Writing everyday will help. I have the same problem but mine is more of a lack of time. When I don't write everyday but creativity is lost and get writers block much easier. In my fiction writing class we talk about having a page amount a day to write. You write whatever comes to you without revision until you are done. If you write 10 pages and only 3 are good that is fine, 3 good pages are better than no pages at all. Also my opinion would be read more of others work and it might inspire you to write. Reading can give ideas for your own writing.
I am having trouble getting my thoughts to my fingertips. Even now, I knew exactly what I wanted to say in my mind, but when I try to type or write my thoughts down, the blast doors slam shut; the room goes dark. I don't seem to have the same problem when articulating my thoughts into speech and therefor purchased a recording device or use my phone to make notes for later review. However, as handy as these tools are, they are not helping me bridge the gap from brain to fingers. Are there short, simple exercises to become more proficient at transforming thoughts to written words?
I can't think of any exercises, but have you tried writing with a pen and paper? It may not seem like it makes a difference, but it really does (not only for me but for others here as well). Something about writing by hand makes writing down your thoughts a bit easier.
Or listen to music without anything visual to distract you. Also make sure there isn't anything but a pen and paper are handy to do something with. Eventually you will either fall asleep or start writing. Or touching yourself, that depends on you.
No. Right there is your problem. If you literally knew exactly what you wanted to say, you could have typed it or written it by hand or spoken it into a microphone. Brag alert: Years ago after writing a newspaper column about capital punishment, I received a note from a reader who said, "You expressed exactly what I always thought about this, but I couldn't put it into words." But that is the same mistake. If he had known exactly what he thought, he could have put it into words. You're both in the same boat. I know what it's like to get a feeling -- an emotion -- that is clear and strong, and feels so rock solid. It "tells" me precisely what to do. But emotions aren't words. Rendering them into sentences and paragraphs requires a different kind of conscious thinking. When you get that feeling that you know exactly what you want to say, sit yourself down at the keyboard and type it out. And when it isn't right -- as indeed it won't be, at first -- revise it and revise it and keep on revising it until the words on the page capture the emotion residing in your heart or gut or liver or wherever it has lodged. I'm not being cute or snarky. Converting an emotional state into words on a page or screen can be a devilish hard business. Some writers seem to be born with a knack for doing it, others have to acquire it by fire and brimstone. You seem to be somewhere in the latter category . . . with the rest of us! No.
For me, I write it, then edit it, then edit it some more and eventually it ends up where I wanted it to be. There's something about seeing it on the page, faults matter not, that opens the analytical doors in my mind.
One thing comes to mind: Taking steps to understand the task you're trying to accomplish. Let's say you decided to build a house. In your mind you know exactly what you want to to look like, inside and out. So all you need to do now is build it...except, you don't know anything about foundations, and grading, and the electrical and plumbing codes. And since you're not a carpenter... Let's say you wanted to race a sports car. You've watched movies about racing, so all you need do is buy a car and refine your skills on practice day...except... See the problem? You know how you want it to read because you can visualize the scene. You can see, hear, and smell the ambiance, and the gee forces as you cut through the turns. You can hear the dialog and know the thoughts of the character. You can even tell the story to yourself, aloud. And as you do you experience the emotion the protagonist is feeling—so the story lives. But then you sit down at the keyboard and find that you have no idea of how to translate the images and sounds in your mind into words on the page. None of your teachers ever talked about tags and how to use them. No time was spent on dialogue and how to make it seem real. So when you read what you typed it sounds contrived and stiff. See where I'm going? You have the desire, the story, and the time, but what's missing is the equivalent to, "Okay class, when you write a report you need to..." for fiction. You know all the tricks to creating an essay. And you know how to tell a story or a joke. But the writing we learn in school, and our storytelling no more taught usto write fiction than it taught us to be an engineer or a journalist. And the fiction we read, while it gave us the ability to recognize good writing, showed us the product, not the process, and for what you're doing you need the process. We had to be taught how to hold a pencil, how to spell, punctuate, and use grammar. We had to learn to write book reports that a teacher would love, and in doing so learned the structure of the reports we might need to write on the job. We also learned to write essays, a skill that translates to writing a paper, with just a bit more knowledge. But we didn't learn the equivalent for fiction. So doesn't it make sense to pick up a few tricks? And since at this point you don't know what you don't know, and therefore, what questions you should be asking, doesn't an overview of the field and the process sound sensible? If so, your public library's fiction writing section can be a great resource. And as I do often do, I'll suggest looking for Jack Bickham's name on the cover. He was both a prolific and successful writer, while at the same time being a professor who taught commercial fiction writing.
