creative stalling out

[Devora]

A consistent issue i've been dealing with is that i'll get through a few pages or a chapter in a draft where i feel like i have a creative flow and then something happens where i find myself writing less and less to a point where i stop working on the draft, only to return to the draft much later and barely have the urge work with the writing itself. And if i try to force myself to keep going the writing feels like garbage.

i'm beginning to wonder if its something in my creative process that breaks my flow or maybe something in my writing that is unconciously breaking my work flow.

i'm not sure what considerations i should be thinking about.

 

[pmmg]

Need to keep you eyes on the road ahead and keep driving. You have to want it, to get it.

Its likely, what you think is garbage will not be seen that way by others who read it.

 

[Finchbearer]

I have a similar problem, the middle but seems to be the crux, linking it up to the beginning and the end and making it interesting enough and well written, but I suppose that is the challenge in itself.

 

[Ban]

I've often felt that before and while I haven't managed to push through it in my prose as of yet, I did find greater success by shifting my focus. It could be a good idea to divert your attention to short stories for a little while. That way you can finish a couple of works and both build your confidence as a writer, as well as return to your original writing project later on with honed skills and potentially some new insights that can help further you along.

 

[pmmg]

I liken the process to coming in with a lot of enthusiasm, that long slog in the middle, and all the cool stuff at the end

But actually, when its done, I like the stuff in the middle the best, that where all the character stuff happens.

 

[Mad Swede]

In my experience this is about two things. One is developing the discipline to write something when you sit down to write, and the other is thinking through what you intend to write. Many writers produce some form of outline before writing the text itself. I think things through and then write, and I write very steadily once I get going. It is something I was taught and trained to do, so for me this works. I also write all the key scenes first, and then I add the bits in between which give the setting and the story its depth.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I used to do this sort of thing many moons ago... Turns out I wasn't satisfied with my writing. With Eve of Snows I kind of semi-intentionally wrote the first few chapters introducing different characters and edited over and over and over with weeks or months between until I one day I said... "Eureka!" or maybe it was, "That ain't shit!" No, more like, "that's what I'm looking for." I hadn't written like shit since high school, but! I wasn't where I needed to be to make myself happy even if other people liked my writing. Turns out I'm way friggin' pickier than most folks. Anyhow, once I had the Voice I wanted, I blazed through writing the book.

Editing too big of a chunk was always daunting and frustrating and killed the fervor to finish.

A consistent issue i've been dealing with is that i'll get through a few pages or a chapter in a draft where i feel like i have a creative flow and then something happens where i find myself writing less and less to a point where i stop working on the draft, only to return to the draft much later and barely have the urge work with the writing itself. And if i try to force myself to keep going the writing feels like garbage.

i'm beginning to wonder if its something in my creative process that breaks my flow or maybe something in my writing that is unconciously breaking my work flow.

i'm not sure what considerations i should be thinking about.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

We call it needing to refill the creative well. You need a little break of a few days to enjoy those things that inspire you, and those things that are pure brain candy. Rest, refuel, nap... and then get back to work.

 

[ThinkerX]

There are multiple hurdles in writing story's - especially novel length tales.

The only way to get through these hurdles is to write.

Anymore, I don't begin a story without having fairly solid notions of the beginning, middle, and end. It's just to easy to write myself into a dead end. For longer works, I use short 2-4 page outlines.

First challenge is the first page. All that big empty space.

Next up is getting past the first chapter. Yes, you've done eight or ten pages...but there are hundreds of pages to go. A lot of stories die at this point.

The third 'ugh' point rears its ugly head at about ten thousand words, third or fourth chapter, or...call it the forty page mark, give or take. The tale has a definite start, characters are established, the beginnings of a plot...but...its 'ugh.'

Push ahead despite the earlier concerns and you reach the 'muddy middle,' the swamp where stories can sink into the mire. At this point, you are well into the midst of the tale - but all you can see is mud. The characters are muddy. The plot and setting are muddy. This tends to set in around the 30-40,000 word mark - maybe a hundred pages in. In the past, to get through this, I have taken an old cooking timer, set it for an hour, and forced myself to write until the bell rings, paying no heed to quality. What matters is making headway, even if it is sucky headway.

The next hurdle is the worst - the 'END' is *almost* in sight - and seems to stay that way. Just a few thousand more words. Just a few more chapters. Take a week, two, tops. Then a week or two passes...and it is *still* 'just a few thousand more words,' 'just a few more chapters.' Repeat three or four times.

Then, you get through all that...and its rewrite time. You get to go through the whole manuscript again. Likely, you'll toss entire chapters and subplots - and add new ones. Not to mention dumping lots of words into plot holes.

