What is it for you?

For me it's coming up with names for everything - places, characters, chapters, even the story itself..hate it :mad:

When it comes to character names it's not TOO hard as i just tend to find names with a meaning similar to something about the character, but when it comes to just making things up like place names i find myself either straying into heavy stereotypes or just plain gibberish :-S

The most difficult part for me is finising what I start before moving on to something else. I often jump back and forth between three or four projects. They get done eventually but it is annoying that I'm constantly jumping in between them.

Yeah i know what you mean. I've got tons of ideas that i want to get started with, but for the sake of each one i am holding back until i finish each thing individually, otherwise each one will suffer from lack of focus.

Starting.

i find that staying committed to one single project is irritating. with all those ideas swirling in you head it gets crowded

I love thinking up names with meanings, but usually they only mean something to me.

For instance: I needed a place name (fictional) so because my cats name was Raffles (who just died recently) and because he was named after Sir Stamford Raffles who founded Singpore, I chose 'Stamford'

It's also a co-incidence that he died on my birthday, the day before his own.

Actually, names and places are something I really enjoy coming up with. The only problem is sometimes when I get 'stuck', otherwise there is no stopping to me writing. I just need time and low stress levels.

For me, it would be writing for long periods of time. I can write fairly well in thirty-minute and sometimes hour-long intervals, but after that, it starts to slip away. I guess that would be because I always edit as I write. That's just what works for me; I've tried to just write it out and edit later, but I can't do it.

Getting to it. I don't have a problem with the actual writing. Once I'm in the 'groove', I'm sound. After I've written an initial draft (scene/chapter/paragraph), I take a break and come back to review it. It's the preparation that gets to me. I might walk around for a week (or more)with it doing sumersaults in my head. I'll do character sketches and sit looking at the blank paper, visualising the storyboard. Then it comes out with a frenzied burst. I can only work on one project at a time (novel-wise). I've found that keeping at it hones inner discipline, deminishing the lazy git lurking inside me:)

When I break my brain crafting a beautiful passage, only to discover that it disrupts the pacing, flow, or tone and it has to be cut.

Getting to it. I don't have a problem with the actual writing. Once I'm in the 'groove', I'm sound. After I've written an initial draft (scene/chapter/paragraph), I take a break and come back to review it. It's the preparation that gets to me. I might walk around for a week (or more)with it doing sumersaults in my head. I'll do character sketches and sit looking at the blank paper, visualising the storyboard. Then it comes out with a frenzied burst. I can only work on one project at a time (novel-wise). I've found that keeping at it hones inner discipline, deminishing the lazy git lurking inside me
Just like me! :) Really, that's exactly how it goes for me.

There you go. Great minds...and all that;)

The toughest thing for me is starting a novel and then having the will power to continue with it.

Almost all of it. I can think of great ideas and all, but they usually come in little snippets, like the kind of horribly stunted synopses on the back of a Netflix envelop. "A young man must protect the woman he loves from being eaten by a giant space flea from nowhere"
Maybe a really cool scene or two, the climax...

But stringing all that crap together is proving to be rather difficult. It's like looking at a puzzle with most of the border done but not much else. Also dialogue. And the beginning.

The toughest thing for me is starting a novel and then having the will power to continue with it.

im probably the worst at that, ive got at least 15 of those 10 pagers in my room i am embarassed:redface:

The toughest part for me is just having the energy to start writing. Ever have one of those days when you think up all these great ideas that are sure to be crowd pleasers? You're all pysched up to get them on paper and when you finally get to your computer, you decide "aw screw it." And you end up going on Youtube or listening to your I pod or something. It happens to me a lot. It's hard to have the will power to write. Especially when something much easier to do/use is near by (example: my xbox 360, I Pod, TV).

The toughest part for me is just having the energy to start writing. Ever have one of those days when you think up all these great ideas that are sure to be crowd pleasers? You're all pysched up to get them on paper and when you finally get to your computer, you decide "aw screw it." And you end up going on Youtube or listening to your I pod or something. It happens to me a lot. It's hard to have the will power to write. Especially when something much easier to do/use is near by (example: my xbox 360, I Pod, TV).

That happens to me too. I force myself to sit and work. It helps that I can watch Law and Order though and type during the commercials :p.

Actually, along that line, I have Crazy Ivan to blame for my latest giant distraction from reading and writing. Ironically TV Tropes has also given me great ideas, but still, I've been on an Archive Binge for the last three months.

Writing is hard when you spend the whole day doing interbutt reading.

Loosing hope...

Writer's Block. Sometimes I'll be on a role, and I'll write several pages, then I have no idea what to write next, even when I know how the story is supposed to go and how it's going to end. Blahck.

I find the most difficult process for me with both fiction and poetry is finding the perfect way to craft the desired image so that it is understandable and reads smoothly. I often write a piece and the wording is too difficult for most to be able to understand and then I have to go back over it and re-write it trying to say the same thing, just in simpler terms, or I write it in too simpler of terms and have to then try to find words to say the say thing but in a more complex way.

Somehow I'm an impulsive writer, where I just write for thousands of words on end, and then go back and then find discrepancies etc. in the plot or characters or anything of the sort. Maybe this is both a good and a bad think, because in my opinion, writing isn't supposed to be scientific at all, more passion and creativity, obviously tempered by details. So, its mainly the technical stuff that bugs me, but also keeps my stories in order.

The hardest part of writing...
Writing an ending suitable the the actual plot of the project.

Also, staying committed to a project. You would laugh if you saw how many pieces I have saved on Microsoft Word right now. o.o

Piecing together the plot into something that makes sense.
Also, deciding when it is necessary to kill off a character.

For me the writing is the thrill. It's the constant revision, reediting, and proof reading. I'm not kidding when I say that I reviewed/re edited my first novel (TAINTED HERO (Davisstories.com)) 25 to 30 times. Each time made it better, but it really got to be a drudge.

Getting past the first or second chapter. I can't do it. I love naming things, and inventing new places and maps and stuff. I just can't get past the first few chapters. Somehow I get unfocused. I want to write the later parts of the story when everything.. more interesting is happening.

For me the most difficult part is....writing!
It's easy for me to come up with plot lines, stories and stuff but writing it down and trying to have it be good is hard. Some parts, yes, I love to write but most parts it's difficult. I'm a storyteller, not a writer.

Finding good criticism, honestly. I never know if my stuff is sounding like I want it to.

Aye. That's hard too. Plus you never know if whoever is critiquing for you is holding back or not.

Michael Davis - seconded. The editing is hell.

Also, getting to, like, the middle of the novel (or other long piece of work, especially one that you've been working on for a long time) and then making yourself continue is hard.

Oh did I mention the research? Yeah, no fun. No fun at all.

Oh, and Shreyass - love your avatar :)

Sticking to a novel and not losing the initial 'magic' you feel with a new, exciting idea. I normally get 50 pages into a novel, get bored, say "I'll come back in a few days with fresh inspiration", and after the few days, it doesn't seem that brilliant anymore. I just get bored easily.