Why can’t I read my own novel?!

[MissPaige36]

Hi. I’ll start off explaining that I did what most authors do: we come up with an idea and roll with it without giving it too much thought. And what happens when you do that? You realize your plot is shit halfway through and have to either drop it or re-write everything. That’s where I come in. I’ve re-written my story, 15 chapters (approximately 70-80k words?), and have now reached 29 chapters with 146k words. And I decided to read my story so I can maybe improve a bit of my plot… turns out my story is still shit. Apparently, I’m not as funny as I thought I was a few months ago…

So I now have to re-write over 100k words and several chapters somehow… How do you write a decent story in the first place?! I struggle with consistent character writing, magic system, mystery and most importantly… the villain. How do you plan something like that? I’ve tried and I’m NOT a planner. I want suggestion on how you guys avoid plot holes and inconsistencies so that I won’t keep making mistakes in the future.

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

People are really stupid they won’t really notice so just patch up big issues, also of would be helpful to get your friends to help

 

[BenJepheneT]

One thing about writing, or any hobby, actually, that you should know about, is that you constantly improve, the more you do. Take drawing for example. You could make the coolest looking pose you've ever put your character in, lock the canvas in the basement, come back to it after six months and realize how big of a piece of shit you drew. The anatomy's wack, the fingers look busted, the eyes are asymmetrical and the colours are pastel-awful. That's art for you.

You can try to rectify this by applying techniques and theories. You start by planning your story out beforehand, complete with four of the many concrete pillars of storytelling: theme, tone, characters, and setting. You may disagree with me, but that's how I run things. All I can do is tell by experience. You start by applying a theme to your story, be it loss or grief or power or courage. Then you set a tone, whether you want things to be dark but comedic, or light-hearted and fun. You construct your characters around said theme and tone, and try to have their motivations fit into the story you're trying to tell. Then you have your setting. This is crucial. A setting is an arena you set your characters' conflicts in. If it's a shit arena, you're gonna get a shit battle. You're not gonna get a serious political thriller if your main setting is a circus; though, from modern examples, this seems to be the case. After having all that, the plot will start flowing to you like natural.

Again, as much as we can talk about techniques or tips or tricks, you should always expect your past work to suck like fuck. If it DOESN'T suck like fuck, it means you're not going anywhere; you're not improving. Keep writing, keep finding mistakes, keep cringing, and keep improving. It's good that you're making this post. It means you know where you've gone wrong. Identify them and redo them. That's what rewriting's for. Just keep doing it and eventually, you'll get to the point where you won't feel like eating your kidneys every time you read your past stories.

Though you shouldn't keep rewriting the same thing over and over and expect to attain perfection. Remodelling a building from the same rickety foundation is like beating a dead horse. What you do on your first premise is undoubtedly gonna have some fundamental wrongs that can't be rectified with a simple change of a character or some plot points; issues so rudimentary it's best to discard it, or revise it from the ground-up. It's important to learn to move on and let sleeping dogs lie. I've seen writers fall into the rewriting pit and end up losing motivation entirely, giving up the hobby as a whole. Failing on one thing over and over again is prime fuel for burning out. Try writing something else, and go back to it when you're ready. Your ideas are still crushed grape juice. You need time for it to ferment and age to become the fine wine you want it to be.

 

[Scaver]

People are really stupid they won’t really notice so just pay I puke big issues

or just that you don't have many readers:)

 

[JayDirex]

Heh heh, it sounds more like you have read it so much the jokes are falling flat. And I won't tell you to leave it alone, because you won't. But if you still feel it is bad it's probably because the novel's structure is off and because you may not be writing OH WOW moments in your chapters.

Time for a lesson

THIS IS FOR ALL OF YOU AUTHORS, SO READ IT!

1. Every chapter you write needs to have a chapter goal AND (and this is important) every single chapters needs an OH WOW moment.
2. A chapter should not just be a gateway from one past event to a next future event. EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER needs to be interesting. so that means in every chapter you have to write a moment that the readers react to, and that also moves the story line. Now, it doesn't have to be a game changing moment. But a moment in every chapter that the reader can be like: "Oh Wow, that happened. Fascinating. I can't wait for the next chapter."

3. Because doing this ^ can take your story from mediocre to good. or from good to great.

 

[Scaver]

Heh heh, it sounds more like you have read it so much the jokes are falling flat. And I won't tell you to leave it alone, because you won't. But if you still feel it is bad it's probably because the structure is off and because you may not be writing OH WOW moments in your chapters.

