I know exactly what you mean. Since I got back from university, and actually have time free to write, I can't seem to think of anything write. It's infuriating. I'd suggest perhaps trying a stream of consciousness thing to get you going. Stare out of the window for a few minutes, then just write whatever comes into your mind. It's helped me in the past.
I would suggest that you find a topic that you feel passionately about right now. It could be anything. Get up on your soapbox and write an article. It could be about something major like the environment or something minor like next doors dog pooping on your lawn. I find that if I am feeling a little lacklustre when it comes to writing that picking a topic to write about that I feel passionately about gives me momentum to continue when I start. If I try and force myself to write something just for the sake of it, there is no passion behind it so it falls flat.
I've no doubt you've encountered this problem before and, if you think about it, will probably have the answer to hand but...easier said than done, I know. Other than saying 'write, write, write', I would suggest preparing some free time for yourself, maybe your allocated writing time, and take yourself off on a nice long walk where you can purposefully admire the beauty and magic of what you see along your way. In my experience, breathing in Nature's wonder, instead of fretting about being creative, can work wonders for the actual creative process itself. You may find your mind cleared of all that non-active dust and ultimately buzzing with oxygen and ready to go. If anything, the exercise will do you the world of good! Good luck
Pausing or taking a Break from writing, for any reason, makes it very hard to concentrate or get inspiration. So, the best way is to write anything. I mean, it doesn't have to be the novel you're writing, but even insights or maybe try to do some developments in your plot or the details. Also reading something of the same genre gives me inspiration, always. But don't burden yourself with the 'No. I have to wrire in the novel tonight!' That usually doesn't help. Our minds are very stubborn
The exact same thing happened for me. I needed to take a break from writing to take notes on my stories since they're very long and convoluted, and I didn't want to commit terrible plot errors. So, I stopped writing, put my work on hiatus, and started taking notes. It took over a year. Then I was so happy to get back to writing. Except for the fact that I haven't managed yet to get back into writing daily like I easily used to do. My advice? Make yourself do it. (Whether the project you were already working on, or something else fiction.) I know for a fact that's the only thing that would work in my case, and in truth, the only way to get something written is to write it. There's no magical solution, no easy way out. If the words feel like junk and don't flow like they used to, there's no help for that. At least junky words are still words and are better than writing nothing. And enough days/weeks/whatever spent writing junk, you should eventually make it into a habit and get back into writing the good stuff. That's seriously the only way. Sometimes you just have to force yourself. It's either that, or you can sit there waiting for the spark to come back, and in the meantime write nothing (no fiction), and that doesn't exactly help much, does it?
This will be long, but I can always come up with a story idea if I follow this process. I am making it up as I write. This is one process I use that always works. Here is an image I created that I look at while I go through this process http://manfacedgods.com/images/storystructure.jpg Think of a cool desire. Something that would drive a whole story, such as revenge, love, greed, etc. I will go with revenge because it's easy. Then go from there. Let's say girl wants revenge. Before I think of why she wants revenge and whom she wants it on, I will think of the ending. Does she get revenge on this person, company, etc, or does she have a change of heart? I will with she actually gets revenge. I might end up changing my mind but this gets my creative juices flowing. Knowing the end will help me make my other choices. Now the who/what and why. I will go with an organization. Choose the who/what and why will really change the type of story. If I chose a boy, it could be a love revenge story. But I chose an organization. She could want revenge on this organization because it poisoned her mother/father/friend . . . She could want revenge on this organization because it killed someone she cares about. This is one of the creative processes I use. It might work for you. Now I have another idea. If I change her desire from revenge to wanting to set things right, then the organization could be doing something immoral like polluting a river or lake or something. She feels morally obligated to stop them. But I am going to stick with the revenge thing. They killed her boyfriend via malpractice. If I make it a hospital or something, she only wants revenge on the main players that contributed to the malpractice. Hmm, this could be a complicated plot, because it might be hard to get revenge on doctors and such. I’m not sure if I want to do all the research for that. So I will change the organization. I will get more grimy. It is an underground organization and they killed her boyfriend and she doesn’t know why yet. I like that. She needs to figure out why they killed him, and who did it in order to get revenge. All I am doing is filling in the elements of story structure. I have the desire