Question: What have you learned about writing this year?

[onyxhawke]

For anyone sane its probably to early in the year to ask for year in review type perspectives. Fortunately for my readers, I'm not sane.

So what have you learned this year about writing? And how have you applied it?

Comments

[archangelbeth]

That is exactly why I don't outline on paper. If I write it down, story's over. If I tell people, story's over. I had to write some one-liners a few chapters in advance in my frippin' 400K monstrosity, but I made them essentially "teasers" that reminded me of what I wanted to do.

And even there, I had to grind through a few chapters, where every sentence was a major victory. Putting down the "keep events in order, don't forget what I want to do" teasers was definitely a delicate balance between their intent and the dragging feeling they added to the actual writing.

Or, more seriously, my outline would be along the lines of:

1: Setup, characters, initial interaction.
2: ...
3: Profit!

If I fill in 2, gods, it's hard. Maybe I'll try it sometime, but right now... I know I could never write on spec. *sigh*

On the other hand, I can write 400K in 9 months. *facepalm*