Writing in quicksand?

[Twook00]

At what point in the writing process are you most likely to get stuck or quit?

For me, its usually the first few sentences of a story. The infamous hook. I think this is because I feel the need to start with a bang, and results with me staring at the white abyss that is my word document for several minutes before going, "Meh... I think I'll listen to a podcast."

Beyond that, it's usually somewhere in the middle. I'm not exactly sure why, but I have an idea: When I get a few thousand words in, or a few chapters, there's always this moment where I look back at what I've written and think, "My God! What have I done?" I see only the mistakes and the changes I will have to make and I just stop.

It's like climbing a mountain and looking down half way up (I'm all about metaphors this morning). You start realizing how far that fall could be and suddenly wonder if you're man enough.

How about you guys? Where's that make or break moment for you? How do you overcome it?

EDIT: I can't remember why I used quicksand in the title... Something about getting stuck I guess.

 

[Griffin]

I feel the pain. I can have an entire story planned out. I know the characters, the plot, the motivation, etc. Then I try to start writing. I can see all the mistakes I've made and I have the urge to go back and fix it. I feel like I can't move on until I perfected the pages I've already written.

One sound advice I've heard about writing the first chapter is this: after the story is written, the first chapter is trash. Let me elaborate, the first chapter is fundamental to set up the story. However, the story sometimes begs for a change here and a change there. So something you mentioned in chapter one may have been something you have changed or omitted entirely. Or maybe you added a new element and it needs to be mentioned in chapter one in order to make sense. I have heard of some writers who go back and totally throw away the first chapter without looking at it.

This has helped me get past the first chapter. I have no qualms with the middle or the end. It's the beginning that always kills me.

 

[Guru Coyote]

For me it is usually this: I start out with a very strong scene, and I write, and write... and then I falter. I thought long and hard about this, as it is common to my writing.

One thing that has broken this for me recently was the advice to start by knowing the end of the story. That was weird to me, as I always saw myself as more of a discovery writer. But I tried it anyway... and with those stories I set out to write recently, I knew exactly where it would end. The side effect being that it made writing a strong beginning so much more easy. I could foreshadow the end!

All in all, I think it boils down to the advice of "knowing what you write, before you write." And that is not meant as in detailed outlines etc.

Now, looking back to those stories I have lying around, where I got stuck... for each and everyone I do not know how they will end. Have no idea where I want to go with them. Those where I do, I actually finished easily.

 

[Twook00]

Sounds like solid advice. They always say, "turn off your inner editor" and "just write the story, you can fix it all later" but I keep hearing this little voice say, "You tried really hard on this and it stinks, what makes you think you could fix it later" lol.

I guess identifying the problem is half the battle. I just need to finish something and enjoy the process.

 

[WyrdMystic]

I am stuck half way through my WIP. I think it is going ot be a pattern for me. I go up by 1,000 words, down by 1,000 after editing. It is really annoying, but I reckon once I mange to climb ocer that 50% mark I'll be flying home

 

[Weaver]

I don't have a point in the story where I'm most likely to get stuck because I do not write in a linear fashion. If I had to write chapter 1 first, then go on to chapter 2 and not skip ahead or add more to the first chapter once it was on the page... I'd never get anything done. Besides, whatever I start out thinking is the very beginning of the story always gets pushed back a bit by the time I'm done. (There's a paragraph in my short story "Finder's Fee" that was the original beginning - although when I wrote it, I had no idea that it was for that story - and ended up about 300 words further in. The most extreme example, though, is the original opening scene of a story my twin and I created together: It currently resides in chapter 17 of the second book of a series. )

 

[Feo Takahari]

I often get stuck when school assignments or computer problems keep me from writing for a week. I lose track of the ways my characters speak and think, and everything I write for them no longer feels right. (After one especially long absence, followed by a brief return, I completely dropped an almost-finished project, and still haven't gotten around to putting the final touches on it. My error was in giving the protagonist, who avoids first-person pronouns and talks as if she has no sense of self, a sentence beginning with "I think".)

 

[VanClash]

For me, it would probably be after the first page. I've played over the initial sequence through my head like 5 times, but not put a thought about what I need to do next. Once I'm writing again, I try to forget all of my errors at the start - telling myself I'll fix them later. It works rather well, I'm not losing my train of thought.

 

[MadMadys]

That part of the story or chapter where something needs to happen that isn't particularly exciting but required. For example, describing a new place or something inanimate which needs to be gone over but, at least at the time of writing, isn't exactly "exciting". Usually I'll get stuck or, a better way to put it, writing it doesn't excite me so I walk away for a bit. Then I come back having figured a good way of putting it that isn't so boring or typical. Of course this has led to anytime I run into a tricky bit I step away assuming I'll think of something better. While that's usually the case, the time it takes can be minutes, hours, days... weeks....