line, the MC, her goal, and the ending. I decided she is going to go through with it and take revenge. This might mean she kills the person(s) responsible for killing her boyfriend, or it might mean she puts them in jail. For now I know she will take revenge. I am going to change the age of the MC from thirteen to nineteen. As I begin to plug in other story elements I will get new ideas for the story. Because her weaknesses and needs should be linked to her desire and to the story. I will think up those now so they are organic. She is obviously hurting because her boyfriend is dead. An organic need then could be psychological. She needs to come to grips with her boyfriends death. I also want a physical need. But first if I cause one of her weakness to stem from her psychological need, I could then have her other need stem from that weakness. So her psychological need is to come to grips with her boyfriends death. That is something I know she will do by the end of the story, but she obviously would try to deal with it now, and this should be one of her weaknesses. Let’s say she learns about cutting. Physically cutting herself to drown out the emotional pain. Now I have one of her weaknesses. Cutting. But cutting only affects her. I always want a weakness that affects others. Actually cutting could affect others if they find out about it. It could make them sad. First how can I make her physical need stem from her cutting weakness? Thinking, umm. Her physical need could be that she needs to stop cutting, because she cuts more and more, and it is taking a toll on her body. Actually I am going to make her second weakness mood swings. Very intense mood swings. This causes her to sometimes say or do things that hurt others. So now her physical need is to stop hurting others. I like that better. Now they are all linked to her desire. By finding out who killed her boyfriend, and other events that take place in the story, she will finally come to grips with her boyfriends death. Then she can stop cutting. Her sever mood swings will be corrected, and she will stop hurting people around her. Because I did it this way, her weaknesses and needs are all linked to the story organically. None of it will feel artificial. I will give her one fear for now. Fear of being trapped, of being in small places. Now I know I will reveal this fear in a scene towards the beginning. Then somewhere around the middle of the story I will have her face this fear and for the moment overcome it. I am thinking she is tracking down the killer and is spying or something. People are coming in the room so she has the hide, but the only place to hide is something like a closet. She has to face her fear and hide in there long enough for the men to leave. As I continue to plug in story elements I get ideas for the plot. This would be a good time to come up with a theme, although I might end up changing it. Right now the theme could be that revenge does not heal a broken heart. She gets revenge but that is not what helps her come to grips with this person(s) killing her boyfriend. I now know her revelation. The revelation a MC gets either right before the big battle at the end of a story, or right after. Her revelation will be: Sometimes life seems unfair and unjust, but if we in turn cause suffering to others taking justice into our own hands, it does not balance out. How we internally deal with the injustice determines if we have peace or not. Because the theme organically comes from the story plot, I will never have to write it out or preach it. It will be understood by the actions my MC takes. But now that I know the theme I can have other character’s have their own views on it. This gives the reader a choice, but in the end I show what view is correct by how the story ends. I can plug in another story element, one of her allies. This will be her good friend Tom. They have been good friends for years. Tom has had a secret crush on her for a while. More plot ideas. I can slowly build romance between the MC and Tom. The MC cannot be romantic yet because she is still coming to grips with her boyfriends death. That adds the necessary tension to make love interesting. Once Tom reveals his true feelings, the MC realizes she also has feelings. Tom needs his own view on the theme. He thinks she should get revenge and put those responsible behind bars. At some point Tom finds out MC is cutting. That can make for some interesting drama in the story. The opponent(s) will have his own take on the theme, and he will have a logical justification for his actions. At least logical from his POV. I think I will go with more than one opponent. The idea just hit me. Her boyfriend was a hacker. He did it for a hobby, but he found this underground organization that pays good money to help them hack. Her boyfriend learned to much and had a change of heart. He was going to go to the police so a few people in the organization killed him or had him killed. I’m not sure yet. Yeah they seem like the kind of people that would hire someone else to do the dirty work. So now we have a assassin in the story. I don’t have to have him play any role other than he killed her boyfriend. But I might decide to bring him into the story and cause the MC more troubles. The justification the opponents give for killing her boyfriend goes something like this: We are an elite underground hacking society that is trying to change the world. The government is controlling vital information that we the people should have access to. We make that possible, and your boyfriend was going to get us shut down. Oh, just because we