The dry spell

RG570 said:

I can think of a neat setting and background, and even characters. But no story to go along with it.

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Ack! Get out of my head!

I don't know what to tell you, except that I've been encouraged (read threatened with bodily harm) if I don't plod along. Pick one and try. Good luck and godspeed.

I had a character pop into my head once. He was knocking on my brain saying "Tell my story! Tell my story!" Unfortunately, he seemed to have left his story at home...

I wrote a whole charater sketch filling in the information he did know. I set this aside in a folder with his name on it (he even came with a full name-it was eerie!). When the rest came to me I made the outline and went to work. It took a few months... but it got written.

My point? Don't lose those ideas. Capture them and keep them locked up somewhere. Your brain might need a break (two novels in 8 months seems like a lot to me!). Let it wander and later on one of your wanderings may get you somewhere...

Good luck!
10000

It's hard to tell how good an idea is before I start writing. Even if I have an amazing outline, things are going to change a little (or a lot) once I actually write the story.

I think the best thing you could probably do is just go for it. Even if the idea is a dud, at least you've been writing. There's always the risk that nothing will come of spending time on writing, but if you can get personal gain out of it, then it was well worth the time/effort.

Any writing is better than none...just start, even if you end up deleting it. Starting is the hardest part for me. When I'm struggling, I just start with one of my amazing characters and let them tell the story. You may end up with several pages of crap but usually they'll start to go somewhere and that's the beginning, then you can go back and get rid of all the junk you started with. Or, sometimes, you'll find your character is an idiot and scrap the whole thing but at least you've learned something and never think of it as time wasted...it's just practice!

Good luck!!

RG570 said:

I guess the point of this self indulgent, whiny post is this: Do you know if an idea is any good before the book is finished, or before you even start writing? Isn't the choice of which idea to work on extremely important? If you decide on an idea that won't fly no matter who writes it, you've wasted the time it would take to perhaps write something that wasn't terrible and laughable. If this happens to anyone else here, how do you get out of this rut?

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I think ideas are dime a boatload. I don't think there is an idea that won't work, no matter who writes it. If people find a novel terrible and laughable, it probably won't be because of the idea, but because of how you write the novel. Not much you can do about this except write the best way you can, and hope it's Good Enough.

As far as I'm concerned the only requirement any idea needs is for me to like it.

For me, sticking a good character in a tough situation is an idea. Getting them out of it is the story.

I've been struggling with a 'dry spell' or 'writer's block' for a few weeks now. I even wrote a blog post about it.

Part of my problem is stress from outside sources, and my thoughts being elsewhere. It leads me to believe that I should channel my ideas towards these things.

And also for me, it's a matter of getting those first few words down and then I feel my block will be cured. Blocks are psychological and once you throw aside the fear, everything's fine.

I call some ideas called "flash in the pan ideas." These are ideas that sound absolutely fantastic, I just have to write them right away, and then they die. In fact, I used to have plenty of half a page stories started from these kinds of ideas and an idea notebook full of them.

Not every idea--even if it intially sounds exciting--can be turned into a project. Some are just not meant to be. Co-writer and I have gone through a number of them to find what the next project will be about (we're still not sure). Instead of starting writing right away, try writing the idea down and coming back to it in a day or two. If it's a flash in the pan idea, you'll have already forgotten it. If it's something worthwhile, you'll already be thinking about it.

Start writing. There is no other way. If it's not right, keep writing. Then go back and change things. You'll find the story and the characters. It might not look a lot like your first idea, but you will find it.

This is normal, happened to me a lot when I started out; don't sweat it.

Read.

Take some guilt-free time off and READ.

As for solving the which-idea, what -character syndrome, with NO intent to do ANY kind of a story, just write out a TV guide sketch of whatever happens to pop up and set it aside.

Keep it short, no more than one index card for each. This will make you focus the idea, distill it to its essence.

These thoughts need not be related to any single story. The aim is to get them on paper so you don't lose them. Once they're on paper your brain will come up with more stuff.

Then read some more.

Sooner or later you'll get something that just ain't gonna fit on one card and be writing in more detail. This also may not lead to anything, but it is practice.

Right now you're like a musician who knows the notes, but has a hard time putting them together to make a song. Keep practicing--the music will come and sort itself out.

I thought this thread was going to be about the good weather in England at the moment! Nothing has slowed me down as much as the sun being out....

howiehok said:

I thought this thread was going to be about the good weather in England at the moment! Nothing has slowed me down as much as the sun being out....

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The rain really does inspire me, but of course, Australia isn't getting a lot of it, in my part at least.

