All my ideas are rubbish!

[LadyA]

I'm going crazy over this, seriously. I like writing the prose, and the dialogue, and all the stuff most people get their block with, but my big stumbling block is right at the start. The idea.

Every single idea I get, I like/love it to start with, but then I fall out of love with it. Mainly because I can think of an inciting incident and vague premise, but never the stuff in the middle. Everyone goes on about getting so many SNIs their brains are bursting open, but I really struggle to get ideas. I can't do short stories, it's only [YA] novels for me, and I can't write poetry, or anything like that.

Also, I have a problem with characters. I have 'stock' main characters that although they are different on the surface, are basically the same - tough, angry girl, and troubled, sensitive, usually previously-popular-but-had-a-downfall boys.

But it's mainly the ideas, and making a vague premise into a proper story. Help me!

[fireluxlou]

Sounds like you're creatively burned out. You need to take some time out, have a day trip somewhere, see something new, refresh you batteries.

My method is to go out somewhere new to eat or travel by bus to the next town because it takes an hour. The bus journey is refreshing in itself. Might make you think what to do next with your prose, and where to go with it.

[jaksen]

I'd also suggesting reading or researching some entirely new, something you'd always had a glimmer of an interest in. Like history? Read up on it - history of the Ukraine or Indonesia or some of the early societies in South and Central America.

Like myths? Find a book on mythology - native American or Norse or African.

Interested in astronomy a bit? Read up on the history of astronomy, including some astrology.

Just take an already-interest and expand upon it - into a realm you never really considered before. This would work with art, music, anything. That's the way to generate some new and different ideas. Maybe you'll end up with a story about a girl in a Mayan community who meets an extra-terrestrial with a chip on his shoulder because he's landed on Earth in the year 200 AD and hasn't any idea on how to get home.

Or whatever your genre may be ...

[Mad Rabbits]

Originally Posted by jaksen

I'd also suggesting reading or researching some entirely new, something you'd always had a glimmer of an interest in. Like history? Read up on it - history of the Ukraine or Indonesia or some of the early societies in South and Central America.

Like myths? Find a book on mythology - native American or Norse or African.

Interested in astronomy a bit? Read up on the history of astronomy, including some astrology.

Just take an already-interest and expand upon it - into a realm you never really considered before. This would work with art, music, anything. That's the way to generate some new and different ideas. Maybe you'll end up with a story about a girl in a Mayan community who meets an extra-terrestrial with a chip on his shoulder because he's landed on Earth in the year 200 AD and hasn't any idea on how to get home.

Or whatever your genre may be ...

Good suggestion. Sometimes a cool idea for a story comes from taking an idea you might consider "stale" and twisting it a bit - adding a weird character, an interesting setting, and seeing where it goes..

I also find it helps to work backwards from the end. Since you say you can think of the beginning but get lost in the middle... maybe try to think of the end first. What impact or effect do you want to achieve in your story? That's in the ending. If you can nail that down it makes the rest a lot easier.

[randi.lee]

I agree with the burnout comment. The key is stimuli. Take some time off and take a day trip somewhere. See the sites. Try something new. Eat a type of food you've never eaten before.

Mythology! There's loads of it out there. Pick up a book and start reading. Have a conversation with someone you haven't spoken to for a while. Take a walk in a different part of the park, etc., etc. Engage your mind in something entirely different and the ideas are bound to start flooding in-- works for me every time

[ErstwhileA]

I'd also suggest-- if you go away, refresh yourself, come back, and still find this a persistant problem-- that at its heart, the idea that all of your ideas are rubbish or that your characters are unoriginal or that you can't do a "proper story" is the same as every other kind of writer's block: it's a form of procrastination that stems from fear. All ideas are to some extent derivative, as are all characters. The only way human beings can talk to each other is through a commonly understood set of symbols and structures-- tropes and, on a more specific level, language itself.

The only way to get over that fear, in my experience, is to push yourself through it. Force yourself to stick with an idea no matter how terrible it seems, no matter how your inner critic screams that you can't. It will hurt the first time, and it will be really hard, and you might not be pleased with what you come up with. But although I'm not sure shutting up the inner not-good-enough voice ever gets easy, practice and discipline will teach you how. I think that is absolutely one of the most vital skills to have as a writer, the ability to show up that nasty voice-- and I say that as somebody who struggles to do so pretty regularly.

