The hardest part about writing a story

[Heather]

That's the idea. Helps that he doesn't talk about himself much. ^_~

[Irene]

True.

[Aaron the Werebear Writer]

Irene wrote: "Heather wrote: "Taking a break from one and working on another.

Anyone ever had a character that had no name, no backstory, and yet he's supposed to play a major part in the story?"

Haha, all the..."


I am not certain if The Road qualifies, but the father is just called The Man and his son is just The Boy. There is a minor backstory, at least in the movie.

[Aaron the Werebear Writer]

As for myself, the hardest part in my writing is when I try to carry the imagery in my brain onto the page for more than a couple pages. It starts to fall apart because I either write too much description or too little. Or my flow feels like a video buffering, then playing, then buffering.

[Heather]

Aaron the Werebear Writer wrote: "As for myself, the hardest part in my writing is when I try to carry the imagery in my brain onto the page for more than a couple pages. It starts to fall apart because I either write too much desc..."

Been there, done that. :P

[[deleted user]]

There are a a whole host of hyperbole's for things that are hard when writing for myself, but I would have to say the one thing that I find very difficult is dialogue. I can write dialogue if I 'strike gold' with a story and the characters just talk by themselves, but most of my stories are psychological narratives in which the character is talking a lot to themselves, but rarely to anyone else. Because of this, I have a bad habit of unintentionally falling into a frame story that ends up becoming a great part of the book. It's always just been hard for me to kind of create random dialogue if I need to and it usually ends up coming down to, "Okay, you know what, I'll just say they chatted for a little while, move to the most important part and skip the rest,"

[Danielle]

Indeed it seems the hardest rule is the ' show don't tell rule.' this is really hard to get your dialogue sounded natural, each person in the world speaks
with a different accent or a different way.

We speak naturally in shorter sentences.

E.g " That green car is horrible."

Becomes

" See that car, the snot green one?"

[Renee E]

Great example of making dialogue come across naturally, Danielle. The second one even infers inflections of voice.

[Heather]

*unintelligible screaming*

[Danielle]

I think this mean re editing and scanning you work over
again to glance at it once you find on mistake
to read it through again you'll find more.

[Heather]

I often know what I want to happen, but not how to convey it. -_- Wish I had the time to do a daily or semi-daily writing schedule.

[S.]

arghh..you guys are just too critical of yourselves! lol

[Danielle]

whoa! Hang on here, I can see this going of topic
a creating a massive argument which is not the same
as a discussion. We are here to disgust the hardest
part of a writing a story not arguing over
comments. The hardest part for most people to write is
beginning in the modern life people do not have time to sit down and write or do schedule.

[Heather]

Danielle wrote: "whoa! Hang on here, I can see this going of topic
a creating a massive argument which is not the same
as a discussion. We are here to disgust the hardest
part of a writing a story not arguing ov..."

I concur. I have found, however, that there are mobile phone apps that mitigate this, but only if daily life hasn't beaten the creativity out of your skull.

[Harsh]

Hardest thing I find is....Sometimes I get struck in between of story. I lose on climax part.

Help me PLZ :p

[Philip]

The hardest part is now. The book is ready or is it, should I publish or not press that send button or not. One more read through no don't fiddle with the damn ms again. Be brave....

Perhaps another edit...

[Justin]

The hardest part for me is the downtime in between stories. Once I finish a story and want to start something new, I usually have an idea, but I have a difficult time developing and outlining until I feel ready to start writing. For instance, it took me months to think about my novel before I felt ready to write it.

[Linda]

The hardest part for me is developing the characters in fiction so that they don't all sound like the same person. Also fleshing out their descriptions without too much telling.

[Renee E]

Philip wrote: "The hardest part is now. The book is ready or is it, should I publish or not press that send button or not. One more read through no don't fiddle with the damn ms again. Be brave....

Perhaps anoth..."

Print yourself out a few galleys, to read yourself and have a couple of other people read. It's amazing what you catch in a finished format that you don't see in drafts or on the screen.