occasionally have to higher someone to kill a senator or governor or some other political figure in order to prevent the government from taking away our most basic freedoms. << I would end up fleshing this out more. Now my opponents are not totally evil. It could be argued they are doing a good thing. The government is trying to take our freedoms away and are trying to set up some sort of martial law or dictatorship. This underground organization is trying to stop them. However her boyfriend finds out that they take it too far and kill people. There is one other story element that can really change the kind of story this will be, and that is the story universe. This could happen in the very distant past, in which case the hackers are not hackers but are some other type of underground organization trying to stop the King or something. It could take place in the future. It could take place in the present. It could take place on another planet with aliens and such involved. It could take place in a universe where ghost or monsters exist. If I decide to run with the paranormal, I can still keep most of all the ideas I came up with so far. Perhaps the organization not only hacks, but uses spirits to fight the government. Now the MC has to deal with spirits as well in order to get revenge. But nah, I will go with earth set in 2014 or something with no spirits. After Obama’s 4 years the next president to be elected wants dictatorship. Anyways I have already plotted some events in the story line, and I am ready to plot. I have enough story elements to do so. I will also need to think of a background for the MC and Tom. Important past events that make them who they are that I would weave into the story. I need to justify the MC’s cutting by showing more of her past. She was abused verbally growing up by her step dads. She remembers one of her friends in high school used to cut. She said cutting helped her escape her emotional pain. So now I just have to think of scenes that organically stem from the story elements I came up with and that move my MC character to her goal. I will need to think of many conflicts she must overcome in order to reach that goal. Going about it this way always gets my creative juices flowing. As you can see I have already started to create what could be an interesting story. I would start out with a scene that introduces my characters. Show how the MC and her boyfriend get along and are happy. The boyfriend starts coming home later and later at night. He lies to her about where he is going. He sort of tells her he is part of something big. Gives her just enough hints that when he dies she has some leads to follow. After he dies she gets really depressed. I have already woven some of her background into the story. Like how her steps dads called her all sort of hurtful things. She now remembers her high school friend and cuts her self for the first time. It sort of helps. As the story progresses she does it more and more. Her and Tom hang out more. Tom decides to help her on her crazy quest to find out who killed her boyfriend. They find out her boyfriend was part of a underground hacking society trying to keep our freedoms alive, trying to prevent the president from starting a dictatorship. Tom has second doubts. Maybe it is best to just let this go. It is getting dangerous and they are doing a good thing. I don’t want to be part of a dictatorship. Anyways I can keep going on with ideas now. I hope this method helps you come up with some great ideas. Don’t doubt yourself. Try it. Sit down and think of a desire line, then a goal, then how that goal ends. Then think of a psychological need for your MC and so forth. Here is a link to an image I made that list the story elements and a plot structure that helps me. I looked at the image while writing this response. http://manfacedgods.com/images/storystructure.jpg
Don't do what I did and give up on creative writing for over 15 years. I've written reams of academic stuff, but being creative, as you say, can be scary. (And breaking rules--I had a little frisson as I wrote '20' instead of 'twenty' there. Yep, just writing to rules really can make one as anally retentive as that.) I cured myself slowly by continuing to treat the creative writing as an assignment, like my academic commitments, with deadlines and notes/research that I would force myself to take seriously. I realise this might not work for everyone, but HAVING to do XYZ by a certain date got me producing. At first, I had to use story prompts like: "My best friend has taken to wearing clothes that are unsuitable for her age and dying her hair wild colours... CONTINUE". Later, I was able to take themes from short story contests and produce pieces of the required length. Still later i.e. in the last 5 years, I'm back to writing a novel again. It's been gruesome. I'm sure your break won't last so long!
You can see I changed '20' to '15' there--5 years of mucking about might be considered writing again perhaps. And still being as anally retentive as ever.
You guys are great!! Thanks so much, there are some great ideas and thank you all so much for taking the time to give detailed responses (Architectus - I took notes! ) I think combining some of these things will get me right back on track; I'll go for a walk sit down and force myself to write a stream of conscious about something I feel passionate about... with any luck it'll all come flooding back and the big evil silence will be broken! Madhoca, glad you're back into it after those 15 years - there's hope for all of us! Thanks again to all of you - you're fab!!
