Well my issue is, I'll write and think this is great. And then I'll read and then I'll be blugh. I have OCD tendencies, where I want to fix things because I see a mistake. And then I'll fix it. First time I write and read, I think this is great. Second time I begin to read soon about to write, I think this is terrible.
Yeah, Leaka, that's your internal critic. Ignore him. Resist the impulse to over think things you've written until you done with the first draft. The only time I really go back and change something is if I see a blatant SpaG error staring at me on the page, or I decide to change a minor plot issue. At least until I am done with the rough draft. Then during the first edit, I make little notations to myself in red, and basically give myself a critique. Then I go fix the stuff. Then I do again. Rinse. Repeat. I find that giving critiques here and then posting up short exercise pieces to help with certain aspects of development help. That way I can aim to learn one aspect of the writing process until I get it down, then try something else. Might be plot development one time, might be character development another, might be dialog, might be just trying to perfect an opening or an ending. There will come a point when you are writing that you go back through what you have written in the past few days, and you are amazed at how good it is and that you wrote it. Having a bit of an ego and reading what other people write helps too. Not ego in a bad way, but self confidence. Reading other's works and thinking about how specifically you would improve it (be it critiquing on here or reading published works) there is always room for improvement. The key to it is being able to specifically identify what is wrong and problem solving on how you would fix it to make it better. There are plenty of appropriate times to be harsh on yourself, during the writing of the first draft is not one of them. It's good to be able to criticize yourself and fix things that are truly wrong. But, just having no confidence in your budding skills is not the same as concise criticism of your own work.
I agree with Cog. I think all writers feel this way about their work at some point, simple because of the amount of time you spend with it. No story in the history of literature is interesting enough to keep your mind fascinated for 10 months straight. But it can still keep your reader fascinated for the time it takes to read through it, and hopefully a bit after as well. I have it the same way with my work as an illustrator. I see a cool picture in my mind and think it's awesome until the point where I'm halfway done drawing it - then it becomes stale and boring to me - by the time the drawing is finished I care little about it. That just means its finished - in other people's eyes it's usually as cool as the initial idea felt to myself. Maybe it will help you to consider anything beyond having the idea, as craftmanship. It's work, labour or whatever you wanna call it, necessary for passing your idea on to others. Learning to like this part for the craftmanship in itself, would help make it easier and more fun.
Yup, yup and yup. And if you put it away for a while, don't be averse to the idea that what you have written already really wasn't the actual story, but only a portion of a different story that simply got to the party early. You never know where or how a story will find new life.
I go through this, I find that putting it aside for a bit helps. Often when I come back, my characters have more to say, whatever was bogging me down reveals itself. I am able to work out the kinks and move forward with the story telling, if I still feel the story needs to be told. There are times when I have had to completely ditch an idea and start over, or simply rework a character. Time away will help you decide what is best.
I think that you should put it aside for a while and start something new. When you go back to it you might want to continue or you might scrap it for good. But all writing is good practice.
That's a great point there. I think that's why I feel more satisfied when my short stories are done whereas novels tend to get stale. The short story is over faster and I still find the concept fascinating, not the same for my novels. I never thought of it like that thanks
I always view my WIPs as relationships...I'm married to them, and to 'divorce' one is extemely traumatic. This might prove to be a handicap eventually, but for now I've managed to finish most stories that I start (except for ones that just go nowhere; those die a quick death), even if I do have large gaps of time between writing. In fact, stories I've put down for a few months and then come back to are often much better than ones written during a few days or weeks of solid inspiration (these are short stories I'm talking about here).
This happens to me pretty regularly. The way I write is I do outlines and writing sketches, and think about it for a while, usually while I'm on a walk or doing yard work, and then I sit down and write. But sometimes I reach a certain point where I haven't the faintest idea what should happen next, or the ideas I have don't seem to fit. Things that have worked for me include: reading over what I've already written doing writing exercises or writing sketches (very short stories about characters in the story) try listening to music that has no lyrics but reflects the mood/tone I want for the story or take a break. I think there's nothing wrong with taking a break, as long as you return to your story eventually. Sometimes I find myself extending the break because I'm honestly afraid that I'll go back, and I still won't be able to write the story, and what that would mean. But I also agree with what others have said. It depends on the story, and why you write. If you want to push yourself to finish the story, by all means. That's one thing I really like about writing, it's all up to you.
