Stuck Ideas

[BunnyJen90]

I got so many ideas for stories and stuff but often too lazy to get them out. However, having all these great ideas stuck in my head is kind of driving me insane, but part of me hates putting in the effort to get these ideas out. My best friend has suggested journaling and maybe that can help but at the same time I'm rather lazy. I find myself too distracted with video games and stuff these days. I suppose it doesn't help that I literally have hundreds of video games downloaded on my laptop. Any idea what I can do to stop being so lazy and finally get some of my ideas out.

 

[JBCrowson]

A few options:
delete some stuff off your hard drive;
use a timer to regulate your game time;
reward yourself with something (NOT gaming) when you write even a small amount;
buy a new laptop;
pay an orc to stand guard and rap your knuckles with his axe handle every time you click on a game icon.

 

[Rexenm]

It is either meant to be or it isn’t. I have the opposite problem, there is only one answer. I have been preparing, and trained, and there is something people want to hear about. My problem is, complaining. I get so involved in thought, that I want the ground to swallow me up.

 

[Finchbearer]

Well apart from the above suggestion of hiring an orc to help keep things in check, I hasten to say that it sounds like the gaming is distracting you from doing something that you want to do.

Gaming can be a fun activity in itself, but it’s also procrastination central. It can be a time vacuum for those pre-disposed to getting distracted. I think you’d need to tackle what your priorities are before attempting to write the stories you want to write. What would you rather spend your free time doing? Gaming or writing?

My own free time is very limited, and I often do my hobbies in short bursts. In many ways I get more stuff done than before I had children. Now I have less opportunity to do things, I take those opportunities by the horns and get things done.

 

[JBCrowson]

Well apart from the above suggestion of hiring an orc to help keep things in check, I hasten to say that it sounds like the gaming is distracting you from doing something that you want to do.

Gaming can be a fun activity in itself, but it’s also procrastination central. It can be a time vacuum for those pre-disposed to getting distracted. I think you’d need to tackle what your priorities are before attempting to write the stories you want to write. What would you rather spend your free time doing? Gaming or writing?

My own free time is very limited, and I often do my hobbies in short bursts. In many ways I get more stuff done than before I had children. Now I have less opportunity to do things, I take those opportunities by the horns and get things done.

nothing like a few kids to make you really value your down time.

 

[Finchbearer]

nothing like a few kids to make you really value your down time.

Truth! What was I doing before with all that free time I had?!

 

[BunnyJen90]

All my games are downloaded onto an external hard drive since I have so many I don't have enough hard drive space on my laptop. Suppose I could not plug in my external hard drive when I'm wanting to type my stories on my computer. Also I know there are apps that can help with focus by turning off apps that are distracting. Might want to look more into that. Other than that there's going the old fashion way and writing in a notebook, which I kind of don't like. And yeah luckily I don't have kids at least not yet but I do have a job that keeps me busy.

 

[Finchbearer]

I jot down a lot of ideas on my notes app on my phone, then later transfer them over to individual pages files and go from there. Safe to say I have a lot of ideas stored too. Susanna Clarke wrote the idea for Piranesi when she was a student in her twenties, and many years later only started writing it during covid. It’s now an award winning novel.

 

[BunnyJen90]

I know of this really good note taking app for mobile and pc that's like Evernote but free. It's just a matter of not getting distracted by my video games and other stuff like browsing the internet while taking notes.

 

[pmmg]

Um....isn't the obvious answer, you have to give up video games? They are rot anyway.

You have decide what you want. When you are gone, what do you want people to say about you? She sure had a lot of Pokemon, or she wrote that book.

No one can do it but you.

 

[BunnyJen90]

Well I'd hate to give up video games completely but can cut down on how much time I spend on them. Debating if I want to go the old fashioned way and start writing in a book. Being part of the first generation to grow up on computers find it kind of old fashion to write by hand.

 

[pmmg]

When I was younger, I played a lot of video games. But along the way, my friends and I started to call the Compute, the evil one. This was because they would suck whole days and weeks from me. Start to play something in the morning, and before you know it, its 4:00am, and your still left with the feeling of just one more task... The whole day wasted, and in the end, nothing of value to show for it. I beat the same bosses, the same way a zillion other people did, and solved the same puzzles the same way everyone who plays the game does. No one cares. No one thinks that is remarkable. Another day, another same old.

