Current Events > Sit down and write the damn thing.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Two weeks ago, I rewrote the outline for the story that I'm working on. I eliminated a love triangle and made the woman at the center of it the sister of the guy she wasn't currently dating. Now, I want to reinsert that aspect of the story and I have to painstakingly go through line by line and change it back.

I do have an earlier draft saved, yes.

However, that wasn't the only change made to the story. Since I want to keep the other changes, I'm going to have to do a side by side comparison of the two drafts and handpick the scenarios that I want to keep.

I need to stop outlining, stop second-guessing myself, and just lock myself into one scenario by actually sitting down and writing it.

me with gamedev lol.

you got this, TC. I do too. we got this.

Heh.

I'm going over the outline now. I just realized that I hadn't actually established in the new outline what the relationship was because I hadn't settled on whether they would be siblings or cousins. This is a mess. I'm indecisive to a point that I can spend 20 minutes debating over what I want for dinner and I'm trying to write a coherent story.

BucketCat posted...

me with gamedev lol.

you got this, TC. I do too. we got this.

Thanks. Best of luck with the game development.

Things I learned at college

• A change in setting is a scenario, a change in character is a story
• The most important part of the process is the revision.

The biggest obstacle I've always had to this is worrying that people will just go full English-teacher on it and overanalyze it for shit that just isn't there. Seems dumb, but it really puts me off wanting to make anything with much of a story to it.

Doe posted...

Things I learned at college
* A change in setting is a scenario, a change in character is a story
* The most important part of the process is the revision.

This is a double-edged sword though.

Many substandard stories come about because of over-revision. They revise, they revise, they revise, and then they become so fatigued with revision that they stick with an idea that isn't as good as the ones that they had previously discarded. This is what happened with films like The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the 007 flick Tomorrow Never Dies, and Super Mario Bros.: The Movie.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


That's a lot to juggle. I've mostly given up hobbies and I'm still getting nowhere fast.

Trumble posted...

The biggest obstacle I've always had to this is worrying that people will just go full English-teacher on it and overanalyze it for shit that just isn't there. Seems dumb, but it really puts me off wanting to make anything with much of a story to it.

I'm worried about projection in a "Will people claim that I'm racist if this character has anger issues?" kind of way. Paranoid is probably a more accurate term.

FortuneCookie posted...

This is a double-edged sword though.

Many substandard stories come about because of over-revision. They revise, they revise, they revise, and then they become so fatigued with revision that they stick with an idea that isn't as good as the ones that they had previously discarded. This is what happened with films like The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the 007 flick Tomorrow Never Dies, and Super Mario Bros.: The Movie.

That's not 'over' revision, That's bad revision. Often the result of too many different people having input.

An author refining their work with a competent editor will get best results.

Don't even worry about 'over' revision, and definitely don't make it an excuse for not working on the text.

Well, no wonder it's taking you so damn long to finish the Winds of Winter, George.

I mean... "FortuneCookie."

ai123 posted...

That's not 'over' revision, That's bad revision. Often the result of too many different people having input.

An author refining their work with a competent editor will get best results.

Don't even worry about 'over' revision, and definitely don't make it an excuse for not working on the text.

True. Each one of the three examples that I mentioned had outside input.

Super Mario Bros.: The Movie had new directors wanting to turn the story into Blade Runner Lite for the MTV generation before Nintendo told them to cut out the violence and sexual innuendo. Tomorrow Never Dies had Henry Kissinger of all people telling them that their original plot was a bad idea. They hastily cobbled together a new story about a news mogul starting wars so that he could write about them. And The Lost World saw Michael Crichton pressured by Steven Spielberg to write a sequel he never intended only for 80% of the content to be disregarded.

But, still. I do run into issues on my own. Like, I feel that my antagonist is lacking, so I flesh them out and develop their personality more only to read older notes and discover that this was a case where less was certainly more.

mercurydude posted...

Well, no wonder it's taking you so damn long to finish the Winds of Winter, George.

I mean... "FortuneCookie."

lol.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


It can be your worst enemy.

FortuneCookie posted...

This is a double-edged sword though.

Many substandard stories come about because of over-revision.

Lets say this is definitely true. There are still waaaay more substandard stories that come about due to under-revision. Revision is definitely your friend. And consider the difference between an artists revision and a producers revision. Overly safe movies result from the latter.

All that said I think the first bullet point is even more important but more easily overlooked. I often see people talking about the events theyre plotting out and the things they want to see happen, but its so important to have interesting characters to respond to or cause those things.

I needn't have stressed myself over the side by side comparisons. The "love triangle" only has three references to it in the entire outline.

<_<

Thought this was gonna be a message to George R. R. Martin.

Doe posted...

Lets say this is definitely true. There are still waaaay more substandard stories that come about due to under-revision. Revision is definitely your friend. And consider the difference between an artists revision and a producers revision. Overly safe movies result from the latter.

All that said I think the first bullet point is even more important but more easily overlooked. I often see people talking about the events theyre plotting out and the things they want to see happen, but its so important to have interesting characters to respond to or cause those things.

At this point, there are few characters in my story who haven't had their ethnicity, sex, age group, or orientation changed. Who is related to who, who is dating who, and who is able to do what has all been changed as well.

jdb78 posted...

Thought this was gonna be a message to George R. R. Martin.

lol, sure. I'll write that message to him now.

"Dear George R.R. Martin, sit down and write the damn thing."