave has been sitting since 1995, so if I let it slip for another year or two, it’s not going to matter that much.
Rumblings is another matter. I’m on a tear with it, creatively. I’m just getting started and my characters are deep into the beginnings of that adventure.
Across The Endless Sea was the next book to be on the slate for my publisher. Eventually, was going to have to hold off on Rumblings, book four, and get back to Sea and get it ready to submit.
Oh, and one other thing. Not long before the pandemic, I’d submitted another icky bug, The Greenhouse to my publisher and still had not heard word. After this long, I had a suspicion that it was a big no, but until I got final word, I had to be prepared to make a go with that one if I suddenly got the go ahead to get it ready for publication.
Then, last week, things got turned on their head. After talking to my publisher, they want me to go back and dig up book number three of my Gold series, Palmdale Gold!
That’s right, I need to drop everything Meleena and concentrate on the next Detach adventure. The advantages are that I’ve already read Palmdale Gold to the writer’s group, but it was in 2011 or 2012! That means I need to look at it with a fresh set of eyes and a whole lot more experience! Plus, I based it on a real lake. Because it’s privately owned, I needed to get hold of the caretaker. Ever since I wrote the story, I’ve wanted to use the real lake in the story, but the owner didn’t want me to. To avoid getting sued, I changed the name and location of the lake.
Then, guess what? With another tweak, the publisher also wants another crack at The Greenhouse!
That means dropping everything else and taking on two books at once. So, while I’m not exactly starting from scratch with either one, that’s still multitasking, just with a slightly less workload.
GENERALLY SPEAKING – MULTITASKING?
There’s nothing wrong with multitasking. However, how much can you take on and still keep your creativity and originality?
Since this is a passion and not a hobby, and let’s not get into the differences, which is an entire different discussion, I love to write. I do it because I need to, I have to, and I love to. That all goes without saying. Yet, I also don’t write on any phony self-imposed deadlines, or schedules.
Now, if you think all of the above sounds like a schedule or deadline, self-imposed or otherwise, it isn’t really. My publisher isn’t pressuring me for the next release. It’s something I want to do, in my own time. I just want to get some things completed because they’re almost already there, but at the same time, I also want to start something new. In the case of both Palmdale Gold and The Greenhouse, I called and asked what they wanted next, so I solicited them. There is still no deadline, but since I just published Spanish Gold early this year, I figured it was time to see what I could get in the pipeline.
Can I multitask?
That is the big question.
Can I multitask and still keep the creativity original and fresh?
Can I find the TIME to work multiple angles?
Or, should I stop one thing dead in its tracks, and concentrate on something else, one at a time? If so, will I forget or lose steam on the other stuff?
Obviously, I can’t stop everything and work on this new icky bug when I now have Palmdale Gold and The Greenhouse to get ready. However, it looks like I’ll have to shelve Across The Endless Sea, Rumblings, and The Cave at least for now due to time constraints, if nothing else.
MY ANSWER MAY NOT BE THE SAME AS YOURS
Time is not a factor when it comes to my enthusiasm or commitment.
I wrote the original draft of The Cave in 1995. As I started editing it a few months ago, even bit by bit, the original excitement was still there even after 26 years. It has not ebbed one iota.
As I’ve had a somewhat erratic writing schedule with Rumblings, has my enthusiasm or creativity waxed or waned when I sat down to write with it?
Not one iota.
Time is not a factor for me.
I could take off a few months or even years to write on any one of my latest masterpieces (ha ha).
The question is, could you? Could you stop everything and concentrate on your latest, greatest idea? Or, could you multitask and do both?
Would working multiple projects suck the life right out of your creativity?
In the case of Palmdale Gold and The Greenhouse, they are both FINISHED manuscripts that just need tweaking. Tweaking is a whole lot different than creating from scratch. Those two can be multitasked just fine.
My advice still stands for most writers writing entirely new stuff.
Complete one project at a time. That way you will have at least completed SOMETHING first. I’ve seen way too many writers create half-cocked fits and starts of stuff and in the end, never finish ANYTHING.
That’s my biggest point.
There are way too many writers that are great at starting stuff but way too many of them never finish anything.
