I've lost all confidence in my ideas and writing ability

Oh, Petal - I'd give you a bolstering talk but it wouldn't mean much because I take years to get to grips with an idea before I start writing.

Just trust yourself. This will pass.


ETA: And keep reading. Reading's good.

This might have a lot to do with just finishing one piece of writing. This used to happen to me in my day job (structural engineering); if I finished a large project (one that took months to do), I would be worthless for the next few days. I needed to "decompress" from the project I had just finished before starting a new job.

As for ideas, have you got a friend or writing buddy you can play "what if?" with; someone you can just casually bounce ideas back and forth with. Sometimes that can help to spark an idea in your own mind. Someone might suggest something, and while you don't like that idea, it makes you think of one of your own. Since it's "for fun" you can let your mind relax a little and often that will help. Sometimes if we try to force something it doesn't work. Walking does almost the same thing for me. If I'm stuck, I can take a long walk and often come back with a solution.

Firstly, and most importantly: don't panic

Secondly: write it anyway. It doesn't matter if it's been done before, or if the idea is half-baked. Get yourself a strong cast of characters and do it anyway. Ideas are organic things. They grow and change and develop as we write, and an idea that might seem horribly basic may grow into something brilliant as you work with it. Go in there thinking 'I'm going to do the best I can with this idea' instead of 'this idea is shite'.

A good chunk of it is attitude. If you write it, and it ends up being crap, so what? At least you wrote something. At least you exercised your writing muscles. What would you have done anyway, other than fretting over ideas?

Not knowing anything about you, it's tough to suggest anything... except, maybe, wild guess mode, try to look at and experience new things that could kick off different, not-so-familiar thoughts. Whether this means physically spending time in other locations, researching, visiting museums, or reading a bunch of genre novels you wouldn't usually touch, or just switching to other channels and watching historical or wildlife documentaries, who can say? Something outside your usual sphere that might spark a fresh idea, that's all I mean.

-Derek

Something to consider is to try varying your usual writing regimen. If you write on the computer, try going longhand in a notebook. If you wing it, plot and outline. Listen to music. Don't listen to music. Sometimes we just need a change in how we do things to get stuff flowing again.

I agree with crunchyblanket, write it anyway. Good luck to you.

LadyA said:

I'll find a character I love but they can't get a plot, or usually a vague idea to start with but no plot and characters that don't work

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Ugh - do I know what you mean. But wait - it looks like you've finished one novel - whoa sister, you're already ahead of the game. It might sound silly, but if you keep reminding yourself that you did it once, you can do it again, I really think that will help break you out. Also, you could try something different - short stories no good? You could try one as an exercise, or sonnets or something different, also take a short break, do some reading maybe to beef up your knowledge. If you have just finished your book, it's normal for many creative people to feel down and at a loss after finishing a project. I'd say weather the slump without chasing the new idea too hard. Put out some nice food and water and I expect the muse will come down quite soon & have a snack in your garden

LN

Well, here's a piece of advice my psychologist always gave me: Move your ass and your mind will follow.

What I mean is, just do it. Stop dwelling on the ideas, whether they're good enough or not, and just write. If thinking about it so much is just making you miserable, that's not productive. So stop thinking, start doing.

This isn't really writing advice (I don't operate that way, so that's not advice I tend to give) so much as mental health advice. And it's something you can apply to all the things you're having trouble doing. It might sound crazy now, but it works; get yourself going and you'll feel better.

As mccadrey said, reading is a good idea. Just immerse yourself in a long, complex book - maybe something outside the genre you write. I'd get some reviews and choose a really good book. Because if I can't write or for some reason don't want to write, I read.

But also, as brightly above me said, just do it - just write.

Often people are stuck, in a rut, or mildly depressed because of inaction. I know people who've said they just got up and forced themselves to take a walk, work in the garden, call a friend, etc. even though it took an enormous effort to get started. Try forcing yourself to write, in other words. Even if it's a little bit of something - like a convo between two friends, a description of a tree outside a window, something you did as a child that was funny, dangerous, wild or interesting. No one ever said that every time we sit down to write we have to be working on our masterpiece-in-the making.

