So I have been holding ideas, scenes that I want to write for a year or longer. Problem is, I have not produced a single paragraph. Just a notebook of ideas. Question for you guys is: Have any of you done similar? Nail down the vibe, mood before any writing? I may just riff off the ideas, make about 20 short stories. These will be made into scenes or chapters of a book. Thoughts?
I usually write a bunch of different opening scenes for the story I'm most interested in writing, and then out of all the scenes I wrote, I'd choose the best one and build off of it. Usually works for me, as long as I have enough inspiration
Yes, I have. But to me writing ideas and planning isn't writing. So I will normally do something separate while gathering ideas for my big manuscript. I'll look at some writing exercises, write a diary from random characters. Just to keep the skills up and to keep myself disciplined.
I personally don't gain anything from holding on to ideas for that long. The fantasy gets stuck at a certain point and doesn't move on. The vibe/tone usually comes pretty quick while I fantasize a couple scenes. Writing is the best way to develop everything.
I don't think I'd be able to nail down anything about my story beyond the broadest of descriptions without actually writing any of it. I do often have scenes in my head for a long time before writing them, but that's usually because they're part of the skeleton of the story that I've already mapped out, and they fall near the end of the novel. Planning is good, but don't let it turn into something that stops you from actually sitting down and writing! Perfect shouldn't be the enemy of good. That said, I do have quite a big library of ideas, images, lines, entire scenes or character ideas that exist with no context. And when I do start a novel, those rogue ideas attach themselves to the concept. It's like how planets form--little shards of rock and gas that were already drifting around start clumping together and becoming bigger.
I usually let my ideas develop as I write. For whatever reason my brain doesn't like just spewing out ideas on to a page. But once I start writing with a tiny inkling of where I'm I'm going, my brain usually fills in the blanks. It probably requires a lot more editing and backtracking than a concise and clear plan, but I also find it much more enjoyable to write this way - because without a plan, it could go anywhere. At the end of the day, it's just about what works best for a particular person. I'd just take one of your ideas, open a blank document and start writing. You can plan and plan until the end of time, but without writing, what's the use? I find good writing exercise is to do the things you usually wouldn't.
I tend to think more about a story after it's written than before. All the planning in the world means nothing without a story. But once I have something down, I'll play through it in my head and new things come to me, things to change, things to add. I wouldn't even have these thoughts without getting at least some of the writing down. Writing is a choice. There is nothing stopping you. There is also nothing making you actually write the story. But, to me, it seems like you have given this more than enough thought and time to get started writing.
For me something sitting idle for that long is in danger of going stale. I understand, and maybe it can't be avoided sometimes. But ideally I think it's best to get it down as quickly as possible so as to retain as much of the initial energy from the idea before thatt fades. Another factor is motivation. I find I'm very driven and motivated when an idea is fresh, brand new. Over time this naturally fades, as the newness wears off. Like the old saying, 'familiarity breeds contempt.'
I find that my fingers "think out loud." What I mean is, I will have an idea to start with, and start writing. Once I'm writing, even if I only have a vague starting point, there is some kind of connection between my brain and my fingers that connect and ideas start to form as I write. I'm 82,000 words into a new novel after a year of writing as often as I can. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. But I have about 40 pages in my file for my current WIP for example in which I store ideas, plot points, character ideas into whenever I feel like it. I Also have a rudimentary daily journal and sometimes jot an idea down there too. I have a little notebook by the bed for ideas that come to me in the night. I use some, forget most and discard none. I have notebooks going back 40 years that I still flip through looking for ideas too, but that is mostly for a collection of memoirs I'm also working on.
It's interesting how I'm always afraid to actually start writing. We have this irrational fear that it'll be terrible because it won't be perfect.
I don't believe you can 'force' your ideas to manifest into the full story just by sitting there and thinking. There is no right or wrong to creativity, don't feel bad if you're not writing one day or for even a month, let the ideas grow naturally and one day you'll know that you have enough to begin to write.
They say 'one can't edit nothing' I always liked that phrase. I modified it for myself into: 'you can't mold clay that doesn't exist yet' But yeah I agree that perfectionism is a big barrier for many writers. I think what's at the root of it is fear, fear of being rejected, or of somehow being seen 'lowered' in others' sight. It's a tricky balance, because on the one hand we want to say 'to hell with what others think' and write what's in our hearts. But OTOH we also want what we write to be received well by others, too, which is what makes us conscious of their opinions (good or bad) which inadvertently can affect one's self esteem. I think the only remedy to this is a healthy high dose of both; lots of time spent spinning you own content, and ample experience receiving feedback on it from others. (I'm referring to actual, quality feedback, not shallow comments by well meaning 'readers') Yet a third thing that adds value to the mix is reading a lot of quality writing by others. Elmore Leonard said a writer has to write one million words before they truly find their own voice. I always thought that was an interesting comment.
