To all you writers out there. This is a 'writer' orientated question So I love writing, I love creating characters, places, situations,worlds, situations. My only problem is this My attention span with an idea is short and it sucks I get great idea, plan it out, start writing and after a while it's like 'blah' and 'meh'. I lose interest in it. I can't seem to keep on writing it and move on to the next idea and so on and so on and in the end I am left with all these unfinished stories that I just can't be bothered to continue with. I think it's down to the fact that I have the constant thought of "What's the point? No ones going to read it or produce it or..." Sometimes I watch a film or a TV show and I think "Why can't I write a show that interesting and good" Then I try write a show or film similar and yet again lose interest and I do not know what it is. I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY BRAIN
^ This is me when I'm trying to write. I can totally relate, I want to write, but then the fact it will most likely never get published makes me not want to continue.
I do the exact same thing-- I tried writing little novella-type things, but I haven't done that for a while. Now, it's mostly with composing music. I always start out with a brilliant theme, but then I never finish it. Once I put down the theme, I feel like I ruin it if I add anything. I feel like if I repeat it, it gets boring. At the moment, I'm trying to write a fugue, and I hope I can actually complete it. Nothing's wrong with your brain, because that would mean there's something wrong with mine haha
There is nothing wrong with your brain, it is just a matter of practice and training you brain to keep writing about an idea - at least that is what I have learned so far in my writing course. Start small, and write regularly - which will also help you to get your brain used to writing. Try not to go into it with "writing a story, or having it planned out." Start with just writing down any ideas that come to mind. It does not have to make sense, it does not have to be perfect. Create mind or 'thought' maps. In the middle of a page, describe in one or two word(s) an idea/world/character that you would like to write about. Then, think about how you would describe that particular world/character. Have a couple of words describe different attributes or characteristics. Once you have completed that, start fleshing it all out, with any further ideas that come to you. Don't second guess what you are doing. If you keep doing it. It is for yourself, no one else at the moment. Does it matter, if someone else gets to read what you have written? Not really. But, if you need someone to read it, and need a sense of 'accountability' to keep writing, talk to a friend, and ask that friend, if they could read what ever you have written.
I am going to be the party pooper that everyone hates: I am a novelist and have A.D.D.. You would thinkin A.D.D. would prevent me from writing a full length story. Most of the ideas I get, I never write, because I have learned that if I try to force a story to come together, it never will. The ideas that do work, I dont have to work hard to get them to come together. Maybe the ideas you are getting are not something that deep down, you really want to write. Maybe you are unconciousely trying to write what you think other wants to write, but you havent hit on something that you would want to read or write.
I completely get this. For me it's more like I start writing with a good idea and then somewhere along the way I realize that the idea isn't going anywhere. There is just no enough there. And, then I usually don't bother going back to expand.
The last paragraph is sorta true. Its just finding that fine line between "what I want to write" and "if am writing what others want". Still confused
Just write what you want to write about, no matter how long or short it ends up being. That's what I'm doing at the moment, and it is fun just to let your thoughts and imagination go. If I would think about and try to write down what others want, I would not be having as much fun or be able to write. Maybe give yourself a couple of prompts that correspond to a world you like to write about or can easily relate to, and just write out what ever comes to your mind.
I usually fall asleep planning out/reviewing the details of a story I want to write down. There are certain moments or scenes in the story that are the most exciting or dramatic, and I can't wait to write those parts! What I end up doing is rushing through the story until I get to the exciting part, and the result is that the drama falls flat because it doesn't build slowly up to it. I'm not too worried. I just write another draft, in a different-colored font. Then I splice them together until I have the version I want. My only issue is making time to write in the first place. I'm moving around a bit at the moment...
