To be clear, this is different from 'I can do it tomorrow' attitude. The thing I'm feeling lately is 'I'm not in the mood' I know the only fix for it is to buckle down and write it. But this one scene I want to do is something I typically don't show in my stories. But for this particular scene, I want to show that they're a villain, who's slightly unhinged and capable of murder. But something about it is bogging me down and making me not wanna write it. I even have the scene 'planned' already, but like, my motivation goes out the window when I sit down to finish the thing. This has happened a couple of times with a couple different scenes. Usually, once I write the scene I get my 'mojo' back and move forward with the story. It's just sometimes it takes longer than others. I think part of it might be the fact that straight murder isn't a common thing in the series I'm writing for. It's brought up and implied once or twice, but never actually shown on screen.
When that happens to me, it can be for various reasons. Maybe am I really tired and need some rest, for example. But other times, I feel like I'm in fact unsatisfied with a particular scene or some plot developpment, even if the said scene or plot makes perfect sense, logically. Generally, at some point, I get another idea for the scene or the plot and I find myself feeling that "that's it! It's the right one!" and my enthusiasm comes back. Sadly, getting the idea can be very long sometimes.
A huge part of writing is not caring if you're in the mood, it's doing it anyhow. It's treating writing like a job. You don't have to feel like it but you do it regardless. I have goals and I never miss them. Never. It doesn't matter how I feel, I still do it.
This reminds me of an interview I watched with George RR Martin about his infamous Red Wedding scene. He planned it out, knew exactly what to write, and was certain that it was an essential part of his story. Nonetheless, he just couldn't write it. It was too painful to even think about, so he pushed it off right until the end. It was literally the last chapter of the book that he wrote. Perhaps you're in a similar situation, where "not in the mood" really means "I don't want to put myself through the emotional pain of writing this yet."
I think I've just been 'stuck' thinking of the perfect place to cut the scene off. The reader sees the aftermath literally the next chapter, so it's not like I need to 'show' the full event. I've decided to go ahead and finish the scene tonight. The majority of the scene is her creepily flirting with her victim. The last words in the chapter are her telling him to scream for her.
Go ahead and write it anyway, short and lackluster. It's not so easy to write badly when you know you can do better. You'll have the urge to correct yourself - don't do it. Move on as if you finished it. The mind wants to solve problems, and it will as you write in other parts of your story. Likely it will be influenced by your other writing, anyway. Hindsight could be your friend. Don't be afraid to sabotage your work a little and let the subconscious fix it later. Write Without Fear!
Whose point of view are you using to tell the story? Sometimes a snag like this can be cured by simply changing perspective and depicting the scene from another character's point of view. If something isn't working, it can help to simply change the approach, not wait around for the pre-planned approach to become exciting again. I think there is a difference between procrastination, and what you're experiencing with this. Procrastination is knowing what you are supposed to be doing, and just putting it off because you can't be bothered, it's a nice day, etc. But you are in a dilemma here because you know what you want to do for your story, but your approach doesn't seem to be working. It makes sense, when that happens, to experiment with other approaches. Ask yourself 'what if....' And mentally play around with some changes. The character doesn't do what you expected. The character is watched by somebody else during the scene. The character changes his mind in some way. If this is a murder scene, maybe change something about the victim, or the setting. Just play around with these permutations in your head. Don't worry about writing it down, until you feel excited again. If you plan a story beforehand—especially if your plan focuses on plot rather than character—this happens, that happens, the end—you can reach a point where your original plan gets stalled. Your subconscious mind is telling you the plan isn't quite right. Your character may have outgrown the original plan you had for that character. Don't be afraid of wasting time or making changes that will demand a rewrite of other parts of the story. Make a change ...even if this means you have to go back later and tweak other parts of the story to fit. Ask 'what if' questions. No harm done. Unless you are a person who always gets everything right first time, consider that perhaps your plan for this character is flawed. People make mistakes at the planning stage as well as when they execute the plan. I think this is important for writing 'planners' to take on board. A plan is NOT infallible. Good luck! And have fun. Your story is NOT set in stone at this stage. It might actually be a better, deeper story now than what you originally intended. Characters, settings, approaches, themes ...they all evolve as the writer puts them into action. Don't fight evolution—work with it.
Stop complaining, put your ass in a seat and don't get up until you accomplish something. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Personally, lack of motivation has always come back to there being some underlying issue with the scene/chapter/etc that isn't working. At first I think I'm just being lazy or procrastinating, then I realize it's a particular part that is really hanging me up. THEN I realize its because that part/thing sucks and needs a change. Things generally start moving smooth again after I realize the issue and come up with a solution.
Sometimes I find myself procrastinating, which eventually leads to a lack of motivation to even write the scene. It's usually because I'm intimidated. I don't know how to write it, so I put it off. As many have said -- some less tactfully than others -- the cure is to just write it. make yourself do it and you can fix any problems in editing. Good luck with it.
I'd say they are not quite the same thing, but there's a considerable correlation. That is to say, a lack of motivation absolutely makes you more likely to procrastinate. See, creativity if very closely tied to enthusiasm and passion. If you don't have a strong positive emotional reaction to you work, it becomes a lot harder to get anything creative done. This is why a lot of artists are very sensitive to "moods" - it's not like a completely practical line of work where you simply have to get certain things done. We really do need a certain amount of emotional stimuli. A severe lack of that is usually the root cause of what we call writer's block. Procrastination is simply the tendency to put things off for later, even when we know we shouldn't. Naturally, if we don't feel properly enthusiastic about what we need to do (or something about it causes us anxiety) we are more likely to do so.
It could be the time of day. I seem to write more in the dead of night and early morning when I don't feel as dizzy like I do most of the day.
I feel this way all the time during the day taking care of my kids. It's ONLY gonna happen in the wee hours of the morning and night. One thing that has helped me was before getting into the part I'm going to write, I consume some media relevant to it, something small, not a whole movie or anything. Like maybe in your case for murder, I'd start by reading the two references I already have about murder in my story, and then watching a forensic psychology vid about a murder, then free writing about those things. Just a thought. I've been doing that for my memoir dealing with race, identity, sex, and bi polar disorder, I've been watching or listening to brief media relevant to the topic, while re reading what I've already written about it, and then going on and free writing about that after I've put myself into the thought process.
