Open Thread: Oracle Hotline

[mithen]

--If you lost all ability to read and write for a day, what would you do?

o_O Um...you know what, I would probably take it as a sign that I needed to do a ton of housework, so I would find some loud energetic music to crank up and get to it.

Got a bunch of writing done this week, yay! Struggled a LOT with a problematic chapter that clocked in at about 6,000 words and had way too much information in it to be one easily-digestible chapter, so I was forced to break it into three much shorter chapters (two didn't work right with the pacing of the chapter, alas!). I think it works okay that way (and has the advantage that I should be able to update a little more often!) but I am still chagrined... Has this ever happened to anyone? How do you deal with long stories and the challenges of timing chapters? And in general, how goes the writing?

Comments

[me_ya_ri]

Knit. Sew. Clean the freaking kitchen floor. Weed the garden. Do laundry. Listen to music. Watch some of the movies I haven't watched for ages. Sleep! *grin* Tons of things if it was just one day. If it was more than one day, oh crap, I'd freak out so very badly.

My writing stagnated this week. I just couldn't spend the time I needed on it. I'm on chapter 5 of my newest novel and it's going well, just slowly. I do have problems with pacing the chapters all the time. I tend to break it into scenes and then say each scene should be about 800-1500 words (that's industry standard, FYI) and then I'll try and create a cliffhanger or scene break or something that will create drama around the 3000 word point (also industry standard for a chapter). I've done it enough that I kind of intuitively know that hey, I need to be building excitement around now or hmmm, I need another few hundred words before I end this chapter.

Good luck on your writing! :D

[mithen]

If it was more than one day, oh crap, I'd freak out so very badly.

I originally read the question as "forever" and my gut response was WHY WOULD YOU EVEN MAKE ME CONSIDER THIS. :)

Oooh, I am oddly happy to know the industry standards--something I could have googled at any time and did not think to. :P I usually intuitively aim for about 2500-3500 for a chapter, so I'm glad of that. I will just have to chalk this one up to infodump weirdness and resolve to pace better in the future, I think...