The Writers Block Thread

I'd say hard work is what you need to maximise the talent that you have.

1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

 

To some degree, being in the right place at the right time doesn't hurt. Persistence is essential too. If you give up, you won't get anywhere. But you have to agree, there are people who want to be the next Stephen King without going through any of the hard work to actually EARN being the next Stephen King. They don't want to write a book if they aren't guaranteed it will be successful. These are people who dream of something they're not but are unwilling to do what it takes to get there.

All the luck in the world won't make one of those people successful. Only hard work will.

 

I didn't say it would. Luck is ONE factor in success.

 

Talent
Hard-Work
Perseverance

You can keep luck.

 

Then how do you explain 50 Shades?
It had only the last thing, cause the
former 2 are beyond absent from
that saga of shit.

 

Lashing out at the negative critiques to her fan fic, made it look like it
was far more active than it really was from a numbers standpoint.
So score one for the raving lunatic with no real capabilities as a writer.

 

The entertainment market, in all its forms, are ridiculously competitive, There are any number of talented actors, singers, artists - and writers out there who never make it because they didn't have that slice of luck.

Michael Crawford became the first Phantom of the Opera because Andrew Lloyd Webber happened to walk past and hear him practising.

It's all very well to point at FSoG as an example of what luck might do, but it would be better to look at the great stuff that never made it because they didn't have luck - but you can't, because you've never heard of them.

 

That is true. But there's a difference in writing because you like to do it, and doing it for money. In the first case, the effort is its own reward, and if the artist/singer/writer/whatever pleases other people with their efforts, that's even better.

In the second case, the odds are very, very long that you're going to make a great deal of money at it. It depends on having those "other people" be very numerous or very wealthy or both. So writing for the sole purpose of making a buck is not a realistic goal.

Good writers write because they love the process. (Granted, it's a love/hate relationship ... one writer said, "I hate to write, but I love to have written.") If the miracle should come to pass that their love can be lucrative, it's almost never the case that making money was the sole object. That's for stockbrokers and casino operators and other manipulators of the various money machines, not for artists.

The best articulation of the dilemma an artist faces regarding commercial success is here:

 

Hence luck.

 

Hence realistic expectations.

 

One does not preclude the other.

 

I have 2 ex colleagues who have Hollywood movies as 1st time directors coming out within next 6 months.
Certainly both are talented. But both are also 40+. Both have humbly put work in their in related roles, pitched pitched and pitched. Written screenplays 1 hour at a time with admirable consistency .
Could _anyone_ have done what they have? No, but it's indistinguishable what is from the effort and what was a gift that they might have had at age 18. And very many people I know could have been more "naturally talented" but are never going to achieve success anywhere near these two guys.

My point is that what's different to gymnastics or competitive gaming is the fact that you or me can tell from a mediocre 20 yo that they will never have success in those fields.
With writing there are numerous examples of people not writing anything or only crap that nobody wanted to read or publish and then at a rather ripe age get their thing together and achieve meaningful success.
It is safe to say that in ice hockey or basketball that is not going to happen. Not a single kid who plays at "ordinary person" level at age 18 will ever make it to big leagues. Fact.

In writing you don't really know. Who are any of us to say to anyone, "Don't bother you'll never be truly good."

In some other fields it actually might be accurate advice.

Edit: typos, clarity

 

Hey everyone! I have started the process of writing my first book. Despite the years I have spent with short stories and such, I still consider myself a newbie when it comes to serious writing. I have done a ton of research (and I could easily do much more), and I have so many amazing and fantastic ideas that I want to incorporate into a solid novel, but when I sit down to work on this project, I am at a loss.

My original approach was to map everything (yes, everything) out, including dungeons, landscapes, cities (and the characters that populate those cities) and such, but that is such an incredible task in of itself, I am not really getting any writing done.

I have been watching videos on Youtube by a number of experiences novelists, and I learned that that first big step is plotting out the story, make my characters, and then begin the process. But I have the "having every detail from every angle before writing" mindset so ingrained that I am having a hard time climbing out from under it.

Can you guys give me a little insight on how you handle this sort of thing?

 

every writer is different. Every writer has a different method or way they start.
for me, I just write. I know I have an idea, but I don't know how far it will go, so I write as much as I can. Maybe it's a page... maybe it's 12 pages. Once I know its going somewhere, I will take a break from writing it to jot down some notes on my character(s), setting, and outline.

