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Feeling Kinda Stuck. Help?

Mindfire

Istar
So, thanks to college, I've gotten out of the writing rhythm. But now that the semester is over and I'm trying to get back into it, I have a new problem. I feel stuck. It's not writer's block per ce, I know where I am and where the story needs to go. It's more like "writer's inertia". No matter how much I will myself to move forward, I can't seem to start back writing. And I've also got this "grass is greener" problem where events later on in the story always seem more interesting and more fun to write than the place in the story I'm currently at. How do I get past this?
 

Butterfly

Auror
Write the fun and interesting bits first... or whatever is in your mind the moment you sit down to write. You don't have write it chronologically.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Have you tried writing prompts? There are some starters on the internet that may spark ideas. Writer's block isn't a bad thing, just a place to start from. Go with what feels fun to write, whatever that may be for you.
 
I was in a similar situation mindfire and the only thing that helped me was remembering, "butt in chair hands on keyboard." I literally sat staring at my document for 10 minutes before I started writing again but after that I finished the first draft of my second novel in about a week. I had like 10 or so chapters to go. Sometimes all it takes is for you to sit down and force yourself to stare at your book until you decide to work on your current word/sentence/chapter.
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
Hello Mindfire, what you are describing also happens to me when I do not write for a long time.

This Writer's Inertia seems to be quite common, and I am sure that it happens to many of us. When I start writing again after weeks of inactivity I find that the most difficult step is to simply write the first few paragraphs, but then, I start to find it easier from that moment and my Writer's engines come to work properly again.

I believe that it's a matter of forcing yourself to write the first page, even if the quality turns out to be terrible. The initial effort will kick the Inertia away from you, and every page that you write will be easier until you recover your normal writing capabilities.

Yeah, the Grass is Greener problem can be very frustrating.

I compare writing a novel to climbing a mountain.

You know that the view from the high parts of the mountain will be great, and you will feel superb when you reach the summit... but still, you have to climb the mountain following all the necessary steps. We need patience, discipline and love for our stories, so you have to forget about the exciting parts of the story that come later and focus on what you have to write now.

You can do it!! =)
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
Yeah I've run into this a few times. One way I deal with it is specifically go to a place like the library to write. I stay there for a predetermined amount of time. I have to stay there for the full time regardless if I write a word or not. I find that this gets me into the mindset of well the time is spent already, so I might as well do something with it.

Another way I get going is I take two characters in the current scene, and I start an argument between the two, even if it's a silly argument. It's a way to introduce a conflict that could be useful in introducing characterization and information, but could easily be cut if it's just crap. The argument can be about something frivolous like the LOTR vs Starwars, which sword is the best, or something more relevant like what road to take to the Evil Overloards Castle, or who gets to marry the damsel when all is said and done.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
I, too, suffer from long periods of writing inactivity. We shall not speak of how old some of the projects in my computer are. Much less how long my current WIP has been my WIP.

Penpilot pretty much nails the basic root of the problem when I find myself suffering from lack of inertia. Conflict. A while back I was stuck on a chapter. I knew where I wanted to go, but was having a hard time finding the way there. Being a very linear writer, I can't effectively skip around my project and just write what I'm feeling at the moment - that's for taking notes for later. I tend to see writing as building a castle from the ground up. What I write today directly affects what I write tomorrow, because some days my characters like to take the bit in their teeth and throw me curveballs. (Like my mixed metaphor?) So, I was stuck, and took to playing on our forums here instead. I spent the entire week harping on "Conflict Equals Story." And then came my facepalm moment - I was talking to myself the whole time! My chapter had no conflict. I had two characters talking, supposedly about exposition stuff, and it was leaving me flat. Where was my conflict? Where was my story? So I stepped back and looked at them both, and reviewed what I knew about their motivations. To quote Kurt Vonnegut, "Every character has to want something, even if it's just a glass of water." Once I remembered what they wanted, and the fact that while they were friends their desires were in conflict, I just let the fight start and watched them go. I was off to the races and back to making pages! Did I resolve the conflict? Heck, no! It's turned into a subplot that's going to carry at least 3/4 of the way through the book.

So I would say, if you're stuck and you know where you're going, do you have enough conflict to carry you through to your goal? If not, why not?
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Sometimes you just have to force the words, regardless of interest level or how well they are coming out. Changing the routine can sometimes help things flow for me. If you type, try writing by hand for a while. If you write at home go to a coffee shop or to the library, and so on.
 

Guru Coyote

Archmage
As those before me have so aptly said: you are not alone in this.

My current obsession with Figurative Origami developed from exactly such a "I need to get back into writing" funk.

