Writing Coming Back from Hiatus...

Tblew

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Nov 7, 2019
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It's been eight months since I posted on this site and RR.

I've set a hard deadline for myself to get my butt into gear, but man. Its' been a huge struggle to get the wheels turning. Like right now, I'm supposed to be working on my story, but I'm here instead. I have a lot of hang-ups about my current story. The beginning chapters are really rough and unorganized, and I ended up writing way more than I ever planned (nearly 300,000 words) and still somehow have a lot more to go. I also have a story that is written in parallel with my current one and can't really get too far in my current one without causing some confusion. I just got so much crap to do and my deadline is approaching fast.

It doesn't help that starting has always been the hardest part for me.

Is anyone else in the same boat as me?​
 

Anon2024

????????? (???/???)
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Bashfully wrap it up and move on.

Webnovels are great for experimenting, but not everyone can keep up with it. I’ve been posting 1 chapter a day for 2-3 months now, I’m tired of it.

but I have a ways to go.
 

K5Rakitan

Level 34 👪 💍 Pronouns: she/whore ♀
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Carlo.jpg
 

Ilikewaterkusa

You have to take out their families...
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It's been eight months since I posted on this site and RR.

I've set a hard deadline for myself to get my butt into gear, but man. Its' been a huge struggle to get the wheels turning. Like right now, I'm supposed to be working on my story, but I'm here instead. I have a lot of hang-ups about my current story. The beginning chapters are really rough and unorganized, and I ended up writing way more than I ever planned (nearly 300,000 words) and still somehow have a lot more to go. I also have a story that is written in parallel with my current one and can't really get too far in my current one without causing some confusion. I just got so much crap to do and my deadline is approaching fast.

It doesn't help that starting has always been the hardest part for me.

Is anyone else in the same boat as me?​
I have literally never seen you before.

Organize your story more. Plan it out more.
Also why do you have a deadline?
Also don't worry if it's shit. You can always rewrite.
Quantity creates quality. While worry does not create quality.
 

Zenkarn

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Jul 3, 2022
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If you aren't getting paid, and you aren't trying to, deadlines are mostly bullshit.
Otherwise, if you aren't having fun: Stop.

Readers can and will notice if you hate what you're writing.
 

Fox-Trot-9

Foxy, the fluffy butt-stabber!
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Nov 17, 2020
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I'm kind of in the same boat as you for one of my novels, Days of Blood and Roses, which is my magical girl book. I've taken a hiatus from that novel after finishing up with the 4th volume. I'll return to it after I finish writing up the 1st volume of Villainess, Retry!, and then I'll try getting back into that magical girl novel again. But yeah, I hear you on the revising part. It's exhausting, but it's kind of a labor of love for me. I tend to think of it as one of those tsundere waifus that give you headaches but will stay with you in the end. That's kind of what DoBaR is to me. I've got 2 more volumes left to write for that book, so I'll come back to it when I come back to it.

With that said, if deadlines are giving you more trouble than it's worth, don't use them. It's not healthy for you if you're constantly worrying about them when you've already got a lot of stuff you've gotta rework. Just do manageable chunks at a time. This ain't a race. It's a marathon.
 

Snowyflakes

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Jul 29, 2022
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If you're not making any money, you shouldn't have a deadline. It becomes burdensome and doesn't help to improve your writing skills. Also, if you've set a deadline only to return back at writing the story, remember that you can prolong it as much as needed. After all, you should have fun and enjoy what you're writing. What I can advise you to do is to sketch the whole plot again, going through what you already wrote, and see what you will keep and what not (or at least, not at the beginning).

I have something like this going on right now, as I found some gaps in the plot that I didn't like being there. However, the gaps are a little further in the story, so I still got the time to look into it and edit what needs to be edited. If I am not able to do it, as I have some personal things going on in real life, then I will just put it on hiatus and return when I can.
 

Alfir

The Inventor of Words
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Aug 11, 2021
Messages
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I can sympathize, So, yes, I am in the same boat.

I hope it would comfort you, knowing that someone out there is doing worse compared to you. By worse, I meant 'me'. I rewrote my first work two times over! My first story flopped greatly, because of 'beginner' problems. You know, grammar, storytelling, and everything. It reached 50,000 words at that time. Then, I rewrote it, which can't even get over 20,000 words.... even now, I am struggling with whether to continue or not.
Before I know it, I rewrote the whole thing again... Ugh...
Then...

I wrote a second one, another novel to work up, which somehow worked as it reaches over 70,000 words. However, I was appalled by the shortness and organization of the story itself. So I rewrote it, which currently is not even over 20, 000 words still... I feel like, there is an illusion, that the longer you write, the more tiresome you'll feel.

It's like 'writing' sucks off your strength!! And that is for no particular reason at all! Sometimes, I even wonder, does anyone even read my work? Will persevering on my 'writing' really worth it? I don't know, because honestly, I am not there yet-- the level which I wish to pursue-- damn it all, I like stories. That's what got me into writing in the first place.

It has been a year, and I still got nothing to show for, squat, nil... Well, I have a lot of my rewrites in my document files, but I have no intention of uploading them just yet. My opinion of the matter is... forget the deadline. If the deadline will only threaten you, why don't you just don't upload something yet? Only when you are confident of your backlogs, that's when you should start uploading your stuff....
 

