Thanks a lot for the replies! All the uncertainty and frustration that comes with writing peaked for me today, probably because it's so hot and humid. I'm going to duck tape my thighs to my chair, face my fears, and just write.
what if you start getting some ideas on paper and then start writing it may help you remember more of it good luck ---------- Post added at 11:49 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:45 AM ---------- That is such a good idea, also some libraries have coffee shops built into the library maybe you visit your own library. Plus it would be a lot more quiet and less distracting. You don't have put up with the coffee machine going on a full blast, screaming kids and crying babies. Plus you would be with your inspiration and you can take your pick of the books.
Get a hundred words down. Then the next hundred. It's a pebble on the side of this mountain. You'll feel like it's as good as nothing. Put the next hundred down, it's only a few sentences after all. Don't even worry about the quality of it. All of a sudden you hit critical mass. A few thousand words perhaps, and you're once more facing this immense wall of everything else there is to write. Writing a novel is bloody hard. There's a reason most people never manage it, it's a monumental undertaking. But you can only do it a word at a time, a pebble at a time. You will however move the mountain.
Yeah I am the same too so i set myself small manageable goals like type for 50 words of novel at 1pm and then i would progress it 100 and so on. it also helps blog/tweet/facebook where you getting up too. Okay putting on a status I typed 50 words of novel wouldn't probably get you any likes/comments and i would be a bit boring but it's a good idea to keep track of where you're going. Also if you start to fade off/loose interest you know you can always go to back to that point. Plus it's better to type say first 50-100 words, then see if you are liking the plot/idea then type 4,000 words and feel stuck on what to write.
Whenever I worry about being good enough, I remember that first drafts are never great. A lot of authors say that editing is what makes a piece of writing spectacular. If you want incentive to write and novel writing is your thing, I'd suggest National Novel Writing Month. It starts in November and the challenge is to write an entire novel (50,000 words) in one month. You can track your word count on the website and it gives you a sort of schedule for writing. The entire philosophy is not worrying about the quality of your writing, but just working on getting something down on paper. I participated last year and it helped me a lot with my writing. Here's the website: http://www.nanowrimo.org/
Any sort of legality to worry about with NaNoWriMo? It does sound a bit interesting though, but perhaps I could just enforce the task upon myself? Bit of peer pressure I guess.
Can you explain this concern a little more? I can't imagine that you're asking whether it's illegal to write 50K words in a month. But what do you mean? ChickenFreak
Have you read the book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott? If not, you should go out and get this RIGHT NOW, young lady! A few quotes, to give you an idea of why you should read this book: [Mods: if quoting like this is a no-no, please let me know!] "Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head." "Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend. What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here." "Try looking at your mind as a wayward puppy that you are trying to paper train. You don't drop-kick a puppy into the neighbor's yard every time it piddles on the floor. You just keep bringing it back to the newspaper." "Don't look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance." "I don't think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won't be good at it."
Some people have it, & some don't. When you can state the case that nothing else matters, not food, not dirty diapers, not football games, not sex,( ok i went to far with this one.) But you get the picture. 2 Questions 1. Is it( "it being" desire, fire, burning, when life bites you in the ass, you bite back,fortitude, never giving up,Rocky Balboa, Discipline) Something you are born with, or can you acquire this attribute? 2. Do you schedule unflinching writing time daily? Help, Mr. 2year Writers Block.
I suppose there is discipline involved... but in my opinion you either want to do it or you don't. I remember at one point in time I wanted to learn how to play guitar. I got into it for about a week and then I just found out I didn't feel like putting the work in. With writing... if you don't want to write... don't write. Maybe you just like the idea of telling stories but you don't want to put the actual work in. Nothing wrong with it, it's not for everyone. But just find something you like doing and do it.