I completely agree with Cheeno, there's no better way than to actually get yourself out there. It might not only be to isolate yourself on a river bank and muse, you can find socialising with friends and strangers very benefitial and quite amusing. Prompting ideas can be found everywhere once you pay an attentive eye to them . Also, you can try writing a journal, it might not be anything interesting happening to you, at least it'll keep you from being remote from the realm of writing Good luck and... Keep it up
I started writing barely a year ago. Friends and teachers had commented on how good i was and soon i realized how much i enjoed writing and started doing it more. I found a site where people could post there written stories and, seeing this community of writers talking to and helping each other, i immediately posted one of my own stories. A few days later i got a review from (let's call him Sam) that commented on how i was good, but with some help and practice i could be better. He offered to become my beta-reader and i accepted, we exchanged e-mail addresses and began speaking over google mail. I read some of Sam's stories and, i must say, they were brilliant. I became somewhat jealous when i saw how good he was compared to me, but i said nothing and continued working with Sam over 10 months as he looked over my stories and i looked over his. I steadily grew better at writing as i strived to become as good, if not better than Sam to impress him, perhaps even make him proud. My confidence and skill grew until last October when i lost all contact with Sam. I asked oher people Sam had known, but they hadn't heard from him either and as time passed i began to write less and less frequently. Now i harldy write at all, and anything i do write comes out as rubbish. I don't know what to do now, any time i try to write i end up with a feeling of complete hopelessness and sadness. I need a reason to write again, can you help me try to find it?
If you think you love to write, you need no reason other than that. Write, write, write until your block crashes and burns -- that's what I do. Write something new and exciting, or maybe something that reminds you (in a good way) of Sam. But you must believe you love it in order to truly be motivated, I think. Passion is motivation. And I don't know how if anyone other than yourself can show you that. Good luck.
Your motivation seems to have been tied to Sam. It actually sounds like a possible storyline. What happened to Sam? Why'd he just stop writing all of a sudden? You could actually make a good mystery of it. Go read the brilliant book, As Simple As Snow by Gregory Galloway, or Paper Towns by John Green. This would be a bit different than those two books, but along the same lines. Maybe by writing a fictional story about it all you could get your mojo back. Just a thought.
You went from seeking the approval or acceptance from your friends and teachers to looking for it from Sam.... If that's all you need then I suggest buy a dog. They'll accept and like almost anyone.
Have you heard of the comedy Moving Wallpaper? Well it's about the writers in a sitcom but anyways, one of the writers wanted to quit smoking but found he then couldn't write because for as long as he remembered he smoked and wrote and so I think you need to find a substitute (darn I sound mean, sorry) for Sam. There are a few things like what you and Sam did, not forums but like emailing, groups of about 5-10 email (in a circle sort of thing) their story once a week/month and review each others'. Although I have never actually joined one they sound really good, the only reason I didn't want to join one was that I haven't written regularly enough for about a year and a half - the same thing happened to me only I left a community instead of a close friend.
I know how it feels to have a close friend suddenly drop off the face of the net, lol. I've lost a lot of motivation but I always force myself to get it back. If having a new Beta Reader is what you need, go find one. lol Heck, if you wish, find somebody whose stories aren't brilliant because then you'll feel less jealous.
I had almost the exact same thing happen to me, only the person who stopped communicating with me wasn't a brilliant writer but just a fan (pretty much the ONLY fan) of my work--the only consistent reader I had--and he didn't just disappear, he started ignoring me for no reason whatsoever. Didn't even give a hint that anything was wrong. He even sent me a Christmas gift months after I'd stopped trying to communicate with him, and ignored me when I asked why he'd sent it! I last saw him online a couple of days ago...it brought all the old pain back even though we lost touch a few years ago. Some writers' motivation happens to be tied to approval or acceptance from others. Not all of us have the same motives, so to say, "Buy a dog" seems very insensitive--a dog and a devoted reader are two completely different things and every writer has different needs. Most writers who seek publication can't be in it for big money so aren't THEY seeking some sort of approval, too? It took me ages to learn that I write not to get published, like most other writers seem to want, but just to connect to people--to make friends. So of course when nobody seems interested in one's work, or when somebody who seemed interested just disappears, it really hurts, and you might wonder what's the point. I have no advice, I'm afraid, because I'm in the same spot every single day. I'm still writing, but it's hard when the very reason for one's writing no longer exists. I'd say that perhaps you should keep writing, if only in the hopes that someday you'll meet another Sam, but I can't say with certainty that it will ever happen because I've been trying all my life to find and keep such a person. But if it keeps you writing for now, then that's what it takes. Maybe you'll be lucky. I do hope you manage to find some way to work through it.