Don’t be one of them!
Happy writing!
TYPOS REVISITED
I last talked about this in 2017, but due to a recently formed forum on Facebook, and through several others, with similar posts, I thought it warranted a revisit. I’m including the original post, tweaked to include the latest info.
I originally blatantly copped this inspiration from a Facebook friend. He ranted that several of his “friends” complained that though he was a writer, some of his posts were full of typos. What gives?
Most recently, another poster who is a total stranger ranted about people who corrected grammar when people speak. This is irritating to the extreme. I’ve seen it in movies and TV, and in real life. It’s like your annoying friend who has to show how intellectual they are.
Back to regular texts, I’ve talked about typos in past posts, directly and indirectly but in the context of editing.
In this article, I’ll just talk about typos specifically.
JUSS CUZ YOU’RE A WRITER…
Maybe this goes back to the days of pen and paper or something. Think technology.
When people had the time to manually write something with pen/pencil and paper, they had to think about what they were doing in a long-form manner. It took manual dexterity and physical ability, effort to form those letters and words. Because of that, more immediate in-the-moment thought went into every word. An experienced writer, if not on a tear, was more likely to spell correctly way back when.
Well, maybe. Given some of the hand-written letters and manuscripts I’ve seen, that’s not always a given. There are plenty of examples of glaring typos in manuscripts. Let’s just say, sometimes an author getting on a hand-writing tear could’ve been an example of being in slower motion than in today’s world of the computer keyboard.
Today, with keyboards, where you can type a mile a minute, it’s a lot easier to create typos. If you don’t go back over every word, every sentence, those little nasties slip by. Sometimes, EVEN WHEN YOU DO go back over what you wrote, something will slip by. This doesn’t even include thumb typing and auto correct on phones. Aaagh!
There’s an old adage. You see what you thought, not what you wrote.
You can be the best author in the world, or to be more realistic, the mostest, biggestest most best-selling author in the world. However, by that, you’re that way because you have an army of proofreaders and editors to back you up before any gibberish you write ever gets to print!
THERE’S SELF-EDITING AND THERE’S SPONTANEOUS
When you’re speaking through writing, off-the-cuff, it comes with all your baggage. We all have typing quirks, no matter how good a typist we are. Some of us are a lot better than others when it comes to tapping keys. The better we are, the fewer “tot he’s” we make (that’s “to the”) or “form” instead of “from” and such… leaving letters off etc. Now, knowing or not even knowing all of our typing quirks, how many make a spontaneous burst, like on Facebook, then go back and self-edit before hitting SEND?
Yeah, I thought so.
How many are so sure we already did self-edit and can’t see the forest through the trees?
How many type with their fingers or thumbs on a phone and have auto-correct as I alluded to above? Have you tried to edit some of that crap and just gave up in frustration when the app keeps trying to correct it back? Yeah, I could rant all day about apps.
REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
Back when I originally wrote this article in 2017, I had just launched a new Facebook page to get ready for the first Gold Series novel Lusitania Gold. The page is called Detach And His Search For Gold.
I worked at a furious pace, did all the preliminaries, uploaded a few images, set up an initial story and had everything set. Then I sent it out and invited a bunch of friends.
Guess what?
After inviting what I figured was all my interested friends, I happened to glance at the title of my page.
Deatch And His Search For Gold.
Aaaagh! In my haste and quick edit, I misspelled Detach, the main character’s name. I’d just invited a whole bunch of friends to my page and couldn’t even get the spelling of my main character right.
I was an established author with one book, #2 on the way, and I made a big blunder.
Typo.
Aaagh! Double aaagh!
I fixed the error after going through a process with Facebook to figure out how to do it. Apparently, it wiped out all my invites and I had to do them over again. Maybe those invitees got the invite twice and thought I was dogging them. I don’t know.
My rush, or maybe forest-through-the-trees mentality caused a semi-embarrassing typo.
It was semi-embarrassing because I’ve been at this long enough to know that this stuff happens. You can’t beat yourself up about it.
I repeat.
You can’t beat yourself up about it – stuff happens. So don’t let others.
