I keep getting stuck in the black hole of "looking for information", "confirming my facts", etc. This begins innocently enough but grows to be an all-consuming project of its own. After a day/week/month of this procrastinating "research", I lose interest in the whole writing business, move on to some other pursuit, and maybe, if I'm lucky, return some time later to the story I started. I've tried "just writing a shitty first draft to get my thoughts down", just to get something, anything, finished, to get some sense of accomplishment. Just to discover what my spark of an idea is really about. I still get sucked in, even on short pieces. I don't consider myself a discovery writer (i.e., pantser); I need structure, framework. I'm very much "Type-A". So it comes as no surprise that a few thousand words into discovery writing, I lose steam, run out of ideas on where this story is going. That's where I revert to my go-to: planning, outlining, plotting, and that leads me to the "research" void. It doesn't help that I love research, investigation, and learning. Predictably enough, I fall back to what I like doing best. But that results in analysis-paralysis, as I well know. Also, I haven't failed to realize that all this looks suspiciously like procrastination. One solution that I've tried unsuccessfully several times is to pick some super simple idea and just write it in one sitting. Same results, I get stuck on details that need confirming, I get distracted by "well, that doesn't make sense, I need to look that up..." And then one thing leads to another. I know others experience this as well. How do you deal with it, and actually finish a first draft (so that the work of outlining and plotting can begin)? I realize I've touched on a few problems here, and I suspect it's not just one thing that's holding me back. Help!
It sounds like you need to learn how to plot, how to structure and outline. I would highly recommend a few books on those particular subjects by K M Weiland, in particular: Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success (Helping Writers Become Authors) Check her blog to see if her books will appeal to you: K M Weiland Blog
@Xoic, thanks for the suggestions. I've followed Weiland, and several others, now for a few years. All great advice. For outlining, I tend to go for prescriptive methods: for example, Freytag, Boot Camp, 3-Act Structure, and my favourite, Snowflake. I especially like the incremental, step-wise approach of the latter. My problem is that no matter which outlining method I use, I spend an ever-increasing amount of time in research the further I delve into development of the plot. I tend to focus overmuch on details, to the point of obsession. At that point the story seems unworkable, and I end up shelving it (for later). I suppose a solution could be to only do the minimum of fact-checking, sufficient to make the situation plausible, and fix it further on the next iteration. Right now I'm focusing on writing (and completing!) short stories, to give me some confidence in both my skills and the chosen methods/tools.
When I write nonfiction that requires a substantial amount of research, I give myself a reasonable deadline for research and reading, When that deadline expires, I give myself a second deadline for producing the first draft, followed by a deadline for polishing the result. Then I send the piece off to whatever publication I'm writing for, forget about it and move onto the next project. That would work for fiction, too. The trick is sticking to your deadlines. An occasional quick research expedition to check a fact or answer a question that arises unexpectedly while writing is acceptable but should not extend past answering the question at hand.
As somebody who does extensive research ...I write historically-set fiction, and am really a stickler for accuracy ...I feel your pain! I think one of the things that helped me was that I was already very familiar with the setting and time period I chose to write about, so I kinda knew where to begin. But yes, research does take time (and in my case, money, as I wrote my first novel at a time when the internet wasn't the go-to source of information it is now. I had to buy BOOKS in order to write one!) However, if you're fairly sure of your ground when you start, you'll find that the research supplements what you already know. It doesn't derail the train. (You hope.) In fact, research can give you ideas for your story that you wouldn't have thought up yourself. However, research shouldn't feel like procrastination. It should actually make you really eager to get back to writing, and putting what you've learned to use. If it doesn't have that effect, then maybe you have a problem with writing itself, rather than a problem with research. You indicate that you often have trouble finishing what you start. If research weren't distracting you, probably something else would. I'd say to focus really hard on finishing. If you encounter a story problem, solve the problem—don't abandon the project. If you find you're not interested in the story any more, change something about the story that rekindles your interest, and keep going. If you've painted yourself into a corner, and discovered, via research, that you've made a mistake, then figure out a way to correct the problem. I've done that many times. Yeah, it means a bit of editing, but nothing you write is set in stone until you get it published. So don't be afraid of changing things that turn out to be unworkable. I'd say avoid becoming too fixated on an outline. Make an outline, by all means, if that helps you achieve focus. But you do actually need to WRITE the story itself. You will find (I practically guarantee it) that as you actually write, you will surprise yourself. As you actually write, more ideas will occur to you ...about character development, etc. In writing exchanges of dialogue, for example, you'll discover dynamics between characters that you may not have included in your outline— but which enrich your story a lot. Don't be afraid of these sudden bursts of discovery. They don't run contrary to your outline. They put meat on the bones you've created with your outline. An outline basically tells you, the writer, what you need to achieve. But that's not the same as achieving it. In order for the reader to get immersed in your story, you have to bring that outline to life. So don't feel that all you need to do is make a good outline and job done. That's no more a story than an architect's blueprint is a house. You use the blueprint as a guide, but it's not a substitute for bricks and mortar. I think the worst habit ANY writer can develop is the habit of walking away from projects. That will pretty much ensure you'll never make it as a writer. No matter what kind of writer you are, or how good you are on a scale of 1-10, nobody is going to publish your unfinished work—including you. So make finishing each story your primary goal. Solving all writing problems and finishing every story can also become a habit. It's a good habit to acquire. It's a wonderful feeling to 'have written,' even if the editing phase ahead is daunting. You have created the raw material. You can now work it into something really good.
Some excellent advice given by the writers above. I can only add one additional piece of advice that might help you finish a project. Instead of explaining or proving some historical happening, try disproving common misconceptions about any given happening. This gives you the ability to explain what happened in detail by de-constructing the poplar myth around it. It teaches the reader how to share with anyone else with some real level of knowledge about the topic, any good teacher or someone skilled in rhetoric, knows all the counter arguments on the theories they teach. This method also gives you a reason to finish, while we all love to share what we know, there is some inherent pleasure in proving the other guy wrong.