Read some books on craft like The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass, or the Elements of Fiction Writing series, Plot by Ansen Dibell, Character & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card. There are also some Awesome YA ones as well.

I find books on craft very inspiring. They map out what I need to do to make my story right and great, and with that new knowledge comes a great deal of confidence and sense of freedom to get the book down.

Don't give up! If you have a passion to write, go with it. Mostly, just get your story down, don't get nit picky on the first draft (something that is extremely hard for me, because I constantly want to self edit).

Once it's done, you can always join a critique group or get some beta readers to help you bring your story from decent to awesome. And remember that all the suffering you will go through as people tear it apart, will only help to strengthen your inner instinct to know what's best for your story and it will help you to find the nits and holes in your own work.

Similar situation, I had a character from another WIP and always knew I would write his story one day...but didn't know what it was. I finally figured it out this month, some 12 years later.

Just don't give up. Maybe, try not to focus on the whole story and just try to figure out bits and pieces. Maybe?

For me, I knew what the character was like at an early age, so I tried to imagine him 15 to 20 years older. Then started thinking, what kind of man is he now? What would he want out of life? What kind of woman would interest him? What, if anything, is he afraid of? Finally one thing clicked, then another. Once I got in his mind, the plot sort of all poured out in one big rush. There's still details to work out but I've got a basic idea.

Also, spend some time each day doing something out of the norm. When I realized I was stuck, I had been spending a lot of my time in front of the computer either writing or reading about writing. I started to go for drives, listen to music, take the dogs for a walk and sit out in the hammock. I guess it allows a different part of your brain to take over and the creative side can start doing what it does again.

I hope something comes to you soon!

Sometimes you just need a break. Take time out to do non-writerly things, like listening to music, reading, taking photographs, drawing, playing chess or card games, things that stimulate the brain but in different ways. Sooner or later, something will whack you between the eyes.

Don't worry. Please don't. If you had it in you to write that much already, it's not going to go away forever. You just need a break. I second the recommendations to read. Read exciting stuff by great writers and try not to compare yourself. Give yourself a long rest with no pressure. I feel like self-pressure can be the worst block of creativity.

Once you feel like it, go sit somewhere and watch people and see if there's anybody you wonder about and try and make up little scenarios in your head about them. Write a diary. Write a blog. Draw a picture. Make a collage out of magazine pictures. I dunno, just random creative-ish stuff.

And please don't worry! From what little I've seen of work, you've got talent!

How can you possibly not be motivated to work on a story called 'Archie Hill is a Granny-Fiddler

Seriously, just take the great advice here and you'll be fine. You've already proven you can do it once, you can again.

I second and third some of the previous posters: do something different for a while. I find this helps my writing (and idea generating a lot). Given your situation, you may just need a brain break.

I felt this way a few months ago, especially after a couple of especially crushing rejections. I happened to pick up Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (I was already a big fan of her writing), and besides being really entertaining, she has some very good ideas and suggestions and pep talks. I used one of her suggestions and spent a few days doing a writing exercise, describing a family picture and the emotions I felt looking at it.

Within a few days, I'd decided where to go with my next project, which became my current WIP.

Don't worry. We all have our moments of despair and doubt (at least I know I do). It goes with the territory.

alleycat said:

Walking does almost the same thing for me. If I'm stuck, I can take a long walk and often come back with a solution.

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This. Every single time. All summer long, we took huge (3+hour) walks in the 90 degree heat. We wrote like fiends. It's good for you in every way. Even if you don't get a great idea or get unclogged, you're still going to come home feeling good.

You may need a break. Do something else to get refreshed then come back to writing later.

The more you worry about it, the worse it will get. Don't even think about it for a few days. Go out, talk to people, let them tell you about themselves. I guarantee ideas will flow like magic.

If you insist on sitting at your computer, try making up characters - everything about them, their history and their goals. These are people you can use later on when an idea hits.