Yet, I don't do this for all of my work. I have 1 where, I don't really have an "outline" per se. I have 3 major events, and an ending, and thats my "outline" and, for this story, it is working just fine. For my SF/F series, It is a heck of a lot more detailed, and I do extensive world building on it, but have done it gradually over time as I write.

for my day job, I get the opportunity to meet best selling authors. One author I met write historical romances, and I asked her what her process was. She says she will research everything before she writes. She doesn't like to start writing unless she has pages and pages of research. ONLY THEN does she set to mapping out characters, setting, and plot.
Personally, I find that tedious. I get side tracked easily, especially if its something that I am interested in, so I can spend hours world building and creating/writing things unnecessary to my work, or fall down the endless rabbit hole of research (like ships! I needed to know about nautical knots, and ended up reading about pirates and got absolutely NOTHING done that day on my WIP).


Honestly, it is whatever works for you. However you feel comfortable. I think its cool to see how other, more established authors start, but I also think basing your way around theres may hurt you in the end....

 

Really, most important thing is to WRITE. Get the words down and start the body of the story. Flesh out the details later. What you've got is what I would describe as analysis paralysis - you can research, outline, plot, etc, etc unto infinity but sooner or later, you have to write.

And just so you know, this is a problem I've been struggling with as well. My case, I start to write, I feel it's crap and I dump it, then I go and do more research. At the end of the day, I'm not getting any writing done. Sigh.

I'm working on it....

Scott

 

Every novel or story essentially ends up writting itself. Research is giving your mind tools to work with but I really think no-one knows exactly to the T how a stories gonna go.

It's just writing. Write and don't think about things that will bog you down like perfectionism.

 

Write the way that you need to write to get things done. Your methodology doesn't matter, only getting finished does.

 

"Short stories and such" aren't serious writing? Be careful because some of us take the short form very seriously and work just as hard as anyone writing novels.

 

Deadrats, that is not what I was trying to say at all - my intention was to convey that I have had experience with the craft of writing, but when it comes down to putting a pen to the page with regularity, I am actually not as versed than would be expected. I did not mean to say that I consider short stories not to be a serious form of writing and perspective. Maybe it was a bad choice of words on my part, and I did not mean to offend anyone. I hold both short stories and novels to the same esteem.

 

Even people who don't write with a schedule would be considered writers in my eyes.

 

1st thought, on only seeing the thread title—If you haven't started it yet, then it isn't a Work In Progress, It's a Work In Potentia. Second thought—Oh, well that's still WIP, isn't it? OK.

Then I read the post. Ok, never mind.

What I like to do if I don't quite know how to get started is just start writing about the ideas and the characters. Sort of freeform, but I mean not totally stream-of-consciousness or anything. Actually write up some stuff that can help you establish some ideas and facts and set up some background information. I'll sometimes write quite a bit of this kind of stuff and develop good ideas about elements of the story and its world. At some point something you write might set you off and get you started, and suddenly you realize you're now writing a part of the story, and have been for a while.

And keep in mind, you don't need to write from the beginning forward. You can start anywhere you have an inroad. Also, don't worry about it being good, this is just a rough draft if you even want to call it that. Just the bare bones of the story. You can do it all through telling if you want, and change to showing on a second draft or a third. In the beginning you just do whatever you need to in order to get ideas flowing and get them down on paper. Leave big parts out and fill them in later, whatever keeps you writing.

 

I don't know about you, but I am a terrible procrastinator. And one way to procrastinate writing is by doing lots of research and planning, etc (not that those aren't part of good writing!!). I suffer from this problem, too. I have recently started writing again after many years' break, and I have set myself a goal of 500 words per day, 5 days a week. And that's not 500 total change in the word count of the document - if I choose to go back and edit, I don't include that. I only count the 500 new words that start after wherever I left off the day before.

No matter what, I have to get them out. Even if it's crap, it's no problem, I know that I can and will go back later and edit. I'm only on week 2, and have over 8,000 words of the novella I just started! (As it turns out, on my weekends that had no word goal I'm able to get in 1,000-2000 words).

A couple of other tips I've read that I've found useful - One is that if you are reluctant to write a scene, ask yourself if it's because it's boring or not that important? If so, can you omit it or simply allude to it? Also, if you're stuck on a project, work on another one for a little while to get your creative juices going. OR, work on a scene from your story that happens later in the plot but that you are excited about.