Why I can't write.

[Mouthwash]

My biggest problem is that I simply don't find the 'simple' or 'easy' topics interesting enough to warrant effort. Every story needs a point, but I've never been able to think of one that's genuinely clever or funny, and I can't create a journey without having at least an idea of a destination. Basically- I don't know what I want to happen.

I can't do 'episodic' writing either (where you only concern myself with the plot of one particular segment at a time and wait till next week to move the story along) because I have another problem: I can't get the plots and ideas of other writers out of my head. (Maybe I don't read enough history; Orson Scott Card claimed that taking inspiration there was how he avoided copying the work of others. But I expect I read more history than most writers anyway).

 

[Kyriakos]

You could try writing about what - in your view - you know about, and what expresses you. The story can be around that. First stages of becoming a writer are obviously the hardest.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

One bit you might try is Touring the Thing - that's really all Ringworld is about, Rendezvous With Rama, and over 3/4 of all of The Lord of the Rings series, padding roughly 200 pages worth of plot into a trilogy six times that long - and paring it down to not much more than plot sorta ruined the movies for me. Dune, for that matter, is more touring a galactic culture and a specific world and its people than actual plot.

Us nerds tend to love to create worlds - the rest doesn't even have to be especially good if the world is interesting...

 

[Valka D'Ur]

My biggest problem is that I simply don't find the easy topics interesting enough to warrant effort. Every story needs a point, but I've never been able to think of one clever or funny enough to satisfy myself. I really, really don't care about searching for buried treasure, or some odd event happening in an ordinary man's life. I might read stories about those things, but I know that the journey is just as important as the destination, and I can't create a journey without having at least an idea of a destination. I don't know what I want to happen; that is the only reason I've been unable to write.

I can't do 'episodic' writing either, where I only concern myself with the plot of one particular segment at a time and wait till next week to move the story along, because I can't get the plots and ideas of other writers out of my head. (Maybe I don't read enough history; Orson Scott Card claimed that taking inspiration there was how he avoided copying the work of others. But that's only a suggestion, and I expect I read more history than most writers anyway).

You made a decent showing in the Iron Pen competition you entered, so clearly you can write. I showed your story to someone visiting me (I'd just finished posting that challenge's stories and poll), and she liked it.

Sometimes we are our own hardest critics, and while that's beneficial to a large extent - after all, it's better to be aware of one's own strengths and weaknesses - it can also lead to a lack of self-confidence and writer's block.

Part of my own current NaNo entry includes a foreword in which I list my goals for the sections of the story - what characters I want to write about and where I want to take them. That defines the direction of the story, and helps keep me from wandering too much.

Is it chapters that get you bogged down? The series I'm basing my fanfic on is comprised of 8 novels, and some of them don't have chapters at all. The entire book is made up of sections of paragraphs that deal with specific scenes, and a larger line break moves the story along to a new scene. Some sections are only a sentence or two, while others go on for several pages. Unfortunately, I can't ask the author why he chose to write it that way, and it's something that didn't occur to me to ask when I did have the chance, 25+ years ago. He's dead now, so whatever questions (and annoyances) I have about the books will go unanswered.

I'm not sure what final form my own fanfic will take. When I do fanfic I try to be true to the author's vocabulary, format, and style.

 

[Mouthwash]

Starting now, I'm going to force myself to write every day regardless of quality. In a few weeks, I'll share it here.

 

[phryxolydian]

That was what I was going to propose you after reading your first comment. I read somewhere that Dostoievsky wrote incessantly every day. It is just practice. Probably, even though he was a great writer, a lot of that stuff he would not deem worthy of publishing, he'd just viewed it as his practice. I am not a writer myself, I'm a musician but, I love this quote from saxophonist Dave Liebman, I read it every day before I start practicing:

"Practicing something is like hitting a nail on the head over and over. The goal is to make an activity which isn't instinctive become natural and able to be executed without conscious thought. Practicing an art form requires rigor and creativity at the same time. In the final result, an artist's work is a mirror reflecting the depth of one's practicing process."

Hope it helps you. Also, check out Mastery by George Leonard if you haven't.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Starting now, I'm going to force myself to write every day regardless of quality. I'll share it here in a few weeks.

The main NaNoWriMo event is starting in November (I plan to start a thread in a couple of weeks, or maybe sooner). This would be ideal for anyone wanting to get into a daily writing habit, because that's the actual purpose behind the NaNo competitions.

It sounds like a lot to write a 50,000-word story in 30 days. But break it down, and it's only 1667 words/day. Unlike the Iron Pen competitions in which quality is one of the criteria upon which the stories are evaluated, the only requirement for NaNoWriMo is word count.

 

[Mouthwash]

Hope it helps you. Also, check out Mastery by George Leonard if you haven't.

I'll take a look.