I have said many times, I would rather create than consume. We are not on this earth to try and win some record for most hours recorded in Steam, or special cause we are the one that got that super rare shiney pokemon (And secretly, its not rare, everyone who wants has it).

These things are a science now. They feed on your brain and occupy it like an addiction. If you do not fight your addiction no one will.

Come 30 years later, and no one will care how many games you played, or how many you beat, or how cool that fortress was in minecraft. Its all a waste. Let it be someone elses.

 

[Incanus]

You're the only one ultimately in control of this. Entirely up to you.

I do a couple of things to manage gaming. First, I mostly always play computer games for the last hour, or hour and a half, of the night. My mind tends to start getting a little mushy around then anyway, so that works out.

Also, I mostly play games I've already played so that I don't get sucked into them.

Writing gets much more preference than gaming for me.

 

[BunnyJen90]

I hate to think of technology as evil when it can also be helpful. I suppose gaming is a waste of time but at the same time every now and then I need a distraction like lately I've been feeling depressed and lonely and need something to get my mind off that and video games seem to be the easiest way to distract my mind. But I suppose if I can manage to put in more effort in my writing and drawing that can help distract my mind too.

 

[skip.knox]

If I have a thing A and another thing B, and I consistently choose A over B, then what I want is A. Period. I can say I want B, but until I actually starting doing B rather than A, it's just talk.

To put it another way, it's not a distraction, it's a choice.

 

[BunnyJen90]

I'll try cutting down on video games. It'll be hard but need to get these ideas out and be more productive.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I second (or third?) getting kids to help you prioritise stuff. It works wonders in changing your routines...

In the end, ask yourself what you really want and why. The truth is that writing a book is a lot of hard work that gets little reward in most cases. yes, Piranesi might have gone on to win awards, but for every Piranesi, there are maybe 1.000 (if not more) novels out there no one reads. That is not to say that you shouldn't write, just that you should know why you write. And fame and fortune are probably the worst reasons to do so.

I just want to tell stories and evoke emotions in my readers. I enjoy sitting down and putting words on the page (most of the time), and then polishing them to hopefully create something worth reading. Do I hope for fame and fortune? Of course. I'd love that. But that's more a side product, not why I write.

Also know that you don't actually need a lot of time to write. If you set aside 30 minutes a day to write, then you can write a novel in a year. This can be 2 blocks of 15 minutes even. Maybe show up to work early and get 15 minutes in, and then use half your lunch break for the other 15. Or take 30 minutes each day when you get home and write before you do anything else. Don't aim for 4 hour blocks of time when no one bothers you, you're probably not going to find them. But 15 minutes? Anyone can find them. Just be a bit more conscious with your time. That's all it takes. Skip that one episode of the tv series you're not really interested in anyway.

Lastly, realize that you don't need to write full novels if that commitment is too big (think 200 hours to complete a first draft). You can write short stories of just a couple of hundred or thousand words. I've got a pile of opening chapters and exciting scenes from novels I started but will never finish. Nothing wrong with just writing those bits and not putting anything else down on paper.

 

[skip.knox]

>ask yourself what you really want and why.
The trick is being old enough, having experienced enough, to know what you really want and why. When I was young (a term that includes more and more years, with each passing year), I made all sorts of assertions about what I wanted that were based more in hope than in truth.

 

[BunnyJen90]

Doesn't help I'm not entirely sure what I want in life other than I really hate to be stuck at my current job because I know it'll give others more reason to think I'm stupid. And still finding myself not wanting to put in the effort to do much. Maybe others are right and something is wrong with me.

 

[Finchbearer]

Oh, I think some have been a tad over-critical on this thread. Thing is, if you enjoy gaming, there should be no reason to stop doing it. If it enriches your life, wherever you’re at right now, then carry on enjoying spending your down time doing it. Nobody is here to judge whether there is something wrong with you. You sound like a self-critic which I almost certainly also can admit to being. Sometimes you might find yourself in a rut, but don’t worry it will pass. Some coping methods and some small changes to your routine could be a good idea, but only you can know best of what to do and how to implement them.