I have the same problem, I have lots of beginings of stories lying around, also various parts of stories I just felt like typing down. Problem is, I want to continue those but I am no longer sure what it's all about. x) I find having a story roughly planned, like: this is the begning, this is somewhere in the middle, this is the end. And then I work with that, when I get an idea for a story I type it down and save it for later when I have a bunch of scenes, then I just write what's missing and re-write everything to make it go together so it won't sound weird. I would also like to recommend the programme "Scrivener", it's really, really cheap so buy it. I can't imagine how anyone would ever want to write in another programme. You can create folders, text files inside the folders, folders inside the folders, you have a croakboard for notes, and you can also have notes to go along with the scene/chapter your writing and they show up on the side of the screen so you can see them. It's much better than stuff like "word" when you just write page after page and so on.It's much easier to work on different scenes at the same time and still have it organized. So, enough about scrivener, but it's just brilliant and has helped me a lot. For me having a deadline works at times, we were supposed to write a story in english class, a fantasy story and I managed to write most of that in just a few days thanks to the deadline. It's just the feeling that you have to finish it, of course if you're writing a story at home you can re-write if later so it doesn't have to be the final product. My own deadline now is to have book finished before I graduate. I want to try to publish it but my dad says that the publishing part probably won't succed but I am going to try, and if it doesn't work out then it doesn't. x) I think an important part when writing is to think: "would I want to read this? In that case, how many times?" We all have those books we can re-read so many times and they never get boring, that is what you want to write. If you don't write anything you can hear many times without getting bored then you probably won't feel like writing it down since you've already heard the story in your head. And re-writing it probably will be even more boring. That's all I have to say for now, kinda long but I'm procrastinating from studyin physics. x)
Yay, writing questions ^_^. I am a novelist.(Though if you want to be technical it wont be 'official' till about next year). The problem that you guys are having is basically to be expected when you are wanting to write your first real story. How do you have the attention span? How do you turn an idea into hundreds of pages, and possibly mutiple books? How do I know if I am writing something that is important to me? First of all, with very few exceptions, no epic story is written in 'freestyle'. Especially, if you are writing anything other than realistic drama. Many Fantasy/Dystopian writers plan their novels for an average of a year, before beginning chapter 1. Romance/Drama takes a lot less world building and planning, however for those who are just starting out, it can still be a good idea to plan for a bit. Dont try to wait for an idea or topic that will be 'important' to you. The novel/series I am working on now is a fantasy story dealing in a world of empires and magic. At first, I had nothing that connected me with the story, (other then the fact that I thought it was interesting, of course lol). I decided to plan book for a while because I knew there was a lot of things that would need to be known before I started it, and I wasnt at a point in my life when I could devote consistant time to my writing and didnt want to break up the flow. Here I am about a year and a half later with everything sorted and guess what? My lead anatagonist suffered with perfectionism and self hate as a child(Check!). One was character sent to be in an arranged marriage, although secretely being gay.(Well not the marriage, but gay.. Check!). There are many more. Trust me, no matter how obsure of a topic you pick, pieces of you will secretely widdle their way into the characters. Dont look for something that you think will fit 'you', take something and make it your own. As far as just starting, just take it slow. Make a dozen notepads on your computer and dump every idea you have in there. I did that for about 10 months while I was taking my time trying to find the names of all the characters in the story. (They take forever in fantasy >_>). After that I sat down one day, and put all the pieces together. Officially plotted out each book, and the chapters of at least the first one and now I have begun writing it. Its really not as hard as it seems in the beginning.
Same goes for me here. Actually, I think that the thing that makes us something like this is the lack of reading and more of writing. We usually just write, not trying to read other things. I think it's best if we refuel that writing passion we have deep inside with getting ourselves inspired enough that we'll actually sit down one time and write down what we want. Also, forcing ourselves to sit down once in a while will kind of put pressure to us to keep on writing which may do our stories some favor. Sorry if my sentences aren't really nice. I'm kind of sleepy.
I feel like i'm the complete opposite to everyone else, i've felt for years that writing would be my dream job. I have all these ideas for stories that just appear and then for weeks/months or even years for some stories, they've built up into these full stories that i go to and review if i need to escape from day-to-day miseries. My main problem isn't that i have lack of ideas or get bored, its that im a shit writer. I have all these ideas but no way to put them down on the page articulately. I have never written down an idea mainly because i dont want to ruin these stories with my terrible writing skills.
