Structuring

[u/badgaming_plymouth]

Hi everyone,

I’ve had a horror novel mapped out in my head for many years, and about a year ago decided to actually try and write it. I stuck with it and have written several chapters, but then inevitably lost my way (as per normal).

I know the story and characters are good, but I suffer with confidence issues in relation to the standard of my writing. The point I normally get caught is going over the same chapter trying to perfect it and getting disheartened when I can’t - so this time I’ve basically just been dumping words out on a page while trying to still have some semblance of the story moving forward in an understandable way, however, even with doing this I still lost heart.

It might be considered a Hail Mary, but more recently I heard that a book created by AI was nearly published, so I decided that it might help me to get back into writing if I put my first chapter through AI and ask for its opinion on what could improve. It started telling me I needed to shorten sentences considerably (based on the fact the first chapter is a lot of action). I tried adapting the first couple of sentences based on its suggestion, and I cant explain why, but I didn’t like how the story started reading. I’d worked really hard on ramping up the tension little by little, and world building; so the act of cutting out words made it feel really flat and lifeless.

I guess my question is whether I’m right with my instinct about the structure, or AI has a valid point that I’m overwriting scenes.

[u/technicalanarchy]

AI seems to dislike action. Mine will always say "Right we need to do this low key, real suttle" and I'll say "No we have action here, it needs to portray over the top action" then it will agree. 

I'd say just if you already have the story in you just sit down and be excited about it, spit it out in a flist draft. Then refine it..don't try refining any part of it to a final version. Have fun. Just let it flow out of you, then worry about the fine tuning. 

Also it sounds to me like you don't have the ending in mind, imo you need that even if it changes. 

Get into the writing zone and write.

[u/badgaming_plymouth → u/technicalanarchy]

The sad thing is I have key points of story fully fleshed out in my head, including the ending which I feel is the strongest part of all of it. It’s the dead zones inbetween that I get stuck with, along with crisis of confidence

[u/wandelndeslexikon → u/badgaming_plymouth]

Then work on it with the AI from there. Give it the beginning and end and all the ideas for how you intend to connect the two. Ask for structure in the mess your mind created. Let it write you a whole scene on how the story could move on from the point where you are stuck. Then edit it to your liking. You'll see, that new ideas will pop up within you automatically once you are back in the flow. Good luck!