In a bit of a bind

Welcome to AW and join the club of disheartened writers. We've all been there at one point or another. As for the sequel, you probably have too much invested in the first book. Give yourself time, sit back, and put fingers to keyboard. Something will come from it. I'm sure others will be along shortly with specific advice.

Sounds like you need to put a muzzle on your internal editor. Try writing through it even if you think it's crap. Just get it out on paper and worry about the details later.

the_writer_guy said:

Any ideas?

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Yes. Take one used carry-out chopstick and insert it up to the foil characters (that, incidentally, spell out the title you should have used for your magnum opus - too bad you can't read it) into your right ear.

Stir vigorously for three minutes.

Have a rinsed two liter bottle (or pint cup - whatever seems less wasteful) ready with a funnel jammed into the mouth of the container. Tilt your head over the funnel, draining the pureed brains into the receptacle. Re-cap the bottle and lob it out to sea.

That's what I always do, anyway.

Welcome to AW.

Try writing an outline of your ideas or a synopsis. It works like a puzzle of sorts and allows you to gather all your ideas together in one document. After you start writing you have a foundation to keep you on track and, if you have a new idea, you can see where it works in the overall plan.

If I get really stuck, but the story is still in me, then I usually write a few "interesting" scenes first. The deaths, murders, fights, sex, arguments and chase scene kind of stuff. Then I get a little more excited about writing all the things that lead up to or follow those scenes.

As for editing your completed ms ...


If you haven't done this yet ... try reading the manuscript out loud.

If you haven't done this yet ... try printing the ms out and working with the paper copy. Use a typefont different from the one on your screen.

the_writer_guy said:

Its been a while since I've written anything because I've been so busy concentrating on the editing of my first novel. The trouble is that my mind is teeming with ideas but despite my best efforts I can't convey them on paper. I sit down at my desk and open up a fresh document to only abandon it moments later because I am unable to write anything decent.
I started writing a sequel to my first book, but it doesn't seem to be getting anywhere. I believe I've either grown out of the story or it has gotten stale.
Any ideas?

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Ugh, I hate when that happens. Sounds like you have more ideas than you can handle. I generally pick the one scene that really grabs me and concentrate on writing only that, shutting out all the other scenes clamouring for my attention. Once I can get that particular scene written it gives me the confidence to start the project. Gets me from I think I can to I know I can.
Linnea

Thunder's right. Start working on an outline. And start that by writing two things on your piece of paper:

'it starts with...'

'it ends with....'

and use those two phrases to prompt you into getting the first bits down. IMHO, you really don't need to know what happens between the beginning and the ending to get your creative engine revving up and start putting notes on the page. But.....from my experience, you do need to have an idea of where it starts out, and how it concludes before you can claim you have an idea for a story.

Most of my ideas start out with a 'what if'. That's great....but the 'what if' is merely stating the start conidition of a tale.

job said:

Use a typefont different from the one on your screen.

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I make printouts every day. Never thought of changing the font. Thanks. That's a good idea.

I fired my muse. When she wouldn't stay fired, I packed her up into a box, forgot the airholes, and shipped her off to parts unknown. I'm much happier now. I can actually get things done. And my internal editor is quite quiet, too. She knows I'll do the same thing to her if she starts giving me any lip.

Yes, I know it's personification. But damnit, it helped. So all the literalists can go join my muse.

Seriously. By shipping off my muse, I took control. Slowly. But now I can stay focused on one thing at one time, and just pat the plot bunnies on the head, put them outside my garden, and tell them to run, eat, and if they survive until I'm done with my current project, I'll bring them in and feed them until they're ready to become full sized jackalope ideas. But until then, outside with them.

Outlining helps some people. Other people need to know the beginning and end, and they're off and running. To me, it sounds like your ideas are bright, shiny, and incomplete. That's often what stalls me out, the incompleteness of those new ideas. Too many plot bunnies show up with only pieces parts of a plot, amazing characters, and no point to write them. I've had stories with a very cool set-up, but getting them to do anything was like pulling teeth. So I sit and stare at the problems, knowing that they're just going to plague me until they either start coming together in a cohesive manner or fall apart into an icky messy diaster.

For me, it's critical to make sure everything hangs together in a story--plot, character, theme, worldbuilding, sparkle, and all those other things that make up a Story. If something doesn't hang together, it'll stall me out until I figure it out. I don't like that feeling, so I outline outline outline before I write so I avoid that out of control feeling, which avoids delays and such.

You'll have to figure out your own method for putting butt in seat, fingers on keyboard or wrapped around pen with paper, and writing.

p.s. sorry if this is somewhat incoherent. Sleeping pills do that.

Well I usually sacrifice small animals.

Barring the destruction of puppies, I also endorse a hard and solid outline. Start off with what you want it to be and flush it out, point by point. If that's too left brained then I suggest the blank page exercise. That is to say you, an empty page and a 45 minute timer each and every day until the juices start flowing again.

Rllgthunder said:

Try writing an outline of your ideas or a synopsis. It works like a puzzle of sorts and allows you to gather all your ideas together in one document. After you start writing you have a foundation to keep you on track and, if you have a new idea, you can see where it works in the overall plan.

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If you are not an outliner and this approach doesn't appeal to you, try doing a few writing exercises using your plot bunnies, characters, whatever you have. I think you'll find some ideas are more compelling than others at that point. I used the Gotham City Writers' Workshop book --- it has a lot of basic exercises and good writing advice.