Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

My nano project (such as it was) was to finish various nano projects. I was wondering how do you recapture your mojo on a story that you've set aside. ushobwri also just had it as a theme which got my brain on it. For me, it's rereading it, making notes as I go. Sometimes I can figure out where I've gone wrong, like the one where it got too angry (hello Trump years). Others, I have no idea why I walked off, like my gaslight mystery. (Okay I suspect it was the fact it was unbalance, second chance romantic subplot vs murder plot which shouldn't be a hard fix but I had moved on).

I think this is where I miss having an in person writers group (or at least a beta reader team). I'm the type that works better with sounding boards. I'd love to hear how you do it (with the caveat of YMMV)

OPEN CALLS

Submissions: Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores December 2024 (2 day submission window)

Short Story Substack December 2024 Window

Pretend You Don’t See Her

Meetinghouse Magazine Volume 5

The Joining: Scenes of Wedding Terror



From Around the Web


Scared Today, Stronger Tomorrow: The Power Of Horror

How to Choose Point of View Characters for Your Novel

7 Critical Strategies for Marketing Books on Amazon Like a Pro

5 Myths About Tarot That Storytellers Should Know

Are You a Good Writer?

25 Magazines Seeking Hybrid Writing

How to Make a Custom Book Cover: Step-by-Step Guide for First-Time Authors

When’s the best time to publish your book? Now!

How to Write a Chapter Outline in 7 Steps

From Betty

Eight Stories I Turn to When Real Life Is Bleak

Nine Ways to Describe Your Viewpoint Character

Why Some Dark Topics Are More Sensitive Than Others definitely a YMMV article

Narrative Pushback Can Make the Jerks You Write Palatable

Can My Hero Inherit Skills?

Pacing Tips for Fiction

The Narrative Significance of Place

Nailing Teen Dialogue in YA Fiction

The Power of Reader Magnets

Five Fears of Writers (and How to Defeat Them)

Character Secret Thesaurus Entry: Hiding a Sexual Relationship

Should writers pay for editing?

Tidbit



Al nodded, bringing her walkie talkie to her lips, and whispered, “She’s up here.”

Javier pointed to the door and Dan tried the knob. It opened to a room in the ‘tower’ common to Victorian homes. All the walls were lined with mirrored tiles, the type that had been popular in the 70s as an accent wall. The woman sat in the center of the room, chanting surrounded by candles. Seeing them, she merely smiled.

“It’s a psychomanteum,” Al said. What could she be trying to talk to?

43111 / 50000 words. 86% done!

Comments

[ysilme]

You're proceeding nicely, go you! *\O/*

I had similar plans for my notNaNo - finishing a few stories and working in earnest at what has actually been my first ever NaNo project. I failed rather badly so far and am not sure why exactly; but writing in general is going really badly for me right now as well. The main culprits are definitely two large projects which have taken over a lot more of my mental capacities than I'm willing to give, but I won't be able to get rid of either of them soon or even in the midterm, so I have to learn to adapt. Not in time for a satisfying NaNo, though, although I at least try to reach my set word count goal, if not finishing at least one of the planned stories - it's too late for that already.

I'm having a hard time to recapture my mojo this time, but - I think - not for the reason I haven't worked on any of the stories for so long - I have to take up a WIP again so often that I'm often dealing with the issue, and it feels different this time, as if I didn't have the space in my head for the mojo, if that makes any sense.
However, usually for me re-reading is the way to go, sometimes also doing something in the respective genre - I'm mostly writing High fantasy, but also Age of Sail-Regency-ish, and found it surprisingly helpful to get the writing drive and my mojo back just by playing certain videogames, and also reading or watching the source material or favourite novels, transformative or fanworks in the genre. I find that particularly with playing videogames after re-reading a WIP I want to work at, I get new ideas, find solutions, or realise what I want to do differently.

[cornerofmadness]

I'm sorry that your mojo is in hiding (frankly there's so much going on right now that I'm shocked anyone has creativity). I hope those projects ease up on you a bit though.

The idea of reading/watching/playing something in your genre is a good one too. I tend to do that more with stuck fanfic (who doesn't love a good rewatch anyhow?) I haven't tried it m uch for my original fic. I'll have to give that a good.

good luck on those stories

[spikedluv]

I find it very hard to get back to the head space I was in when I was writing an abandoned fic! Someone was bid on me to write a follow-up to my Very First Teen Wolf fics (there was a sequel to the first) and I had no idea what to do. I told them they'd have to come up with ideas for me. In the end they disappeared so I never had to write it, but I don't know what it would have looked like.

Definitely re-reading it is the first step to remind me what I did in the first place, and then trying to remember what the ideas I had for the balance of the fic were, if I didn't write them down. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

[cornerofmadness]

It can be hard to get back in that head space. it is something I'm actually pretty good at. My problem is plot goes into a black hole never to come out again.

I had your situation with a charity auction. I did manage to finally finish the story (and then wrote like 5 more after because apparently I went nuts)