Intimidation To Write

[Xitra_Blud]

Does anyone ever get to a point in their story where you have the idea and you know what to write but, for some reason, you're intimidated to do it? Whether it's because you're afraid it won't come out write or any other reason? I often find myself going through this and a lot of days without me writing go by because of it.

 

[GeekDavid]

I do.

The way I fight is by reminding myself -- as often as necessary -- that the words aren't set in stone, I can change them later.

 

[buyjupiter]

I definitely do.

I had a death scene to write. I couldn't write it. I took a couple of days to figure out if I'd actually written myself into that corner. When I figured out I had, I stared at the screen for a long time, and finally wrote "and then she died". I let that sit for a day, mulling over how I wanted the death scene to go. The next day I wrote that particular scene.

In general, this is where an outline or scene layout or post it notes of awesomeness can come in and help. I outline, once I'm done pantsing the general mood and theme of a piece. If I get stuck I can go write another scene, although I prefer to run straight through, so that the things that I pants along the way make sense together.

Sometimes you just have to let something coalesce a bit longer than you think you did. I know I can write down a great idea, not look at it for months, and when a slot opens in my writing schedule I can go back to it and go "oh, that's what I want to do with this idea".

I hope that helps. And I second what geekdavid says, you can always change it if it's not working.

 

[Malik]

Usually it's just because of the sheer amount of work I know the next bit of writing will take. I stopped working on a project a couple of days ago. I still get exhausted just thinking about what comes next.

Write something else. Just write. Every day. No matter what.

 

[NellaFantasia]

Yes. I think it's safe to say pretty much every writer has felt the weight of the project they've chosen to take on at some point. Writing a novel in itself is intimidating, and no one spews out a perfect novel on the first try. It takes work. The best way I've found to combat the overwhelming feeling is to take it one step at a time. Don't think further ahead than the sentence you're working on. Baby steps. It all comes together in the end.

 

[GeekDavid]

Yes. I think it's safe to say pretty much every writer has felt the weight of the project they've chosen to take on at some point. Writing a novel in itself is intimidating, and no one spews out a perfect novel on the first try. It takes work. The best way I've found to combat the overwhelming feeling is to take it one step at a time. Don't think further ahead than the sentence you're working on. Baby steps. It all comes together in the end.

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
--E. L. Doctorow

 

[Penpilot]

I use to get this a lot, but it's comes around less and less. I think it's because I know how to deal with it. Just write it. No matter how bad/good, short/long the result is, at least once it's written, I have something to work with and make better.

 

[skip.knox]

I second what buyjupiter says. When I get stuck like that, I still try to write *something* even if it's no more than notes as to what I think should happen. Or dialog fragments. Or description. Anything that is at least somewhat on point. I come at it as if I were approaching a snake, from this angle and that, until I finally grab the thing by the neck. Anything is better than just standing there, staring.

 

[Addison]

I believe all writers experience this at least once for each story they write. I've had it three times, last I checked...not sure. Some times I'm intimidated because writing that scene means I'm close to the end which means the writing is nearly over and the agent and publishing stuff is coming up fast. That is a scary thought.

Other times it's because I like the scene, I like where it's going and I like where its come from and I don't want to write it wrong and ruin the story in some way.

The point is that it's normal. The more time you spend on this feeling, the worse it will be and the longer you'll procrastinate.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Intimidated no. But sometimes frightened. There are some scenes in a book that are literally so powerful and which I know have to be written perfectly that they actually scare me. I don't know if I can write them.

Cheers, Greg.