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Author Topic: You can do it!!  (Read 13991 times)

mare

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #15 on: January 15, 2011, 04:32:43 PM »
I totally get the English isn't your first language dilemma. I give you and everyone else a lot of credit for writing in a language other than your first. I used to help beta for a few people who needed help with the english and what I always told them was it doesn't matter about any of that. If you have a great story and believeable characters, no one will care about the small mistakes they may find throughout due to the language barrier. I can usually tell when someone is writing not in their own tongue and very rarely will that detract me from reading it if it's a good story.

Mersey, Maria and Swenglish (going back awhile for Swenglish lol) are three great examples of that.

As far as reviews. I think even though we all say not to write for reviews, we do all look at them as a barometer of how well the story is doing. I should put that in the unpopular opinion thread because I really do believe that's true lol But reviews can also freeze you from writing if you start letting how many reviews dictate how your story is going. Not everyone who reads reviews. Just remember that!

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Writing is something you do alone. Its a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don't want to make eye contact while doing it. ~ John Green

Carter-Orange

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #16 on: January 15, 2011, 04:44:38 PM »
Good to hear you'll have a new chapter Tracy!

I often keep paragraphs I've written too, they are down at the bottom of my word doc for Rewind.

I'm almost finished the next chapter now that I've had the chance to concentrate on it.
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mare

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #17 on: January 15, 2011, 05:01:16 PM »
Yay to Both of you Tracy and Steph!

I am about halfway through a new Lurks chapter myself. This is the point of the chapter where my characters start having a mind of their own and wanting to do something I dind't have planned! This is where I need to take yet another break!  lol
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Writing is something you do alone. Its a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don't want to make eye contact while doing it. ~ John Green

Carter-Orange

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #18 on: January 15, 2011, 05:19:47 PM »
I hate it when the story takes on a mind of it's own and doesn't do what I planned for it!
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mare

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #19 on: January 15, 2011, 05:32:40 PM »
I know! It's annoying but I think this time, Nick wins lol
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Carter-Orange

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #20 on: January 15, 2011, 05:39:35 PM »
It's always Nick's fault...at least it is in my stories, lol
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mare

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #21 on: January 15, 2011, 05:46:31 PM »
mine too! lol
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RokofAges75

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #22 on: January 15, 2011, 05:47:33 PM »
Quote from: hachi08 on January 15, 2011, 03:48:04 PM
@Steph & Mare:
I'm so jealous that you guys can delete your writing!  One of my big problems is that once I think of a passage, I hate to delete it.  A lot of the time, I'll copy-paste it to the very bottom of the word document to save it for later >_<  That's how I am in real life too, a total pack rat who hates to throw anything away.

I am the same way!  I can only delete once I finish the chapter and know I'm not going to use those passages, and even then, if I still like them, I put them into my outline in case I can use them later in the story somewhere.

I write really slowly because I am constantly revising and editing as I go, but once it's written, I don't like to revise more than just a few minor tweaks and proofreading.
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RokofAges75

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #23 on: January 15, 2011, 05:53:05 PM »
Quote from: mare on January 15, 2011, 04:32:43 PM
I totally get the English isn't your first language dilemma. I give you and everyone else a lot of credit for writing in a language other than your first. I used to help beta for a few people who needed help with the english and what I always told them was it doesn't matter about any of that. If you have a great story and believeable characters, no one will care about the small mistakes they may find throughout due to the language barrier. I can usually tell when someone is writing not in their own tongue and very rarely will that detract me from reading it if it's a good story.

Mersey, Maria and Swenglish (going back awhile for Swenglish lol) are three great examples of that.

I totally agree with this!  I may be a Grammar Nazi, but that's only targeted at people who have spoken English their whole lives and gone through 12-ish years of school in English and STILL don't know or care how to write coherently in the language.  I can overlook the minor mistakes you find in a story written by someone who has learned English as a second or third language.

One of my favorite series, Swollen Issues, was co-written by Swenglish, and even though I could usually tell which parts were written by her because the wording was sometimes awkward, it never detracted from my love of those stories.  Like Mare said, if the plot and characters and everything else is there, the little mistakes don't matter.
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~Julie

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Carter-Orange

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #24 on: January 15, 2011, 05:58:06 PM »
Once I've written the chapter, I go over it and maybe add/delete things, check for spelling (but no doubt some typos still get through occasionally) and then post it.  If I do delete something like a whole chapter, I'll take the bits I was happy with and keep them at the bottom of the page, and also any other ideas that pop into my head which may fit into the story somewhere.
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Mariah

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #25 on: January 16, 2011, 12:33:51 AM »
My main problem with my stuff is the fork in the road dilemma. I have an extreme difficulty with choosing one way and staying on it. With my first story that I ever wrote I remember the ideas just flowing through me. I still to this day have no idea where my ideas for The Risk came from. Plus I guess it helped that I had tons of reviews that told me how I was doing even though I already knew. God, that was so long ago.

I have this thing where I used to write out an outline before I wrote the chapter if I was ever blocked. Anyone ever tried that before? Basically like an overview of what I'm planning to write. I did that recently for truth and once I figured it was enough for a chapter or two I stopped and then started writing. Was kind of weird because as I was writing my head totally took a new direction. One I hadn't planned on doing. How odd is that? Does that ever happen to anyone here. Oh yeah, and I'm bilingual too. I spoke Russian and English around my house since I was 4. Sometimes the English gets jumbled up.
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mare

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #26 on: January 16, 2011, 07:07:36 AM »
I never use outlines. I know a lot of people on here do though. It seems to stump more tha help me for some reason. I do tend to change direction within a story several times as I go as well. My endings usually happen how I intended them to be but the getting their never goes as expected. I guess it keeps me on my toes lol

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Writing is something you do alone. Its a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don't want to make eye contact while doing it. ~ John Green

Carter-Orange

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #27 on: January 16, 2011, 07:15:57 AM »
I find that I usually know how the story will end, but it's a bit of a magical mystery tour getting there, lol.  Sometimes I might have a rough idea of what'll happen along the way, but usually it's a surprise to me.
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mare

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #28 on: January 16, 2011, 07:19:16 AM »
LOL that's half the fun. I feel like i'm improving when I write. Like a "Oh, he's doing what now?" Okay...unexpec ted but I can work with that!
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RokofAges75

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Re: You can do it!!
« Reply #29 on: January 16, 2011, 09:52:44 AM »
I do outline for most of my stories, but what kind of outline I make and how detailed it gets depends on the story.  I have some outlines that are chapter by chapter or part by part, for Secrets of the Heart and my two collaborations, but usually I'm more of a timeline person. 

My Curtain Call outline is basically a timeline, with a bunch of research at the bottom.  The way I'm writing that story is, I'm God of the story, and I get to decide what situations to put my characters in.  But since they have free will, they get to decide how to react.  So I have various points along the way that are planned out and set in stone, but how the characters get there and what happens in between is decided chapter by chapter, as I'm writing.

Then I have Guilty Roads, with no outline whatsoever, only an idea in my head of where I'm going with it.  That scares me a little, but we'll see how it goes.
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~Julie

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