[Undercover]

Write somewhere else, somewhere different. Go to the park or the library or at the coffee shop with a paper and pen and just write, even if it's just the atmosphere. You might even be able to use it for a scene later on.

This forces you out of your natural habit of writing. IF for nothing else, it's a good writing exercise.

[Layla Nahar]

I suggest reverse engineering books that really made you go 'ooh' about the ideas, characters & story. what is about the character that kicks off the story? What is it about the millieu that allows the story to happen? Novels are about personal change. A character has to face a story problem and be transformed by it.

[flapperphilosopher]

Originally Posted by jaksen

Just take an already-interest and expand upon it - into a realm you never really considered before. This would work with art, music, anything. That's the way to generate some new and different ideas.

Originally Posted by Mad Rabbits

Good suggestion. Sometimes a cool idea for a story comes from taking an idea you might consider "stale" and twisting it a bit - adding a weird character, an interesting setting, and seeing where it goes..

I agree, from experience! I'm not one of those too-many-ideas people either, unfortunately-- my decent ideas usually come from taking some characters I have floating around and thinking, ooo, what if I set that in the 20s? What if it's like that part of my life, but instead of about a female university student in the 00s, about a pilot in WWI? Historical settings do it for me pretty well, obviously, but it's totally applicable across the board. Take your tough girl and sensitive guy and put them somewhere totally different, and see what happens!

[Titan Orion]

Originally Posted by LadyA

I'm going crazy over this, seriously. I like writing the prose, and the dialogue, and all the stuff most people get their block with, but my big stumbling block is right at the start. The idea.

Every single idea I get, I like/love it to start with, but then I fall out of love with it. Mainly because I can think of an inciting incident and vague premise, but never the stuff in the middle. Everyone goes on about getting so many SNIs their brains are bursting open, but I really struggle to get ideas. I can't do short stories, it's only [YA] novels for me, and I can't write poetry, or anything like that.

Also, I have a problem with characters. I have 'stock' main characters that although they are different on the surface, are basically the same - tough, angry girl, and troubled, sensitive, usually previously-popular-but-had-a-downfall boys.

But it's mainly the ideas, and making a vague premise into a proper story. Help me!

Another one to agree with the burnout thing. Just have a break.

I dont personally agree that a day out will fix the problem though, but then again that depends on where you normally get your ideas from.

As for your characters, ok. Make a little spreadsheet. On one line you put what you said are your norm; tough angry girl on line one, previously popular boy on line two, etc. Then add new lines for characters you have read/watched and really liked, but make sure to find ones that dont fit what you say are your typical bill. Disect your favorite characters, then mashup the list of traits you created.

Say you dream up a gal who used to teach. She enjoys meeting new people, is simpathetic, well-tempered, and outgoing. Now think of a situation that surrounds her with selfish, ignorant angry bitches that make her want comfort zones. What are those comfort zones? Take them away from her!

Or maybe you could simply escalate the scale; say your MC is a war veteran who was dismissed due to some sort of warcrime or whatever. Then make them get an opportunity to get back into the forces but under different conditions that make his previous stature either irrelevent (from the popularity side) or emphasized (dude you got dispatched! Guess whos in charge these days, yep your old rival. Now lick my boots)

You get the idea. Sometimes one must literally force ideas, and its not nice, but once its begun you'll be on track again.

[Orchestra]

I don't have ideas, I make them. But you need to practice that.

Get pen, paper, timer. Pick a topic to write on. Set timer for ten minutes. Start writing. Keep your hand moving. Don’t stop to reread the line you have just written. Don't cross anything out and don't worry about spelling or grammar. If you are stalling, come back to your topic. Don’t stop until the time is up. Keep your hand moving.

Good topics include "I want to write...", "I don't want to write...", "I remember..." and "I don't remember..." I use those regularly and find they often give me useful ideas. But after you are comfortable with this technique and have properly warmed up, you can push yourself further. Set the timer for fifteen minutes and write as many short idea snippets as you can in that time. Aim for at least thirty. Repeat immediately. The quality of ideas is irrelevant. Your first twenty will be boring and predictable anyway. After that, you usually start to loosen up.

This type of freewriting, called writing practice in Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones, will solve every and all problems in writing, if you learn to use and trust the method. Ten minutes of focused writing practice will always trump an hour of staring at the screen.

