StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Its not too likely that'll ever post a fan-fic or a short story in the forum, but I do like writing. The thing is, lately I've been in a bit of a rut. I'm trying to do a lengthy piece, but the thing that's stopping me from writing it, is I don't know what I want it to be about exactly. I can see a bunch of small parts in my head that I like, but those small pieces don't really add up to a coherent story. I've done short little bits in the past, but it was easy then because I didn't invest too much into the piece because it was just a small one time thing that I would never have to revisit.

So I'm sort of curious, what are some of your roadblocks? I'm thinking maybe having something to relate to in others that do this kind of thing could make me see this in a new light.

Honestly? Just sitting down to write something. I'll try and think it over for a few days, try and psych myself into doing it, then I'll stay up one night and sort of blurt it out stream-of-conciousness style. But that's okay, because I can edit my own crappy first draft a lot easier than I can make myself write in the first place. I don't know why.

Other than that, I have a big problem coming up with character and place names, even when I have a good idea what I want their character to be. So I use a random name generator and sprinkle in some names I bum off a baby name register. They have some really cool ones online that explain the meaning and entymology of the names.

EDIT: So, I get mostly random names, with a sprinkling of meaningful ones. People who know me well say they like guessing that way.

My biggest problem ends up being tying together all the plot elements I want to go together in such a way that it leads logically to the ending I want. I never start writing something that I haven't already decided is going to end in a specific way. For example I already have the last chapter of The Circle must be Broken written. Unfortunately for me to have the specific ending I've decided upon make sense it requires a lot of character development and plotting for it to flow organically and not break with the cannon of either series.

Part of the problem for me is the dichotomy that once I've planned a story out I feel no particular urge to write it. I know how it goes and so I'm satisfied and my muse goes does other things.

Most of my posted works start out as 'oh that's an idea' and then me starting to write. Which means the structure is glaringly bad because I don't set things up properly.

Caring enough to finish. I haven't made a penny trying to sell stuff to publishers, which pretty well kills that motivating factor. Believe me: several tries to various publishers, internationally mailing of a thick envelope of typewritten text comes up considerably more expensive than nine cents a word pretty damned fast. And I find roleplaying games a more emotionally rewarding version of the storytelling process that is also much less difficult, and much more social.

My hardest part is actually finishing once I've begun something. I just get these blocks where I have absolutely no idea what to write, usually early into the story, and then I just give up. It's really difficult for me to keep up a story, really, which really frustrates me as I really like creative writing and have hopes of eventually getting published.

Oh, and names. I often spend minutes deciding which names to call people or things when I should be writing. That's another thing that often annoys me.

Resisting the urge to inject too much intervening content into my plots. I've got serious problems with story ballooning in one thing I'm working on; I don't want to know how many words it's run to, and it's blocking me on other things.

Staying focussed, and developing complex, believeable characters.

I have so many little issues it's hard to start. I'll just say I'm basically the same as TRR plus Simon plus Magellan. And then probably a bit more. But hell, I'm younger than most of you, so I have an excuse.

I'm pretty much a mix of several things mentioned above. I have a massively busy schedule, so it's rare I get time to write. In between times, I plot my stories out in my head...but once I've figured out how they end and how I'm going to get there the motivation to write them is hard to find.

I find that the most difficult part for me isn't so much coming up with ideas but is being able to expand them into longer poems or stories; I very much tend to meander in theme and plot after a while, which is a problem since most of my works tend to be pretty long.

I used to have trouble writing long works, but I figured out a trick that helps me get stuck in. Don't know if it'd work for anyone else, but what I do is instead of trying to write the entire story in a single document, I write it like fanfiction instead. I've done a 158k word fanfic, which is the longest thing I've ever written, and I'm still working on it.

The only way I've been able to do that much though is by breaking it down into bite size chunks. When you write a fanfic, you do a single chapter in a single file and then upload it. So when it came to me wanting to write a full length original novel, I did the same kinda thing - I wrote each individual chapter in a seperate file and saved them all in a folder rather than uploading them anywhere.

That way, when it came time to sit down and actually write, I didn't think 'Oh god, I have all this stuff still to write', instead I saw it as 'I'm just writing another chapter of my fanfic. Just type up a few thousand words, save it and call it a day'. And it worked. For me anyway. It made it easier to check over my work as well, since I didn't have to open up a big giant word document, instead I could proof read individual chapters that were only a few thousand words long.

Just a long string of bitesize chunks that you can splice together if and when you do enough of them to finish off the story.

One major writing block I do have though is one that's already been mentioned - names. The only way I can sit down and write any kind of story is if I already have the names of the main characters planned out. Otherwise I grind to a halt. Just make a notepad with a list of the major characters and their names and you're good to go though.

There is no need to reply to this thread anymore if you want to talk to the OP, as the OP is banned.

Oh, sorry, I didn't realize. My bad.

^No worries. You can still discuss the issues though...

Is it still ok to discuss writing problems with other posters?

If so, my trick with names for main characters is base their personalities off my friends (after asking their permission first of course) and then mix and match first and surnames. Generally speaking, the first name of my friendwill be the first name of the character, so I can keep straigth who is who.

I find this helps tremendously with character sections, as instead of thinking myself into a certain characters viewpoint, and working out what they would do, I can just ask myself what my friend would do, or better yet actually ask them.

Of course, my friends are an eclectic mix of dysfunctional social outcasts, so this does occasionally cause a few problems

Thanas wrote:You can still discuss the issues though...

= Yes.

Thanas wrote:

Thanas wrote:You can still discuss the issues though...

= Yes.

Sorry, Revy and you posted while I was writing.

Where everything spins around in my head but I can't make it come out in a satisfactory way.

Resisting the urge to do infodumps. I find it difficult to avoid writting too much about the setting and it's tech rather than the character and story.

Same. Goddamn the infodumping urge. Maybe appendices at the back?

doom3607 wrote:Same. Goddamn the infodumping urge. Maybe appendices at the back?

Worked for Tolkien.

I map out my stories in flow chart format, and know all the major plot points, but I connect them organically, with little details up to and including whole minor characters coming up spontaneously as I write. This works well (with the help of copious continuity notes) until I get to something that I have trouble connecting; I will often know where I am and where I want to go, and be unable to puzzle out how to get there in a way that makes sense.

Forcing myself to begin writing, and also making sure my writing isn't redundant with me unnecessarily explaining or elaborating things over and over again. Keeping it simple.

I once wrote a fifty page gunfight.

That's just two guys crawling in the woods trying to shoot each other.

Jesus.

Character interaction and spacing.

Sarevok wrote:Resisting the urge to do infodumps. I find it difficult to avoid writting too much about the setting and it's tech rather than the character and story.

I find it useful to write all that stuff up in encyclopedia-style format. That way it's available if I need it, and it gets the information out of my head so it won't keep insisting that it needs to be in the story.

You can always post it later if people are interested, and sometimes it's surprising what makes its way into the story.