DON’T LET ANYONE BEAT YOU UP FOR TYPOS, JUSS CUZZ YOU’RE AN AUTHOR
Just because you’re an author doesn’t mean you can write letter-perfect.
If that were the case, why would there be editors?
I rest my case.
Happy writing!
USING FOREIGN NAMES AND TERMS IN YOUR WRITING
Based on one particular forum I participate in, it’s hard enough working in your native language. Since I work primarily with English, I can only speak for that language, but I can imagine that same principle applies to any other language, yet I have no clue if there are perfectionists or language police out there in French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, etc., that culturally or socially allow such a thing as picking apart prose the way we do in English.
Therefore, I can only apply this to MY native language, English. If your primary language is an “other,” and believe me, the “other” has more deep meanings to me than just language, then present it in your own blog.
My subject today is using foreign words, or making up words that “coincidentally” happen to coincide with words or terms in other languages.
REAL-WORLD FICTION
In real-world fiction, the chances are, you, the writer, are more than likely to use real foreign terms for whatever reason. Nothing wrong with that.
However…
Are you using that word in the correct context?
Hmmm…
For those of you with multi-lingual capability, maybe using such terms is perfectly fine. Maybe since you speak another language, you know the correct context of the word or phrase you are using. That’s fine.
If you have maybe heard it before, maybe lots before and decide to use it, you have to be careful that the word or phrase you are using is and has been used in the correct context. There’s no law that says others have used it correctly. Certain words and phrases can develop stereotypes of wrong meanings. Therefore, be careful. These words and phrases can develop universally wrong meanings to outsiders, perpetuated by movies and TV and even ahem…books.
That means, doing a bit of research.
SCIENCE FICTION
With science fiction, a lot of the words are technical, which tend to not be an issue as much when it comes to foreign words and phrases. There can be coincidence, of course, but it’s all about the context. However, since a lot of science fiction is still rooted in the real world, you should still be careful.
FANTASY
The world of fantasy is almost a free-for-all when it comes to names, places, and terms. The only caveat to that is that there are so many genres of fantasy, some are rooted in real places. Many of those places have cultures with names, places and terms where real words can be misused, even in a fantasy setting. This is where, despite a made up world, research may be necessary.
On the other hand, if the world has no basis for reality, then the free-for-all of names, places and terms creates completely coincidental words that may occasionally be real foreign words, less likely phrases.
Will any of these cause the author grief?
What if a hero in the story has a name that means something obscene in Chinese? Russian? Laotian?
How would the author even know if they don’t speak that language?
The same for any other term.
There IS no way to know when making stuff up out of thin air. You just have to go with it and not give it a second thought. However, the worst thing to do is try to cover it all up with unpronounceable names with lots of punctuation! Try to keep these made up words simple and don’t even worry about coincidence.
SUMMARY
Unless using real foreign words and terms, keep in mind that there are millions upon millions of real words out there and you can’t possibly know then all. Therefore, don’t even try. Make up your own words at will and go with it. You can’t be faulted for not knowing every word in existence. You also can’t be expected to get on Google every time you make up a word, especially given that not even Google knows everything! That would make your writing come to a screeching halt. It’s bad enough procrastinating with Facebook, or doing regular research on stuff that really matters!
Happy writing!
CONFIDENCE IN YOUR WRITING
Do you have self doubt about your writing?
Are you wallowing in self doubt?
Is your angst the motivation for your writing?
Bla bla bla…
I hear this a lot, you know where (the forums, of course), and while I should be more understanding, I also have a bit of wanting to slap these people on the side of the head and wake them up. Just a little, mind you, because while I’m not there myself, I’m not immune.
It took me a while to get into my state of confidence, but my story may not be typical.
I FOUND MY CALLING
I’ve probably never looked at writing the same way as most people.
Because I was a failed musician, and I DO say that tongue in cheek, I needed another artistic outlet. I already had one, of sorts, with a scroll saw and wood, so I was not completely devoid of things to do. However, in the case of wood, I took already created patterns and simply transformed them to wood boxes since I had no other patterns to go by.
Yeah, fulfilling for a new hobby to a point. It was, at first, a hobby that turned into a passion over time.
