Advice?

[deadpunk]

Sometimes killing that character that you just can't get rid of adds a lot to the story. It can really take things in a direction you didn't see it going. Yet sometimes, the untimely demise of a character that has served their purpose can be blatantly obvious to the reader. By far, this is one of the worst downfalls of horror movies: Character X shows up to deliver one important line, and summarily gets offed by the baddie. We all see it coming. Want to really take a story in a direction you never saw coming? Try killing off a main character without using the old MARTYR plotline. Just have it happen out of the blue... Capn..have you written anything else while working on this? Or, has this ONE story eaten up 10 years of your life alone? If this thing has kept you from writing anything else, then I'd agree with Arc: SCRAP IT! It's holding you back. Whats interesting to note is, SK shelved THE GUNSLINGER for over 15 years. And when he finally picked up the series, it was worth the read for about 4 installments. The more recent ones, however, feel like he is just trying to appease his readers and get the monkey off his back.

[capncnut]

Capn..have you written anything else while working on this? Or, has this ONE story eaten up 10 years of your life alone? Wrote a bunch of short stories, mostly non-horror. Some are completed, some aren't. As I said, it's only a part time thing so it's not eating up my life. An event occurred when my pc got corrupted and had to be re-configured, I retrieved many of my folders but unfortunately I lost a fair bit of the story. I still got my 34 pages though. It's a shame because I've pitched it many friends and work colleagues and they all say I'm really on to something. Since joining HPotD, my Dead story has started to progress a bit more. I just wish I had to time to dedicate myself to it fully.

[dracenstein]

Just write your story down. It's a first draft and intended only to clarify your plot, characters and story. Read it, then expand it and write in your best flowery prose. I am intending to write a zombie novel and completed my first draft and it took more than a year to do it. I knew as I was writing it that it was nowhere near the finished form. Now I have a laptop and transcribing to it. In the process I'm adding more to it, expanding it and correcting the spelling and grammar. Even as I wrote the first draft I was aware I was leaving out huge chunks but I kept writing it down, getting the story down. Then I read it. Now I'm doing the second draft I'm putting in the 'missing' scenes, expanding character and description and reordering certain scenes to make it fit. In the first draft, I was surprised that I introduced a character I hadn't thought of, and he played a greater part than I originally thought he would play before getting himself killed. The main reason I'm so slow in writing it is because I have a full time job and I take so long going to and back that I'm usually really tired in the evenings to write. Then if I do overtime? No chance. I just took a break and wrote a short story and am now getting back to it. What I'm saying is, it does have, or need, to be perfect first time round. Just get the story down.

[Khardis]

What advice would you give to someone who's been writing a zombie story for nearly 10 years and is too deeply stuck in a perfectionist glitch to carry on past 34 pages? Cap, just write through it, and remember you can always go back and edit. Ive written stories only to get to the end and realize that the beggining was strong and the end was strong but the body could have gone in differnt twists. As such I went back and edited it. Works every time. Just write through it.

[capncnut]

Since posting my dilemma I have to say that my 34 pages have now transformed into a much more promising 61 pages. This first draft is now flowing nicely but... (again) work commitments are getting in the way of my masterpiece. I took my initial 34 pages, re-touched it during a late night brainstorm session and it has now morphed into a totally different piece altogether. Still zombies, but just not as many as I envisaged. My dialogue tends to over-ramble a little but that can be tweaked later and I now have three or four different end trails ('end trails' geddit? oh neverm...). I'd say I'm a good halfway through and I'm hoping that my creative juices don't run dry with the mundane tedium that is work. Thanks for the advice guys!

[EvilFlyingCow]

I'm curious to know how your story is coming along. How many pages you got now?

[Eyebiter]

Read what you have written. Then get a small tape recorder and go for a walk in the country. Tell the story as if you were a survivor, remembering the tale years later. Once you have the basic framework established then go back and write it up.

[capncnut]

I'm curious to know how your story is coming along. How many pages you got now? Slowly shaping up, but I'm getting there. It's pretty solid at the moment and I have to say it's the first time I've been satisfied with my storytelling so I'm not rushing it. Took a detour for a couple of weeks to tweak up a short story I am writing, which is an abstract horror piece. Very cryptic stuff. Thinking about posting it somewhere as it will be finished shortly.

[deadpunk]

Since posting my dilemma I have to say that my 34 pages have now transformed into a much more promising 61 pages. This first draft is now flowing nicely but... (again) work commitments are getting in the way of my masterpiece. I took my initial 34 pages, re-touched it during a late night brainstorm session and it has now morphed into a totally different piece altogether. Still zombies, but just not as many as I envisaged. My dialogue tends to over-ramble a little but that can be tweaked later and I now have three or four different end trails ('end trails' geddit? oh neverm...). I'd say I'm a good halfway through and I'm hoping that my creative juices don't run dry with the mundane tedium that is work. Thanks for the advice guys! Add 3 years...can we get an update?