Here is what I do:
* Pick a few idioms / phrases / expressions that strikes my fancy.
* Play around with them, combine, mix, re-arrange words, until a small story develops.

At first, this will have me looking up phrases, googling around and generally 'researching' more than actual writing. More like editing or crafting poetry... but with time, I get back into the habit of putting words after each other, thinking about narrative and tone.

Besides, it's a lot of fun :)
 

Addison

Auror
It's more like "writer's inertia". No matter how much I will myself to move forward, I can't seem to start back writing. And I've also got this "grass is greener" problem where events later on in the story always seem more interesting and more fun to write than the place in the story I'm currently at.

I know exactly what you mean. I had the same problem after my first semester. This is common for writers, especially if taking writing classes. The problem I found was that, during the semester, I was told what to write and when it was due and what to focus on. When the semester was over there was no one to tell me any of that. I lost the creative-imagination-adrenaline.
My advice is to do something you remember doing before the semester. If you read a book at your favorite cafe or browsed your local music store before writing, then do it. Fall back into that rhythm. And read! Read new books, old books, books you've already read. Get out of the text books.

As for the "grass is greener in the middle" part, that's normal. But when you get that place that's greener, it's going to seem just as dull as the beginning part. That's just your worried-part saying to quit there and hop forward. Don't listen to it. Just write through it.
 

JSDR

Scribe
Looks like your two-part problem actually has one root: you want to write the exciting parts but dread the parts you feel you have to write in order to ramp up to the exciting parts.

How badly do you want to write the exciting parts?

Who the heck is telling you what order to write your story in?

*YOU* are the master of your tale. If you want to write the exciting part, then go for it. Dive in.

But also ask yourself - why is the part you're "at" now not interesting? Is it boring? Why write it, then? If you're bored writing it, I'll be bored reading it and would probably skip it altogether.

Write what you want to write.
Skip what you want to skip.
Put it all together in the end.

Then have your beta look it over and point out where something needs clarification. Probably won't be as many areas as you think.
Good luck,
J
 
C

Chessie

Guest
I agree with JSDR, write the exciting parts, skip the lame parts and your work will all be exciting. You shouldn't have to struggle through writing boring parts because if you're bored, the readers might be bored too. Write what rocks your boat.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
I'm seeing a lot of "write the fun stuff and skip the boring stuff" here, which leads me to ask a question...

If it's boring, what is it doing in your book? If you're feeling an urge to skip something, then what purpose is it serving? If you want to skip writing it, I guarantee that the reader will want to skip reading it - which results more often than not in the reader deciding to skip the whole thing all together.

Maybe I'm an adrenaline junkie. Maybe I watch too many movies. Maybe it's because I write urban fantasy, and I think wizards who steal sports cars because they're so drunk they can't find their own keys (and sometimes pants) makes for a fun story. But I feel that if you find yourself writing boring parts, it's time to whip out that Delete key and start over. Somewhere, your story derailed. Get that sucker back on the express tracks! Look at the boring part, at your dearly beloved characters, and ask yourself, "How can I royally screw up this guy's day?" Trust me, that's never boring. ;)
 

Guru Coyote

Archmage
well.... let's assume the IS a reason for the boring bits, the not-so-fun-to-write ones in your tale. There is a good answer to the "why is it here?"

If that is so, maybe you can try and think about "what would I need to do to make this bit fun to write?" (and to read, obviously)

If it's boring, either skip it, or make it interesting :)
 

The Unseemly

Troubadour
well.... let's assume the IS a reason for the boring bits, the not-so-fun-to-write ones in your tale. There is a good answer to the "why is it here?"

If that is so, maybe you can try and think about "what would I need to do to make this bit fun to write?" (and to read, obviously)

It might not be that it's bad/boring/out of place. It just might be that given author simply doesn't feel like writing that certain part at the present moment. The most common instance of this (I take myself as an example) is something like writing a set-up to a mystery. Writing the solution to everything is so much more fun than writing the set-up, but without the set-up, there is no mystery. The set-up isn't, as of such, boring, it's just more the case of "I don't feel like writing this."

Anyway, @Mindfire.

I had a similar problem, but more so writer's OCD. I got through my first chapter, looked over it, and said, well this bit's awful, that there doesn't make sense, etc. So I went and edited it over 2 days, but as soon as editing was over, I had a ton of new ideas, which meant I had to change chapter 1, and then I edited again, and then ideas, and editing, ideas... While my problem perhaps isn't similar to your problem in terms of doing, it is similar in the problem of not getting anywhere. And I came up with one relatively reliable solution, which takes time to achieve, but is good if you get into the rhythm. That is to say, I (not wishing to brag) maintain writing discipline.

