NightScribe Posted September 13, 2006 Report Posted September 13, 2006 So today I'm playing hooky from work and thought I'd actually try to start writing a new fic. I've got the plot, some good notes and stuff, but man, I just can't get it together on the keyboard. Like this morning, I sat down to work on the first chapter. It went along okay off of notes. Far from perfect, of course, but I figured, it's just a crappy rough draft that I'm going to be building on. So I eventually take a break. And the time passes. But I was thinking of stuff for chapter two, so I started scribbling away on a notepad. See, that's my problem. I can make a crap load of handwritten notes, extensive dialogue especially, but something's happening when I try to type it and piece it all together. Argh! Has this kind of strange thing ever happened to any of you guys? How can I go from working half-assed to working (what?) Full-assed? No-assed? You know what I mean. Seriously, at the rate I'm going with this bizarre, new-found typing aversion, I won't finish the damn thing until 2016!
Guest Adara Posted September 13, 2006 Report Posted September 13, 2006 I go through periods like that every so often. Instead of writing it on a notepad though, I have it all figured out in my head. I could tell you the story from start to finish, but when I comes to typing it up, it gives me a bit of a problem. Not only because the wording has to be figured out, but because we obviously can't type as fast as we think. I get frustrated and eventually put it off until I am completely in that zone. I usually go through it in my head over one hundred times before it even hits my keyboard. I understand your frustration. It makes me want to actually get a ghostwriter! But then I slap myself and say, "I don't have the money! So it's the hard way for you!"
Squallfan Posted September 13, 2006 Report Posted September 13, 2006 I have a story idea right now myself and am having problems getting it started. That can be so frustrating.
redsliver Posted September 13, 2006 Report Posted September 13, 2006 every time I sit down to work on the next chapter, I usually end up with tons of notes, more ideas than I can shake a stick at, but no work actually done on composing it into prose. In fact I usually have a bag load of ideas for future chapters and nothing for the present one.
Guest Serenanna Posted September 13, 2006 Report Posted September 13, 2006 It happens, but like Adara, it's all in me head too. The only fics I ever wrote outlines for are ones I'm not currently working on. Personally, I'm beginning to find it must more fulfilling to keep a plot outline in my head full of the scenes I dream up. When I actually write then I'm sitting there playing back the string of happenings scene by scene, or inventing new ones as I go. In honesty, most of my favorite moments or quotes happen when I didn't include them in my mental diagram. Maybe it's the whole aspect of chaos writing, letting the story and characters lead you around instead of planning every detail. Sere
NightScribe Posted September 13, 2006 Author Report Posted September 13, 2006 Yeah, Sere and Adara, that's exactly what I have going on, too. Whole thing, in my head. Start to finish. Clear as a friggin' bell. Isn't it the most annoying, aggravating thing? I seem to remember starting to read an old Stephen King novel once, which I never finished. I think it was "The Tommyknockers." In it, he had an author who, (because of the bizarre alien pulse waves or something), was able to rig up her manual typewriter with batteries and it would type what she was thinking, no matter what she was doing, laundry, gardening, whatever. Damn, that's what we need! Think old Steve-o has had similar frustrations?
Guest Adara Posted September 13, 2006 Report Posted September 13, 2006 More than likely. I don't think ANY devote writer has ever gone through something like that. The only cure I've found for dealing with this problem was to sit with someone who was as enthusiastic as I about the story, and let them keep me on track, reminding me of what I've previously spoken about with them. My husband helps me tons with this. I can sit with him and actually play out scenes, so that I may better grasp them, and can put them to words without a hitch. It's time consuming though, but well worth it. I think I enjoy that process a bit more than actually posting the chapter up. I like writing for my readers, but I enjoy the process much more than the finished product.
Guest lightgoddess Posted September 14, 2006 Report Posted September 14, 2006 NightScribe, your muse has gone on vacation. Mine does that all of the time. I may write on a story (or several!) for weeks or months straight every night and then one night my brain just can't make my fingers do what it wants them to do, even if I have everything kind of worked out in my head. See, I write my stories in my head before I type them out, too! I may daydream or antagonize over a story for months before I actually start to write it. Nothing irks me more than to start writing on a story and for my muse to laugh at me and become an inspiration nazi. Just give it a bit of time, step away from the computer for a day or so and then try it again. Your muse will come back.
StoryJunkie Posted September 14, 2006 Report Posted September 14, 2006 I have no such problem. As soon as I start writing it down, everything falls into place! (ducks from things being virtually thrown at me) Sry, thought I'd try a little reverse idiocy there. I call that particular form of writing "hi-jacking" wherein your plot gets derailed by some stupid detail that comes up in chapter 3 or 6. I hate that when that happens. One thing you can do is start the entire chapter over from scratch and set aside the "derailing" chapter, using a perscpective or style that is a little different.
Guest lightgoddess Posted September 14, 2006 Report Posted September 14, 2006 I don't know storyjunkie, some of the best stories I've written have come from a hi-jacking. I suppose that's what I love most about finally getting to that zone and just writing. I find it more entertaining to let the characters drag me around in their world than to sit down and force myself to write something that I'm not happy with.
Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi Posted September 14, 2006 Report Posted September 14, 2006 Eh, I haven't been able to write or draw for a while. I have so many ideas but releasing them to the comp is rather difficult as of late.
Guest cu-kid Posted September 14, 2006 Report Posted September 14, 2006 I tend to go back and forth between typing my stories and handwriting them -and I don't just mean notes, I mean actually hand writing out entire chapters. It sounds crazy, but, for me, that actual physical connection with the pen and paper sometimes helps. I don't keep an outline in my head -I see the whole story there, like it's a movie. I've had the problem, though, of not being able to continue a scene or a chapter because I get an idea for the next chapter and have to write it down before I forget (I think all writers have at least a mild case of ADD). I have a story that has sat for over a year I think, which was driving me crazy for a while because I had the end all written out, I just couldn't knit it together with the middle. I've just started working on it again these past few weeks and have been writing it backwards -writing the end toward the middle, which also sounds crazy, I know. It may or may not work out for me, but it seems to be coming along and I've written more on it than I have for the past year, so I guess we'll see
englishwitch Posted September 14, 2006 Report Posted September 14, 2006 i know exactly what your going through. it's one of the more annoying types of writers block. You have ideas but just can't make the transfer between mind and page. Like any witers block it will go. I myself am now enjoying writing agasin after a week long writers block. and it was that very kind of writers block i had been suffering. Don't worry, it'll pass.
Guest Pepperedjack Posted September 15, 2006 Report Posted September 15, 2006 I remember one of my favorite authors, during an interview about writing, commented that he did not find writing fun at all, that he couldn't see how anyone could claim they love to write. He said it was the finished product that made him so happy, that made all the toil and tears worth it. I'm much the same way. Sure, there are those rare days (actually, nights more often than not) were my muse is a ninja on fire and the words fly from my fingertips. I throw my head back and laugh at all the times I put off writing because it was too hard to start. Then tomorrow, reality settles in. Most days, the hardest part is getting started. Then it gets easier. And even if I enjoy the writing session, I feel drained and insecure afterwards. Writing's hard work, no question, and I don't think it ever really gets easier.
Iggy_lovechild Posted September 16, 2006 Report Posted September 16, 2006 I write all my stories in a notebook first. Though I must admit I've been having trouble with my latest story. There's a problem with writing enough erotica to choke a horse, I suppose. It's hard to keep things fresh sometimes. *sighs* And I don't want to be a hack so I keep on experimenting with my writing style. It can be odd.
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