I have the opposite problem. I'm one of those with "ideas coming out of my ears" type, and with so many ideas I'm passionate about and want to write, I have hard time deciding which one to dedicate time to, because they all appeal to me for different reasons.

BUT, there are times when I do run into the same problem, where a vague idea cannot be developed further, or a great premise is in need of an entertaining dramatic structure, or interesting characters have no worthy plot for them to act out.

While referencing other people's work might give you some ideas, as well as reading articles and books that teach you how to construct interesting dramatic structure and conflict/resolution, at the end of the day, you're the one that has to sit there and figure things out.

My suggestion is to treat these problems like how scientists carry out experiments. Be logical and methodical in your troubleshooting sessions, and try different solutions and approaches until one of them clicks.

Let's say you have a problem with characters in search of a plot, then start analyzing the characters. What are their fears and desires? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are their beliefs? What are their past traumas? What are the internal and external conflicts in their lives? How much does it take for them to be tempted to the dark side? What would it take for them to act selflessly?
When you know your characters very well and can answer these questions, it become much easier to generate plots that put your characters to good use.

If you have a great premise but no actual dramatic structure/plot, then you need to analyze what exactly it is that makes the premise compelling, and then start thinking about what could happen that could threaten to destroy this premise and turn it into a nightmare? What are the pillars that are holding up the foundation of this premise? In what ways are the pillars vulnerable to change? If the premise is compelling because it is a nightmare to begin with, then what would it take to alter this nightmarish premise so it's no longer frightening and hopeless?

If it's a vague idea in search of a clear premise, plot, and cast of characters, then it's usually a lot harder. Vague ideas are sometimes just a scene, a sequence of dialogues, a place, or a theme, and it can be highly unpredictable where they lead you when you try to flesh out a whole premise/plot around them. Often, once you're done fleshing things out, the original spark of the idea is no longer compelling, because in the context of the entire premise/plot, it no longer resonates. You'll have to push and pull until that original spark of an idea ends up standing out as a compelling element in the context of the whole.

Anyway, these are the things I do/think about when I'm working on my ideas.

Nicely said. Thank you, now to get writing....

Also, try not putting so much pressure on yourself. And also try just writing for yourself. Don't go into this thinking "this has to be perfect and people have to love it and it has to be totally original". That's putting way too many requirements on yourself at this stage. The best advice I can give is just write--whatever comes to mind, even if you think it's been done a million times--just write.

dpaterso said:

Not knowing anything about you, it's tough to suggest anything... except, maybe, wild guess mode, try to look at and experience new things that could kick off different, not-so-familiar thoughts. Whether this means physically spending time in other locations, researching, visiting museums, or reading a bunch of genre novels you wouldn't usually touch, or just switching to other channels and watching historical or wildlife documentaries, who can say? Something outside your usual sphere that might spark a fresh idea, that's all I mean.

-Derek

Click to expand...

I agree with this one hundred percent. Sometimes going somewhere new, trying a new type of food, listening to a new type of music or trying a new hobby can do wonders for stimulation and creativity. I don't know if it will work for you, but new things help me overcome the same kind of slump every time.

Doubt has always been the main thing holding me back from going from having ideas, to having words on a page. I don't think I'll ever read my own words and think, 'Yeah, this could be in print.' But rather than beat myself up about not being good enough, I try to tell myself I'll only get better.

My current WIP - my first - is the one I've plotted least. I don't know what's going to happen, and that's the sort of excitement that makes me return to the laptop.

Although I'm a complete n00b, I'd suggest, if you find a character you like, write about them. I'm sure they'll soon find their own adventures.

you might need a break. it sounds like you're constantly harping on yourself for ideas, which can hurt the creative process rather than help it. i know for me, good ideas usually just come out of the blue when i'm not thinking about writing at all.

also might want to try some writing prompts. they really help me out. i'll go through a prompt, write a short story with some characters, find something i really like and be able to produce something longer out of it.

good luck, and keep your head up!