To Be Continued

It’s over. The first two weeks went great for me, I wrote ~20 000 words and was having a lot of fun. But then the crucial point came: I needed to spend some time working out my plot. The first 50 pages I was writing entirely off the cuff, which worked out fine. My main character had no idea what was going on and neither did I. What stopped me in my tracks was when I needed to start playing author instead of detective, and make some real decisions.

But I still really like my idea, and I intend to work on it throughout December as I will be off from school for 3 weeks and will want some sort of mental distraction from laziness. I know exactly where I want to go with the book in terms of theme and style, but I need to start making my plot more interesting. Where I stopped, is where my mystery girl Jenny Harlow is found under the most normal of circumstances, and now she has some explaining to do. I also want to make it weirder. I started out really weird with dead things all over the place and creepy atmosphere, but I kind of forgot about my original vision of terror.

Writing on this blog so far has been really great, albeit humbling. Reading Geoff’s book has really motivated me to work harder on writing again, and figure out just how to do that plot thing, with pacing and stuff. And Tasty Yumyum & Halton Stoves’ letters are hilarious, I hope they keep on writing here as well. I am going to try to participate on this blog, but I do have some qualms. I had a blog for years and years back in the day, and I developed some issues with putting my unedited work out in the public. I take fair criticism well, I take unfair criticism very poorly. At this point in my life as a budding and inexperienced writer, anonymous notes informing me of my pretentiousness and poor style can do a lot to crush my ego. Yes I know I’m snobbish and I know that I’m not a good writer yet, I just don’t need other people I don’t know telling me that.

Thanks Leigh for letting me participate here! I like the cut of your jib. (Gib?) (Ed. Note: Jib.)

Expect more from me soon.

9 thoughts on “To Be Continued”

    1. Hahahaha… I have news for you, Vo: when someone whose URL is “wankspider.com” insults someone intelligent, the intelligent person actually takes that as a compliment. I would be absolutely mortified if you *didn’t* hate what we are doing here.

      Now please go away, the grownups are talking.

      1. What are you talking about? Everyone knows that Wankspider is leading the cultural zeitgeist. Frankly, I am mortified.

    2. Apparently a lot of people said that to Marcel Proust as well.
      (I’m comparing myself to Marcel Proust and it’s hilarious, fyi).

  1. I’m not going to bother reading the comment in question: I think your unedited prose is lovely. You have a very real and personal style. I look forward to reading more of your work, either on this blog, or –if you’re bashful about the larger public– in hard copy. I’ve gone through a lot of drafts in my time, and I would be happy to read or copy edit yours when you are happy with it.

    Cheers!

    –Geoff

    1. Thanks Geoff! This means a lot coming from someone who actually knows what they’re doing. I’d love to get my hands on a copy of your other works if at all possible, even though I am not normally one for historical fiction.

  2. Excuse me,
    I am quite familiar with the online work of Vo Nguyen Giap, and I find it almost as hard to read as his name. Is that racist? Oh well.
    Keep up the effort, Elizabeth. Someday, maybe sooner than you may believe, you, yourself, might publish something as widely lauded as my seminal works TORCH SONGS FOR WICKER MEN or NITTY GRITTY GANG BANG. Until that day, remember this: writers write, critics envy and online commentators (with the exception of yours truly, natch) are the lowest of the low, the slime that you find UNDER filth, the ring of grime ON the ring of grime around the dirtiest bathtub you have ever had the displeasure of seeing.
    Onwards, upwards, forwards and swear words,
    TY

  3. Now, in an attempt to offer some actually constructive comments, I’ll say this: I too noted that you drifted away from your original vision of darkness and madness. Of course that’s not necessarily bad, because I don’t think the actual writing quality has changed so you could still make an awesome story this way – but I agree with you that you should bring some of those elements back. I found myself more curious about your terrifying, semi-mystical vision of Toronto than I am about the more literal version it is turning into. But then again, I obviously have a preference for weird, mystical cities…

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