Yeah, I was working on a story for a couple years and got up to just over 23,000 words before losing interest in it. It was a good idea, I just had no idea how it was going to end or what was going to happen when it did end. Oh well. I'm working on another story now that's a lot more personal, which should make it more fun to write.
if i begin to lose heart, i think of more ideas. i round the story in my mind. i fill plot holes and think of how to answer tough questions. its hard to keep going. but keep your mind set.
I'm about to throw in my writer's hat, proclaim myself to be a wannbe, and be resigned to work in retail for the rest of my life. I swear I get to about 20,000 words in a novel and suddenly I'm bored. I start slacking off for a few days. Then I get into watching news, looking at some sort of interesting research, everything from parallel universes and cosmology to conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11. Then I find myself thinking of some other plot line, not just a simple plot line, but I get the opening scene and a whole idea going. Then I end up ditching the previous 20,000 words written on a totally different story, with the intent to work on both at the same time or the earlier one later, but I never get around to it. Does anyone else have this issue. Too many topics, not enough brain power, and too little time to get it all down?
I frequently do this with short stories. Even after finishing and revising them, I lose interest, and they just sit there on my computer. The thing that worked for me was to come back to whatever I was working on after working on something else. This gives me a fresh perspective when I come back to whatever I left unfinished. This approach worked for a few of the stories, but some of them I just gave up on. I feel that abandoning a project is not necessarily a bad thing. It's a learning process. However, if you are abandoning every project you start, then that might be a problem. You might have to force yourself to write.
BlueBell80, It may be that the projects you've started were not planned out well enough in advance and that's why they stalled, or that what you were working on really wasn't destined to be novel-length. However, from your post, those possibilities don't appear to be the case. What it does take is self-discipline. Writing is hard because it takes self-discipline. There isn't instant gratification and the writer has to be in it for the long haul, because takes a while to write a novel and get it right. If you're struggling to get beyond 1/5th of the first draft, you're really going to struggle when you have to edit and revise to get the mansucript up to submission quality to have a chance for an agent to represent it and/or a publisher to accept it (if that's your goal). In the end it is you who is going to have to redirect yourself when you stray. If not, you will remain, as you indicated, a wannabe. There are many "wannabes" out there. Actually vast multitudes of them are out there because the fact is that writing a good, solid novel isn't easy--even getting through the first draft. Even the first draft takes time and effort and dediction. And that's only the beginning. Good luck. Terry
I think you may have two problems: 1. Whenever I get uninterested, It's when I'm not writing. If I force myself to sit down and type, all of a suddenly another part of my brain takes over and ideas flow. Have you made yourself sit down and do it? 2. Is the story special to you, or did you just pick a story raffle like and go with it. I tried and tried to write a novel. It wasn't until I came up with a story that really interested me that I could spend so much time on it. If other plot ideas are hitting you, perhaps you need to keep searching. . . (btw, I just got up, and was about to write the first line: "I think you may got two problems." I never heard "may got" before. Why does it sound so terrible?)
I'm sure the process is different for every writer. I don't usually know when I begin a story how long that story will turn out to be, and I don't plot & plan in advance. But then I have no aspiration to write a novel, either, although I have nothing against doing that, if that's what arrives at the end. I've also never had the experience of not finding my own writing interesting (I don't think that's necessarily a plus, either), although I have abandoned a story or two that I didn't think would work for a reader, at least not in the form that it took. I like the idea of disciplined writing because, for me, writing leads to ideas more so than ideas leading to interesting writing. I guess my take-away from that would be that there's probably nothing at all wrong with abandoning one story for another, if that stimulates your creative machinery. I do think it's not to a writer's benefit to think of that abandonment as wasteful and I don't recommend word-counting as a means to any creative end at all. It's a little like working with clay or maybe a woodcarving experience. The working itself leads the creator into his medium in ways that simply cannot be learned "any-other-how." And I think the best artists in any medium learn to work with each other (artists and medium) as equals somehow.
