ARGH! I want to write!

Hi
Personally , I believe there is a need to find a writing process that is engaging and if possible, enjoyable . It could be you just need to adjust the way you think about the stories you are trying to realize . By making them more real in your head , engage yourself in the settings and have some feelings about your characters experiences. You can help yourself with this by story boarding . This could be little sketches written or you could draw pictures. You don't need to be any good at drawing . There are a number of other ways of developing stories , from post-it-notes on a wall to the Alex Haley method. He would spend a lot of time making folders of his characters and settings, with every detail . He even built models of some important building. Unfortunately Alex Haley was in the end tarnished with the accusation of plagiarism. So no approach is perfect

ShaunHorton said:

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Anything?

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I suffer similarly. I have completed two books, one revised/edited and pretty much ready to query, one beta'd by a dozen readers and ready to review. I have three Works in Progress, and am stumbling along slowly; I agree that I think it might be a confidence thing. The first two are a pleasant read, I know that, but are they any "good"? Probably not. I don't think they'll trouble the best-seller list any time soon.

I can and want to do better, I have learned a lot from this site and others, I have learned a lot from writing the first two books, but the desire is now to write something really good and I find that that is stopping me from writing as fluently as I have thus far.

Do I have any tips? The only thing that really works for me is to walk away from the PC, out of the house, and into the woods for an hour. I can stare at a page for three hours and write three words, walk for an hour and come back to produce a thousand or so. I think any exercise helps to break the rhythm of non-achievement, but I find simple walking the best!

Have you tried using a timer? When I have days where I just can't focus and settle into writing, I tell myself, "Okay, I can sit down and do it for ten minutes. I can manage ten minutes." I set a timer, then get up when it goes off, stretch, get a drink, walk around for a minute--just something to break it up. Come back and set the timer for another ten. Often, after I do this three or four times, I settle in and can write for a few hours. And even if I can't, I've at least got 30-40 minutes worth of work done.

"It's like pulling teeth with a string, but none of them are loose."

that's a heluva good sentence. i certainly believe you'll figure it out if you can write a line like that.

Just start. You can edit EVERYTHING you don't want afterwards. Even if the whole session is a bust the fact that you wrote (that you came and saw) will lead you to CONQUER.

Just my two cents!

ShaunHorton said:

I have characters, settings, plots.

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What you don't have are scenes, specific story moments when something is happening among characters. That's where you need to start, and that doesn't necessarily mean at the beginning of the story, either. But somehow amid your characters/settings/plots, something needs to happen.

caw

What is it you want from writing?

When you read books, what is it that interests or motivates you? What inspires you about those characters and their stories? Do you feel drawn to echo or explore something similar yourself?

Here's what's worked for me...

1. Give yourself permission to write crap. That's how I make my way through my first drafts -- I have supremely low standards. Some of my sentences are barely coherent.

2. Get yourself some writing buddies who can either do word wars or timed rounds with you. I'm so codependent on my writing buddies. When they're not around, I write a grand total of 10 words an hour. When they're around, I can pound out 500 words in 10 min.

3. If writing buddies don't appeal to you, check out 4thewords.com. It has awesome monsters for you to "fight" (you fight them by writing a certain number of words) and you get quests and rewards and shit.

4. You can also do your own timed rounds. I sometimes set a timer for 10 min and tell myself I'm going to WRITE LIKE CRAZY. It works, especially if you have standards as low as mine.

5. Have a daily word goal, and then divide that into biteable chunks. When I'm writing my first drafts, my goal is 1.5K words a day, so I divide it into 500-word chunks. I make it a point to write 500 words every morning, and then 1K in the afternoons. When I have to go into the office, I make it a point to steal 200 words here and there, whether while commuting or while waiting for a meeting to start. Before I know it, I've reached my daily word count.

But really, whenever I get that feeling of not wanting to write...it always stems from the fear that I'm creating something terrible. So I'd have to take a step back and keep reminding myself that it's okay. I am allowed to write crap. I tell myself my first drafts are always messy, and editing is the easy part for me, so just keep writing.

Hope some of these methods work for you!

Let's say you were on the proverbial deserted island. You've got 3 months of water left, a ream of paper and a giant Poland Springs water bottle to throw the whole thing into the ocean. (in the hopes someone will find it after your death)

What would you write? (hopefully it's not another variation on a vampire murder mystery set in an apocalyptic future)

Write that.

Still not motivated? Drop it, you've got nothing to say. Don't sweat it.