[johnny]

Am I the only person here who has a problem getting started with a writing project?

I will plan the hell out of something - I just wrote a 7,000-word plot rundown and bios of the two main characters for a story I've been thinking about for a year now - but actually starting the story is a hurdle for me. It's baffling, since I love writing more than anything else in the world, but it's just so daunting to write those first sentences.

Does anyone else have this problem? Have you gotten over it? If so, how?

[Sushi]

I'm actually the opposite, it seems. I mean, at first, I might moan and groan for a little, but for the most part, I never really plan and jump right in. It's finishing that the hard part. lol

[Jurinjo]

I have that problem a lot! But no solution for you sadly. The reason this is such a hurdle for me is that after the initial fun of brainstorming and such I feel incapable of adequately capturing my vision. Thus...I scrap it. This is why I did not pursue a major in English. Although maybe I should consider the path of an editor?

[Jenny Harper]

I can never start, get through the middle, or start a project.

I have loads going right now, me and my wife run a two way fic between us and I need to get it done lol.

I also have a few of my own fics that I want to get done. I want to start one and maybe get it to publishing level. But that would need the words to flow onto the page. I can have a million ideas going through my head but not have it go onto the page or it sounds wrong.

I am very visual when I write but cannot draw. XD I fail lol.

[johnny]

Originally Posted by Jurinjo

I have that problem a lot! But no solution for you sadly. The reason this is such a hurdle for me is that after the initial fun of brainstorming and such I feel incapable of adequately capturing my vision. Thus...I scrap it. This is why I did not pursue a major in English. Although maybe I should consider the path of an editor?

Yeah, I think I have that problem, too.

Or I get bogged down with "Is this idea publishable?" or "Is this idea more publishable than the other one?"

Either way, it comes down to ideas and voices and whether I'm actually good or not.

I really should just learn to write, and worry about things like publishing, or proper structuring, later.

As for your English/Editor pondering: It's still generally a good idea to have at least a Bachelor's degree in English if you want to be an Editor. It's what I'm going to college for, actually.

[Lost]

Just start writing.
Somewhere;
It doesn't matter where you start. You can always add things to it either before or after what you've written. just start.
Maybe beginning with a point you had in your plot; if thats not where you actually want to start you can fill in more things before it when you think of them.

It's your story. it doesn't matter where the beginning or ending is. All that matters is you write it.

[Batty]

I ALWAYS have issues starting something off.

Normally, what I do to get out of that rut is write a few other scenes, first. Or I'll work backwards. I'll write how I want something to end, and then decide from there how I want it to start. Or I'll write a bunch of bullcrap to start off with, and work my way back to changing it after I've gotten a successful middle and ending.

Though lately, its been really hard for me to choke out ANYTHING at all. This is probably the worst writing block I've ever had. ><;

[Gozed]

I can plot out an entire story, but when I go to write it I'm already bored with it, since I know what happening, so I just want to get to the next part, and a story that has the potential to be 300 pages long ends up being 12.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I can have problems at all stages of writing. It seems to depend on each individual piece. Some I can't start, some I can't end, and some I can't seem to find a middle for. Inspiration seems to be a problematic point for me. When I have a clear idea going, I am confident in what I'm writing. Otherwise I can think, search, edit, and tweek until the piece is hardly recognizable. One piece I'm working on now I erased entirely and started again because it was getting too cluttered for all the editing.


I write short pieces, and I find that when I have a lot of trouple getting an idea out, switching styles or mediums can help. I might start intending to write a prose piece and change it to a poem or piece of flash fiction if the idea would be better suited in that direction. I once started a poem that turned into one of my novel attempts. The most successful one so far actually.

As for how good someone's writing it, or how publishable it is, I find the only way to find out is just to try. I've sent out some pieces for publication and had acceptances and rejections, though more of the latter. On two occasions I was surprised by the poems the editor selected for their magazines. They were little poems I had tacked onto the submissions to round them out. The ones I expected to be accepted weren't commented on.

I've never actually taken any lessons or anything on creative writing. What I know comes from my reading and my literature degree. I might have an easier time actually plotting out storylines and such if I did have some classroom experience in creative writing.

[CupcakeDolly]

I always have trouble getting started, and when I finally do, I find that I haven't planned things out very well. I've tried several times to write out stories and stopped after a few chapters - at the most, four or five of them. I always think that I'll just go back and re-write, but I can never forge on ahead without a clear plot in my mind. It's frustrating to have so many ideas and not have the skill or technique to write them out.

[Glitch]

I tend to procrastinate writing but once I start I can usually keep a steady flow throughout the project. It's when I go back and read it later that I no longer am satisfied haha.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

A friend of mine is writing a novel series. He's edited one book in its entirety three times.

I find even if I don't know what to do with a piece, wiritng it down can at least give it a place so that it's not cluttering my head anymore but still retrievable if I decide to do something with it later. I do get moments now though, where I've started abandoning ideas and barely worked on pieces for the sake of streamlining what I've got so I can focus better on the pieces that are more meaningful to me.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

In the past few years, I seem to have developed an affinity for planning stories over actually writing them. At the moment, I have three different novels outlined in detail, I just... have no motivation to work on them. I'm six chapters into one, have a very rough full draft on another, and the third hasn't had a word written for it yet.

It seems like the older I get, the more difficult writing becomes for me. Granted, looking back, I can see definite improvement, but for some reason, it comes with a decreased desire to actually write. I suppose I'm just harder on myself now than when I was younger. I can't just let the ideas flow, I have to sit and tinker with each sentence until it's perfect.

I don't know if that was me you mentioned, Quiet, but the book I'm six chapters into at the moment I've written completely twice (with major alterations to the story each time) and I've made similar efforts, getting five or six chapters into a new version I think three other times. So, this is my... sixth draft at the moment. I've been developing the story since I was 9 or so (21 now) and while I finally have an idea of how I want to end up, I'm still not any closer to actually finishing it.

I'm a fairly linear writer, I don't jump around too much, though I have scenes from way later on in my various stories written out, only because they've struck me so powerfully I've had to write them without context, just so I don't forget them. I also take extensive notes, since I always seem to daydream about what happens later on than focus on what needs to written here and now in the story.

I took Creative Writing twice in High School, and twice in college (I actually have to leave for that in an hour), but I haven't learned anything from those classes. The environment is far too casual and the teachers/professors have always preferred to "explore creativity" than offer any useful criticism or advice.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Actually no, I was referring to another with regard to the books.

I still have that chapter of yours sitting in my inbox waiting to be read. I suppose I could actually get around to doing it given the lack of other things I find for myself to do. Haven't even started on that broadside I was going to work on besides a handful of ideas that are fairly generic. I think I migth have to make some notes and just get my hands moving if I plan to make any progress at all. I still have a week or so before the deadline and it only needs to be 300 words or so.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I... believe I haven't updated that any more since I sent it to you, which is kind of depressing. Maybe a critique would inspire me, who knows?

[Glitch]

I'm great at starting them, finishing is where I fail hard. :( I posted a story on here for people to help me write and ending but nobody did XD