Need Help With Writing

[The Pale King]

I'm an aspiring writer. Big emphasis on "aspiring" there, by the way. That's because I've never managed to actually finish a story. Oh sure, I've started a few things but they always seem to burn out pretty quickly. I get all of these ideas that make me say "Wow, what a good idea for a story." but, inevitably, they never pan out. I open a Word Doc, and start writing. But I never get it written right, so I eventually end up realizing I don't have any idea what I'm going with this and end up giving up.

I've been trying to write something for over a year now but I've gotten no progress. I don't even have a particular writing style down yet. Are they're any writers here that can help? How can I actually get something written?

[gooddragon1]

I'm an aspiring writer. Big emphasis on "aspiring" there, by the way. That's because I've never managed to actually finish a story. Oh sure, I've started a few things but they always seem to burn out pretty quickly. I get all of these ideas that make me say "Wow, what a good idea for a story." but, inevitably, they never pan out. I open a Word Doc, and start writing. But I never get it written right, so I eventually end up realizing I don't have any idea what I'm going with this and end up giving up.

I've been trying to write something for over a year now but I've gotten no progress. I don't even have a particular writing style down yet. Are they're any writers here that can help? How can I actually get something written?

I'd ask some webcomic writers like Rich Burlew. Barring that, realize that if you keep revising before you've finished, you'll think your writing sucks and keep tossing it. My effective business communications teacher told me to always make a first draft rather than insisting on my first draft and final draft being the same. Still haven't managed to get that advice to work for me yet. Also note that what works for others may not work for you, so you may have to take bits and pieces of what others suggest or even find out what works for you on your own. Furthermore, take advantage of how your brain works on sleep and see if sleep helps you develop your ideas further.

NOTE: I AM NOT A WRITER. I WRITE ONLY WHEN I HAVE TO (UNIVERSITY CLASSES). ADVICE FROM ACTUAL WRITERS MAY BE MORE HELPFUL.

[waterpenguin43]

I'm an aspiring writer. Big emphasis on "aspiring" there, by the way. That's because I've never managed to actually finish a story. Oh sure, I've started a few things but they always seem to burn out pretty quickly. I get all of these ideas that make me say "Wow, what a good idea for a story." but, inevitably, they never pan out. I open a Word Doc, and start writing. But I never get it written right, so I eventually end up realizing I don't have any idea what I'm going with this and end up giving up.

I've been trying to write something for over a year now but I've gotten no progress. I don't even have a particular writing style down yet. Are they're any writers here that can help? How can I actually get something written?

I'm trying to write a book too. Pacing and hard work are my main issues with it.
I second the webcomic writer suggestion.

[factotum]

The important thing is to finish the work, THEN go back and edit it. If you edit it as you go along you'll never finish it. As for writers, I'm sure there are online writers' groups you can join to get some critique of your work...I was a member of such a group on Compuserve many years ago, although I never got as far as having anything published.

[Myatar_Panwar]

I suffer from similar problems.

I would suggest taking some fiction writing classes at your local junior college. That is what I have been doing. They MAKE you finish your work. Its great.

[ThePhantasm]

Some tips:

1. Start a journal / diary. Write at least a paragraph in it each day about your life, what is going on, etc. It will help you develop some style as well as help you write consistently.

2. If you have a good story idea, outline it step by step. If you start writing a story with only the beginning and end in mind, or only a few cool ideas in mind, you'll get burnt out and feel uninspired. Writing can be spontaneous and take on new directions, but it is best to have some outline to keep you on track.

3. Write a story and complete it. Don't even go back and read what you've done so far until after you've finished. If you have a good outline, you won't have to go back to remind yourself of what you've already written. By the time you finish, you will a) have a good idea of your style and b) have a good idea of what needs to be changed and improved.

[Myatar_Panwar]

^ #3 is good. There is some famous quote somewhere which is along the lines of "You don't need to be good at writing. Just revising."

Or something like that.

[Jallorn]

I have similar problems, so all I can offer is solidarity. But, I think it would be useful to find someone to bounce ideas off of, especially when you have writers block or think something you wrote seems dumb.