[Jenni]

The hardest part is finding the time to write

[Jen]

Jenni wrote: "The hardest part is finding the time to write"

As a recent college grad, I have all the time in the world to write. But very soon I have to find a job to pay off those pesky student loans and poof. There goes my time to write. Definitely worried about that in the future!

[Harsh]

I'm writing one story...struck in between of story..pLZ help.
It's about a Mayor trying get rid of a fly in his office.
He had done everything pest control etc.
Mayor is thinking it is some robotic bug placed by opposition party.
Recently he took help of an investigation team to catch fly, but haven't found it in his office.

NOW that's where I got struck...PLZ help me to proceed the story.

[S.]

fantasy: he went to see a seer..and then the seer asked him to go back to his office during a full moon

sci-fi: turned out the fly can morph into something else, a pen holder, sheets of paper, etc etc..

thriller: he found the source of the fly. there is a dead body somewhere in his office etc etc..

hope that helps :)

[S.]

Philip wrote: "The hardest part is now. The book is ready or is it, should I publish or not press that send button or not. One more read through no don't fiddle with the damn ms again. Be brave....

Perhaps anoth..."

Oh if you are self publishing you can always edit it later and make a version. like version 1.0 version 1.1 etc..

[Harsh]

S. wrote: "fantasy: he went to see a seer..and then the seer asked him to go back to his office during a full moon

sci-fi: turned out the fly can morph into something else, a pen holder, sheets of paper, etc..."

thanks a lot....Great Help ! :D

[Irene]

Harsh wrote: "I'm writing one story...struck in between of story..pLZ help.
It's about a Mayor trying get rid of a fly in his office.
He had done everything pest control etc.
Mayor is thinking it is some robotic..."

Hi! I think you will have better luck posting over in the "stuck on your writing" thread. This thread is for discussing what you find challenging about writing, not presenting your actual writing problems :)

[Philip]

S. wrote: "Philip wrote: "The hardest part is now. The book is ready or is it, should I publish or not press that send button or not. One more read through no don't fiddle with the damn ms again. Be brave......."

Still haven't pressed that button. Now I'm stuck on the marketing but this is writing.

I have another thriller I'm working on but it has remained comatose for several months. It's about terrorism and it just seems a bit predictable. Like many in that genre it can be thrilling i.e guns explosions but I'm looking for something else. Still there are lots of other projects. Now if I only had the time to do them

[Danielle]

Hmm, It does matter if you have an eye catching cover
for your book for the marketing side of writing.

[Ingrid, Just another writer.]

Danielle wrote: "Hmm, It does matter if you have an eye catching cover
for your book for the marketing side of writing."

For me, I think it would certainly help. Or just make it original for its genre.

[Trysh]

Naming is the bane of my existence. I generally can name the main character without too much issue, but naming minor characters, and places (if everything is created in my mind) will stop me for hours. Even finding a name for the novel itself. My best friend is generally my official namer. I describe what I need named, and the general idea of what I'm looking for and she always comes up with something perfect. She's such a life saver for me.

[K.P.]

the hardest part i find with writing isn't the process itself (i can do that all day every day in my sleep while i'm awake on the bus while doing something else lolz), it's coverart design (i'm colourblind and my covers tend to be dated, since i mainly own old books 20 years or more) and marketing.

[Philip]

Trysh wrote: "Naming is the bane of my existence. I generally can name the main character without too much issue, but naming minor characters, and places (if everything is created in my mind) will stop me for ho..."

I cheat well I use Scrivener's naming tool to help. Nationality, sex, age commonality all help select. Then with SciFi I can just make it up - spell check doesn't like those though.

[Linda]

Trysh wrote: "Naming is the bane of my existence. I generally can name the main character without too much issue, but naming minor characters, and places (if everything is created in my mind) will stop me for ho..."
I never understood the importance of naming until I started writing things that need names. For instance, I recently wrote a story and called the main character Jane but I just didn't like the story at all. Then I changed her name to Kathy and I found it easier to add details about her character and liked the story a lot better.