Lloyd

Professional Writer
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Jun 2, 2020
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I feel the same way. If you like we can be accountability partners
 

Gryphon

The One who has the Eyes
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Dec 10, 2021
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656
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133
I've just been posting a chapter once a week now instead of once every two days like I had been doing. Yeah, once a week isn't the best if you want to get known, but it helps in making more quality chapters and can free up some time.
 

Caivy

Active member
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Sep 18, 2022
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Haven't hit that level yet, but it's good to know how to deal with it before hand rather then have to try and cope with it myself.
 

Tblew

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 7, 2019
Messages
32
Points
48
I have literally never seen you before.

Organize your story more. Plan it out more.
Also why do you have a deadline?
Also don't worry if it's shit. You can always rewrite.
Quantity creates quality. While worry does not create quality.
??? I've been on hiatus and I have never seen you before either.

I absolutely don't have time to rewrite nearly 300k right now, or probably ever tbh. Also, quantity doesn't create quality for me. The more I write the more it sucks...
 

TheEldritchGod

A Cloud Of Pure Spite And Eyes
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??? I've been on hiatus and I have never seen you before either.

I absolutely don't have time to rewrite nearly 300k right now, or probably ever tbh. Also, quantity doesn't create quality for me. The more I write the more it sucks...
You write 3 times what you need an throw out half, then carefully whittle down to the bare minimum. Brevity is the soul of wit. Don't publish 300k. Publish 100k of the BEST of what you wrote. I promise it will be above average.
 

Tblew

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 7, 2019
Messages
32
Points
48
Bashfully wrap it up and move on.

Webnovels are great for experimenting, but not everyone can keep up with it. I’ve been posting 1 chapter a day for 2-3 months now, I’m tired of it.

but I have a ways to go.
I honestly would not recommend continuing at your pace, even with small chapters. Maybe update twice a week at the most, tbh, or you will burn yourself out in the long run.

I'm kind of in the same boat as you for one of my novels, Days of Blood and Roses, which is my magical girl book. I've taken a hiatus from that novel after finishing up with the 4th volume. I'll return to it after I finish writing up the 1st volume of Villainess, Retry!, and then I'll try getting back into that magical girl novel again. But yeah, I hear you on the revising part. It's exhausting, but it's kind of a labor of love for me. I tend to think of it as one of those tsundere waifus that give you headaches but will stay with you in the end. That's kind of what DoBaR is to me. I've got 2 more volumes left to write for that book, so I'll come back to it when I come back to it.

With that said, if deadlines are giving you more trouble than it's worth, don't use them. It's not healthy for you if you're constantly worrying about them when you've already got a lot of stuff you've gotta rework. Just do manageable chunks at a time. This ain't a race. It's a marathon.
True. I think I will scrap the deadline and make it more flexible for myself.
If you're not making any money, you shouldn't have a deadline. It becomes burdensome and doesn't help to improve your writing skills. Also, if you've set a deadline only to return back at writing the story, remember that you can prolong it as much as needed. After all, you should have fun and enjoy what you're writing. What I can advise you to do is to sketch the whole plot again, going through what you already wrote, and see what you will keep and what not (or at least, not at the beginning).

I have something like this going on right now, as I found some gaps in the plot that I didn't like being there. However, the gaps are a little further in the story, so I still got the time to look into it and edit what needs to be edited. If I am not able to do it, as I have some personal things going on in real life, then I will just put it on hiatus and return when I can.
You're right. I think my story does need a lot of refinement, but it's pretty long. I guess I'll just hack at the problem until its finished.
I can sympathize, So, yes, I am in the same boat.

I hope it would comfort you, knowing that someone out there is doing worse compared to you. By worse, I meant 'me'. I rewrote my first work two times over! My first story flopped greatly, because of 'beginner' problems. You know, grammar, storytelling, and everything. It reached 50,000 words at that time. Then, I rewrote it, which can't even get over 20,000 words.... even now, I am struggling with whether to continue or not.
Before I know it, I rewrote the whole thing again... Ugh...
Then...

I wrote a second one, another novel to work up, which somehow worked as it reaches over 70,000 words. However, I was appalled by the shortness and organization of the story itself. So I rewrote it, which currently is not even over 20, 000 words still... I feel like, there is an illusion, that the longer you write, the more tiresome you'll feel.

It's like 'writing' sucks off your strength!! And that is for no particular reason at all! Sometimes, I even wonder, does anyone even read my work? Will persevering on my 'writing' really worth it? I don't know, because honestly, I am not there yet-- the level which I wish to pursue-- damn it all, I like stories. That's what got me into writing in the first place.

It has been a year, and I still got nothing to show for, squat, nil... Well, I have a lot of my rewrites in my document files, but I have no intention of uploading them just yet. My opinion of the matter is... forget the deadline. If the deadline will only threaten you, why don't you just don't upload something yet? Only when you are confident of your backlogs, that's when you should start uploading your stuff....
I honestly don't even do backlogs. I'm too impatient. I write then and there, edit, then post, and hope for the best. Its probably why my story has a lot of rough patches tbh. So yeah, maybe i will just restrain myself and just make backlogs then post.
You write 3 times what you need an throw out half, then carefully whittle down to the bare minimum. Brevity is the soul of wit. Don't publish 300k. Publish 100k of the BEST of what you wrote. I promise it will be above average.
Yeah, it seems posting on the fly while barely editing my stuff has led me here.
 
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