The only Stephen King book that I've read was Insomnia, which I did not enjoy... 😅
I have heard that it wasn't his best work though, so maybe I should give his works another try!
Any in particular that you would recommend? The Dark Tower and/or The Stand seems the most appealing to me, from a glance.
I realized, early on, that I should basically disregard any writing advice that prescribes a set amount of time or words to meet a day. It may work for some people, but I've found that my time is better spent working on outlines and such first before I jump into the actual writing itself!
And even during the actual writing, it's not helpful (for me, at least) to force a word count, I've found - rather, I just write what I can during the day and then... call it a day. 😆
So, I'm glad to hear that King wasn't prescriptive, but suggestive instead - but four to six hours a day really sounds like something that only full-time writers can manage! 😅
I do like the toolbox metaphor, and that advice from your friend to focus on your strengths rather than your weaknesses is really good!
From my experience, at least, using my strengths produces something unique to me, rather than trying to do things just because it is "expected from the genre". (For example, I don't enjoy doing worldbuilding a lot, even if it's expected in the fantasy genre a lot of the times. So, rather than providing poor worldbuilding, I focus on the characters and plot first, and just let the relevant bits of the world show up when needed. That's not a perfect solution, and I've had to do worldbuilding once in a while - but, at least that means most of my stuff showcases my strengths rather than my weakness? 😅)
I see what you mean with world building. I get impatient with it. I also feel like I haven't written, so not a productive. That's the perfectionist in me.
I think a focus in character and plot is more important anyway. Character development is often a weak point for me. I've been working on it. I think that's the most important part! Characters are who the reader connects with and stick around for. It's awesome that you have that in your strength part of your toolbox, definitely something to rely on.
As for a king recommendation, I usually suggest starting with his first, Carrie. I find I like his earlier work better. He can be very wordy sometimes. I haven't tried dark tower/ the stand. The size intimidates me! Haha
Haha, yeah, I totally get that - sometimes, the size of a series/story can be intimidating for newcomers!
Character development is definitely hard to nail down, so I'm not sure that I can say that I have it down quite just yet! 😅
I do think, though, that characters having an "arc" gets oversold sometimes.
I mean, yes, you're absolutely right that characters are (usually) who the readers connect with and stick around for. And watching them learn and grow can be very rewarding!
But, I also think that a lot of character analyses and "writing advice" (I have a whole rant about that, but that's for another day 😅) tend to isolate that too much, and treat it as if the character's development isn't part of the plot as well.
After all, a person (character) doesn't develop without things happening (plot).
I guess what I trying to say is that a lot of discussions that I see about character development tend to isolate it as if a character's arc should be planned by itself, or that the plot is happening AROUND a character's development.
And while it can be helpful to plan how a character will develop, I find that it doesn't quite work if I don't have an interesting plot in the first place.
Also, sometimes... a character just doesn't really need to change - they just need to deal with the plot and the other characters while keeping to their true self! (The examples that come to mind for me, usually, would be Superman and Captain America.)
So, for me, outlining a story is as much about figuring out what events will happen, as how the characters will act (and develop/grow if that's how they would react to the plot).
Sorry, I don't know if any of that was helpful, and most of that was definitely just my thoughts and opinions on it... 😅
The only Stephen King book that I've read was Insomnia, which I did not enjoy... 😅
I have heard that it wasn't his best work though, so maybe I should give his works another try!
Any in particular that you would recommend? The Dark Tower and/or The Stand seems the most appealing to me, from a glance.
I realized, early on, that I should basically disregard any writing advice that prescribes a set amount of time or words to meet a day. It may work for some people, but I've found that my time is better spent working on outlines and such first before I jump into the actual writing itself!
And even during the actual writing, it's not helpful (for me, at least) to force a word count, I've found - rather, I just write what I can during the day and then... call it a day. 😆
So, I'm glad to hear that King wasn't prescriptive, but suggestive instead - but four to six hours a day really sounds like something that only full-time writers can manage! 😅
I do like the toolbox metaphor, and that advice from your friend to focus on your strengths rather than your weaknesses is really good!
From my experience, at least, using my strengths produces something unique to me, rather than trying to do things just because it is "expected from the genre". (For example, I don't enjoy doing worldbuilding a lot, even if it's expected in the fantasy genre a lot of the times. So, rather than providing poor worldbuilding, I focus on the characters and plot first, and just let the relevant bits of the world show up when needed. That's not a perfect solution, and I've had to do worldbuilding once in a while - but, at least that means most of my stuff showcases my strengths rather than my weakness? 😅)
I see what you mean with world building. I get impatient with it. I also feel like I haven't written, so not a productive. That's the perfectionist in me.
I think a focus in character and plot is more important anyway. Character development is often a weak point for me. I've been working on it. I think that's the most important part! Characters are who the reader connects with and stick around for. It's awesome that you have that in your strength part of your toolbox, definitely something to rely on.
As for a king recommendation, I usually suggest starting with his first, Carrie. I find I like his earlier work better. He can be very wordy sometimes. I haven't tried dark tower/ the stand. The size intimidates me! Haha
Ooh, thank you! I will have to try out Carrie!
Haha, yeah, I totally get that - sometimes, the size of a series/story can be intimidating for newcomers!
Character development is definitely hard to nail down, so I'm not sure that I can say that I have it down quite just yet! 😅
I do think, though, that characters having an "arc" gets oversold sometimes.
I mean, yes, you're absolutely right that characters are (usually) who the readers connect with and stick around for. And watching them learn and grow can be very rewarding!
But, I also think that a lot of character analyses and "writing advice" (I have a whole rant about that, but that's for another day 😅) tend to isolate that too much, and treat it as if the character's development isn't part of the plot as well.
After all, a person (character) doesn't develop without things happening (plot).
I guess what I trying to say is that a lot of discussions that I see about character development tend to isolate it as if a character's arc should be planned by itself, or that the plot is happening AROUND a character's development.
And while it can be helpful to plan how a character will develop, I find that it doesn't quite work if I don't have an interesting plot in the first place.
Also, sometimes... a character just doesn't really need to change - they just need to deal with the plot and the other characters while keeping to their true self! (The examples that come to mind for me, usually, would be Superman and Captain America.)
So, for me, outlining a story is as much about figuring out what events will happen, as how the characters will act (and develop/grow if that's how they would react to the plot).
Sorry, I don't know if any of that was helpful, and most of that was definitely just my thoughts and opinions on it... 😅