[Heather]

BabyNames.com

[Charles]

When I'm stuck for a name, I reach for the old reliable: the Almanac of American Politics. I look through the list of our many fine elected officials. I pick a first name and a last name. The only pitfall is picking names from officials that are little too well know. So far I have no characters named Barack or Biden.

[Heather]

That moment when you finally get to write a segment you'd been daydreaming about for months.

[Irene]

Heather wrote: "That moment when you finally get to write a segment you'd been daydreaming about for months."

And it comes out a whole lot less spectacular than you thought it would? Because if so that's me!

[Irene]

Philip wrote: "Trysh wrote: "Naming is the bane of my existence. I generally can name the main character without too much issue, but naming minor characters, and places (if everything is created in my mind) will ..."

And then Word politely informs you that there are too many errors in the document for it to keep counting so it's only going to be able to tell you them if you specifically ask....I ended up adding my main character's names and a few common words to the dictionary to make life easier.

[Dwayne]

Jenni wrote: "The hardest part is finding the time to write"

Ditto. There are days when I'm on a roll or just aching to get another couple pages in or what have you but I have to go to work (to the job that actually pays the bills, that is). Some of my work days are long. I did 18 hours today. I am going to be putting in overtime this week. It will be a nice paycheck, but it's going to ruin the momentum I had built up in writing my latest project.

The next hardest thing is staying focused on one project. I have so many ideas that I want to get written and it's always a temptation to put this one aside a while and start this other great idea I had.

[Ken]

Dwayne, I can sympathize. I have long work days, even though I'm self-employed, plus there are always family needs to be met. Last month, I started trying to write just a few words on a daily basis. I haven't always made it, but it did help me focus.

[Heather]

Irene wrote: "Heather wrote: "That moment when you finally get to write a segment you'd been daydreaming about for months."

And it comes out a whole lot less spectacular than you thought it would? Because if so..."

Sort of. It played out a lot different than I intended and I'm still a bit iffy on whether I'm conveying what I wanted to.

[Dwayne]

Ken author of "Saturday Date", which I have read wrote: "Dwayne, I can sympathize. I have long work days, even though I'm self-employed, plus there are always family needs to be met. Last month, I started trying to write just a few words on a daily basis..."

I do that, too, Ken. Even if it's just for ten minutes, I try to do something every day. I'd prefer at least two hours, but sometimes you just take what you can get.

[Heather]

I'm reaching a point where the end is a serious concern. After all, I need a direction, do I not? Thing is...I don't know if I like the intended ending. Once it's published...that's it.

Also, editing. -_-

[Kara]

For the first time, I'm writing the second book in a series. I'm finding it difficult to ensure I keep all the details and character traits from book one consistent with book two.
I can only imagine how much more difficult it will be in book 3.

Oh and just like Heather... editing - definitely editing!!!

[Dwayne]

Heather wrote: "I don't know if I like the intended ending."

I had the same problem with a story I recently finished. I didn't know if I liked the ending or the middle. I wrote several versions and then picked the one I thought had the best punch.

[Heather]

Fortunately, I don't think I'm going to make it as far as the end before November and NaNoWriMo takes over my life. I'll have time to mull it over.

I keep asking myself, "Is it too obvious? Too easy? Too silly? Or just awesome and surprising enough?"

[Philip]

Kara wrote: "For the first time, I'm writing the second book in a series. I'm finding it difficult to ensure I keep all the details and character traits from book one consistent with book two.
I can only imagi..."

I managed a book two for my thriller and have started a book three. This was never intended to be a series, but just happened. The book two for my sci-fi series is which was always intended to be a multi-volume series is proving much harder - I have too many different plot lines running so it will need pruning back. That's before the editing nightmare starts!

[Heather]

Editing. *shudders* I'm pretty good about editing as I go and tend not to like to move on until I'm satisfied with the current line, but nothing's perfect the first time.

I'm also getting tired of a certain character not having a name besides, "Hey, you."

[Dwayne]

Heather wrote: "I'm also getting tired of a certain character not having a name besides, "Hey, you."
"

Is there a reason the certain character doesn't have a name?

[Heather]

To begin with, I can't find one that suits him. For another, he's not talkative and unlikely to volunteer it.