[Shellyjm]

Originally Posted by Orchestra

I don't have ideas, I make them. But you need to practice

I'm not really qualified to give advice as I'm the biggest 'fear procrastinator' out there. But I totally agree with this ^^
I use mind mapping when I need ideas and it's quite good fun. I'll grab a huge sheet of paper and stick a character in the middle- name, age and maybe a job. Then I work outwards adding Familiy, friends, relationships, fears, hopes, education, childhood etc and put a good 5-10 characteristics for each. Its amazing how you end up with a fully formed person who then writes a story for themselves as you find a motivation and a goal etc. I'll often find the original person in the middle changes in the process. Maybe it's a bit 'schoolkid'; but hey, it works for me.

[rsiquet]

Originally Posted by fireluxlou

Sounds like you're creatively burned out. You need to take some time out, have a day trip somewhere, see something new, refresh you batteries.

My method is to go out somewhere new to eat or travel by bus to the next town because it takes an hour. The bus journey is refreshing in itself. Might make you think what to do next with your prose, and where to go with it.

Dig it. That's some great advice right there.

[cathyfreeze]

My repretoire has really widened with a book of exercises i picked up~i do them all the time, now, when i'm carpooling. Pick one that doesn't just give vague sillinesses, tho~pick one from an MA teacher or creative writing masters teacher. Mine's from Kiteley: The 3 A. M. Epiphany. (No, i'm not him, nor do i get kickbacks.) They're grouped under headings like "Point Of View" and "Thought And Emotion" and "Character and Ways of Seeing" and under subheadings such as "The Reluctant I" or "Life of the Party." I believe he's got a few on his website if you want to see if they'd be helpful.

Friend of mine started a little roundtable and had us all buy the book (we'd do each exercise and post the results for general commentary.) Those exercises have started or been a part of nearly a dozen of my short stories, now. They really make me look at characterization, plot, imagery in whole different ways, if i don't cheat.

EDIT: Ya, "The Reluctant I" is on there. Doing that exercise garnered me a really kick-a short story. I never realized how projecting a first-person PoV character's perceptions *outward* would so completely transform personality and voice.

cat

[Stijn Hommes]

Ideas become good when you let them simmer and add to the original idea by mixing it with new ideas. You should either run with the ideas you've got and take a stab at short story writing or let your ideas cook longer.

With enough persistence you can make even bad ideas turn into a great story...

[jaksen]

I love all these ideas about spread sheets, drawings, charts, etc. But in the end, you're taking time away from writing. You're burning up serious writing time in planning. (Not to mention brain power used for planning when it could be use for creating.)

I know, I know, many of us need to plan. Otherwise we'd have no complicated gadgets like computers, cars, root canal surgery, etc. And we all need those things. Farmers plan. Inventors plan. Architects plan.

And I am a proponent of, if it works, it works.

But I never plan and at last count I've written 87 short stories and sold approx. 75% of the ones I've submitted. I've written novels, too, and have one on submission. I would just suggest another way to kickstart the creative brain: simply write.

Sit and sort of let stream-of-consciousness take you over. Start with a phrase, a word, a little bit of description and let it take you. In this way you have no idea whatsoever what's going to happen next. It's pure discovery.

Yes, you may end up with total crap. (Crap in my family meant junk, not the other stuff.) But it's worth a try if you're really stuck.

Yesterday I was looking up information about an old school I once attended. I saw a phrase on a page. I said that's a story, I think. I wrote the phrase down and four hours later had a complete, sci-fi story. Will it sell? I do not know, but I shall try.

Sometimes doing the exact opposite of what you usually do will work.

[LadyA]

Thanks everyone for your really helpful advice I just felt like I shouldn't be having a burnout because my most recent first draft was finished Nov 2011, and that's been ages with no good story on the go.

Originally Posted by jaksen

I love all these ideas about spread sheets, drawings, charts, etc. But in the end, you're taking time away from writing. You're burning up serious writing time in planning. (Not to mention brain power used for planning when it could be use for creating.)

I know, I know, many of us need to plan. Otherwise we'd have no complicated gadgets like computers, cars, root canal surgery, etc. And we all need those things. Farmers plan. Inventors plan. Architects plan.

And I am a proponent of, if it works, it works.

But I never plan and at last count I've written 87 short stories and sold approx. 75% of the ones I've submitted. I've written novels, too, and have one on submission. I would just suggest another way to kickstart the creative brain: simply write.