It sounds to me as if the problem is not about fiction-writing technique (I'm sure @Garball will correct me if I'm wrong) but rather a problem that is common to both Fiction and Nonfiction writers - realizing the essence of what one has to say. That comes before even considering the technique. Over the past 25 years, I've sat down many times, mad as hell, determined to put my case out there as best I could. And then I stared at that blank screen...and stared...and stared. As @David K. Thomasson said, there is no simple exercise. You begin with one sentence. In my case, with advocacy pieces, it was always the single most important point I wanted to make: don't cut funding for special education; protect the rights of parents and students; the state must allocate to New York City its fair share of education funding. Whatever it was, that's what I started with. The more I wrote, the easier it became to go from that first sentence to the final product. Best of luck.
I've been in this same boat for some time. I can spit out ideas like crazy, but I just can't seem to sit down and effectively put words down that I am happy with. It must be something in the water.
Nope, just that you may not have as clear an idea as you think you do when you start. That's why prodding at it with writing is the only way to deal with it.
Try saying it out loud when seated at your keyboard. If that works, say it out loud again and type what you just said. Then try typing the same words without saying them out loud. Repeat with next thought etc.
I like doing stream of conscious lists. Letting it all pour out - funky metaphors, the five senses, gestures, bits of dialogue. Sometimes the trouble with trying to get something down is more to do with the worry of getting it down accurately. All coherent sentences, great punctuation, linear thought, pronouns in the proper spot. Sometimes that can kill creativity. I find that if I can just ramble the gems will come. Then I can assemble them into a coherent paragraph or semi-coherent for first draft. I don't do this all the time - just when I'm stuck.
Hi, I read novels consistently and have taken steps to start writing a my own book. I've read a few books on how to write, and a few books on grammar, yet when I sit down to make an outline hardly anything comes to me. When I try to write creatively, I feel like I need to read a lot more books before I'm "ready" to write, however, I think this might be my way of procrastinating. Do other people feel intimidated about writing, as if nothing they write will come close to the quality of the books they regularly read? I know we all have to start somewhere but it just doesn't flow from me the way I imagine it should. How should being a writer feel? Do I need to have a strong passion to write every day? Should it be like physical exercise, like something I should do whether or not I feel like it? I'm interested in it but not super passionate. How do I know whether or not I should keep trying to write or if I should just stick to reading books?
It's arguable that you need a strong passion to write every day because writing is a daunting task within itself. If you would rather be doing other things when you sit down to write, chances are you're not quite ready to be a writer. Then again, it takes a lot of discipline. You have the potential if you can make yourself sit down and write because you want to. The answer to your last question is simple: it depends on what you want to do. If you want to write, and you feel like you must, then write. If you want to write, but don't feel like you'll regret not writing, then give it a try fr as long as you can until it works our of your system. If you don't really want to write but you feel like you've got a story, then try writing until the urge passes. If you don't really want to write or have a story, but you're interested, writing is probably not for you. If you've done that much reading you've gotten a good start. All you need now is either a plan for something to write or a spark of creativity. Most writing doesn't just flow from us as we write. We start somewhere and make a series of choices about where to go from there as it happens, depending on how we might be entertained or (more likely) based on a pre-planned direction. Most people cannot just sit down and be struck by inspiration. Often times you have to "clear your throat" by writing something until ideas start to take shape on where to go next, and that will usually carry some writers for a good few pages (depending on the style, depth, and format). It may only carry you through a few hundred words. We can't exactly generalize, but any length is a good length if you're just starting. I suggest you figure out what it is you want to write about, then what you want to write about it. Then, sit down and begin writing. Start with an opener and go from there. getting started is the hardest part, but you have to start, and most of the time you'll need your idea first.