Time for a lessons

THIS IS FOR ALL OF YOU AUTHORS, SO READ IT!

1. Every chapter you write needs to have a chapter goal AND (and this is important) every single chapters needs an OH WOW moment.
2. A chapter should not just be a gateway from one past event to a next future event. EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER needs to be interesting. so that means in every chapter you have to write a moment that the readers react to, and that also moves the story line. Now, it doesn't have to be a game changing moment. But a moment in every chapter that the reader can be like: "Oh Wow, that happened. Fascinating. I can't wait for the next chapter."

3. Because doing this ^ can take your story from mediocre to good. or from good to great.

What if the chapter is only 1200 words or so?
That's gonna be hard then

 

[JayDirex]

What if the chapter is only 1200 words or so?
That's gonna be hard then

that's a standard chapter length. The perfect length to say something interesting.

 

[MissPaige36]

Though you shouldn't keep rewriting the same thing over and over and expect to attain perfection. Remodelling a building from the same rickety foundation is like beating a dead horse. What you do on your first premise is undoubtedly gonna have some fundamental wrongs that can't be rectified with a simple change of a character or some plot points; issues so rudimentary it's best to discard it, or revise it from the ground-up. It's important to learn to move on and let sleeping dogs lie. I've seen writers fall into the rewriting pit and end up losing motivation entirely, giving up the hobby as a whole. Failing on one thing over and over again is prime fuel for burning out. Try writing something else, and go back to it when you're ready. Your ideas are still crushed grape juice. You need time for it to ferment and age to become the fine wine you want it to be.

Great advice! Really appreciate it. And you’re right, I shouldn’t constantly re-write my work. But the thing is, I have tried to drop it and write something else, only to have nothing in mind. The reason why I’m writing this is to learn how to finish a story. I don’t plan on re-writing every time I hit a major number or anything like that, it was just that my story was literally falling flat on it’s face after chapter 20. I’ll keep all your advice in mind and plan before I start writing, thank you for answering to my post. I appreciate it.

 

[Agentt]

Hi. I’ll start off explaining that I did what most authors do: we come up with an idea and roll with it without giving it too much thought. And what happens when you do that? You realize your plot is shit halfway through and have to either drop it or re-write everything. That’s where I come in. I’ve re-written my story, 15 chapters (approximately 70-80k words?), and have now reached 29 chapters with 146k words. And I decided to read my story so I can maybe improve a bit of my plot… turns out my story is still shit. Apparently, I’m not as funny as I thought I was a few months ago…

So I now have to re-write over 100k words and several chapters somehow… How do you write a decent story in the first place?! I struggle with consistent character writing, magic system, mystery and most importantly… the villain. How do you plan something like that? I’ve tried and I’m NOT a planner. I want suggestion on how you guys avoid plot holes and inconsistencies so that I won’t keep making mistakes in the future.

*pats*
There there.

I am not a planner as well,
Here is what you do.

You can come up with reasons why that plothole won't work.

You can just say it didn't cross their mind, you can do this by having them come up with that plothole themselves and going, "ah! That was so stupid."


But the main part is to just edit every chapter after writing, and that's all. Rest, just roll with it. Learn not to cringe. What you seek is something that will accumulate with experience

 

[BenJepheneT]

2. A chapter should not just be a gateway from one past event to a next future event. EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER needs to be interesting. so that means in every chapter you have to write a moment that the readers react to, and that also moves the story line. Now, it doesn't have to be a game changing moment. But a moment in every chapter that the reader can be like: "Oh Wow, that happened. Fascinating. I can't wait for the next chapter."

though this is good advice, it shouldn't be the basis for absolutely every chapter. depending on what type of story you're writing, a constant climax across EVERY chapter will be detrimental to your flow and your narrative. you can see this in your common action manhwa, where there's so much high octane action and explosions in every chapter that nothing feels detrimental anymore. since there's no downtime or moment to breathe, there's no need for any anticipation. it wouldn't take away from the plot or the story, but you'll be losing a key flavour to your story by doing so.

now, you can definitely adopt different structures for the chapters to punch, like a non-linear structure, where you jump from a simple light-hearted chapter to a heavy punch in the gut with a sudden turn of events in a big leap on the timeline, but my point still stands. mulling chapters are OKAY. it can be a gateway from one past event to the next future event. this is called a transition. you can use this downtime to reinforce some characters, or tease the next plot line. it may not be interesting, but so is defrosting the patties for a good burger. some ingredients just need longer preparation time. you can still make the burger by heating the meat up yourself and speeding up the process, but in doing so you may undermine the package's true potential as a whole. your readers aren't attention-deficient. the anticipation for the next event can carry onto the subsequent chapters, so long as you know how long of a breather you should take.