Edit:I'm still looking for said person.

[DSCrankshaw]

There's a related discussion here. Having already said a lot in that discussion, I'm going to avoid getting in deep to this one. If you want my advice on writing, here's what I had to say there:

Spoiler

Show

Okay, I do feel the need to give some advice on writing. There are in general two types of writers:

1. Discovery writers. These guys start with just an idea, and they start writing. They do not plan ahead. They don't know who their characters are, or what will happen, or how the story will end until they actually get to those parts. They find out as they go. Stephen King is a discovery writer.

2. Outliners. These guys plan ahead. They know the characters, the plot, what happens in each chapter, scene, and dialogue, and exactly how the story ends.

You will hear some people say that discovery writing's the only way to go. You'll hear others say that you must, without exception, outline. They're both wrong. There are advantages and disadvantages to each technique.

Discovery writers are sometimes called redrafters, because the first draft is always terrible. They need to write two or three drafts before it's decent, and maybe a dozen before it's good.

Outliners rarely, if ever, follow their outlines exactly. Their characters will grow and change as the stories develop, they'll write scenes and just end up throwing them out, they'll get to the middle of the book, find their outline is useless, and redo it.

The bottom line is that discovery writers usually finish their first draft before the outliners get started, but the outliner's first draft is generally higher quality than the redrafter's third. (This is, of course, an example, and it's rarely that precise.) I'd say the end product is about the same.

Most of us, though, are somewhere in the middle. I'm more a discovery writer, but I usually brainstorm first, consider a number of different ideas, write them down, pick out the one I like, and flesh it out a bit. I then let it percolate until I have a decent vision of how the story will go. But aside from the brainstorming notes, it's all in my head, so pretty open to change. I'll occasionally forget ideas, but I find that the ones that stick with me are the best ones, so I'm not too concerned about that. When I write my first draft, it's pretty bare bones. I don't stop to look up facts unless they're plot-critical, or go back and make corrections. Those can all wait for the next revision. I occasionally write notes to myself when I know I'm skipping stuff I need, notes like [NOTE: Change previous scene to agree with this one.], or [NOTE: Look up ancient Roman building techniques.], or [NOTE: Place scene here.]. The first revision is, to a large degree, filling in the blanks and fixing the plot holes. Then I show it to my writing group, and the second revision is incorporating their feedback. The third revision is where I print it out, read it aloud with a red pen in hand and make corrections, and then incorporate my corrections into the Word document. My fourth revision is polish, fixing remaining mistakes, including those caused by the third revision. Then it's ready for submission.

So, experiment. Try both ways and a few in the middle to see what works for you.

If you get midway through a story and don't know what to do, there are several options.

1. Give up. This is what you've been doing, and sometimes it's appropriate. The story just didn't turn out like you thought it would, and it's best to just move on to something else. Maybe, someday, you'll come back to it with some better ideas. But for now, it's just getting in the way of something better.

2. Plow on. Sometimes it's the best you can do. Keep going until you get to the end. Follow the plot-lines, characters, and situations you've set up and see what happens, even if it's not clear what will. If it doesn't work out, you can always go back to 1.

3. Brainstorm and outline. Stop writing and start planning. Brainstorm ideas. Write an outline of an idea and see if it gets your plot to where it needs to be. Once you find one that works, start writing.

4. Skip ahead. Okay, you're bogged down in the boring middle--skip to the exciting end, or at least the next exciting scene. Write it out. Does it work? Are you excited to get there now? How do you bridge the gap between where you were and here while telling all the story you need to tell? Is there any way you can cut the boring stuff? If it bores you, it'll probably bore your readers.

Now, not to be too depressing, but 1 is a perfectly valid choice. It is not a choice you can make all the time, or you'll never finish anything. Right now I have something like five unfinished stories lying around. I expect for one or two of them, I will completely abandon them. The idea just wasn't as good as I thought it was at first. However, I do intend to come back to the others. When I do, I may end up rewriting it from scratch and incorporating the ideas into something that looks nothing like the original idea. It may have the same characters but a different conflict, the same setting but different characters, etc. But unless I do something with them, those stories will just be writing practice. That said, even writing practice can be useful.

