I think I just had a writing epiphany today. If you are writing a story and you start to get bored writing it, then wouldn't it be logical to conclude that the reader will get bored reading it? Maybe I'm wrong, but recently I've been trying to make a good beginning to my short story and so far I've hated it. I'm writing and I'm trying to describe what the characters are doing and what they're wearing and when I go back and read it I realize they're doing nothing of significance, and worse it's boring. So, I cut out significant sections and kept only what would be enough to establish the mood (which was like two sentences) and I didn't describe the characters a lot (one of them was going to die soon and was mostly insignificant to the story, one doesn't become important until later, and the main character can be described as I go along) After reading I felt much better because it didn't drag on. It still needs work, but at least I'm not describing boring things which I think was my problem in the first place. Anyway, that's what I've learned today. If the next time I write and start getting bored again, then I think the problem lies with what I'm writing and not so much me getting bored. I should feel excited with what I'm writing. Right?
In my opinion, it's a bad idea to write when you don't feel like it. You'll write things you don't like, and you'll have just wasted your time. If you're getting bored it doesn't mean your story is boring - everyone's job (or hobby) can get boring at times. Just stop, that's what I do.
I disagree. Sometimes I write my best when I least expect to. If I only wrote when I felt like it, I'd never finish anything. Writing is hard. Often times when I write, every other thing in the world seems more interesting. Don't get the wrong impression. I'm a procrastinator. I've not written because I didn't feel like it time and time again. If I had kept at it a little more, I would have finished my book already, and I would be submitting queries right now. I'm just saying, you can stop if you want. Or you can keep at it and have a completed piece of work, faster. Yes, you don't want to burn yourself out. If you're like Jean Auel, creator of the Clan of the Cave Bear series, and putting in 12 to 16 hour days, you might want to cut back. Otherwise, try to do at least 1 to 2 hours a day, and try and stick with it! It will pay off!
It really depends - if you've been revising the same scene 10 times to get it right, it will bore you after a while, even if it's the most epic scene your readers will read- it's a natural reaction of wanting to move forward. On the other hand, if your entire overall story bores you - bad sign. Also, I've heard people mention needing to "get past the necessary build-up scenes to get to the good parts" or something that effect. That's BS. If conveying your necessary info feels boring, you're either doing an infodump, or slipping it in naturally (which is GOOD) through boring, flat scenes (which is BAD). I hate horror stories with only a few scary parts, romances with only a few romance parts, etc. Make the whole thing fun to read and write.
If you're writing because of your love for it but find it difficult, maybe it's best to take some time off and have a go at something else for a while. Your main priority should be your passion that fuels your writing and to never let it become a tedious boring job.
I get bored of my story too, when it comes to proofreading it and trying to put the characters in the right place. Then when I posted my work for review, the readers found the book totally boring, so I always thought about giving up writing the story and start another one. Sometimes I think about quit writing period. I don't think someone else would do the same thing, because a writer may still love his or her idea and not the writing itself. This might be the problem, that writers who find their work boring find the way he or she wrote the story is boring. The theme of the story may not be boring itself, it's how the writer writes it. Therefore, writers would find a different style of writing the story for the theme or idea, and the way it is written may either change the interest. In due respect, I don't think writers would find their idea boring, otherwise, why write it in the first place? if the writer find the theme boring (which, in your case, you don't find it boring), then it would probably be hard to make the writing style of it fun. One problem that some writters may have is that they might not have the necessary tools or experience needed to improve the way the story should be written, and they might seek advice or do some research to make the quality of the story better. Maybe that is why some writers find the "idea" boring.
I have to say it's something I don't come across my stories don't bore me at all even with proofreading and editing. However I do have times when my brain feels like mush and I only write fluff. I do think best way is to just keep writing though.
Often I'll find that if I'm getting tired with something it's because I've been working on in a lot recently or I've been thinking about it too much when I'm away from the story rather than it be boring. Try switching to another story or taking a break from writing for a few days - you could just need a change. When I start to find writing dull I go to the gym.
Your writing isn't necessarily boring. With my work, for instance, I think about everything constantly, I can't just write. So, when it comes to the actual writing, it's just trying to express things that I've been working on in my head for sometimes days or weeks. It doesn't have the enjoyable spontaneity of that first genesis, but it's necessary. It's hard to write, and sometimes boring, but writing is work. It should take effort if you're doing it right.
Maybe that is the key to find the joy in the effort. I find joy and excitement in most 'jobs' I have done, the effort itself has its rewards and enjoyment. I don't find writing my stories or even editing dull because I see the end product coming into being.
Perhaps you should just forget about writing well for now, and just get on with the story? If I'm bored of a scene because I want to write one that comes later, I just hurry up and finish in a few sentences, then go back later when I'm done writing what I want to write. Also, forget about people reading the story. Just write for yourself. Then when the first draft is done and you start editing, then start thinking about what others might think, and whether the story is boring or not. Don't think about writing for yourself a waste of time, because it's not. You gain experience.
