Call (Read: Plea) For Help!! · 8:19am Aug 10th, 2014
This is in regards to the story A Jewel of a Problem. I would firstly like to take a moment to thank everyone who has read the story, who has up-voted it and favorited it. I'd like to express my deep appreciation for those who are still around and supportive of me and this story, despite the sometimes long gaps between updates.
I'd also like to state that I deeply appreciate my helpers, Cloneburner and RemareShadow, as well as Hoppy McGee. If it weren't for their help, I wouldn't have gotten the last chapter done by the time I did. I'd probably still be working on it actually. If it weren't for their contributions, I might have even threw my hands up and given up.
That said, I need help DESPERATELY if I am going to finish this story.
I am currently having almost no luck gathering the motivation to even work on the story, and a tiny part of me would even like to do something along the lines of "Stuff happens, this is how it ends, now let's move on to the next part!" end to the story. I'm not going to do that, and I also have no real desire to stop working on this completely...but....at the same time attempts to get somewhere with it result in me forcing myself to write, and I hate doing that.
As much help as my helpers have been, I desperately need someone(s) who can even slightly fill the void left when me and HoneyHoneyHoney had our spat. I need someone who can, even if its for five minutes a day, pop in to the Gdoc and maybe tweak things around, or make edits to things that I can build upon or use as inspiration to get me wanting to work on this. I need not so much as a pre-reader or editor, I need someone who is interested in helping me write the story. Even if all that help is just 10% of the writing, that would be a great help to get me going.
I am willing to allow up to (currently) 3 people come in and help with getting the next chapter done. If you think you can help me polish what I've already got and help me to get where I want things to go, you will have my immense and total gratitude.
So please, can anyone help? I'm afraid if I don't get some help soon, I may end up losing all willingness to even force myself to work on the story, and I'd very much rather that not happen.
So are you looking for major input or minor input? Like... big picture stuff or details?
I'll try, but my browser sometimes become grumpy and turn off when I attempt to open google doc. So if you give me link, I can try to help, but this help might be pretty irregular.
I probably shouldn't even come here, looking like I can make a difference. I haven't read your strory in ages, so chances are I would be completely out of the loop. It's just my helpul nature compelling me to poke my head in, and I'm not sure I can do what you ask. The best I can think of is enagaging in a discussion that hopefully revitalizes your motivation. Many others are certainly more capable than I am.
Perhaps I should not post this message, but... I dunno. Read it and ignore it, if you want. No hard feelings.
While I'd love to help out such a wonderful and grand story, that's superbly well written me thinks, I'm a might bit busy myself. It's a right shame but I know other people will step up and see if they can help you out. I can offer story directions that the story could go, maybe bring up a topic or two when I think about it, but that's about as much help as I can offer. Sorries!
Quick question though, will this next chapter be taking place in Canterlot, like it says in the Author's Note of the last chapter, or is it pretty much it can go anywhere?
I don't think you need my help, but good luck finding some.
I know the situation you're in, from experience and from expressive writers that pass through the same. The hardest part is to go past the point where you write everything with detail and attention in all occasion, from the parts you like, from the parts you dislike. And I'll tell you exactly what I have found is the best way to do it.
"Do it."
Well, it may sound as simple as that, because it's as simple as that. But don't get me wrong, it's not ordering around and forcing yourself to be motivated, but it's to write out when you can get something out of your head. Like, imagine this. I got a story, I have scenes in my head I find that I would love to write, but I am unable, or dislike, to write the part where we get there. The best way to go through this is to write off what is happening, like notes. Example:
(Here they search for the missing girl, the parents go around the room, the neighbors come along, and everyone talks.)
This may look simple enough but I have found this effective when you're trying to write something out but a scene is holding you back. This way you can write out that part you are motivated out of, and then come back to this. But remember that if you have a story that depends on these scenes, once you're done you can do easily, rethink and make sure they combine and make sense with one another. Because that's what they're for.
Hope this helps.
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The problem is not a scene, or even really several scenes. I'm wanting to skip entire chapters to get to where I am motivated to write. Part of this comes from the fact that this has dragged out a lot longer than I wanted it to originally when I first started writing this.