Agree with above, I think If you really WANT to write, either if you have the discipline or not, you will find a way to schedule some writing into your daily routine. And I think discipline is something everyone can acquire,(I don't think it's something you're born with) IF the motivations are strong enough. As for myself I don't set an specific time each day or week for writing, but i don't have to either, because I enjoy it so much I don't wanna skip it, of course there are days I don't feel motivated to write creatively but these days I edit my old work instead, so I'm always in touch with the writing somehow. And I know if I let too many days pass by without writing it would be more difficult to get back in the right mindset again, which I don't want to happen. It IS a daily routine for me, just like having dinner and brushing my teeth. I sit down and open my document and write however much I want, no word-goals necessary. When in the creative phase (in the first draft) I often set a small goal for each day, say, 1000 words, but when rewriting it's harder to set a goal.
I didn't get a chance to dig too deep and I wasn't sure if the work was to be posted in any sort of way to prove that you actually did abide by the rules. If the work were to be posted, would it hinder the future use of the material being used? I only asked based on previous fear-mongering that I have read about posting materials on the web and their future complications with publishing/etc. I am actually tempted to do the 30 days for 50k words, but I am not sure I will do the NaNoWriMo itself.
Writing, like every creative process, is a very demanding one. Being good at it isn't everything -- you have to develop a discipline if you want to do it seriously. I, for one, am not a disciplined person. Just ask my gym trainer. Or my math professors. Or my creative workshop professor. Or anyone in my life, for that matter. But I try to make an extra effort for writing because if I'm not willing to go all out there for the thing that matters to me the most, then my life really is quite pointless. I get creative blockages all the time, and lately it's become a very nagging thing. I used to write consistently for a year, almost every day and a healthy word count too (4,000 min) and suddenly I can't write anything. I know it's mostly personal issues I'm dealing with, but a friend told me that wasn't an excuse. If you want to write, then sit down and write. Make it happen. As for re-writing, ha. I'd love to move past the first draft one day. xD
Being afraid of writing is something we all deal with, and I don't think there's anyone out there who hasn't once wondered if he or she shouldn't just give up and pursue a different dream. If there is something I am trying to reconcile with, it's that it's okay to despair sometimes. It's necessary, even. Now, I know that question wasn't for me but I did NaNoWriMo for the first time last year (and completed the challenge, thank you very much!) and it was fantastic. It gives you a realistic goal and a definite path to attain it. Keeping track of your wordcount is somewhat daunting but also exciting. And there's a lot to be gained from seeing that "winner" badge at the end. You don't need to worry about your work because if you don't want, you don't have to actually submit it. They require you to validate your word count by copying/pasting your total work BUT they know of our fear of rendering the material useless after that, so they came up with nifty tricks to assure us. You can, for instance, use Microsoft Word to change every vowel in the text to a symbol or number, or a random letter, and thus codify the text. The verifying box does not recognise quality or form, it just counts words. Technically, you can post a Wikipedia article and say you won, it won't change to the machine. So don't worry, it's not a submission, just a word counter!
I think that discipline can be learned by making a conscience habit. That's true with writing and pretty much everything else in life. Think about sticking to writing and it'll be easier to. I've suggested this to other people, maybe you want to check out National Novel Writing Month. It helped me become a more disciplined writer.
I had a lt. once who told me “forget your fear and get you chutzpah on” Really the only advice I got, other than fear is part of the fun of life. think about when you were a kid and had a bicycle. I imagine like every other kid you took it to the top of the biggest hill you could find and flew down it. it was the fear that made that so much fun.
This has more to do with environment than anything you're born with. It sounds good to say things like "you've got to pick yourself up by the boot-straps" or "when the going get tough, the tough get going" etc... But in reality, it's not always so easy to just 'decide' to be more disciplined or ambitious or what have you. But the good news is that you can indeed develop those qualities with practice, and perhaps more importantly, get yourself in an environment that you feel you are more likely to want to sit down and write. If you are easily distracted, find times and places that minimize those distractions. It's not a sure-fire guarantee of anything, but it's something to consider. I have to get up early in the morning before my work day begins, get a pot of coffee going and get to it. I found out long ago that I'm doomed if I try and write after I get home from work. My brain is pretty well mush by then.