I'm having a similar problem with mine now - I'm only about 12k through =P The question for me is what inspired me to write it in the first place. Solutions that fix my mood range from either putting on some thematic music (the track is actually called "zombie"), going back to what original inspired me to start (books, movies, games, ideas) or even just reading through what I've typed to bring myself up to speed on my own writing. If you go back over what you've written and you're just not feeling it come back to you, you're probably better off ditching it after all =S I guess it usually happens because you lose momentum, and the bigger the ball gets the harder it is the push. Just remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing and you should be fine.
One problem may be the lack of planning. I go scene by scene with a general idea of where I am going, but prefer to see how each scene plays out and how my cliff hanger is leading to the next scene, the problem-reaction-solution approach I guess. I was, well technically still am, working on a novel length zombie story. I was in the midst of a scene, plugging away on it, and got into watching some videos on You Tube, and watching the news, and reading some science magazines online. Then another story popped into my head that I just felt I must get started on paper or I'll loose the concept. I had taken two days off from writing while I read a copy of John Dies at The End that I found online (since it had previously been offered online download versions are still around the web -- like Autumn was.) I read the story in two days. It was really good. But then I started researching wormholes and parallel universes and related theories...a good portion I already knew about. Then I found myself watching David Icke videos, even though I'm not so in line with his theories, they are interesting. The idea that beings in reptilian form could be controlling the world governments, but I don't like his theory that they came from Planet X or some other planet of this dimension. To me they could be more of a species from another parallel universe that found a way to cross the divide (theoretically of course, not like I actually believe our leaders are reptile aliens.) It makes for an interesting story, kind of like what John Dies at the End explores. So it got me thinking. I was struck with an opening scene, a main character and just had to start writing. But this means I've abandoned my zombie book 20k words in. It's not that I was bored with the zombie story, because I still have things churning in my brain about it. But, I feel like an ADD case jumping from one idea to another and never finishing it. I have no problem finishing shorter pieces as long as I do it in one or two sittings. But with longer pieces I just can't seem to get past 20,000 words before something else sparks another story in my mind that sounds too good to pass up. Maybe I'm just crazy like Stephen King and will end up with files full of half started stories that I can use later....I can only hope.
Aside from the other advice in this thread, I have a theory: When you first start writing, there is no story. Sure, you have an idea that you wanna foster and develop but, honestly: There is nothing complex. So you sit down and write all of the wonderful ideas that come to you. Then, as the story transforms from a basic concept into a working story with thoughtful characters and a meaningful direction to the plot - and this is the part that everything has been leading up to - once you get to that part of the story-- well, then you have to start working! I'm writing a detective novel -- and of course, that is an extreme since in detective novels, you gotta make sure that all of your pieces are falling in a specifically timed manner -- and after writing some random ideas, building two fairly detailed crimes, and creating an entire planet and history thereof, I started getting a bit. . . shy of my typewriter. From this point on, I'll have to think carefully about what happens, lest plot-holes and continuity errors. It is very obvious because of the type of story I am writing, but perhaps this selfsame problem exists - albeit, more subtly - in many stories. It's no longer just about 'writing that fun idea,' but about work.
What a great description (all of it, really), but I love this especially--I think I even recognize it!
not everyone who wants to write is cut out to be a novelist... why don't you try short stories and see if you can finish things that don't have to keep you writing for months or years? short stories can be turned out in days... and once you've gotten the satisfaction of completing what you start, you may find you can eventually work your way up to writing a novel... or you may never get there, but as i said, not everyone has what it takes to write novels... but the writer's art offers many other options, you know... plays, movie scripts, poetry, non-fiction essays and articles and much, much more...
I don't think it's at all a matter of working your way "up" to either, except in the sense of which one you're shooting for. While practicing either can be helpful to both, novels and short stories are distinctly different artforms and require somewhat different priorities. It's more like a painter whose self-expression works better on a large canvas or small; neither size has anything at all to do with the exceptionality of the artwork.
