Comments on: Two-Thirds http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/ Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:52:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: ann http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10229 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:41:03 +0000 http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10229 Farrah, as soon as you figure out your pattern, it'll change. You know that, don't you? :wink: Shelia, the key, I think, is not to take so much time off. Like THAT'S possible in the real world, right? *SNORT!* But seriously, in ON WRITING: A MEMOIR OF THE CRAFT, Stephen King says don't stop once you start a book or, at the VERY most, only take weekends off. Otherwise the characters and their little problems and adventures lose all their urgency. Like Somerset Maugham says: "There are three rules to writing a book, but no one knows what they are." :wink: Farrah, as soon as you figure out your pattern, it’ll change. You know that, don’t you?

Shelia, the key, I think, is not to take so much time off. Like THAT’S possible in the real world, right? *SNORT!*

But seriously, in ON WRITING: A MEMOIR OF THE CRAFT, Stephen King says don’t stop once you start a book or, at the VERY most, only take weekends off. Otherwise the characters and their little problems and adventures lose all their urgency.

Like Somerset Maugham says: “There are three rules to writing a book, but no one knows what they are.”

]]> by: Shelia http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10228 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:33:49 +0000 http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10228 Call it the Two-Thirds process...If I take a week away from writing, I'm like what was I thinking and I sometimes erase the previous things I wrote and start over. I'm trying to get out of that habit. Call it the Two-Thirds process…If I take a week away from writing, I’m like what was I thinking and I sometimes erase the previous things I wrote and start over. I’m trying to get out of that habit.

]]> by: Farrah Rochon http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10225 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:24:36 +0000 http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10225 Stuck sucks. Get out of it now! At least you've discovered it's a part of your pattern. I have yet to figure out what my pattern is exactly. Now <i>that</i> is scary. :) Good luck! Stuck sucks. Get out of it now!

At least you’ve discovered it’s a part of your pattern. I have yet to figure out what my pattern is exactly. Now that is scary.

Good luck!

]]> by: ann http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10219 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:06:17 +0000 http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10219 No way, Caroline. I have enough bad habits already without adding Wasting Time on Computer Games to the list, thank you very much. :wink: No way, Caroline. I have enough bad habits already without adding Wasting Time on Computer Games to the list, thank you very much.

]]> by: Caroline http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10217 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:39:22 +0000 http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10217 I can't believe you thought of washing the dishes. Don't you have any games on your computer? I can’t believe you thought of washing the dishes. Don’t you have any games on your computer?

]]> by: ann http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10190 Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:36:15 +0000 http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10190 Eve, don't tell Caroline I said so, but she periodically has good advice. :wink: Caroline, I think that POV thing is often one of my issues. I switch POV and--boom!--problem solved. Also, sometimes it helps to just do something else. Driving, washing dishes, showering, any mindless task seems to help. And once the ideas trickle through, things start to flow again. Sometimes, that is. :grin: Eve, don’t tell Caroline I said so, but she periodically has good advice.

Caroline, I think that POV thing is often one of my issues. I switch POV and–boom!–problem solved.

Also, sometimes it helps to just do something else. Driving, washing dishes, showering, any mindless task seems to help. And once the ideas trickle through, things start to flow again.

Sometimes, that is.

]]> by: Caroline http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10185 Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:24:38 +0000 http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10185 My strategy for getting back a sticking point is to just skip it. Jump ahead and write something that happens somewhere else. If it happens later in the book, sometimes you'll accidentally hand yourself the answer to your sticking point. If it's earlier...well, same thing, because you may realize that sticking point is the problem: that scene shouldn't be there, or should be told from a different point of view, or is in the wrong place, or something. Hope you get hit by lightening soon! My strategy for getting back a sticking point is to just skip it. Jump ahead and write something that happens somewhere else. If it happens later in the book, sometimes you’ll accidentally hand yourself the answer to your sticking point. If it’s earlier…well, same thing, because you may realize that sticking point is the problem: that scene shouldn’t be there, or should be told from a different point of view, or is in the wrong place, or something.

Hope you get hit by lightening soon!

]]> by: Eve Silver / Eve Kenin http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10182 Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:07:13 +0000 http://www.annchristopher.com/blog/2008/03/05/two-thirds/#comment-10182 I've only ever been truly stuck once. I couldn't seem to start my August 2008 release, HIS WICKED SINS. Oh, I got the first few chapters done, but then nada. Zip. I couldn't move forward. Then the amazing Caroline Linden told me to figure out who my hero was. So I did. I figured out exactly who he was. What he wanted. What had shaped him and made him into the man he had become. And suddenly, the writing just flew. I’ve only ever been truly stuck once. I couldn’t seem to start my August 2008 release, HIS WICKED SINS. Oh, I got the first few chapters done, but then nada. Zip. I couldn’t move forward. Then the amazing Caroline Linden told me to figure out who my hero was. So I did. I figured out exactly who he was. What he wanted. What had shaped him and made him into the man he had become. And suddenly, the writing just flew.

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