I will say, one easy thing to do is to create small goals for yourself. You might read a book and go "oh, I want to be able to do that" and then you try and plow your way into it and find it's impossible. But if you kind of incrementally work at it, eventually you will get to the point where you will be good enough to write something. And it might take years to get to that point... but eventually you get there. Case in point... my writing journey was like that. I started off with an idea for a story in high school, and I tried the brute force approach and failed miserably. For awhile I gave up on short stories, but one thing I found that I liked doing was getting on forums (like this one) and discussing various topics. My posts tended to be longer than average because I found it was something I liked doing. I did that for a few years and gained a few habits when it came to checking spelling and grammar. One of the website/forums that I went to would allow members of the site to write articles that would be shown on the front page of the website. All of it was volunteer, but I had free time and I wrote an article on whatever interested me every now and then and submitted it to them. I probably wrote like 30 articles for this website... all for free. They probably all weren't something worth selling, but it gave me the opportunity to practice organizing thoughts together into a finished product with an introduction and conclusion. And then from there that same idea for the story I tried to write all of those years ago came back to my mind. But now I was much better equipped to do it. So I wrote the story... it was okay for my first fiction story. I had ideas for other plots for stories and I gave those a go. After my 7th story... I've gotten a lot better at it. I still have a ways to go. The point being, It's probably been like 7 years since I first had that idea. So things like this take awhile. You don't master the art in one day.
I started writing my own stories at the same time I learned how to read. For some people, you're born with it, and for others, you acquire the interest later in life. Neither is better than the other, of course. What matters is that if you want to write, you write, even when you don't feel like it. If you stick to 200 words a day, you'll later be able to do 2,000 words a day, but it'll feel natural and not just like slugging it out. I make time to write every day, usually late at night, and yeah, I sleep less than most people for it, but it doesn't hurt me. Fit in the time where it works for you, as long as you fit it in somewhere and make it one of your priorities. It's important to not be one of those people who says "I'd like to be a writer someday" but then never writes anything. And sometimes it's a burning desire, other times it's a pain in the ass, but I"ll write every day even in the case of the latter (unless I'm on a road trip or something). Hope I helped, and good luck!
Something similar is happening to me, I decided to read a bunch of books I got, though. For inspirational purposes, I guess. Hope it helps.
I think that you can learn to discipline yourself. I have this problem myself, which I'll admit is down to my laziness probably. I don't make myself write every day but I always do anyway because I want to. So firstly, I think you have to want to do it and don't feel that it's a chore to write. You've also got to set yourself achievable goals and once you have these, perhaps a little bribery such as if you write for an hour you can then have a piece of chocolate. It is also good to get into a routine, so maybe set yourself a specific time to write. I don't but it works for some people. Encouragement from others is also helpful so like emmams suggested, something like NaNoWriMo would help with this but this forum is also good with it. We're all happy to spur fellow writers on.
only you can make you work at anything... if it's important enough to you, you will... it it's not, you won't... period!
thanks for all the help, well i better get going with these Outlines for the books i will write, thanks for all the Help. Best Quote i heard "If you want it/go and get it."
I'm going through the last legs my version of writers block currently, but I doubt it is connected to anyone else's that much. There are certain things which trigger me, quite badly so, and once triggered I am unable to be creative in any whatsoever manner. It affects writing as much as any other creative process. Full bleak blank. Just an ache instead. I can't predict when it happens, I can't always avoid what causes it, this time it unfortunately was reading the story of a friend who should have known better than handing it to me. The result were two unproductive months so far. I'm clawing my way back out. For the past 2 weeks I have been working on outlining and planning a novel I've had on the back of my mind for a long while and ideas are trickling back. I know there are those who like feeling miserable when they write, I don't. I have to be fine and relaxed and not aching mentally, or physically. My blocks occur when I get triggered or feel unwell. No handy recipes against this, I'm afraid.
I try not to force it, ever. If it's going, fine, if it isn't, i leave it. I get my best ideas when I am lying down drifting off to sleep. Plays havoc with my sleep patterns though!