Sit and sort of let stream-of-consciousness take you over. Start with a phrase, a word, a little bit of description and let it take you. In this way you have no idea whatsoever what's going to happen next. It's pure discovery.

Yes, you may end up with total crap. (Crap in my family meant junk, not the other stuff.) But it's worth a try if you're really stuck.

Yesterday I was looking up information about an old school I once attended. I saw a phrase on a page. I said that's a story, I think. I wrote the phrase down and four hours later had a complete, sci-fi story. Will it sell? I do not know, but I shall try.

Sometimes doing the exact opposite of what you usually do will work.

I'm not one for in-depth planning either. I write out ideas when they come to me, in the little notebook I always keep under my bed, but nothing else really.

I've had a sort-of idea, inspired by the success of the Brit boy band One Direction in the US and the UK, and what it must be like as single singers put together in an engineered band. To have to bond and live with total strangers, and to have to give up your individual identity/style, and the problems of that (I write contemporary YA, btw). But as always, I'm not sure. Does it sound halfway decent?

[cmtruesd]

Create a beat sheet (A list of all of the scenes you will write in your book). That tends to be my best tactic to avoid writer's block/lack of confidence in my writing. I first plot by notecarding (google it!) then I write down all of my scenes afterwards, marking the ones that include the major plot points. Then I write linearly, from the beginning to the end. That way, I don't write all of the super exciting scenes first and then have nothing to look forward to. This should help you in that middle part where you get stuck without anything to write-- you'll simply need to check your beat sheet for the scene you are supposed to write next, and it will help you get back on track. Hope this helps!

[Allana]

Originally Posted by LadyA

I've had a sort-of idea, inspired by the success of the Brit boy band One Direction in the US and the UK, and what it must be like as single singers put together in an engineered band. To have to bond and live with total strangers, and to have to give up your individual identity/style, and the problems of that (I write contemporary YA, btw). But as always, I'm not sure. Does it sound halfway decent?

That sounds really good to me and great for YA.
Loved your blog post on Writing Brits btw

[sprogspasser]

Mainly because I can think of an inciting incident and vague premise, but never the stuff in the middle.

Caro Clarke in her writing advise article,

http://www.caroclarke.com/pacinganxiety.html

addresses one possible cause of this. She opens the article:

One of the great fears of novice writers is that they don't have enough to say. They worry that their chapters are too short and need padding and that their whole novel is going to end up a measly forty-seven pages long.


This is pacing anxiety. You are afraid that you don't have enough to write about, and you are almost certainly right. Most novice writers don't have enough plot, because they confuse their premise with plot.

Might be worth a read if you recognise yourself in this introduction.

[Momof2]

Originally Posted by sprogspasser

Caro Clarke in her writing advise article,

http://www.caroclarke.com/pacinganxiety.html

addresses one possible cause of this. She opens the article:

Might be worth a read if you recognise yourself in this introduction.

Thank you! This is just the article I was needing.

[Little Anonymous Me]

I work backwards in my writing. I always know exactly how everything ends, it's just getting there that trips me up. So if I decide my idea is about some guy who ends up dying in the Jonestown mass suicide, I have to go through the five Ws and the H to actually get a story. Tracing it back is almost like solving a mystery.


And by going backwards, I'm forced to find the stuff in the middle to get to the beginning.

[Ballistic_Dragon]

Well, here is my take on this subject....

Whenever I have a problem with any of my ideas, especially if I'm tired of writing, or lost of ideas, or just plain itching to do something else, I tell my work "You are not worth stressing over. I do NOT need your s**t right now." and then I walk away.

I then make a drink, sit outside watching the cars drive by for a while, then go back in, turn on a couple of episodes of CLASSIC Tom & Jerry. Giggle as I reminisce my childhood, forgetting that I need to finish the piece I started.

And after a while, (this depends on each individual), I realise I'm not so pissed anymore and going back to writing doesnt seem so bad.

And then finally, I ask myself, "Now where did I last stop?"

hope that helps.

[rwm4768]

I know how it can be to fall out of love with ideas. I have so many partial novels it's ridiculous. I think of a character or two and a scene, and then I just don't know where to go. I still haven't decided whether I'm a planner or a pantser.

[GiantRampagingPencil]

I set out to tell a story well, not worrying whether it was original, and in the process of writing it, it's taken me in interesting places.