Creative Me - In Need Of A Writing Buddy

“There is no greater agony
than bearing an untold story inside you.“

Maya Angelou

The morning starts with the obligatory cup of coffee, dark chocolate and the perfect melody of Rhapsody in Blue… Ah, those wonderful moments, when you are surrounded by treats, looking intently at the blank page. Writing is much like giving birth…Coffee helps. Collaboration helps, that’s why I am actively seeking for adherents, because teamwork somehow boosts my sense of humor, and it is legendary. But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for: that reliable, positive person who will be deeply involved in playing with me. That person with whom we will start a game, which will be an addiction, an indulgement, an obsession, and we will be joining efforts together every minute of every day to eventually see our story comes to life...Well, dedicated literary partners are as hard to find as in-love material.

So I keep calm and play with myself – I have an enchanting little blog…which I disclose whispering in your ear. They’ve told me my blog has to be read twice for the reader to know what happens…I think that’s fascinating.

Besides blogging, I am working on several books… and the heap is getting bigger every month, but I simply have trouble finishing them, because I get a little disappointed around the middle. Why? Because of all the things in the world I can’t create conflict. Having a rather harmonious personality, I can’t “kill my darlings” as Steven King proposes as a writing approach. In normal books, people climb the hill and stand there and sing: “Hooray!” Well, my characters are sitting on the top of the hill and crying from joy “Hooray!” the entire time, nothing bad ever happens to them…besides my scenes are like…the main character and ally boiling eggs together…

But then I am talented and prolific. I do not want to boast, but I am in the point of my life when talent is about to bump into experience, and something beautiful will spring out.

This is why I need a dashing writing buddy. Or several of them. I have created and populated this imaginary world, a beautiful magickal planet, with Enchanted Forests, Golden Rivers and Houses made of mushrooms, princesses and kings, and royals and their desires, and Gods and Goddesses, and elves, and dwarves, and fairies, and witches, and wizards, and for that matter unicorns, and fairy tale folk. Shapeshifters, magick wands, and sorceresses are welcome, as well as pendants and bracelets of different powers, and swords with names…oh!

And I want to write romance-vanilla stories which take place there.

I am painfully creative. I need help!

 

The way you write is captivating, I enjoyed reading this little piece. I would love to read stories written by you. And as far as being a writing buddy is concerned, I am interested, but then I am not as good as you.

 

Thanks a lot, you are being very kind!

 

Spelling mistakes, capital letters where they shouldn't be. You need help with your English. Talent my dear is not enough. I used to tell students this as they got all teary eyed. First things first...nothing turns me off faster from reading a story than to see mistakes that a 12 year old would make.

You've got the desire and the talent, so now go and refine it before you call yourself a writer. Good luck to you with your writers journey. It can be long and hard, remember that realism is far more productive than romanticism.

 

I'd love to volunteer to be your writing buddy, but I'm so busy writing, I don't have time to critique for my own critique partners. (Fortunately, they love me and haven't given me the boot. Yet.)

It's a well-known fact that middles muddle. You're right--you need to consider your conflicts; without a strong conflict to propel your plot, your story is going to bog down, probably after the third or fourth chapter. In a romance, your hero and heroine each need to have an internal and an external conflict, and a story arc, too. I'd like to suggest you don't consider a conflict to be a horrific catastrophe, or even something negative, like an argument. It's simply a challenge your character needs to overcome, or a problem to be solved. And--here's where it gets really scary--if you want your reader to keep reading, you need to create some kind of compelling conflict for each scene.

That being said, it gets easier with practice; in time, you'll find yourself torturing your characters just for the fun of it. Again, it doesn't have to be some huge thing. It can be as simple as...well, you say your hero and the villain would boil eggs together. Let's say one likes their eggs hard boiled, and the other likes them soft boiled. There's a conflict right there. (If you have children, you'll know that food with the wrong consistency or color is enough to cause a temper tantrum, or worse--projectile vomiting. Now that's a conflict. Yuck.) It's how your viewpoint character deals with the problem that keeps your reader turning the pages. Staying in a limited third person POV--deep pov--makes it all the more entertaining. (ex. Runny eggs are like boogers. I can't eat this...what do I do? I know...I'll hide it in my saddlebag. But then, the character forgets, and when she arrives at the castle to meet the Queen, she discovers the runny egg smashed and smooshed all over the gown she intended to wear. And worse, it spoiled. Now what will I do? I'll never be a courtier. I'm going to have to work in the kitchens! I smell like death!...)

You get the idea. A conflict is simply a problem that causes a decision, that creates a consequence, that generates another problem...

My advice is to stop babying your characters and let them grow through their difficulties. Otherwise, you're just creating character sketches, and as pretty as they may be, they're not going to become a story that you can publish and sell.

Sorry. I'll climb off my know-it-all soapbox now...