Great advice! Really appreciate it. And you’re right, I shouldn’t constantly re-write my work. But the thing is, I have tried to drop it and write something else, only to have nothing in mind. The reason why I’m writing this is to learn how to finish a story. I don’t plan on re-writing every time I hit a major number or anything like that, it was just that my story was literally falling flat on it’s face after chapter 20. I’ll keep all your advice in mind and plan before I start writing, thank you for answering to my post. I appreciate it.

My advice would be the same as my last post. Plan that shit out, chief. And I don't mean writing down a few notes about how the story will go, major plot points, and an ending. I mean a play-by-play on how each arc would go, the major characters involved, interactions between each major characters, what the chapter is written for and what it establishes/reinforces/pushes in the plot. The more stuck you are, the more planning you need. I have the same issue with my first series back in 2018. After getting stuck, I scrapped the whole thing and began in scratch, but this time, I planned the whole thing top to bottom. No joke, I have 2 notebooks filled to the absolute brim just detailing how the story as a whole will go. That's how much planning I did to salvage my sinking ship. Not saying you need as much patchwork to get your ship sailing, but that's just an example of how planning will get you far. It wouldn't be as fun or exciting as writing on the seat of your pants, but it definitely keeps you on the right course.

Another thing I'd try if I were you is to write short stories REGARDING your current series' universe. I tried that myself and found better familiarity with my series intended theme and plot. Plus, it's great practice for world-building. No need for big, sweeping fables and tales. You can have two old men reminiscing about the good ol' days in a cafe at 1.5k words. Even that will be enough to set you back on track.

 

[MissPaige36]

My advice would be the same as my last post. Plan that shit out, chief. And I don't mean writing down a few notes about how the story will go, major plot points, and an ending. I mean a play-by-play on how each arc would go, the major characters involved, interactions between each major characters, what the chapter is written for and what it establishes/reinforces/pushes in the plot. The more stuck you are, the more planning you need. I have the same issue with my first series back in 2018. After getting stuck, I scrapped the whole thing and began in scratch, but this time, I planned the whole thing top to bottom. No joke, I have 2 notebooks filled to the absolute brim just detailing how the story as a whole will go. That's how much planning I did to salvage my sinking ship. Not saying you need as much patchwork to get your ship sailing, but that's just an example of how planning will get you far. It wouldn't be as fun or exciting as writing on the seat of your pants, but it definitely keeps you on the right course.

Another thing I'd try if I were you is to write short stories REGARDING your current series' universe. I tried that myself and found better familiarity with my series intended theme and plot. Plus, it's great practice for world-building. No need for big, sweeping fables and tales. You can have two old men reminiscing about the good ol' days in a cafe at 1.5k words. Even that will be enough to set you back on track.

Hahaha that sounds absolutely lovely! I’ll write that down, maybe I should get a sketchbook? And casual chapters sound good, I’ll do that. Honestly, the reason why I hate planning is because I’m not all that orignal, but I have to since I don’t want to re-write everything again… I’ll do my best! Thanks again

 

[BenJepheneT]

Hahaha that sounds absolutely lovely! I’ll write that down, maybe I should get a sketchbook? And casual chapters sound good, I’ll do that. Honestly, the reason why I hate planning is because I’m not all that orignal, but I have to since I don’t want to re-write everything again… I’ll do my best! Thanks again

Try drawing out events from your story, be it written or not. Illustrations are great for setting tones or finding out ways to write out a scene. For me, it's great fucken inspiration. Nothing gets me going more than a great composition. I feel like it'll be a disservice if I DON'T write that scene out in the future.

 

[CheertheDead]

There are two ways to go as Writer. Normally, we are a mixture of both.

You either be a planner or an instinct writer.

You put thing down like plan, think what this character will say, that character will say, how the situation will turn into using your own instinct.

