I have this problem that happens whenever I try a large-scale project. Short stories I can do fine, sure, no problem. But anything longer than, say, three sittings I have difficulties with. Why? I run out of steam or get disillusioned with the project early on. More the latter than the former, actually. The first time I attempted to write a novel, I got to 30,000 words. That was during NaNoWrimo. In that case I stopped because I lost my flash drive and a third of the work. That was understandable, honestly. I really didn't want to re-do all that. So I learned my lesson and backed up my work. The second time I attempted a novel, I got three chapters in (about 7,000 words or so.) Thenit just died. It died, oddly enough, basically at the same time as I showed it to someone else. They made a great suggestion, but I didn't want to impliment the suggestion. I felt like if I did what they said, it would no longer be my own. Yet, I couldn't help but continously think about exactly how much better it would be with their suggestion. I could no longer force myself to work on it. Now, I know in my brain that I could have implimented their suggestion and been fine. Or I could have not implimented it and been fine. Probably wouldn't have mattered. But while I theoretically knew this, from that point on I couldn't do anything. Immobilized! Immobilized! The third time I attempted a novel, I only got one and a half chapters in (2,500 words or so.) Then, once again, I made the fatal flaw of sharing my idea. Unfortunately, I worked very closely with a friend of mine on this project. Then the friendship...ended abruptly. Major euphemism. But now I can't make myself go back to that story, as much as I love it! I think it's the best thing I've ever written. Best idea anyway. But I can't do it. And now, the same thing has happened to me once more. Go figure. Now it turns out that what I thought was an original idea has been done 10,000 times. Oh, I know, there's no original ideas under the sun. This shouldn't bug me. It's the writing that counts, not the ideas...etc etc etc. But for some reason I've still lost my enthusiam for the whole project. And without enthusaism: no writing gets done. It's not that I don't want to write. I do! But I just keep jumping from project to project to project to project endlessly, never completing anything. I spend ridiculous amounts of time composing outlines and worldbuilding for what I plan to be epic proportion projects. And then I lose my groove. Alright, this ended up being basically a huge rant. Plues, every time this cycle repeats I get all depressed and I mourn my idea and project like my best frined just died. Until the next day I get a NEW idea and manage to write all of four pages of that before it dies... Sorry about the rantingness. But does anyone else have this same problem? Just to clarify, it isn't the problem where I get new ideas and jump from one to the next. I don't have an excess of ideas, honestly I think I have too few. It takes me a while to think of something decent. I think I've decided that it stems from sharing my work before it is completed. It's not that I'm not taking criticism, most of the time it's not criticism it's praise. But whenever I tell someone about the project I'm working on within 24 hours I invariably have given up on that project. It's a curse!Then I get all disillusioned and in a bad mindset and can't continue. I thought I'd never say this but...I know how Stephanie Meyer felt after the Midnight Sun catastrophe. Phew. I said it. But it's true.
I used to do this two. The only solution I found was that I kept going from one idea to the next until I finally found one that could keep my interest (The Book of the Moon), and I again went through another half dozen until I came up with 003 which I'm still in love with. You aren't working on a deadline or anything. Go through ideas like Myth Busters goes through myths until you find one you really can stick with.
Thanks, Hats. I guess those other ideas must not have been SO good anyway, if they couldn't withstand existing for a few minutes. Well, my writing is improving despite this, and so it's good to know eventually the passing through will end. As long as it's a phase and doesn't last forever o_o;
Long before I graduated from high school, I "picked eggs" for a local chicken rancher. I showed up for work about 5:00 AM and carried a basket through the hen house in which I placed the eggs. He paid me two cents an egg and I usually collected a few hundred each morning. The problem was he only paid me for eggs that were not broken. One day, I complained that I was getting too many broken eggs. He asked me what I thought the problem was and I responded that the basket was too big and the eggs on the top were crushing the eggs on the bottom. I also mentioned that I was going fast due to pressure from needing to get to school on time. Old man MacKeckeron, listened attentively until I finished. Then, he asked me if there was any other problem, and after brief thought, I replied in the negative. "Boy," the old mad said, "You seem to have a very good idea what the problems are. You should have no trouble at all figuring out how to fix them. Good luck." He was right. I got to work a half hour earlier so I could slow down and be more careful. I also did not fill the basket all the way, making a few extra trips to the collection room to deliver half filled baskets. My breakage rate dropped to almost nothing and my pay went up more than a third. You related your problems in great detail, along with all the reasons why they exist. Seems to me Mr. MacKeckeron's advice applies...if you know what the problem is, then just "fix" it. He sure was a smart old chicken rancher.
If I had folksy stories HALF that good, I would be vice-president of the United States. Seriously. But yeah, that's probably good advice. I'm just going to keep going and see if some of the eggs can manage to survive. Thank you.