The main NaNoWriMo event is starting in November (I plan to start a thread in a couple of weeks, or maybe sooner). This would be ideal for anyone wanting to get into a daily writing habit, because that's the actual purpose behind the NaNo competitions.

It sounds like a lot to write a 50,000-word story in 30 days. But break it down, and it's only 1667 words/day. Unlike the Iron Pen competitions in which quality is one of the criteria upon which the stories are evaluated, the only requirement for NaNoWriMo is word count.

I don't really see the merit in NaNoWriMo. If I can't get in the habit by myself, I'm not going to amount to much anyway. I also plan to do something like 2,000-3,000 words a day.

Double post; please delete.

You can delete posts now. It's right next to the edit button.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

What edit button?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

There's a 5-minute window for edits, and I don't see any way to delete the post.

 

[Mouthwash]

Below your signature. What do you mean "five-minute window for edits?" I've edited my posts long after five minutes passed, both before and after the move.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

There is no way for me to delete a post, and the "edit" link disappears after 5 minutes. There is discussion about this in Site Feedback. Apparently it doesn't work the same for everyone.

 

[Lexicus]

Starting now, I'm going to force myself to write every day regardless of quality. In a few weeks, I'll share it here.

Best way to overcome the issues in OP.

 

[Zkribbler]

My touchstone in writing is the definition of story: A narrative about a character trying to solve a problem.

My biggest problem is that I simply don't find the 'simple' or 'easy' topics interesting enough to warrant effort. Every story needs a point,

Don't focus on topic or the point of the story; focus on a character trying to solve a problem.

The best plot generator is the question: What goes wrong next?

When my writing gets into trouble, it usually means I've wandered away from the two above points.

 

[warpus]

An interesting story doesn't have to be a world changing event, it could just be about a guy walking to the store to buy a pie. That might not sound interesting at all, but you can make it interesting by having interesting things happen to the character along the way.

 

[Ferocitus]

My touchstone in writing is the definition of story: A narrative about a character trying to solve a problem.

Don't focus on topic or the point of the story; focus on a character trying to solve a problem.

The best plot generator is the question: What goes wrong next?

When my writing gets into trouble, it usually means I've wandered away from the two above points.

Good advice.

Another trick is to work backwards from where the story ends, always asking how the characters got to their particular situations .
It's also a trick used by police and barristers (lawyers who argue cases in courts) to gauge whether an alleged perpetrator might have
just concocted a sequence of events. Most people are not good at lying "backwards". Writers can use it as an extra check on whether
their story has plot holes.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

My biggest problem is that I simply don't find the 'simple' or 'easy' topics interesting enough to warrant effort. Every story needs a point, but I've never been able to think of one that's genuinely clever or funny, and I can't create a journey without having at least an idea of a destination. Basically- I don't know what I want to happen.

I can't do 'episodic' writing either (where you only concern myself with the plot of one particular segment at a time and wait till next week to move the story along) because I have another problem: I can't get the plots and ideas of other writers out of my head. (Maybe I don't read enough history; Orson Scott Card claimed that taking inspiration there was how he avoided copying the work of others. But I expect I read more history than most writers anyway).

You don't have to have a 'point' to a story that's genuinely clever or funny for it to be a good story. The primary pleasure derived from written work is the writing itself, not the 'point'.


How many countless variations already exist for the same common themes? You probably know 2 or 3 stories that follow the same basic arc yet are unique and good in their own right.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The best plot generator is the question: What goes wrong next?

This is something similar to an answer Robert Silverberg (science fiction writer) gave during one of his talks at Con-Version V back in the mid-1980s. His novel Lord Valentine's Castle - one of his masterpieces, in my opinion - had recently come out and it's basically the story of an unjustly-dethroned prince trying to regain his rightful place and he learns a few life lessons during his quest (along with numerous adventures, large and small). Pretty straightforward fantasy story?

Nope. Lord Valentine is the Coronal of the planet Majipoor - giant Earthlike planet, and the human population shares it peacefully with numerous alien races. The story is set approximately 14,000 years in the future, but other than a few bits of advanced technology and a vague mention of other worlds in the galaxy, it's more fantasy than science fiction. Someone in the audience asked Silverberg where he got his ideas for all of it - the setting, the society he created for the planet, and the wide variety of aliens. Silverberg said that when he thought he might be writing himself into a corner or losing focus or interest, he just thought up a new situation, along with a new species of intelligent beings (if applicable).

So Valentine and his companions end up meeting quite an assortment of non-humans and some of the things that go wrong are amusing... and some are the stuff of nightmares, if that's the sort of thing that might give you nightmares.

How many countless variations already exist for the same common themes? You probably know 2 or 3 stories that follow the same basic arc yet are unique and good in their own right.

This is one of the reasons I look forward to seeing what people come up with for Iron Pen. Sure, there are times when the stories are remarkably similar. But there are other times when the way the writers interpret the theme is very different, and they take it in directions that never occurred to me when I decided on that particular theme.