I always get it. Over the course of about 7 years I have completed a grand total of one stories. Hazzah! After reading Nate Wilson's blog on novelist "posers" I felt especially convicted. That's exactly was I was, a lame big mouthed loser, who talked a lot of talk but never finished a story. One of my grandest faults in this area was introductions. I love writing intros, where I tell the reader (whoever they may be) how exactly I came up with the idea for the story, what it was influenced by, where it was going and the metaphysical ramifications of the story. I think the only thing that topped the size of my introductions was my ego. Little did I know (or much) that most good authors write there introductions AFTER THE STORY HAS BEEN SET TO BE PUBLISHED! if not years afterwards, when the book has become a best seller.
Another thing that I often neglected in my stories, was an outline. Screw outlines! I liked to fly free and unrestrained... which often also meant I enjoyed crashing and burning. I even liked coming up with a title for my book before even finishing the first chapter. But whenever the going got rough, I would give the whole affair up and leave the tangled mess hidden somewhere deep within the data banks of my CPU.
NO MORE!!!!! You are much safer to never start a story, then you will never taste the defeat of starting and never finishing one. But I have seen that glow, and I have seen it fade. I do not want to hit that low again...
I am going to write an outline.
Scott
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3 comments:
Is that a resolution?
Umm... I guess you could call it that.
No! Don't give in to the Dark Side, Josiah! I NEVER write an outline aside from "Hey, this would be cool to have eventually. I'd better write that scene down". I've finished 5 stories of verying lengths in the past 7 years. Heck, Diana Wynne Jones, one of my favorite writers, said that she NEVER writes an outline. Outlines are the tool of the MAN, trying to DRAG you DOWN. Just hang on, and if you really like a story, it'll get finished.
-Chris
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