What kind of stories interest you? (I'm assuming you'd like to write fiction.) Maybe instead of thinking of writing as being a writer, think of it as putting a story on paper. Maybe try daydreaming something and then writing it down.
Good questions to ask right here. What interests you? What Inspires you to write? Fan fiction is often a good entry-point for writers, as the characters already exist and all one needs to do is put them in a new scenario.
like @Renee J said, daydream and scribble. I daydream constantly (really inappropriate during conversations) and my head fills up with junk so i have to write it down somewhere.
If I stopped to think about if I have a 'right' to be a writer - I'd never write. Think of it like a child at kindergarden, she doesn't care if she knows what she's doing or can make a perfect sun or house, or cat she's just happy to put her vision down and share it with someone.
Thanks for so much great advice. Maybe I need to try harder to sit down more often. It's strange to try something without deadlines or supervisors of some kind. I'm my own boss for this hobby and I sure am easy on myself. ) About the last question: I'm interested in writing because I think that I could be good at it (at least I thought that way until I actually tried it many times). It seems like a good hobby that uses equipment I already own and it takes up no storage space other than the hard drive and possibly some manuscripts and research materials. I'm not sure these are the right reasons for writing. I've been focusing a lot on the outline. Maybe too much. I have all these ways of avoiding writing though...I like studying other people's work. I wrote down what I liked most about all the movies I own but when I sit down to create it feels like I'm just trying to put new twists on what's already been done. It's hard to be original.
Thanks for replying. I like a wide range of books (including a few biographies) but I think science fiction is the most fascinating. I've been trying to outline a science fiction book. I feel like I'm in over my head, that I don't know enough about things like outer space. For example, I could never write anything like Neuromancer or Ender's Game.
Thanks for replying. That's interesting. I don't seem to be able to do that. I carry around a notebook because someone said that I might get ideas anywhere but the notebook remains empty.
Yes, at some point you have to put all the books and outlines down and just write. Every new endeavor has the ice breaker moment. With writing, that moment is breaking away from the planning and prep phase and diving into the writing. While I don't advise diving headfirst into a frozen pond, you have to break the ice by doing so metaphorically. Or better yet, you can only break the surface tension in a still pool by taking the plunge. Once you do, there will be a rippling effect. But you have to get off of the diving board.
Try dipping your toe in first with short stories. They are easier to see as a completed work and not nearly as daunting. I'd tried writing novels several times but always got bogged down. Having just taken it up again in the past year, and having great success this time, it's because now I have a story I'm passionate about, know more-or-less where it's going, and have found my 'voice' instead of trying to mimic other authors. The writing mostly just flows out of me now. It may take you some time to get to that point. Don't despair, but do try writing something (again, short stories or even just 'scenes' will help you).
When I first got back into writing (creatively) it had been 25 years since I'd written a word of prose. After doing some stuff in high school and college, I stopped for 20 years to go to work and raise kids, and do all the other things that made it impossible to summon enough mental energy to write fiction. I did do some non-fiction writing (articles and things) that were published in magazines and books, but I did nothing creative at all, and when I sat down to try when the kids were older and I had time, it was the hardest thing I ever did. You have to wait for an idea to come to you---a really powerful idea that you can't stop thinking about and that will break you if you don't put it down. Then, even though it stinks and the words are horrible and you cringe every time you look at it, it gets easier little by little because you need to do it so much that you'll stop at nothing to make it better. You may not be at that point, and maybe it will never hit you that way. But I remember feeling the same---like I wanted to write but didn't know if I could and didn't know if I dared to try. When I read what I wrote compared to a good published writer I would have heart failure again, and it would just keep happening until I improved enough to have confidence and realized that every good writer started out in the same place----insecure and horrible. You might never decide you want to write seriously, and you may never get an idea that means so much you have no choice. That's okay. I don't know how old you are, but it sounds like you're just waiting for something. Go ahead and do what you think (reading and trying to write), and if something hits you someday you'll know it, and you'll know just what to do.