Crap. I REALLY didn't mean to kill your motivation. It just reminded me of something similar that I had seen. Though that happened to me too. I have this amazing idea for this novel where God brings his chosen people to heaven (the rapture) and those whom he didn't choose have to come to terms with it, either through repenting or saying "screw it" or something in between. I thought that I could get a really neat perspective on Christianity. ... Then I came across a series of books started sometime around when I was born, called "Left Behind". I felt like a douche. That project was abandoned in much the same way. ... Here's the difference. I was competing with a huge series with an established following and a few films. You're competing with a humorous skit on a cult-hit TV show that lasts for about 30 seconds. Bottom line: you've got a similar idea (Sesame Street grown-up) but your implementation is different. Let's be honest here - Burt and Ernie lend themselves to adaptation as a gay couple. For you and Seth Macfarlane to have that same idea isn't odd. Even taking it as a crime drama isn't odd (What's the opposite of happy-go-lucky? Gritty, raw violence.). So don't get discouraged man, just outdo those 30 seconds and be better than that. Is it going to be a major inspirational success? No. Is it going to be a good showcase of your talent and what you are capable of achieving? That's up to you.
I told my professor the same thing. I called it being a "writer sprinter". Advice given back: look at your work as 10 sprints not 1 marathon. BTW salties story beats anything the almost VP could come up with!
Instead of running out there and showing people your first couple of chapters in the hope they'll come back with exactly what YOU want to hear, make a promise to yourself to keep it extremely tight and NOT show ANYONE anything until you've FINISHED your first COMPLETE draft. As for the eggs in the basket thing, I have a rule that works exceptionately well for me...I only ever put ONE egg in my basket at any given time. That's why I'm able to focus exclusively on the project I've started. Of course, what works for me may not suit others, but there you go. Good luck with your endeavours.
It might be just a phase, but if you find it going on for an extended period and you're not getting any actual writing done, you might have to force yourself to work through it. The longer you let it continue, the harder it'll be to break out of it. I realize that doesn't sound very helpful, especially since you say you CAN'T write (or you hate what you do write), but how else do you actually write something, aside from sitting down and writing it? Sometimes all we can do is force ourselves to write, even if it seems no good. You might need to give yourself permission to write another unpolished mess if you want to start getting things done. Planning a story is no good if you don't actually write it.
I'm in a similar position right now. I am in the planning stages of a longer work and I can't really start writing on it until the outline is fairly solid and I'm happy with it. To keep myself writing I force myself to write expositionally about the characters and plot elements that I'm unsatisfied with. This has the same effect as just writing what comes onto my head, but it helps me develop my plan (outline) and it keeps me writing, even though none of it will actually be used directly in the work itself.
Ah, no, wasn't just you. After I saw that I started browsing around, and actually the same concept has been used in numerous places. Including novella length pieces of fiction. And then I talked to one of my friends about it, and they directed me to a website devoted entirely to exactly that concept So it's actually a bit of an overdone idea perhaps. Oh well. I know it shouldn't bug me, and whatever, but still. Honestly it wasn't that good of an idea >_> Now I'm just sick of it. So I'll just start a new, better project! Well, it isn't them not agreeing with it so much as...meh. And I only do work on one thing at a time, yeah. But that definitely is my plan: not to show people chapters
You're right hemisphere is rebelling. Instead of planning everything in detail, plan in general, so that you leave room for your right hemisphere to stretch it's proverbial legs. And don't forget to revise...
Not particularly. Revising should be his last concern if he's having difficulties getting started writing at all, honestly. Oh, and the whole "right brain, left brain" archetype is a myth. Anyway, really I don't see the problem here. Planning isn't a bad thing in and of itself. The more time you spend on it, the better. But still, if planning time is eclipsing writing time that could very well be a problem. I would recommend continuing with your current planning insanity. BUT set a goal every single day to write 1000 spontaneous words. Force yourself just to sit down and make that up. Maybe that can spark a bit more creativity, and on top of it you can still have your planning session. I know how that is though. I spend ridiculous amounts of time worldbuilding, planning, outlining, developing characters, and all that stuff. Then it turns out I don't really like the original idea and I throw it all out the window.
Are you working with ideas that you truly love or are you just infatuated? Making a novel out of an idea you are infatuated with works about as well as making a marriage with a person you are infatuated with. The flame blasts high at first, but burns out quickly. Are you letting these ideas have an incubation time? Not every story needs to be put on the page immediately. Some need time to ferment. Stop working on an epic proportion project, which is intimidating as hell, and just write one scene at a time. It is incredibly easy to find a reason to stop working on a project. Novels are difficult. Motivation is hard to maintain if you think in terms of "Dear god, I have 70 or 80 thousand words to go." Focus on this scene and make it sing, then move on. Just my tuppence. RR
Yeah, I kind of think that was my problem too. I had these ideas, and they had a "honeymoon" stage, and then it just crashed. Like a sugar rush, I guess. But I do get really excited over an idea, and I don't want to STOP myself from writing. Hmmm. I'm pretty much switching, for now, from writing a novel to writing a lot of short stories. Baby steps first, methinks. Then when I can find and develop an idea I REALLY love I can run with that.
