I'm a major typer. I can't think in longhand. All my creative juice gets sucked into the pen.

I write best when I'm busy downloading a gigantic file from the Internet, so I can't really surf the web. ;)

I'd forgotten how nice writing longhand can feel. Normally I use a biro and a little reporter's notepad, but last night I found my old Parker fountain pen and had a go with that, on a some clean sheets of A4 lined. It's got a sensual side to it that's great for writing erotica. I'm putting it on my list of 'ways to get through difficult sex scenes'.

Um. Where but here would I be saying that?

*so loving this thread*

I'm writing a novel for the first time. I've only ever written poems and short stories, so it's been an interesting process. I'm so used to compact imagery, and layered words that I didn't think I could sustain a metaphor longer than 10 pages. I guess I'll see. I find it sort of grueling though. That's one of the biggest mistakes I make about writing, I tend to think that it's not work, but really, it's the definition of work. (albeit enjoyable and exciting) Someone told me 90% of people who start novels never finish them. I'm hoping to be part of the industrious 10%, even if I never sleep again.

Brynn, isn't a complete hoop-toss? I've managed precisely three short stories in my entire career (not counting Buffyfic), and I sweated over each one. Novels? Charging down the straightaway on my twelfth, no problem.

If you can do the short story form, I salute you. I find them incredibly tricky to do at all, much less do well.

I guess I'll see. I find it sort of grueling though. That's one of the biggest mistakes I make about writing, I tend to think that it's not work, but really, it's the definition of work.

Heh, heh, heh, the truth gets out... and if you don't gruel through it, it generally never gets finished.

Then comes revision!

My friend Kit Kerr compared novel-writing to swimming the English Channel - you get all excited when you push off, and the swimming's fine, but after a couple of hours you're out of the sight of land and not sure where you're going, and maybe you can't even see the support boat, and you're cold and very very tired and maybe the urge is there to just give up and sink beneath the waves, because the very idea of France seems like a dream....

Um, that's a little less encouraging than I had remembered....

you get all excited when you push off, and the swimming's fine, but after a couple of hours you're out of the sight of land and not sure where you're going, and maybe you can't even see the support boat, and you're cold and very very tired and maybe the urge is there to just give up and sink beneath the waves, because the very idea of France seems like a dream....

I think you might need to add the part where the sun comes out, and the support boat's in sight again, and the seagulls are pretty, and then you see some land...

Not that I've ever got past "where's that boat gone?", myself.

If you can do the short story form, I salute you. I find them incredibly tricky to do at all, much less do well.

It's kind of odd, when I was younger I thought short stories were by and large the easiest form. I've only ever had one piece published and it was a short story that I wrote in high school. Then I started University and realized that they're considered the most difficult (to write at least). I remember my first year English Prof saying that in a novel, there are "throwaway" words. In a short story everything is specifically chosen, everything is there for a reason. I have to admit, it's kind of psyched me out. The more I study litterature, the harder I find it to write creatively because I'm more aware of my structures, pacing etc. Some people can write that way, me I have to clear a space for myself. Otherwise I erase 9 words for every 7 I write.

Anyway, the novel didn't start out that way... I just started working on a short story and realized after about 14 pages that it demanded a bigger scope than that of a short story. Although, it might be more of a novella... I'm not sure yet, but sometimes it's frightening, because it is so much larger than I am.

The more I study litterature, the harder I find it to write creatively because I'm more aware of my structures, pacing etc.

This will undoubtedly get me blasted from several sides of the arena, but it's why I never took a writing class. I'm the daughter of a musician, the youngest of four, and the only one who showed a natural ear. He flatly refused to let me study music as a kid because (his phrase, not mine), "formal musical education has ruined more good creative heads than opium ever did." His take was, see if you have something to say before you bury yourself in someone else's theory on how to say it.

He was talking about composers, not interpreters, but it sort of stuck. I still find the best way to deal with pacing is to read the thing aloud in progress, first to myself and then to listeners. Also, instinct comes in at some point for most writers. If it feels slow writing it or reading it aloud? There's generally a damned good chance it really is slow.

That's such an interesting issue, deb. To date, I have been terrified of formally studying songwriting. As though I fear I would be 'contaminated' by the process and would never again create my own structure or form. In this latest bout, I've been considering it, though, becase I fear I'm shortchanging myself.

Hrm...

I must consider.