People with good instinct can just write it because they feel what is right. It’s very arbitrary how that works. I have no idea how to train it except keeping thinking about the scenario and constructing the characters. When you get a true understanding of your own character of how they behave, thing will come naturally.

The only problem left is the plot. This is a problem because you can’t make a deep plot by “feeling right”. It requires a lot of materials, mostly your ideas + concepts you find from reading other works.

Honestly, becoming a good writer is easy, becoming an innovative writer is the true problem. You can’t train to become a god if you don’t get what a god feels like.

And you don’t get to make a masterpiece just with your skills. You need skills, luck, and a bunch of other things.

Don’t expect to get a clear goal either. Chances are we all have to run around in circle like an ant before we know where we want to go or how to.

You have no idea how much I have collected and discarded just to be an amateur.

 

[MissPaige36]

There are two ways to go as Writer. Normally, we are a mixture of both.

You either be a planner or an instinct writer.

You put thing down like plan, think what this character will say, that character will say, how the situation will turn into using your own instinct.

People with good instinct can just write it because they feel what is right. It’s very arbitrary how that works. I have no idea how to train it except keeping thinking about the scenario and constructing the characters. When you get a true understanding of your own character of how they behave, thing will come naturally.

The only problem left is the plot. This is a problem because you can’t make a deep plot by “feeling right”. It requires a lot of materials, mostly your ideas + concepts you find from reading other works.

Honestly, becoming a good writer is easy, becoming an innovative writer is the true problem. You can’t train to become a god if you don’t get what a god feels like.

And you don’t get to make a masterpiece just with your skills. You need skills, luck, and a bunch of other things.

Don’t expect to get a clear goal either. Chances are we all have to run around in circle like an ant before we know where we want to go or how to.

You have no idea how much I have collected and discarded just to be an amateur.

Well said, I’ll keep that in mind fellow writer

 

[PancakesWitch]

I think what you should do is try to write new stories and improve through them, instead of constantly trying to rewrite the same story over and over and over again, try something new and feel more refreshed. sometimes after writing many different stories, you can remake old ones even better than before from everything you learned writing all these other stories, this is how I usually do it, although these "remakes" of old stories are changed so much that i just turn them into new stories

 

[CheertheDead]

I think what you should do is try to write new stories and improve through them, instead of constantly trying to rewrite the same story over and over and over again, try something new and feel more refreshed. sometimes after writing many different stories, you can remake old ones even better than before from everything you learned writing all these other stories, this is how I usually do it, although these "remakes" of old stories are changed so much that i just turn them into new stories

This too.

Writer needs a lot of new air. Just stay with one story won’t do any good.

I hardly find a writer without 30 or 60+ unfinished concepts or stories.

As I always believe, writer should be greedy and readied to collect new ideas and concepts from everything and everyone. You may find what you are currently missing the line some years later.

@MissPaige36

 

[MissPaige36]

This too.

Writer needs a lot of new air. Just stay with one story won’t do any good.

I hardly find a writer without 30 or 60+ unfinished concepts or stories.

As I always believe, writer should be greedy and readied to collect new ideas and concepts from everything and everyone. You may find what you are currently missing the line some years later.

@MissPaige36

Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind, I’ll finish the story and understand that it doesn't have to be a 10/10 from start to finish

 

[Maze_Runner]

It can be really hard to make a good book. The thing is something you don't like, someone else might. Like I hate my books but there are a few people who do really like them! Also, you could always ask for help from another author, like maybe a well known one? (Also doing this is actually a great idea)

 

[MissPaige36]

It can be really hard to make a good book. The thing is something you don't like, someone else might. Like I hate my books but there are a few people who do really like them! Also, you could always ask for help from another author, like maybe a well known one? (Also doing this is actually a great idea)

Right, I make sure to ask any willing readers on discord for help and advice on how to improve this or that

 

[Deleted member 54065]

This too.

Writer needs a lot of new air. Just stay with one story won’t do any good.

I hardly find a writer without 30 or 60+ unfinished concepts or stories.

As I always believe, writer should be greedy and readied to collect new ideas and concepts from everything and everyone. You may find what you are currently missing the line some years later.

@MissPaige36

Would like to ask if focusing on one story at a time applies to this? I mean, I got a lot of unfinished stories and concepts, that's why I switched from a 'spray and pray' approach to a 'one story at a time'.