difficulties *sigh*

[Godfather]

does this happen to you. you get an idea, think oh! that'll make a great short story. then you set about writing it, and it comes out so desperately bad that you don't know wether to laugh or cry. so get other people to do it for you in your head, hey presto, a new idea which you **** up again

writing comes full circle

[Lyra Jean]

I know they feeling Godfather,

I too have ideas that are perfect in my head and come out horribly, horribly wrong on paper. Even my family says it's horrible and to rewrite it. I do love their honesty but do they have to be so honest?

[Godfather]

I do love their honesty but do they have to be so honest?

thats the type of thing you should be writing my friend.

[pdr]

There are very few writers who succeed in transferring that tremendous story idea they have in their heads successfully onto paper the first time they try to write it down.

You have to call that first effort your first draft and DON’T give up on it. It’s your writer’s skills that turn the first draft into something near the wonderful idea you can ‘see’ in your head.

It can take as many as 20 rewrites before the story becomes writing you feel happy about, but you have to work at it not throw it away.

It helps if you give yourself permission to achieve less than perfection. It is a rare event when you can capture that idea in words that match its perfection but, oh, the joy when it happens!

[Fresie]

It is a rare event when you can capture that idea in words that match its perfection but, oh, the joy when it happens!

I agree completely. Sometimes you'll even manage to make it bigger and deeper than your original idea was. Then it'll be, like, "jeez, was it really me who wrote this?" That's the moments you live for!

[Godfather]

i had always thought, drawing and writing were so so similar.
but with drawing... you have your idea in your head and you can see it, it may take a while but you KNOW its gonna come because its right in front of you.

same with music, if you can hear it in your head... your sorted

but writing, if you can say it in your head, no problems, but thats not how things work..

[William Haskins]

sometimes the key is to consider, quite separately, the nature of the story and the means of delivering it.

great stories are always a harmonious balance of style and substance, of the abstract and concrete.

[brokenfingers]

does this happen to you. you get an idea, think oh! that'll make a great short story. then you set about writing it, and it comes out so desperately bad that you don't know wether to laugh or cry. so get other people to do it for you in your head, hey presto, a new idea which you **** up again
I think this is a dilemma all beginning writers face. That's why it's so important to write as much as possible.

As time goes on, I've found that the distance between what I think and what I write has decreased. I'm definitely not where I want to be yet, but I'm definitely a lot closer than I was a year ago, a month ago, a week ago.

They say you have to write at least 100,000 words of crap until you finally begin to actually write. I believe it.

Like anything else - the more you do it, the better you get. Just keep writing and don't let yourself get discouraged.

The road may be long and rough, but the more you walk it - the more accustomed your body will get to walking it and the more distance you'll be able to cover.

Then, hopefully, before you know it, you'll have reached your destination - but even if you don't, at least you'll have enjoyed the journey....

[MacAllister]

Heh--I heard it was a MILLION words of crap, Broken. :)

I'm somewhere around 100,000 words of total drek, and still going strong...

[Renee]

Heh--I heard it was a MILLION words of crap, Broken. :)

I'm somewhere around 100,000 words of total drek, and still going strong...

hehe..Mac that was cool! I'm somewhere around 40,000 words of WTF. Ok not really, but I had to say it...

BrokenFingers- Your comments on this have made me think about it all. I think you have an excellent way of looking at the writing process. Hell, that last comment of yours was inspirational.
:Jump: ..I might even be able to pick my pen back up today to pound out a little bit more on my story.

[Lyra Jean]

I totally agree with all of you and I do enjoy the painful honesty of my family and friends, especially my gran. Then I know they are helping me and not just blowing me off because writing isn't considered a real job.

It took me two years to finally get my first short story the way I want it. Sometimes it was frustrating and I put it away. While I was writing my first short story I wrote, completed and published a second short story. Go figure.

May our pens never run out of ink and our novels hit bestseller.