Productivity Lost

This probably isn't much help, but I recently hit a weird point where I just can't write. I'm dreading/too lazy to make the MONUMENTAL plot changes/revisions to my completed novel, I've run myself into a plot knot in the sequel, and I still CAN'T SINK THE !@&#*% SHIP in my new WIP.
So, I watched season 5 of Gilmore girls, gave snow-shoveling a try, and actually started reading a lot, for the first time in many months.
I'm essentially taking a break.
I guess this doesn't help you at all.
My suggestion to you is to keep at it until you find an idea that excites you, something that you feel passionate about. If you have to work to get that 'writer's high', something's wrong. It might just be that you're bored with your stories.
Good luck! Know that you're not alone, I have had my momentum gobsmacked out of me.

If you find it hard to write more than 20K words why not write short stories and forget longer works until you feel you're ready for them?

[This is not meant to be rude.] Writing is not a drug, it's more like a job. Quit trying to find that "high" and sit your butt down and write. Don't wait for any kind of euphoria (although it's great when it comes). Instead, write for the incredible satisfaction of accomplishment. In that reward system, the "high" comes from making progress, and from finishing. If you can't find enough drive in accomplishment, you'll probably go on starting lots of projects and finishing none.

If you worry less about how perfect the first draft is (it's a first draft!) and if you focus on enjoying the story you write, you will, I'm pretty sure, enjoy writing more.

If you force yourself to finish what you started, you will feel joy upon completion. Many writer's love the downhill thrill of finishing up such a big project.

When the writing gets tough... writers keep going. Get back to work. =)

Though, I do admit that after several brain-melting weeks, I can't get into any story right now. (Probably shouldn't try since I have several more projects to finish this weekend!) My brain needs a break, and since it's already melted, writing requires too much thought to be a sufficient break. I need something that's easier-- watching TV or reading. Both of those often get me back into writing because I can write good stuff... I don't write predicable or insipid stories.

I still have the passion for writing that I had as a kid, but not quite the same freedom. I used to write the stupidest, most moronic stories back then, but it didn't matter, because it was FUN. I didn't care that my plots made no sense and meandered all over, that characters came out of nowhere and disappeared again, that there were errors in continuity or utter ridiculousness or whatnot. I just loved the process of making things up as I went along and that was it.

I thoroughly understand that one has to be critical of one's work to avoid problems like those above and to write well--the horridness of my early writing makes me cringe--but still, it'd be nice to sit down and write something utterly doofy now and then just for the sheer joy of writing something utterly doofy! I did once try to start a story in the vein of those I'd written as a child, but got only the first chapter, and it turned out more like satire or something--my characters being self-aware and poking fun at the problems of the story--than like the pure naive silliness of my childhood writing.

I guess I've just learned too much about how to write well to ever capture that again.

scheherazade said:

Nowadays I'm still trying to get back that momentum I had as a kid, but I haven't been able to get more than 20,000 words into a story without giving it up. For a few years I started stories and then let life get in the way and derail me from finishing. Now I finally have more confidence in my writing and motivation to produce something, but I still haven't found that "writer's high" where the story just starts flowing or where I feel compelled to write every day. Right now, time really isn't my problem. But I can't get in touch with that same passion for writing I had as a kid.

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A couple of things: Did you have fun writing as a kid? And are you writing stuff now that you feel passionate about, or are you writing stuff you feel you "have" to write.

I got stuck for a very long time, because I was trying to write and re-write a novel that I "have" to finish. I will finish it some day, I'm sure, but a couple of months ago, I realized it wasn't fun anymore, and that perhaps I should leave it alone and write something just for fun.

I wrote fifty-thousand plus words in November, and had a ball. They're not publishable; they never will be. But I'm writing again. I've learned a lot in the process of writing those words, and the next one's going to be for publication.

But it wasn't always fun. Neuro's right--sometimes you just have to sit down in the chair and write the words. Uncle Jim and others will tell you that you're getting stuck at mid-book, which is where a lot of others get stuck, and the best way to deal with it is to keep writing. It will get fun again as you approach the end of the story, and the words you thought were horrible when you were writing them turn out to be not so bad in the end.

So I guess my advice would be: Take one of those unfinished novels, the one you feel most passionate about, and finish it! You'll find the passion again, about twenty thousand words from the end.

My story is a lot like that. I used to love writing when I was little. I would write every day and even convinced my mom to buy a fancy pants state of the art typewriter. But it was actually really hard to use and correcting mistakes was a total chore. I was glad when we got a computer.

But sometimes, I dunno what happens. Just the desire fades away. I wrote all the time, many stories until Junior High. There, i guess puberty messed me up pretty good as I didn't write anything until the early 2000's. But I did successfully rekindle my love of writing. Since then I've had up and down times, but coming here and reading all of the success stories only makes me want to add my own in the next few years.

But it also seemed to me that I had to write, not for publication, but just for myself. I have at least a half dozen books on my harddrive that I wrote, thinking they would be publishable, but I knew next to nothing about the entire process. I'm afraid to open those old documents as they are probably so full of adverbs, i might as well just call the books I wrote "How not to use adverbs in sentences" But I kept writing until I felt like I was good enough and over the years I learned a lot about the system and stuff.