Writing was different. When it came along around the same time as woodworking, I found it my true calling. It was something I had to do. Why? I guess I’d always had it in me since my first beginnings with the Polka Dot Sewer drawing. From there, mayhem ensued in many different ways. The only issue was that it never found the right outlet until the advent of the computer and keyboard.
MY CONFIDENCE CAME WITH THE DEAL
It was never that I had any doubts, in particular, it was only a matter of if I could really do it. When I whipped out The Cave, that very first novel, I knew right then I could do it. So, from that point on, I’d not only found my passion, but further mayhem ensued.
This is where I had my only bit of self-doubt. Not in the fact that I could write, or create stories, but whether I could ever get published. Sure, I wanted to get published. However, with no writer’s group, no guidance, no mentors, I started the query process and of course, got rejected. As many of you know, even AFTER I got an outstanding mentor, two in fact, plus several writer’s groups, plenty of experience, and had accumulated two decades and 689 rejections, you’d think I had some self doubt.
Nope.
That self doubt came very early in the process and it had nothing to do with my ability to write.
IT HAD TO DO WITH NOT BEING ABLE TO GET PUBLISHED.
I never once sat and contemplated my navel, wondered why I should bother, why it was worth it to waste my time. Why should I bother writing anything? Why should I put two and two together. Everything I write is stupid. Nothing I write makes sense. I have no skill. I’ll never compare to so and so.
In a nutshell, I didn’t care.
THE COMPLAINTS I SEE
I could call it whining, but I won’t because in a way, I’ve had small flashes of these same doubts for a brief millisecond. I know where some writers are coming from.
At the same time, I don’t approach this passion in the same way as others do.
First off, I don’t believe there’s value in suffering to get the word out.
In the complaints I see, often it seems to me the writer believes you have to suffer for your art.
Say what?
Some people got into writing to have a creative outlet to substitute for some other issue they’re dealing with.
While I have no issue with them finding a creative outlet to work through other issues, writing should be used as a positive force, not a negative one.
I see a lot of real clinical depression come through with a lot of the complaints. This has nothing to do with the writing itself, but much deeper issues. Bringing this to a writing forum is the wrong place to go.
Why should I bother.
This is so hard.
Every word I write seems stupid.
While there are plenty of trolls out there to set them straight, and maybe they should be set straight, are we dealing with clinically depressed people? Who’s to say what the deal is?
It also goes back to the old deal with people trying to get others to write their story for them. They want to write but don’t want to go through the effort to come up with something original. So, they throw it out to the community to make it up for them.
What then?
They now have a bunch of community ideas to choose from, if some of these schmucks are willing to give them away, then this guy or gal runs with it. They don’t own this stuff, the community does.
THE CONFIDENT WRITER
Setting aside deep candyrock psychedelic profundities, a confident writer is not going to give a crap what other people think, at least not at the outset. I’m not talking a blank wall of supreme confidence. I’m talking someone who knows they can write, not perfectly, but knows they can concoct a decent story that isn’t going to be a nightmare to edit.
A confident writer isn’t steeped in angst at every page, suffering for their art. They can sit down and hammer out their story and enjoy the process. While they may have doubts about getting it published, they don’t necessarily care. The whole point is to get the story down and worry about the nasty publishing part later. If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen.
The confident writer may be an already successful one that’s published and has to make deadlines. There may be pressure to come up with original ideas that create self doubts at times, especially if the critiques of the books start to go down toward the negative.
However, we’re mostly talking about the new or unpublished writers who are starting off, with small presses, or are self-published. YOU are the ones more likely with the most doubts, if any.
Will people like what you do?
Do YOU like what you do?
You SHOULD like what you do. After all, you wrote it!
SUMMARY
All the navel gazing in the world isn’t going to accomplish anything if you don’t get the story finished.
All the navel gazing in the world isn’t going to make the story any better if it never gets completed.
All the navel gazing in the world isn’t going to satisfy you unless you stop it and either fix your mistakes, polish the work, and back away from it knowing you did your best.
Happy writing!
The Worlds Of Fred Rayworth 