Aardy
Recruit
The power of Elmo compels you!
Posts: 121
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Post by Aardy on May 13, 2008 6:18:17 GMT
The last chapter of my Kingdom Hearts fic was over 6000 words long and twelve pages. I wrote five thousand of those words in one sitting and was creatively drained for a whole week. I would put my pencil to paper or my fingers to the keyboard and just blank out on anything even remotely constructive. I totally understand what you mean. My chapters are usually about five thousand words and (if I have enough time and I have nothing else to do) I can push it out in a day. I can only do it in about a thousand word bursts though. If I ever do get a sudden flurry of activity by the keyboard and I write for hours on end, then not only does my inspiration and desire to write drop, my will to live drops too. I just hate sitting at a keyboard with an idea in my head but no mental strength left in me to actually work.
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Post by T. Costa on May 13, 2008 7:07:12 GMT
Like I said before, I don't really pay attention, but it isn't entirely unheard of for me to push out a 19-page in NeoOffice chapter in one day. I type 125 words per minute and I think really fast. I just go as long as I have inspiration. This has led to me writing several chapters in one day in one big feverish writing spurt in the past. I have also written very short chapters - five or less pages in NeoOffice - and they've been the only thing I've put out in weeks.
Once again, this all depends on my muse, because he's a b*****d like that. D:
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Post by Pen Against Sword on May 13, 2008 20:47:38 GMT
Aardvark, I do the same thing--what with the thousand word flurries. When I say one sitting, I mean one day, really. I sit down, spit out about a thousand words, then let my mind wander a bit and browse the web, then kick myself into gear and write another thousand words.
Bad habit maybe, but it's the way I operate. Maybe if I didn't have a thousand other things (school, job, extra-curricular activities) taking up my time that I almost have no energy to write without spitting out a bazillion words in six hours.
Oh, and Costa, I type very quickly as well, probably one hundred words per minute or so, but I just can't do that nineteen pager thing.
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Post by T. Costa on May 13, 2008 21:43:08 GMT
I think it has to do with my Information Superhighway. Like, I constantly have a ton of stuff going through my head and only by writing can I focus it in any way, so it's like....my brain is trying to dump as much of that stuff out while it can. Or something. I dunno. But I think very randomly and fast. I do truly enjoy writing, but I also will not force myself to do it, so it's always fun for me to do it. I also have a pretty intense attention span. Which may be from being the child of a recovering drug addict, or I might actually just have something wrong with me. And I apologize in advance for how rambly this post was. I'm VERY tired.
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Post by leafonthebreeze on May 14, 2008 18:50:55 GMT
I can't concentrate on writing for much longer then ten minutes at a stretch, but I'll keep coming back over an evening and maybe get half a chapter done a night, when I'm motivated enough A chapter for me varies though, it depends on what I've decided is going to happen in that particular chapter. I've yet to write a long chaptered fic though (because I'm awful at updating) so maybe that has something to do with it.
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Post by T. Costa on May 14, 2008 20:21:32 GMT
I wish I had a shorter attention span, honestly. When I sit down and write it interferes with things - like going to work. I've actually been two hours late to work before because I was writing (luckily, however, at the time it was because I was writing something for work, so they were cool with it).
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Post by ladyvaltaya on May 17, 2008 8:09:36 GMT
I seems weird for me to even say this, but writing for me is like eating or sleeping- kinda like I can't live without it. Right now I'm in the middle of four different chapters for four major projects and two oneshots are well on their way to completion for me right now too. The only thing bad about having so much inspiration, is that I never know which one I'll be working on until I actually have the time to write.
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Aardy
Recruit
The power of Elmo compels you!
Posts: 121
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Post by Aardy on May 17, 2008 11:46:37 GMT
I think I'm exactly the same. I get really itchy when I don't write for long periods of time. After I stopped playing the drums in high school there was no way for me to vent my creativity and it began to stir inside of me. Then I discovered writing and it really helped me. My creativity is a double-edged sword. On one hand it gives me original ideas to work with, but on the other it feeds me with hundreds of different ideas at one time. I have a bout five different multichapter story ideas planned out right now. But my policy is that if I have two unfinished multi-chaps, I won't start a new project. The thing with me is that I have a good attention span for writing certain stories, but I have a short span when it comes to sticking with plots. I get bored easily and if I kept writing intros to different stories I would never get anything completed. That's why I forced myself to finish Stockholm Syndrome when I did. The ending is a bit rushed but it's a load off my mind and I can concentrate on my other projects.
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Post by T. Costa on May 18, 2008 3:37:47 GMT
I get really itchy when I don't write for long periods of time. YES. That is EXACTLY how I describe it, even. "I have...the itch to write. D:" It's okay when I have a story going or a few ideas, but occasionally the itch will come and I won't have something to burn the itch on, so I have to make a horrible blog post or write a horrific oneshot that will never see the light of day because it has no plot whatsoever. It's a burning need.
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Post by Sylla on May 19, 2008 18:09:11 GMT
Hah, I have that sometimes. Except it's usually an itch to draw instead of an itch to write - in fact it happened, like, five minutes ago. (That's what listening to FF battle music does to me; gets me all hyped and then I have to release the energy, so...)
Though once in a while I get the urge to write, and I end up rifling through my story ideas see when inspiration strikes. (Usually at midnight.) =P
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Post by T. Costa on May 20, 2008 2:08:48 GMT
Cally, my beta-reader, has the same thing. An itch to draw. Her and I understand what we're talking about when we say "I've got the itch."
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Post by Neophyte Ronin on Jun 2, 2008 22:33:05 GMT
It's subjective when it comes to chapter length. All I ask is that you keep things readable.
Avoid "Blocks of Text." No matter how awesome your descriptions are, you cannot possibly say to me that a block of text is attractive to the eyes. I read some of Lovecraft's material and discovered his style omitted the use of breaks so we could digest the raw data the prose would project upon us. It was, shall we say, not quite user-friendly.
My beta and I concluded this a while ago. Paragraphs are typically a main subject with between one to three supportive sentences. Dialogue is usually in its own paragraph, ordinarily split between one part and the next with a mention about who is speaking. Try to keep everything organized according to that, lose unnecessary words, and stay on target with what the chapter is about, regardless of subplots that don't complement the main plot.
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Post by T. Costa on Jun 3, 2008 5:55:40 GMT
I think it depends on the writing, though. One of my favorite series of books is one that is based in the far-off past and features a lot of description. The author put a lot of time and effort into researching the era and it comes through very realistically. It isn't uncommon for there to be big blocks of text in her writing, but it's so rewarding to read that any possible lack of aesthetics is worth it.
(Then again, I read uncommonly fast so plowing through a chunk of text is nothing to me; in fact, I quite like them.)
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Post by piedflycatcher on Jun 3, 2008 10:37:40 GMT
I think it's slightly different reading a book than reading a computer screen though. I don't mind dense prose quite so much in a book, but on a computer screen it just makes your eyes water.
Really long chapters do the same, which is why I prefer them in slightly shorter chunks. Scrolling down through endless text can put me off.
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Post by T. Costa on Jun 3, 2008 21:19:00 GMT
Ah. Yeah, I guess that has something to do with it too. I'll read anything from anything - screens don't irritate me as much as they do most people. I'm not sure why, honestly. I apologize to everyone if my chapters are too long and give you a headache. D: It just doesn't occur to me as I don't seem to have that issue.
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