13 replies to this topic

[Kaeloree]

By now you're probably ready to give up. You're past that first fine furious rapture when every character and idea is new and entertaining. You're not yet at the momentous downhill slide to the end, when words and images tumble out of your head sometimes faster than you can get them down on paper. You're in the middle, a little past the half-way point. The glamour has faded, the magic has gone, your back hurts from all the typing, your family, friends and random email acquaintances have gone from being encouraging or at least accepting to now complaining that they never see you any more---and that even when they do you're preoccupied and no fun. You don't know why you started your novel, you no longer remember why you imagined that anyone would want to read it, and you're pretty sure that even if you finish it it won't have been worth the time or energy and every time you stop long enough to compare it to the thing that you had in your head when you began---a glittering, brilliant, wonderful novel, in which every word spits fire and burns, a book as good or better than the best book you ever read---it falls so painfully short that you're pretty sure that it would be a mercy simply to delete the whole thing.

Welcome to the club.

That's how novels get written.

This is a problem which, I think, plagues all sorts of writers - I know I, for one, get that "Oh god, this is rubbish, delete it and never touch it again" feeling at the three quarter point.

If you find that you do have this problem, I suggest you have a read of this short article by Neil Gaiman. A very interesting read!

What're your methods for getting past the three quarters done point, in modding or other writing?

[SConrad]

I usually leave the mod be for 6-12 months, come back and say "wth was I thinking?," scratch or revise all of the contents and start over again.

See Khadion for examples.

It might not be the best way of getting anything actually completed, though, but I'm gonna work on that this time.

[Kaeloree]

Yeah- well, my technique is leave the mod for 4-6 months, finish off bits, leave it for another 2-3 months, get sick of having it unfinished, write the rest, code and finish.

And then wait for the bug reports to roll in.

Also, Seb? Not this time. Sorry.

[Tempest]

The technique I'm developing with Darian is to get an hour or two of work done each week. Always have it in your mind that you really mean to settle down to a full day or two of work, so that if you're ever really bored, you'll actually do a bit.

[Bookwyrme]

Still figuring out what I do with mods.

With other things, it's a combination of grit my teeth & keep going & working to find that balance between "I want this to be the shining vision of perfection" and the pragmatic advice of one of my professors, "It doesn't have to be perfect, just done."

[berelinde]

I usually go work on something else for a while, very different from the 3/4-done mod. Of course, that generally means that I have any number of 3/4 done mods, so that might not be the best approach.

[jcompton]

Old method: "I'm going to do as much of this as I can this weekend, and then it'll just be Done, no matter what."

New method: Russian outsourcing.

[Kulyok]

By Valen, Jason! I saw your reply and just was about to type "Vow to get it to Jason on Friday", but you were there first. But nevertheless, yep.

I don't have this problem with my mods. Mainly, my problem is to stop writing.

[Kellen]

My lack of inspiration usually hits around the 5% mark(if that), not 75%. I lose interest relatively quickly after beginning something which is why my longer Fic pieces have all died out once or twice. (Also I have no plot making ability. ) On the other hand I can usually make quite a number of small works, and during rp I can make things better than in fanfiction.

Modding usually dies after I see that no one's really interested, or find that my character annoys/doesn't interest me. Or once I get back to looking at WeiDU coding.

EDIT: On the other hand, I've rarely lost such interest in other people's projects.

Edited by Kellen, 31 January 2008 - 08:28 AM.

[Zyraen]

I tend to get locked up in "too many things to do" on my projects.

For eg in Silmarillion recently I've been doing time swaps between
- engine revamp for multi type spawns
- plot writing
- DLG writing
- scenario difficulty ranking
- scenario specifics and objectives
- weapon placement on maps
- weapon abilities
(and hell a lot of others)

BTL faced similar issues in the past.

To break past this stage I usually write out a plan and grit my teeth and try to stick to it as best as I can. If you wrote a plan out before hitting the Three Quarters Done Point, you should be able to do fairly well also.

[Miss Sakaki]

My problem is having other things to do, or feeling too tired to write things. Silly university and social commitments. Sometimes if you leave something to mature it makes the work better, sometimes not; I guess I tend to push myself to write even if I'm not in the mood, because it generally feels a lot easier than I'm expecting. When Feuille and I are in the same place it's great because we can bounce ideas around and feel a lot more inspired. (The flipside of that is things like planning a new project over lunch and simply *having* to spend the next week doing nothing else.)

Also, Neil Gaiman rocks.

[Jarno Mikkola]

I hope this is a philosophical talk, not just specifically for modding.

Yeah, the plan can be nice and dandy, but ah... my mind doesn't work that way!

When I write, I just throw things in on what ever order they come up, leave them there for a few days, and look at it again then when the time is wright, put them in some kind of an order, read it again and if it's missing something big or small like the whole main fight, just fill it in. And it's done! And so what, if all the characters are end up dead?!? They died for a cause, the Imp.

[Choo Choo]

Since I've not reached this point in modding yet, I'll speak about it in general.

I usually figure that two heads are better than one, so I ask a friend for opinions and comments. When I get another person's view on things, I'm usually like, "Whoa, never saw it from that angle!", and there I go with inspiration again. Works with all creative work, three-quarter done or no. Never works with coding, most homework or cleaning up in my room.

[Rianess]

I know this three-quarters feeling well, though I've only ever experienced it when writing stories, since I've never written a mod.

I do something similar to what Tempest does. Keep it in the back of my mind, and scribble down anything that pops up. If I have made a commitment to finish by a certain day, I usually press play with the Rachmaninov and just write whatever comes to mind. Even if it doesn't make any sense. Then I will have a break, maybe watch a DVD, or if it's late, then go to bed.

I'll come back to what I've written after my break/nap, and then re-read it. At that point, I am usually so elated that I've managed to finish it, the editing goes very well. Once the editing is done, I send it to my Beta reader. When she's completed her review, I compare our two versions and decide what I want to keep or change. After that, I can (usually), safely say it's completed.