[Helanna]

Well first, it seems that you need some motivation to write consistently. Try the National Novel Writing Month forums, they're pretty good. NaNoWriMo itself is pretty good motivation, the goal being to write 50,000 words in one month without any regard to quality, plot, characters . . . it's all about just writing. It officially takes place in November, but you can do it any month.

You should also really check out our own Writer's Workshop here in the Playground (follow the link in my signature). There you can read and critique other people's stories, which could help your own quite a bit, and when you do post a story, you can get critiques on it. It would also be a good place to get more advice from other aspiring writers.

I also second the journal idea. You could also just try writing short scenes at first to practice - don't try to write an entire story if you know you'll get discouraged, just practice writing scenes.

[Danne]

I’m running on a bit of a time limit, so I only skimmed other people’s replies, but it seems like you’re getting a lot of good suggestions. Some things I would like to add:

• Find a place that is conducive to writing. Sitting in your bed or lounging on your couch might not be the best idea because they are places you associate with activities other than writing. I like libraries, myself.
• Personally, I can’t write a thing on a computer. Even if I disconnect my internet (to remove distractions) I end up staring at the screen with massive writer’s block. I focus much better with pen(cil) and paper, then typing up the document and editing it in Word. It’s tedious but I actually get things done this way. You might find something similar helps you.
• Set deadlines. Or rather, find deadlines that are set for you, since it’s so very easy to blow off a deadline that you made up yourself. Find a person who is willing to beta, but only if it’s done by this weekend – or a magazine that has an upcoming issue with a theme that fits your story, but you’ll need to submit it by a certain date. Pressure does wonder for keeping people on focus.

I’ll probably come back and add some more late.

Good luck!

[Munsi]

The important thing is to finish the work, THEN go back and edit it. If you edit it as you go along you'll never finish it. As for writers, I'm sure there are online writers' groups you can join to get some critique of your work...I was a member of such a group on Compuserve many years ago, although I never got as far as having anything published.

...the importance of this can not be stressed. get to the end, THEN edit. you'll find it very rough, but it'll give you a finished skeleton you can flesh out, and that makes revisions a whole lot easier when you do it.

also: Find time to write something every day. it doesn't have to be long, or good, it just has to be enough to get you into the habit of writing every day. since i started my storyblog at the start of this year, i've looked back about half of the things i put there and been pleased, but the quality of my other writing projects has improved immesurably.

[Seraph]

steps that help me:

1) turn off the internet. If its wired, pull out the plug. If its wireless, disconnect from the network. The internet is a distraction tool, and it will not help nearly as much as you think.

2) Take care of any business beforehand. Bathroom? Go. Hungry? Make a sandwich. make sure you have nice stretch of free time.

3) Once you start writing, don't stop. Especially, don't stop and say "no, that's stupid," and delete everything you just typed. Ignore the temptation and keep going until you run out of stuff to write. Then, come back a day later and fix what you don't like. If you keep deleting things as soon as you write them, you'll never get anything done.

[Finn Solomon]

All good advice that I could use myself, personally. I'll throw in my 2 cents too. For each of your characters, write a short 2 page bio about his or her background, skills, life story, family ties, motivations, personality quirks etc. This will be extremely useful to keep your characters reacting to situations in a consistent manner and therefore making them seem real. Also, writing the bio may give you unexpected ideas, or possibly set up future plot twists.

[DSCrankshaw]

All good advice that I could use myself, personally. I'll throw in my 2 cents too. For each of your characters, write a short 2 page bio about his or her background, skills, life story, family ties, motivations, personality quirks etc. This will be extremely useful to keep your characters reacting to situations in a consistent manner and therefore making them seem real. Also, writing the bio may give you unexpected ideas, or possibly set up future plot twists.

This is generally good advice, and I've found it useful. However, be careful about giving your characters too elaborate of a backstory. You can fall into the trap of making their past more interesting than their present. If you find their backstory more intriguing than your current story, maybe that's the story you need to write.

[chiasaur11]

Well, read some good advice today.

And then there's the Gettysburg exercise.

If either of those help, then good. I liked them.