Every day, not matter what happens or whatever cyclone or other catastrophe is happening elsewhere, I spend a minimum of half an hour on writing. I be flexible with writing new things over editing time, but usually, I find that 1 day a week on editing, and 6 on writing new things progresses the story along... slowly. I, of course, did not say how much you have to write per week, and in my case, how much you delete (eh... adverbs and infodumps). Even if it means (and I believe it was said somewhere on this thread) staring at the screen for half an hour, and potentially typing 1 or 2 sentences, you're making progress. The next day, you'll type 3, then 4, and soon enough, you'll be capping a whole page per day, or more.

Hope that helps.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
So, thanks to college, I've gotten out of the writing rhythm. But now that the semester is over and I'm trying to get back into it, I have a new problem. I feel stuck. It's not writer's block per ce, I know where I am and where the story needs to go. It's more like "writer's inertia". No matter how much I will myself to move forward, I can't seem to start back writing. And I've also got this "grass is greener" problem where events later on in the story always seem more interesting and more fun to write than the place in the story I'm currently at. How do I get past this?

First, give yourself more to be excited about, and take pride in the progress you make getting there. If you're too bored to write it, then maybe you should consider looking for more compelling events to write about as you get to the ones you're excited about? And you could try keeping track of your progress, your word count, to challenge yourself to do better.

A few things that have helped me:

- The Strict Pomodoro extension for Google Chrome. You give it a list of distracting websites, push a button, and it blocks those websites for a while - mine is set for 90 minutes. I've no idea if there's extensions for other browsers.

- Try cutting something, and see if the vacuum gives you new ideas. Usually that works, and you get some new ideas, and sometimes the thing you cut even comes back in a new and better way later on. But it gives your brain a rest from straining about something, and gives you a chance to see what's left in a new light. It works with life, too (don't go around burning bridges just because I said that!).

- Declutter. Declutter your work area, your notes, old projects you aren't working on anymore, your whole story writing process. Offload anything that isn't useful to what you're doing now. If you won't toss it, at least separate it and shelve it out of sight. Cut down your notes by half or more. Or, if you're an incurable worldbuilder, put most of your worldbuilding notes aside and only hold on to the ones that are most relevant to your story right now. Make it as easy as possible to see the throughline that your story hinges on.

- Make a two-minute outline, and then toss it. Force yourself to brain dump where you are and where you're going next, so you can see if you're on a good track or not. It helps to find problems with what you're doing.

- "I need to write 1,000 words tonight." Not, "The plan is to write a thousand words a day" or "I'm writing a thousand words a day." I need to. It's not a plan - it's not a goal - it's a self-imposed responsibility. Recognize that.
 
"Boring" scenes can be hard to diagnose, sometimes. Of course you can move around any way you want, including mixing up writing one scene, planning another for later, and revising a third. We've all had moments where we want to jump to the flashy chapter, or ease back and do the less demanding interlude. And it could be you need to do a big or key scene first to get a better handle on something that happens earlier.

Still, I think there's a difference between thought process tricks like those and the times a scene isn't doing its job. If the scene itself is "boring," it's probably one that ought to be building up toward the bigger ones later, and if I'm not anticipating that as I write it, I have to ask both is this set up to make its point and how much of a scene does that point deserve? If I lose track of priorities as I write, it drags the story down, and it wastes my time. Not fun.
 
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KRHolbrook

Scribe
I have this "writer's inertia" too. I've got my story planned out. I got what I want to write about, but I just don't write it. For me, I think it's the fact I think of my novel so much that it's kind of burnt me out. Sites like NaNoWriMo can kick-start me into a writing spree for a while before it wears off. Little writing challenges of even a word a day help as well.

Something you can do is write something else on the side, or just read more. I can dish out flash fiction every day as long as I have an idea. Some of them range from 5-word stories, to 140-character stories to, to less than 300-word stories, and farther up along the lines.

Fortunately for me, I didn't take college for writing; I took it for advertising art. Thanks to that college, I really don't have an urge to draw anymore.
 

Mindfire

Istar
I'm an engineering student actually, not a writing student. Just thought I'd clarify for everyone.
 

T.Allen.Smith

Staff
Moderator
I'm seeing a lot of "write the fun stuff and skip the boring stuff" here, which leads me to ask a question...

If it's boring, what is it doing in your book? If you're feeling an urge to skip something, then what purpose is it serving? If you want to skip writing it, I guarantee that the reader will want to skip reading it - which results more often than not in the reader deciding to skip the whole thing all together.

"Drama is life with the boring parts left out." - Alfred Hitchcock

Whatever you're writing...even if it's something you might consider a set up...it had better be interesting in its own regard. It doesn't have to be exciting & packed full of magnificent action....yet everything you writes must be interesting or intriguing on some level.
 
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