 

[skip.knox]

All good advice. Trouble is what works for me may not work for you. My suggestion is to try each suggestion. Keep a record of what you tried and for how long. It might help.

 

[The Dark One]

The OP describes what always happens to me.

Having been writing seriously for 30 years, I'm now quite used to the fact that I'll write feverishly for a while after having the big idea(s) - mainly plot points and some intro chapters. Then I'll just stop to think about it and it might be years before I come back to it. Every one of my novels sat in the bottom drawer for a while.

 

[Penpilot]

For me there are several things at play. I tend to be a perfectionist, but one of the key lessons I learned is it's never as bad as you think, and it's never as good as it feels. There have been times where I thought a scene was garbage only to return to it later and realize it's not. And there are times where everything feels awesome, and I come back later and it's not.

Over the course of writing a novel now, I don't sweat those things too much any more, and as a consequence, sometimes I don't even remember what my initial impressions were of certain parts of my writing. Either it works or it doesn't when it's time for revisions.

When I first started out, I forced myself to push through. This was because I had trouble finishing, and I needed to learn how to finish. Now, finishing isn't a problem, so I spend a lot of time outlining and thinking things through. When I come to a sticking point, I pause and I'll think about the overall story, what the characters want overall and in the moment, etc., and I work my way to a solution.

So, if you never finish anything, force yourself to push through, and let the story be a wonderful mess that you may or may not fix. If finishing isn't a problem, try outlining and thinking about the story more. For me, I find it infinitely easier to write when I know where things are going. There's always room for flashes of inspiration and a sudden change of direction. But for me, it's easier to change directions when I have a map/outline which I can refer to, so I can get an idea of where a change of direction will lead. Sometimes it leads to clear roads and sunny skies. Other times, I can see just from the outline that it's going to lead to a manure farm and a giant mountain of crap.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Inspiration, enthousiasm, and creative flow are overrated.

It's as simple as that.

Let me explain. A lot of words go into a novel. It sounds obvious, but it feels very different when you have to write all of those words. A fantasy novel (assuming that's what we're talking about here) usually is around 100.000 words. That's a lot of words. If you write 500 words an hour (which is a good pace for a beginning writer), then that means writing the novel takes 200 hours. That is a very, very long time to be inspired and in a creative flow. I doubt anyone will manage that.

So forget about inspiration, and just write, even when you're not inspired.

A few things that have helped, which I believe will help a lot of writers:

Figure out where you're going. Either think the whole story through or (probably better) create an outline. It doesn't have to be a big outline. Just a roadmap where you write down all the steps the protagonist needs to take to get to the end. Why? Because again, it takes a lot of words to write a novel. A novel for me usually starts with a basic idea that comes with two or three scene's. I will know what happens in those and how they go together. However, I always found that when I had written those few scenes I had no idea where to go next. Then I would stall out and stop writing, to never return. With an outline (even the most basic one), I can simply see what needs to happen in the next scene. If you haven't tried it, I strongly suggest giving this a try.

Write frequently. Again, this goes back to a novel needs a lot of words. If you write for 1 hour a day, then those 200 hours will take you 200 days. Roughly a year if you assume weekends off and a few holiday days etc. Writing frequently means you make steady progress in your tale. It works much better than trying to find 4 or 6 hours on a saturday. Even just 2 or 3 blocks of 15 min in a day, which everyone can find, get you to the finishline. This also removes the issue where you feel completely out of the work if you stop and return a long time later. I have a lot of trouble picking up a tale in the middle again if I don't write for a month. And I even notice it if I don't write for a week. The more frequently you write, the more in the story you remain. I personally go for writing 5 days a week for about an hour or so (and yes, that means giving up other things, like watching TV).

Track your progress. Find a way that helps you. I keep an excel sheet where I track my daily word count. This ties into the previous point and (again) a novel needing a lot of words. People don't sit down to write a novel. People sit down to write a scene or a chapter. You can't write for 200 hours straight, so don't try it. That means that it will sometimes feel like slow going and as if no progress happens. However, if you track your word count, and you write consistently, you will suddenly see that those 500 words a day add up to 10.000 words in a month, which is 10% of your novel. That's real progress.

For bonus points: make an external commitment to write your novel. Writing is a solitary practice. You're stuck in your head and only have to answer to yourself. However, if you tell someone you're planning to finish a novel in X time, then you've made a commitment. Even if there is no external pressure, it will help you to keep going. For the first novel I finished, I told my wife I was planning on doing so. Now, she didn't care either way. And other than an occasional "how is it going" she didn't get involved in the process at all. However, simply knowing I had told her changed it from something that I might one day do to something I had to do now.