For me, it's the work. Writing the best prose I possibly can, for thousands of words, is a bitch. I love plotting and planning. I love worldbuilding. I usually enjoy the research. But getting the prose right is like wrestling a boa constrictor.
If you enjoy just making stories up in your head or writing down ideas, that's not a problem if it's what you do for fun. I know I did the same for many years. I never actually wrote anything until I got my first wordprocessor (Mackintosh Performa) in 1996, when I was 46 years old! I always had a story going in my head, though, even as a child. These were never stories with beginnings, middles and ends. They were just the ongoing adventures of certain characters. I used to tell them to my sister as I 'thought them up', but I never wrote them down till 1996. However, one day I just thought ...hey, I've got this nifty machine. I wonder.... So I took a couple of scenes I had cooking in my head for a new story I was 'thinking up,' and wrote them. Wow. Such fun. Then I wrote more, started doing research (it's a historical novel) and kept writing. Yikes. I had to do beginning, middle and end. I didn't know I could do it, till I did. But all those years I spent 'thinking up stories' and scribbling down Ideas suddenly made sense. I hope the same thing happens to you. One day you just start—and it all falls into place. Best feeling, really.
I spend a lot of time mentally writing because it's a good use of my brain while commuting, in boring meetings, and other situations where I have mental bandwidth but am not able to physically write. But in my case it's more than just ideas - I can flesh out scenes and dialogue in great detail in my head, so when I have the chance to write it's more transcribing than creating.
I pretty well went seat-of-the pants for the first 83,000 words, but now as I approach the end, I'm spending as much time thinking and making notes and putting down scene ideas to map out the ending while tying all the loose ends up.
I used to. I spent years thinking about writing the great novel that would impress the world. Then I stopped pretending to want to be a writer and just started writing. The clue is to write every day, and train yourself to not even give a damn if you have an idea or not. That will usually self-generate an idea faster and better than anything you get sitting on your ass, anyway.
sometimes i'll write ideas, sometimes i'll outline a whole plot. sometimes i'll write down character names and brief synopses of who they are and what they do. On rare occasions, I'll write a scene (if its vivid enough) and then make notes off of those so that I can go back to it later. I've come back to my short notes after years sometimes and will delete them because i've lost my vision for it. Sometimes I'll pick up my scenes after years and realize i like it and have more scenes to add (like whats happening currently. My 1 page scene from 2+ years ago is now going on 20 pages). My headspace is in a completely different zone from where it was when i jotted down the notes. The outline I made for it back then is now obsolete and deleted. Its going in a completely different direction than when i first wrote it.
I actually make notes in retrospect, so I can remember where characters ended up, which day events occur on and what not. When it comes to writing, I tend to improvise with no prior note making and it's always the same; first sentance down and ideas just start flooding in! Once I have that first chapter, I know what the whole novel is going to be about and it's then about isolating a storyline and spending a week or so of doing nothing but thinking. Things change but I've got the whole plot more or less nailed down after that week. What I've taken to doing recently is deciding what will be in a chapter, then busting out a notepad document and roughly describing each scene, so when I get to the actual writing I know what I need to include. So recently, in the last two weeks or so, notes are becoming super important for the writing process.
I feel like I am in a very similiar, if not the same, boat. I have brainstormed, I have out-lined, I have also read countless blogs and books on writing. I still have no idea where or how to start.
I have a lot of ideas similar to you, difference is the thing I keep them in likes to get up and walk away when I'm not looking, but I understand your perspective. On some of the RP forums I used to partake in, the mods and admins were actually scared that I'd come up with a better arc idea that a larger percentage of the active populace might enjoy. I never publicly announced them, but they were scared that I would because it challenged their authority over the story. But ideas and story are two different things. They go hand in hand skipping through the meadow, but they are different. Don't be afraid to write crap. Scrap it when your done and move on, if it's that bad.
I have that, and not just shorts, but it happens all the time in my WIP. Quite frustrating to play that mental chess game, to make sure you have exactly what you want to write all thought out.
Dreaming is fun, but it's easy fun. Thoughts are just in your head. They belong to you and no one can see them. Once you get them down on paper or screen, they have weight and get weighted by yourself, potentially by others. A thought is not a word is not a deed. There's truth in that saying. By writing something down, we let the world see what we're spinning up in our brains and that's scary. For some writers, it's because dreaming is without risk altogether that holds them back from writing and keep on dreaming. For others, it's the potential lack of quality. For yet others, they loose interest because to write a book is, as others have commented, a lot of work. The end result is the same: No book. For me, the time for dreaming has passed. What about you?
Hello, friend. Don't hold your ideas, write them down! Even if that means you write the basic concept and develop properly later. Or if you didn't write the idea, I suggest starting writing. Later that scene may be useful for some other story. Is too similar to the story before? That's fine because then you can rewrite. And yes that happens to me, out of my chair and while I am writing. The problem I find is, it never goes as the dame dialogue or scene, it may appear similar but never the same as I had imagined.