Imagine you painting a picture. You might be bored with it because it not all that interesting picture. Or you might be bored with it because you doing one of the boring steps of the work, like carefully painting clouds in the background. The clouds in the background might make the picture even greater when a viewer is is looking at the big picture, but painting it white-greyish tiny stroke, but grey-whiteish tiny stroke is a boring pain in the ass. Or imagine that you a wood crafter polishing the little decorative wooden box endlessly to give it a beautiful shine. Or imagine that your an actor doing the same scene for the 100th time. Every craft got it boring parts of work for the crafter. But the bits boring to us is often whats add the fine details needed to take the work to the next level. --- But. If you bored with what you writing it might be a sign that the pacing is a bit off. But not necessarily so. The reader is going to read the passage much faster then you write it.
It is true that what you write can be boring when you don't really feel like writing. But I still keep writing or just day dreaming, specially if I have a dateline of some kind, and usually somewhere, in a word or a sentence, I will find that inspiration to fully concentrate on the story. There is nothing wrong in writing a s***ty draft.
I agree that being bored with your own writing can be a sign that your material is boring. The best stuff that I write is when I'm really into the story and feeling excited about what I'm working on. When I'm plotting my stories or books, I usually ask which characters/situations/events would spark my interest as a reader and focus my writing on those. I didn't feel all that interested when I was writing the first 60 000 word section of my novel because it focused on a dead-end subplot featuring a boring character, leaving out most of the interesting characters that I actually like writing about. So I threw out that whole section and started it over after I had finished the book (ouch). I think it's important to try to write regularly to stay in the story...oftentimes, when I've been away from my work too long, it's hard to get back into it. However, I have off days when I'm tired or sick or whatever, and can't really produce good material. I find it's better not to write on those days.
I sometimes get bored with writing just because I'm having a bad day, or I'm redrafting a scene that didn't turn out well the first time, or because I'm actively writing instead of doing something I'd prefer (like reading another Brent Weeks book). But that doesn't mean my writing's bad. Why should it? I write well; when I write, even if I'm not enthusiastic at the time, my stories are often decent if not great. I rather suspect the "if you're bored when you write, your story will bore readers" is just one of those self-serving myths that crop up, like "fast writing equals bad writing" or "you must know someone to get published." In this case, the myth allows people to futz around instead of write. It allows them to let themselves off the hook if they've set aside four hours to write and discover they're bored twenty minutes in. And it persists because we'd all like to cite the myth instead of owning up to the fact that we're being flaky and lame. (Hard to say this, but a lot of writers -- myself included -- are bad at being sufficiently un-flaky to schedule writing time for ourselves and stick to it.) But seriously, you don't expect a carpenter to produce cruddy furniture just because she's bored at the time, or an interior designer to produce an ugly room just because they'd rather be reading. And both of those are equally creative endeavors -- the tools we use as writers are plot and pacing, character and grammar and poetic description, rather than a lathe and screws and sandpaper, but the end result of both is a new piece of art.
-Heinlein Fan, I like what you said, and not just because it expounds upon what I said, in a clearer manner. At the same time, I also agree with the people who've said that its quite possible that your writing is boring if you yourself are bored with it. I guess it depends on the individual circumstances. In some cases, maybe its a little of both.
Bumping up this thread. I find I sometimes struggle to get my ideas on page. I'll finally get a page done, I'll look and it's been three hours and I'm mentally drained. I'll read the chapter when it's done and I find it very fun to read. My ideas are fun but expressing it can be difficult, finding good words to use. I find my worst chapters are ones I can just type up in a few hours. I posted a such chapter and it didn't take well, I re-read it and it needed a lot of work. The chapters I struggled with, generally took off really well. Considering thus is my first draft, I think it's all good.
I don't think I have boring scenes in my story but I can make them boring if I'm not in the right mood. I think it goes hand in hand. Sometimes I know what I want to write but can't make it interesting or exciting so 'it' becomes boring and I become bored - there's nothing like that eureka moment though when you finally nail it and all the boredom goes away. It does help to be in the right frame of mind just before you turn open your MS Word and start typing, but to go back to your OP, if you're bored writing, your reader will be rigid.
I bet everyone gets bored with their story sometimes, but I think there's a big difference between being bored and lacking inspiration. We've gone through my and KaTrian's current WIP a thousand times (literally over a dozen times and it's over 100k words), so naturally I'm bored out of my mind quite often, but writing is like any craft; you can't do it only when it's fun and exciting, otherwise you'll never get good. So yeah, I get bored, but the story and the characters never cease to inspire me. To me, that makes all the difference. If I'm not inspired by the story or its characters, then there's a big problem. It's the same with my band: I write all the songs / lyrics and play guitar. The songs have a few tricky bits so I need to practice them a lot, so naturally I get bored with the material quite often, but that doesn't get in the way of the inspiration that drives me to practice, play, and write new material (as well as practice the old stuff). Perhaps it's because deep down inside I know (just like with writing), that when the music is grooving, everyone is feeding off of one another, and we're on the stage playing our asses off, it's all worth it, it's worth all the tedium and boredom I have to endure to realize my inspirations / dreams. It's the same exact thing with writing: I have a vision and the inspiration to realize it, so I work through the boring stuff because the drive to put the story out there is so strong and it never lets go. If it does, there's something seriously wrong with the story / characters, and something needs to be changed.