2358430
At the current length of the chapter, short of some major revisions and polishing, it may actually not end up taking place in canterlot at all. Its 7292 words long and, going by my outline for the chapter, I'm only half way through. My current guess were I to put everything I want in this chapter, that it could easily reach 15k words.
2358338
Well, you could always reread the story to catch up on whats been added since you last read it. You should do that anyways
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A bit of both. Even just making some minor changes here and there and adding a paragraph might be enough to get me going. On the other hand, I think the chapter needs a good deal of revising and polishing, and its not even done yet.
2359143 PM me. I might be interested. Kinda on the fence as of right now, but it could be a fun experience. I want you to keep in mind that my "edits" would be entirely optional so if you don't like what I put or it totally de-rails you then feel free to change/delete them.
I'd help you, but when I offer story advice it makes small children cry. Not for the faint of heart.
2359143
200k+ words written, one chapter in between I have yet to write is cutting me off actually submitting it. It's hard, but it is coming up like a swirling witch pot that once filled will release a stream of chapters that will flood the gates of my story.
But yeah, it's not only singled out, you need to get your head on what it's supposed to have, and you should have that motivation come up quicker.
2359143
Let me explain it better.
If you want an specific result like:
(Show in this chapter how X, the patient, is acting differently. Y doctor notices and thinks about it.)
This is the chapter, you don't know how you will do it, what you can achive on it, but you understand the what it should be. Next step is thinking it up, now that you know what you want you can dedicate your energy on getting this other than getting what happens next.
After much thinking that simple description evolves to:
(Show X character doing unusual things, the doctor observes and makes comments of the difference today from days before.)
If you still can't get description out of this to make a whole chapter keep adding to it, keep making this simple description continue to grow and maybe at some point you can go all out and motivate yourself without noticing.
And I totally did not just take this from a chapter I made out with this method, at all.
This could be like a chapter, just write what you want and what result you want, like telling it to a friend. Then you can continue telling yourself how you want it more detailed, like telling your room designer how you would love your curtains to look. Then if you get a spark of genius you can do it yourself. This has worked, but like anything with writers and motivation, it's not perfect, but at least it gets something written, because like all creators of anything should know.
Fail faster. Get something written, even if it's just the color of their fur, you need to add something there to build on it and scale it up and fix it. This method I mentioned is just a way to do it that gives you some control, and it has worked for most I've shown.
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I already know what I WANT to do in chapter, and in fact the next chapters. Its getting the motivation to fill in the entirety of the middle that I am missing.
I've done thought exercises like this before. They usually derail either by me going off on a tangent, or I get so hung up on putting in as much detail as possible that things bog down and I end up in a situation I'm in. Where a chapter is almost 8000 words and not even half-way finished.
Doing this will result in a chapter in which I am only, at best, partially happy with and which I will constantly tell myself could be better, not to mention shorter.
Its not that your advise isn't unhelpful or unappreciated, but I've done stuff like that before. When I'm not motivated, all it results in is something that to me at least is sub-par, and which I on some occasions end up going back and scrapping (one chapter in this story I actually scrapped multiple times because of this)
If I don't have the motivation, it won't do me any good. And I've found that when working with others, said motivation tends to be easier to grasp.
2359680
Alright.
Are we talking simple grammatical issues or larger story concepts here?
2361346
Larger story concepts fits better. My main problems are 1-Finding motivation to fill in the middle of the chapter (I already have an idea of how I want the chapter to end), and 2-Polishing and smoothlining what is already there and cutting out the excess that is not needed.
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If you can PM me a link I might be able to take a look at it tomorrow
I would help, but it would end with me -rewriting about 60% of the chapter, adding a Little Eris cameo, Luna being a peeping Tom, and certain human turned filly having a nightmare about being stuck as a female pony for life.
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At this point, I might not have to much of a problem with the 'rewrite 60% of chapter' bit. The rest is a tad questionable
2373703
Well, Luna is a peeping Tom, since she does enter ponies dreams.