Planning, and the Reader/Writer Bond

I respect the hell out of writers that can wing it. I really do. The ones that sit down and free write, and a beautiful story emerges. I think that's awesome, but I can't do it. I plan, I plot. I know the beginning, the characters, the conflict, the resolution and most of the details in between before I ever type a word. I have to do it this way and some of you should as well. Otherwise, you could end up writing yourself into a corner and not be able to get out of it. Due to your lack of foresight, you've set up the circumstances where you only have cliche in the path of your characters.

Plot twists: If you could have ended the story at more than two plot twists ago, you should have. Stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. They don't need to have five potential endings before we find out that they were vampires all along.

Planning is also important because of consistency. There's a story I finished last night(because I HAD to finish it. Even though it's the main cause for this rant you are being subjected to) that started off simple enough with a vampire being in love with a girl, so he became her teacher to get closer to her. Okay, a bit over done, but fine. There was the requisite love triangle with a guy who turned out to be a vampire as well. Oh, and her bestie was a vampire too. And she didn't know any of this. Still okay, though.

And then there began a clan war, and a ball of power that the girls soul needed to be added to in order to increase the power of the clan. And then she was in danger, so they moved her into the clan mansion where the teacher came out about his vampireiness. And then a fourth guy used a spell to make her forget about the teacher/boyfriend so that he could have her all to himself and/or turn her over to his master. Plan gets thwarted and she goes back to boyfriend/teacher. But then, the head of the dudes clan, his father, took all his money away and disowned him because he wouldn't kill her and take her soul. So they go to live with her mother, And her mother inexplicably was revealed to be a vampire hunter, and then the girl was suddenly under age(17) and where the teacher was 22, he then became 19. And then he turned her into a vampire to protect her, but in the process the vampire queen that had been locked away in a cave, inexplicably got out and inhabited her body and proceeded to use it to gratify her ual desires. Then we stab the queen/girl to prove their strong love and the queen is banished. And then the father let the teacher have all his money back, the girl got to live, the mother welcomes her daughter back from the 'camp' she had been in(because again, inexplicably, the mother has forgotten that she is a vampire hunter and that her daughter is one now), and she goes back to school and they live happily ever after. Yeah. All that happened. She pull in all this bull, then rushed the ending. I HATE rushed endings. Again, started off just fine, but she took that ish WAY out the park.

There were so many contradictions in the characters and plot line because she obviously didn't plan ahead. People gassed her up and she kept that ish going on for WAY longer than it needed to. Plot twists. Planning. Plot twists. Planning.

Reader/Writer Bond(still ties in)

In my opinion, as all of this has been, if you write yourself into a corner, you have two choice. 1) Take it down and rewrite it. Think about what you did wrong, do it again. 2) Take it down and explain to the readers why. But please, let your readers know. I hate HATE the stories on my subscribe list that sit idle for months and months, but I see the author has been on that day. That is beyond frustrating. Have a care for your readers. They want to read your story. Make it as easy for them as possible.

Honestly, I WANT to talk to you all. Engage me. Ask me questions. If I feel like you really want to read the story, I will be more excited to write it.

Comments. This will be touchy.

I really, really love feedback. Constructive, potentially painful feedback. I want to write a good story. If I'm taking too long to get to the point, tell me. If my OC is on your last got dang nerve, tell me. If you don't like my take on the idol I'm using, tell me. Tell me. Tell me! I want to make it an enjoyable experience for you. Just don't 'suggest' what should happen next. I want your feelings on what I write, not what I should write.

For me, the comments like, 'Good add, authornim' or 'update soon' are nice, but they give me nothing to work with. Tell me what you liked in the chapter, what you didn't like. The amount of comments is of no real consequence to me. The only advantage I see to having a large number of comments, is if people look for that in a tag. I think TSTM has the most amount of comments on the non rated ambw tag. Thanks for that, I really do appreciate it.

I want to comment back, and I do write something back to every one who leaves a comment, but it's hard. What do I say back to 'Thank you for updating!" other than, 'thank you for reading!'? Don't be afraid to hurt me feels. And don't be afraid to PM me either. I live with my phone, I can check messages at anytime. I usually check aff 2/3 times a day. Talk to me. despite how angry and ranty I sound in these, I'm actually a pretty nice person.

Continuing on.