How about considering this entire situation form another perspective? As humans, every action we do has the potential to become a habit. If you lose motivation and don't finish a story, it may become a habit. How about training yourself to finish the story despite a lack of motivation or a serious case of writer's block in which you have no idea what happens next? I've been doing this for two years now and it does work. Next time you lose your motivation or honestly can't bear to look at the story for even one more minute, why not write a quick ending. Don't worry about the fcat you might have created plot holes the size of Arkansas, just finish it and let it go. This will train your brain to finish the project. it also offers an additional benefit, as you have completedthe project, your subconscious is free to pick away at all the problems created by the quick fix ending. You may find, in time, that you are able to return to the project with new ideas that resolve the plot holes. Just an idea based on my experience. Good luck, ~R
Holy Cow! That is brilliant! I've had the same problem with the several businesses I've run! Great advice! I'm on it. As for noodledudes motivational issues, I'm in the same boat. The minute I share the idea, it begins to die. I found I had to keep my project a secret for it to become anything worth looking at. It's almost like I had to treat the project as a surprise for everyone I know. I stayed up late after everyone went to bed and worked for hours into the night, losing sleep but gaining ground. Currently, I'm at about 20,000 words, so I'm feeling comfortable with sharing little snippets with family and friends, and here on the forum. Putting one chapter out there at this point isn't de-motivating, surprisingly. But it's enough to get some good feedback and get me thinking in the right direction. I do like the idea of forcing a quick ending when I get that awkward feeling of giving up on a project. It makes sense to me.
Look My only suggestion is write. No matter how bad it may seem you need to write. It seems like you are trying to be a perfectionist but do not forget that a lot of perfectionist never get anything done. Write it out, leave it alone for a while and conitnue to write. Come back to it and revise it then. That is my advice
When I was a kid, I used to be able to write anything I wanted. Granted, none of it was that long, but I would sit there and do it. Why? I don't know. I assume it has something to do with me writing for my self back then as opposed to now where I want to write to be published. Once you stop writing for yourself, all bets are off. You have to re-learn to write for you and you only. Blogs are great for this. Everyday for, I don't know how long, I would write a blog about something in the news that got me pissed or some idiot doing something dumb and I would just go on on rants and diatribes writing for me and me only. I had a few of my friends reading my blogs and some actually agree with me. I had one woman I had never met read my blogs and comment on my blunt style and how she liked it. Give this method a shot and see if you can start writing for you again. Just don't get sucked into a habit of only writing blogs. lol!
Unlesss you are writing to a deadline, then write when you can write. Once you start to push the issue ideas come through even slower. I suppose what I will advise will be like trying to teach to suck eggs, but a pen and a piece of paper should always be on your person. Just at the exact point when you stop thinking about it inspiration will come and you're likely to be in the middle of a field when it happens. Bard x
How do you cure writer's block? I was wondering what the best ways to cure writer's block are... or maybe not even the best ways I just wanted to know what different people do that works. What do you do when you are in a slump?
https://www.writingforums.org/showthread.php?t=18373 There's a similar thread a few threads below, it always helps to have a read around the forum to see if what you want to know has been recently covered. ;-)
I dont think there's any such thing as Writer's Block --it's just a form of laziness on the writer's part. It's your job (career or hobby, it's your job), and you're not doing it. If you need inspiration just look around. Go to CNN or MSNBC or FOX --they've got headlines in every subject; there's bound to be something to strike your interest. Make up stories about people you passed in the hall today or the guy who was on your bumper the entire time on your way to work. What made him so agitated? Seriously, one idea leads to another and pretty soon you'll have a masterpiece on your hands. What's one thing that you can never get off of your mind --that new medicine your developing at work? That cute guy who you met at that party a few weeks ago? That song you heard on the radio yesterday? Write about that. Even though I've given you a few jump-starters, I dont know if you'll take it. An idea is just that, but you need motivation to turn an idea into a story, and no one can cure your lack of motivation for you; you've got to do it for yourself.
I know I'm just starting to get over what was a severe case of writer's block. Well, more like writer's phobia I would call it. It lasted a good 4-6 years, and I've tried everything to cure it, from writing fanfiction, to forcing myself to write, everything I could think of. Hell, at one point in time my therapist told me to write the worst story I could think of, just for the sake of writing. What it turned out to be was my own fear of failure and my need to please every single person in the world with my art. Recently I've come up with the mantra of, "I will write what I want to write. I will write for me, and only for me," and so far, it's worked wonders. If you can find the underlying cause of your slump, then maybe we can offer advice off of that. ^^
