^^^^ I decided that I hate my story idea because I kinds feel like it’s going to accidentally turn into something really bad like the twilight series and I don’t want that. I’m already like 8,000 words behind and I don’t know what to do. Help me please
You can always edit later! If you really want to finish with 50,000 words this month, just keep at it and ask yourself how you can turn the novel into something you want to write about. Even if that means significant plot changes or something drastically changing, it's ultimately your novel and you should be enjoying writing it, too!
For example, if you have a character you think is too cookiecutter, change that: have them get mugged, or break their leg, or have a distant relative leave them something expensive (or something mysterious!). If you don't like the dynamics between characters, have a big fight and mix things up. If you need more action, make it happen!
Obviously there's no all-encompassing trick everyone can use to make it through novels, but it can be a slag some days. The trick I use most is to just push myself through and keep writing. You'll either break through to the other side and eventually get somewhere you enjoy writing, or you'll have thousands and thousands of works you can move around, cut, rework, expand upon, etc during editing. As much as you can, don't worry too much about editing now until you've got the groove out and written through the month! :)
Awwwwwww, andrew (Our Supreme Lord and Overseer)❤️❤️
Thank you!
@andrew (Our Supreme Lord and Overseer) Have you ever finished anything? Published?
@The Athalosian Indeed I have, but only self-published. I have one novel published and two short story anthologies (52 short stories each). I'm always working on something (and have a few manuscripts of 50k+ from a few years of NaNo that I still need to finish the plot of), but I'm thinking my next book will be another 52-story collection next year. We'll see :)
What are they called in case I want to read them?
Haha, you probably don't want to read them – they're not that good (I wrote the first one when I was in high school, at 18). It's "The Church of Anonymous" and I believe it's still on Amazon.
The short story collections I do every 5 years where I write a short story every week and then publish it at the end of the year. They're called Thing a Week 2010 and Thing a Week 2015 and neither are for sale right now for some reason (I'll have to look into that), although there's apparently a few copies of the first on eBay. 2010 is also free at https://books.google.com/books?id=3DjLDAAAQBAJ&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false, or the individual stories (to both) are all on my personal website at http://drusepth.net/ :) Unfortunately, the first story in the book is my least favorite of all of the stories in the book (since they're chronological), so there's that too. :P
I hesitate to recommend any of them because I think my writing has improved significantly since I wrote each of them (and there's a ton I'd change now), but… there they are. :P
I feel you. I have destroyed all my earlier work, and plan on rewriting a whole bunch of the rest. But I’d like to check them out none.
*Nonetheless.