It inspires me too-and living in Manchester, England, that gives me plenty of inspiration!

It hasn't rained in weeks and weeks though...

You could always try free writing. Just writing down whatever comes into your head for 10 minutes, words, phrases, snippets of dialog, whatever. I've never really done it for a novel, but it's helped me come up with a couple shorts.

Or go somewhere and people-watch...a restaraunt, mall, whatever. I find that inspiring sometimes--you never know what people will do or say that will spark that bit of inspiration you need.

But don't take it too far...my brother once had a writing assignment from a prof: go to the mall, follow someone around, and write a backstory for them. Watch how they move, how they talk, etc. Needless to say, the poor girl working at Auntie Anne's pretzels, whom my brother chose as a subject--well, she got a little creeped out. He finally had to go over and explain the assignment, and I think she still thought he was a wacko stalker.

-kbax

lol, kbax, that's hilarious. I can use that as an excuse, next time

Ha, I can hear it now:

"Uh, yeah, I'm a writer. Yeah, a writer. I'm doing a...a project. It's an assignment. I'm supposed to be following you around. Yeah, even to your house. What, the binoculars? Oh, that's just an...accessory. I like to dress eccentrically."

Sorry but...

you just have to write.

This happens to me all the time.

Plot? What's that? Just set your character off walking down the road and follow. Some days you'll only get a few words done but you do your BIC or BOS for two hours on your WIP.

Do you have a few scenes in mind? Keep asking yourself 'What if...' and ask the character what s/he wants to do. Interview them. If yours is raging around in your head like mine do then s/he'll answer back.

The only thing you can do is endure and it does go away because all of a sudden everything drops into place. However it is hell getting there. Make sure you get up and out every day for a darn good walk/bike ride/ brisk exercise. That does help.

I have that problem a lot-- characters and world are easy for me. Plot's always the last thing to come.

One of my best creative writing profs used to tell me that this was silly. "Plot's easy!" she'd say. "Find something your character wants-- control over the known world or a ham sandwich... it doesn't matter as long as he really wants it-- and then come up with reasons he can't get it. What he does about that is your plot."

It seems like generic 'easier said than done' advice, but it really helped me. When I come up with a world and/or characters with no plot to call their own, I do some worldbuilding and then write out character sketches. I pick the most promising MC, figure out what they want, and then go from there.

Stanislavski uses a similar theory to talk about characterization for actors. He says the characters in a play need to have an Objective, Obstacles between them and that objective, and tactics to overcome those obstacles. They need to have these ObObTacs for every scene and also 'superobjectives' for the whole play. Objectives and Tactics are always action verbs: To Escape/To pick the lock, To get laid/to flirt, To avenge/to attack, etc. Nine times out of ten, if I'm having trouble with my plot, it's because one or more of my characters doesn't have an objective, or their tactics are inconsistant with their objective or their character. If I go back and fix the problem objective or tactic, the plot falls back into place.

I don't know if that'll help you at all, but it usually works for me. Best of luck.

LeeFlower said:

One of my best creative writing profs used to tell me that this was silly. "Plot's easy!" she'd say. "Find something your character wants-- control over the known world or a ham sandwich... it doesn't matter as long as he really wants it-- and then come up with reasons he can't get it. What he does about that is your plot."

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That's really interesting advice. It seems so obvious too. It makes perfect sense. I'll have to keep that in mind.

Expanding on Gill's advice, if you tend to read a lot of novels, read short stories for a while.

A change of pace can help your brain find the right gear.

I have a handful of short stories that I have the same problem with. I'm the type of person that multi-tasks on several projects at once anyway, but this specific group is annoying as it's loaded with ideas that will neither live nor die.

How I handle this is to make these tales low priority. If something comes up that will work for one of the stories, I'll type it up. Character sketches, outlines, "what if" situations, bizarre little additions that may or may not work, whatever, the point is I just keep plugging away. Eventually something may come of this fiddling around, or maybe not.

It kind of reminds me of my Dad. He'd always have one major project he was working on and others that he'd just kind of fiddle with and tweak for a while. Some of the smaller projects still sit in the garage (after 10+ moves and 30+ years no less) while others are finished. Like my Dad, I'm not really concerned whether or not everything gets done as long as I continue doing what I enjoy.

It's great when I'm blocked for any solid ideas and wonderful for when I just need a break during a longer project. It keeps me writing and keeps me on task to my goals.

Just a thought but maybe instead of heading into a new project have you considered just working on one of the MS you wrote earlier this year and polishing it up to perfection. Are you soliciting any of them?