Yes, that is a good point. Connecting with people seems to make it all worth it. Writers want people to enjoy their work. I know it's how I feel and I always find that when I have eager readers(albeit only 1-2 but still eager readers, lol), it makes it all worth it. And to the OP: I may not be a brilliant writer(or brilliant anything for that matter), but I'll offer to communicate with you and give you my view on your writing. And I don't abandon people with no explanation. (Usually happens to me) So provided I don't drop dead, wind up injured or sick, or lose my net connection/computer, I'll always respond fairly quickly. (And no more than a few days if I am really busy) So if you want, I'd tell you what I think and maybe that will get you back your motivation.
Ack! Can I say first that you guys amaze me with your honesty here, but also worry me. This is the freaking Internet, not your real, hardcore life. I think it's a good place to work out crap (I'm referring to my own writing here ), but really it can't be a replacement for real-life stuff, real-life people. It does work well for real-life procrastination, though--talking again about myself here. About the writing...just a suggestion. I'm taking an online course in college next semester on writing. I know these kind of classes are available everywhere. Maybe check into taking an online class, or if you have public libraries near you, you could check to see if they have writing groups. Sometimes I think these groups are mainly older people. They might have teen writing groups though (not sure of everybody's age here). Anyway, just some thoughts.
Friends, Acquaintances, and Strangers through the internet tend to be real people from my experience. Once I had an issue trying to understand this one guy in a mIRC channel. Eventually I realized it was an AI that put together phrases it compiled from other people and from other channels. It was often erratic but sometimes, albeit randomly, would give a reply that made sense to some degree. Since then the programmer of that AI has become a dear friend of mine. I have never met him face to face or seen his picture but using the Internet, Skype, and rarely the phone he has become a friend that I value more than anyone I have ever known in person. I feel the internet is a great way to meet a diversity of real people and it is a shame, in my opinion, when the natural respect someone would receive in a face to face encounter is avoided on the internet for the reason of the internet not being real life. I believe the internet is different but quite real with pros and cons and deserving of equal or greater respect since it can be used to influence events to frightening degrees offline. To the OP: I suspect (Sam) provided inspiration but it was ‘you’ who allowed it. He reflected your accomplishments back onto yourself with encouragement and critique while you were the one that originally sought the site where you first met him. I wish you well in finding another source of encouragement but the source of your writing is still there. PS: I hope my reply as a whole was not offensive.
I totally agree with this, but the problem is, you can't expect that. Maybe that's the same in real life, too--you can't expect it. I need to think on that a bit more. I guess basically what I'm thinking is that it seems strange to me to tie your goal of improving your writing with receiving a lasting, Internet friendship. I don't know. That just seems unhealthy in a way to me. Not meant to offend with my meandering thoughts here.
I have the same problem as you (not identical but the lost motivation part) but i think i'm almost cured. You see, i've been saying to friends "I'm writing a book, and mentioning it to people polishing my ego....but i havnt written anything past the first chapter in over a year. I mean, i think about the book and have nearly every detail organised in my head but i just havnt written anything. I Refuse to continue lying to myself so im trying to start again. To get my thoughts on paper. plus, the few people who have read that first chapter keep coming up to me every few weeks and asking for the rest of it...if they want to read more, i'm going to write more.
Fictionpress has beta-readers. Why not try to find a new one? Or join webook. Or why not start reviewing stories here and posting your own and join the weekly story contest?
That's some good advice there from architectus. Anyway matey you don't need anyone's permission to write, certainly not Sam and certainly not even me! the question is do you really want to write? It doesn't matter if you think Sam's a better author -are you sure Sam wasn't constantly upping his game, frightened you might catch up with him/her? Stephen King's a better author than me, but that doesn't mean I would immediately give up writing. What sort of stories do you want to write? And why? And writings far too important to be left to the corporations-look at the celeb obsessed drivel they're printing!? So dust off that multi-platform, eighty book epic, with minor cross-overs,(which every writer has ) and start bashing the keys again. All I'm saying is don't give up unless you're certain you have no stories left to tell. And I would be amazed if that was the case. Good luck.
