My name is Bex, and I am the world's slowest writer.
It didn't used to be this way. I used to crank out 4 chapters a night, back when I was 16 and had little else to do. Granted, these chapters weren't nearly as polished as something I could come up with now, but they were good enough at the time.
Even when I first started Independence Day (<--- link goes to the ebook! Clicky, clicky download, my pretties!), I was doing fairly well with writing. It took me roughly a week to finish a chapter, and I was able to write 20 in the first year alone. And then...well, I guess you could say life happened.
I met a man, we had what some would probably call a whirlwind courtship, I married him, we settled into domestic life and...I quit writing. Not quit as in, "I am never writing again, evah!" Quit as in, "Oh, write? Why would I wanna do something silly like that when I could fuck around on Facebook instead?"
Yeah.
I used to be one of those that had an impressive little backlog of material. I was about six chapters ahead of the viewing audience, but when the aforementioned life began to happen, I quickly used it all up. I became what I always hated: a person that writes and updates as they go along. There's no set schedule anymore. I update when I have something to slap up there. Maybe it'll be a week from the last one, maybe it'll be a month - but it'll come. Patience, grasshopper.
This, obviously, got me to thinking. I suppose if I really wanted to, I could start hitting it again with the writing. I could force myself to start writing Nano-style (not giving a shit if it was any good or not) and have a bunch more chapters for my overwhelmingly vocal (HA!) audience to enjoy. But...I've seen stories that do have that. I've also seen how quality falls by the wayside. I've seen "your" in place of "you're", I've seen implausible, unrealistic storylines - hell, I've even seen subtle plagiarism, though I honestly found it more flattering than anything else. Boo yah.
It's not my scene. I'm not saying I'm immune to silly grammatical mistakes, but I refuse to fall for the other two. I won't have a scene that doesn't advance the story in some way. I won't put anything on the website that would compromise the integrity of the story thus far. I won't, no matter how tempting it might get, go ripping anyone else off, just to have a dramatic moment of my own. I am better than that. I can wait, and since I'm not really dealing with a screaming, rabid throng of readers up my ass, presumably they can too. To me, it's the only thing I can do. I won't sell out, and I won't give anyone that is reading anything less than my absolute best.
I think I'm making the right decision. There are probably some who would disagree, but they're the very same ones that missed the clear distinction between "its" and "it's" in grade 2, so their opinions don't amount to much, really. I will continue this story when the words come. I will finish this story when I can come up with an ending to do it justice. Until then? I'll brush up on my grammar, ignore the imbeciles and live my life. I think it's all I can do, you?
As far as this goes, I try for quality. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. As you know, I post a lot of flash fiction and mostly that's posted as is. I write it and then I shove it up there for the world to see. That's not me being lazy. Flash fiction is supposed to be short pieces that stream straight from your thoughts onto the page. To me that means editing it takes away its entire definition.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the WIP I'm working on is definitely a quality piece. I'll go over it tonnes of times before I actually commit to it seeing any other eyes than my own and the few people I trust to correct me and give honest unbiased opinions on my work.
I think with what you're writing, you're definitely making the right decision. Don't let outside pressure push you into making a mistake that you'll later regret. =)
I disagree, and I know the difference between "its" and "it's." :)
ReplyDeleteIt is your decision if you want to go slow with the story because you're busy with life. You're young anyway, and it sounds like you've just had a readjustment in priorities. We all go through that at some point.
But I update weekly. I actually have been writing as I go, which I hate but only because it's an inconvenience to me to have to write a chapter in a week, give it a day, and then proofread it.
I believe that my consistency is the key to gaining readership. Because people know they can count on me to update regularly and because they know they can count on me to finish a story. They read along with me and look forward to my updates.
And it's just me-- no beta readers or extra pairs of eyes doing any editing for me. My grammar is fine though typos sneak in there sometimes.
So I'll share my post here with my lessons learned from weekly updates for almost two years.
Lunar, I must clarify: The point of not knowing "its" from "it's" was directed at one person. This person goes on Twitter to repeatedly slam others for not having a backlog of material and boasts that s/he can write 32 episodes in one day. However, having seen the work produced, I'd much rather be the tortoise in this scenario. That said, I'm going to check out your post as soon as I post this. Thanks for the extra perspective. I suppose I'm a jaded old bitch to make blanket statements like that, when I really just mean one person, so I do apologize for the confusion.
ReplyDeleteRebecca - I know myself. I've forced myself to write a few scenes just so I could get them out of the way and move on and I'm NEVER happy with the finished product. I always find it lacking, even if nobody else picks up on it. To me, it wasn't the best that I could do and I hate settling for anything less than my best. It probably also ties into me being a raging perfectionist. I should work on that.
Thanks for the responses, ladies!
No worries, Bex. I just had to add my two cents, but don't worry I wasn't offended or anything. I hope I didn't sound too snotty there. :o
ReplyDeleteBTW, I did make a comment on your entry, but Wordpress despises me for some reason (the feeling is mutual!) and always traps my comments into the spam filter. Just FYI in case it got stuck there again.
ReplyDeleteGlad you weren't offended and no, you didn't sound snotty. I just didn't realize until your post that others might potentially find my scorn offensive, when I really only meant that one illiterate braggart.