Writing for myself was a lot of fun, but the idea of being published and people actually buying what I write because they like it is an even more fun idea. Unfortunately, to even have a chance at getting published, I had to finish a book. And to do that, I had to break through the dreaded center of the story, which has been, quite often, terrible. I feel like the story is going no where, and I actually have to force myself to keep going so that one day, I can see that by line while cruising Barnes and Noble.

If you're getting stuck in the middle. Get unstuck. It's pretty easy. I consider every letter I type in the when i get stuck another hammer blow on the great concrete wall. Pound away with enough letters and the wall will break down and you can continue you're awesome journey through whatever world you created =)

I know how you feel. I have to write so much for work now that I hate writing 'for fun'. Fortunately the burnout doesn't last long. I just don't fight it. I do anything but write for a while - even if it's watching trashy TV. After a while, my brain starts revving up again, and then I go back to writing.

If you can't finish your story, try re-working the plot outline, or make some character bios with quotes, stats, etc, so that you still feel like you're making progress.

Just don't stress it - unless you've got to finish the piece for a deadline If it's just for you, or to be published 'eventually', just let it happen when you feel you're writing at your best.

scheherazade said:

Anyone else get back into writing after a period away from it? Can you ever rediscover the freedom and passion that you have for something as a kid?

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Not really, but I haven't been writing long enough to get that. I notice, though, that I don't write very much unless I feel that same type of momentum you're talking about. I usually drop things around 20,000 words if I'm going to drop them, too.

I'm not sure you can go back to the way you felt about things when you were a kid. There's always going to be that adult perspective on things you just couldn't have when you were a kid and that's going to change how you work. I do think you can find your passion again, though, and work with that.

scheherazade said:

Anyone else get back into writing after a period away from it? Can you ever rediscover the freedom and passion that you have for something as a kid?

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Yes, and NeuroFizz is right. I stopped writing shortly out of high school and didn't return until ten or so years later. It's hard. It's really hard. You're out of practice. You've got other stuff going on in your life: work, kids, errands, whatnot. So writing now isn't just about fun, it's about discipline. It has to be something you make a pointed effort to do, which usually means you're also making the effort not to do a bunch of other things.

Treat writing like any other new habit you're trying to acquire. Do it every day. Set goals to research or establish an outline or write so many words, and meet those goals. After awhile - maybe a long while - it will become as second nature to your routine as brushing your teeth. That might not sound very free and passionate, but you're giving yourself the structure that will allow you to create. I finished my WIP a few months ago and took a break. It felt very strange not to be working on my writing in some way on a regular basis. I didn't like it, so now I have a new WIP.

Good luck!

Mumut said:

If you find it hard to write more than 20K words why not write short stories and forget longer works until you feel you're ready for them?

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THis is a genuis point.

I would also add that everything is habit. And you are getting into the habit of not finishing.

get into the habit of finishing, and let that be short stories.

You can crank out a decent short story with some character development and arcs in 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 words.

Short, fun, and will get you back into the groove.

Mel...

While I understand your frustration, I don't think it's realistic to compare your adult enthusiasm or lack thereof about anything to that which you had as a child. I never stopped writing, but there was definitely a difference in how I wrote as a kid. I had teachers I wanted to impress. I didn't have a lot of other responsibilities. I wasn't thinking in terms of cliches and plot devices and things that I only began to worry about as an adult. I didn't know anything about the publishing world and I was convinced anything I wrote could be a bestseller. Plus, a lot of it, for me was that it was the only place to which I could really escape and be away from my family and think more freely. No wonder I wrote so much.

I've only done novels in Nanowrimo, and I do remember 20k being a hard point, one where I had to pull out every silly padding manuver I could think of just to keep the story alive until I could really revive it. It was miserable at the time, no doubt, but it kept me working. For days, my characters did things like go to the eye doctor's or the library (where they naturallly read large chunks of work by other writers--quantity, people!), but just watching the numbers climb was a good way to keep me at least somewhat attached.

My writer's high comes after I've written something, especially on days when I didn't want to write anything and had to force myself to sit and focus and just do it. And even then I don't always get that buzz. I would say about 5% of the time my writing feels inspired, and the other 95% of the time it feels like work. Writing is not as fun as when I was a kid. Maybe it's because I take it more seriously now, maybe it's because I'm more critical of myself, maybe it's because I really want to see something come of it other than just the personal satisfaction of having written it (publication, money)... but I never not think of it as work. I have a set schedule, a quota each day, I give myself deadlines. I don't know how I can write a novel otherwise.

It's work. And just like with any job, I have days when I bitch and moan about having to do it, I procrastinate, and some days when I'm more productive than others.

But it's work I LOVE. And that's the difference. That's what keeps me going. Even on my worst writing day, it's still better than anything else I could imagine doing with my life.

This is my problem. Not only have I lost my ability to write like when I was a kid, I can't even read! I'm channeling all my productivity into things I'm really no good at such as music and gardening.