Bisky's Twitterling's Scribbles! discussion

Do you feel like sometimes you don't get to write exactly what you want? Is is self doubt? Lack of experience of a subject? Fear of getting something wrong?

I'd Like to know what you do to conquer it :)

With my current book, I've been running into a lot of roadblocks and I think it's because this is my first attempt at plot driven over character driven.

What I do to get past those roadblocks, is just write crap. I hate staring at a blank page while dealing with a roadblock. I find that if I just start writing something that even resembles what I think I want to happen next, it eventually evens out to less crap and into something more workable or can get fattened up later.

Self doubt? Most definitely I'm getting a lot of that with this book. I've never written SiFi before, never written much for fight scenes before and the research for this book has probably put me every US intelligence agency list (that's more of an accomplishment for a writer though, isn't it?) and trying to write a character that changes so much from page one to the end is tough, there's that constant fear I won't be able to pull it off.

Likely my biggest challenge, as it certainly carries the most weight in what I envision others think of my writing, especially now that I'm in a local writing group, is being dyslexic. It takes so much effort in self editing just to turn it into something that you'd expect for grammar issues. Even simple posts here or on Facebook and even twitter I have to read it many times over before clicking that "Post" button. And when I finally do click "Post" (sometimes with courage attached to that click), often times I see many more errors. It's cringe worthy sometimes.

But in the end, in spite of it all, I keep at it because the more I write the more I overcome all the challenges. Or at least make them a little more bearable.

I find that scenes I am most excited about writing zip by quickly while those I am less excited about drag. I have to stop and figure out how to make the scene more exciting for readers and myself. In my novel's sequel I have a scene planned out and a character dies, but I'm not as excited about it right now because there is some filler I have to write leading up to that. It's a board room meeting and I have to figure out how to make it exciting to me.... *sigh*

What limits me? My vocabulary. I am from a French family, so English is only my second language. I conquered it by writing in the pov of an alien from outerspace. Still...people didn't always get that he didn't master the language perfectly so I ended up having an editor searching for every preposition he used wrongly. Some say it removed the authenticity from the book. That these 'mistakes' made it sound real while others are relieved that it is 'fixed'. Can't please everyone.

Brian wrote: "I find that scenes I am most excited about writing zip by quickly while those I am less excited about drag. I have to stop and figure out how to make the scene more exciting for readers and myself...."

So I guess a follow up question for you Brian, do you force yourself to write chronologically or will you skip a scene if you run into a roadblock and come back to it later?

The last two books I wrote it had to be chronological and force myself to. This time around though, I've found myself skipping chapters or fillers, to go back to later. I feel crumby about it but... still.

I find the biggest deterrent to my writing is lack of time, and there ain't much I can do about that as long as I have a full-time day job.

I always write chronologically, but sometimes while editing I will jump back and forth to ensure scenes in a related storyline will match up. My characters tend to laugh at my outline, so I end up having to add chapters that they want.