{"id":1647,"date":"2010-02-24T00:52:53","date_gmt":"2010-02-24T05:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=1647"},"modified":"2010-02-24T00:52:53","modified_gmt":"2010-02-24T05:52:53","slug":"gah-it-sucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/gah-it-sucks\/","title":{"rendered":"Gah! It sucks"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m about a third of the way through To Search the Starry Sea,<\/em> and my greatest fear at this point is that it isn’t as good as the last novel I wrote. \u00a0Because if it isn’t as good, that means that I’m getting worse, not better, and if I’m getting worse, that means I’m never going to make it as an author, because I’m not even published yet, and if I’m not going to make it as an author, that means I’m going to have to do what I’m doing NOW for the rest of my life, which means that I’m going to be miserable and life is going to suck…<\/p>\n

<pant> <pant> <pant><\/p>\n

Seriously, though, sometimes I wonder if I’ve really made the right choice. \u00a0To Search the Starry Sea<\/em> is much more of a happy adventure story, but sometimes I feel that it lacks depth and meaning. \u00a0I’m starting to get feedback from my alpha readers for Bringing Stella Home,<\/em> and their reactions to it are surprisingly encouraging. \u00a0That story moved people–but this one? \u00a0I don’t know.<\/p>\n

Then again, Bringing Stella Home<\/em> is dark, gritty, and very tragic. \u00a0I remember feeling depressed by the story even as I wrote it. \u00a0Is that the kind of story I want to be known for? \u00a0If I can write something deep and meaningful and have it be optimistic and adventuresome, that would be a lot better.<\/p>\n

I’m discovery writing it hardcore, which means that side characters often come to play a much more central role than I’d thought, and events that I thought I could cover in a chapter, I have to cover in two. \u00a0I have an idea where the story is going to end up, though, and it’s going to be awesome.<\/em> How awesome? \u00a0Let me show you:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yeah, it’s going to be awesome.<\/p>\n

I think the key to keeping it meaningful is 1) to keep in mind the main character’s inner conflicts, framing them in a way that the readers can relate to their struggles, and 2) keeping the overall growth arc constantly in mind. \u00a0How does what’s happening affect how the character is changing? \u00a0That kind of stuff.<\/p>\n

I hope I can finish this in two months. \u00a0I’m mired in the middle of it right now, and the end is far from sight.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I think I’ll get some sleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m about a third of the way through To Search the Starry Sea, and my greatest fear at this point is that it isn’t as good as the last novel I wrote. \u00a0Because if it isn’t as good, that means that I’m getting worse, not better, and if I’m getting worse, that means I’m never… Continue reading Gah! It sucks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[68],"tags":[335,253,89,366,192,88,158,42,95,184,177,347,159],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bsh","tag-adventure","tag-astronomy","tag-career-decisions","tag-celestia","tag-discovery-writing","tag-doubts-and-fears","tag-first-readers","tag-frustrations","tag-lack-of-sleep","tag-space-opera","tag-theme","tag-untitled-odyssey","tag-tragedy","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-qz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1647"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1652,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions\/1652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}