Joining the party

[mollydoublybarrely]

I am a long time lurker on here and am currently bogged down in a fog of frustration. I have started a couple of novels in two different genres and they get to a point where they just don't move along. I start thinking almost too much about it instead of just writing what comes into my head.

Everything is just rather dull and grey at the moment, as if all the inspiration in me has withered up.

Perhaps talking to others here about anything and everything will kick me into action.

So, hello

 

[Write_At_1st_Light]

Welcome, Molly!

Did you do any outlines for the novels? Do you know how each is going to end?

I get around the Blank Page Blues by researching the living hell out of the material before I write a word of the novel (or feature-length screenplay). I want more information within my comprehension than I'll ever use for the work.

I'll do a rough outline, but I know how the work is going to turn out, and the phases it must go through. Plot is critical. Plot is what will pull your reader through the material.

I'll do basics on the characters but I don't agonize over them prior to starting the novel. Just basic stuff - I'll even give them generic names if I haven't come up with what their names should be. With characters - I get to understand them much more in the writing process than in the preparatory phase. At some point - they will tell me who they are, what they are and what they'll say. And of course what their names are.

But that's just me. Others have different strategies entirely, but if the result is a finished work that readers will enjoy? Then everything is jake.

 

[JBVam]

Hi! welcome!

I understand how you feel about getting frustrated. I had a bout with writers block for a few years but now that the block is removed, everything seems to be flowing.

I agree with the above poster, an outline really helps.I have a rough outline of all major events that will take place in all eight of my books. (I am writing a YA contemporary series. Finishing up with book number five as we speak).

When I started the first book, I started with the characters. I created the first/last names and figured out their physical and personality characteristics. From there I did my outline and started typing as throughts came to my mind. That was just how I started.