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Some Writing Headaches
Beginning/Ending
Many will argue which is the bigger headache. But both are important and bring pressure. You need to grab readers quickly, but you also don't want to leave them with a bad taste in their mouths.
Characters With a Mind of Their Own
I try to bend characters to my story and my will. Every now and again, a character will have no part of it. Then you face two roads: force a showdown or see where they lead. (I try to follow most of the time.)
Genre Classification
Do you cross genres or stay true to one? I tend to avoid labels, so this one is particularly tough for me. For more of my thoughts on this, read my I am Woman Hear Me Road, for Shoes? post.
Editing
For my G post, I discussed the importance of grammar and editing. But when do you stop? I truly believe you can edit from now until the end of time. At some point you have to own it and let it go.
Summary/Blurb
I loved the premise of our novel, Depression Cookies. In fact, I could talk about it all day long and in great detail. But I found narrowing down 543 pages into a reader-catching blurb near to impossible.
Cover
Your only shot at that coveted first impression. Although I do wonder if the cover's power is slightly diminished by Amazon. It was one thing when people browsed covers in a bookstore, not so sure people browse covers online. Am I wrong?
Dreaded Writer's Block
Or what I like to call... Life. Sometimes, no matter how great the idea or the passion, the words will not come.
At least these headaches lead to a better product in most cases, so maybe the post should have been called Helpful Headaches. Of course, the only way to ease the headache is to face it head on, no pun intended.
What headaches do you find in the writing process?
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I hope you'll be back for some more Blogging from A to Z fun. Tomorrow is Isn't It Ironic? = I.
6 comments:
I used to find a lot of headaches as I settled into the writing life, but as time went by, I learnt to accept them as part of the challenge and no longer see them as painful.
Good luck!
Revision is definitely my headache. I know the book needs it, it's just so hard turning it from what it is to what I want it to be :-)
Editing, or more specifically, knowing when to STOP editing. Kinda like trying to level a table by cutting a bit off one leg ... and then another ... and, now oops! I have to trim a bit off the other two... etc, etc. If I don't STOP editing pretty darned soon, my table won't have any legs left at all. Happy A-Zing. Count me in as your newest follower.
Editing is by far my worst nightmare and I'm working hard to learn to edit myself but I'm still mulling through. Every time I have to face a white page its a bit hard to get the juices flow--like new chapters or first pages--but in general I'm enjoying myself.
Nice post.
From Diary of a Writer in Progress
I'm laughing at how you were able to get this to be your "H" post. Love it!
Thanks for all your comments. Looks like editing scores a migraine level headache!
I do think these headaches get better over time and make the product better.
I'm catching up on A to Z reading tomorrow. I so appreciate all of you visiting.
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