Young Writers Society

I'm very frustrated. I've never finished a book... maybe because I have so many dang ideas! I have so many stories going through my head, that I get depressed about the one I'm working on.

Another thing is, I don't seem to be able to come up with a plot! Yeah, I have stories, but they never develope past some lame idea. I can never think of an ending. I can never think of anything original!

My characters have no depth, they're like dolls, they never seem to get further then a face, and a name ( sometimes they don't even get a last name ). I just write so horrible that way, I don't reaserch, I can't spell worth a darn, and I suppose I've turned this into a rant. Oh, yeah, and my male characters always seem to be wearing jeans and T-shirts, can't they be a bit more creative?!

I've heard that some people will write a few novels at the same time... do you think this would help me with my many ideas and depressingness?

How do you finish a book? How do you write a book? I'm near shooting myself, figuratively. Am I suppose to just have a whole lot of stories that I never end, whilst learning? I'm so scared, and sad, and I am questioning my writing skills ( if I had any ). I know I'm not bad at writing.... it's just, I don't know...

Does anyone have any advice?

Hey Holysocks!!

Seriously reading what you said sounds exactly what I've been going through and we seem to share a lot of the same problems. I've never finished a novel either! I tried writing a really short novel just so that I could actually finish it but even that didn't work out.
Like you I seem to have too many ideas running through my head. This used to be a problem for me because I always feel like turning them into novels but because I have nothing past just an idea I can never get it done. So what I decided to do was write a short story for any novel idea that I come up with just to let it out you know? It helps a lot. So that it doesn't just cram in your head.

I hope that kind of helped a teensy weensy bit.

when it comes to character building, the responses in this thread

i need help with characters

were *very* helpful. i found that creating a character sheet practically allowed the story to write itself.

as for writing the story itself, unfortunately i have no advice. i'm not going to pitch ideas at you. you ought to be able to come up with SOME kind of beginning, middle and end, whether it's a masterpiece or crap. if its crap, the good people of YWS will help you improve it.

as far as not finishing stories, try writing a short story. think of a story that you can wrap up in 3,000 words or less. if you lose interest in one, start up another and switch back and forth until one is finished. this is the only method that has allowed me to finish anything at all, though i've still got old unfinished stories on the block that i'll pry never get back to. that's part of the process too - if something just isn't working or you've completely lost interest, it's time to move on. you claimed you have a lot of ideas so this shouldn't he too difficult.

hope things work out for ya man.

I'm definitely experiencing this also, but I'll try to help.

I know it's hard, but try to finish a book. Don't let yourself start something else until at least the first draft is done. (Unless you're one of those people who can write multiple books at once.) Remember, the first draft is probably going to suck. That's why editing is so important- it's where the story really comes to life.

As lostthought said, create a character sheet for all your main characters. Include things about them that will never be mentioned in your book. Knowing your characters will make it easier to find out how they react to different situations.

Whenever you have a new idea, write it down. Then leave it until you've finished the book you're working on.

Hope I helped a little. Good luck!

OK, cool thanks guys.

The only thing @Cheetah, is I have tried writing down my other ideas, but sometimes when I get a new idea, it sounds better than the one I'm working on!! XD Though I'll try harder to just write it down, and forget about it.

So, that's what I'll do then... Write my characters each a sheet.

Does the multiple stories at once really work?

Holysocks wrote:Does the multiple stories at once really work?

speaking from personal experience, it works extremely well. it may not for everyone, but in my case i have a short attention span so i may get 2,000 words into a story and lose interest for a while. so i turn to another project that maybe i haven't touched in a while, and work on that. it's nice giving my brain a break from a certain story, because while working on another, you'll come up with more ideas for it.

in short, yes.

OK, I might try that too then... I don't know! DX

Hey! I saw this and was like, awe! Don't be depressed with writing!

I have written two novels and have started and abandoned another few and am in the middle of a third that I hope to finish at some point.

I saw that some of the suggestions were to write multiple stories and play around with ideas, but I am actually going to contradict them. I think you should write down ideas and play with them and write when you feel a story even if you know that it won't go anywhere.

But, I also think that one you get something started that could be a novel then you should try to stick to it. As I said, I'm in the middle of a novel, and there have been a lot of times when I get another idea and what to get started on that, but I have to discipline my focus to go back to the novel I've already started.

Sometimes I let myself write a short story (or if I really like the idea I sometimes will write over 20 pages, and maybe someday I'll go back and turn those into novels) So find ways to get out ideas and let yourself write crap every once in a while, but if you really want to write a novel than you just need to choose one work and stick to it even when you don't really want to. After all, the first draft you just need to write, then you can go back and take out the crap and keep all of the good parts and make it really good. The first draft is allowed to be awful.

As for characters I think the advice of filling out a character sheet is great. And if you feel stuck, like all your characters are the same, talk to someone! I love creating characters, but it helps to talk about my characters to someone and hear them tell me whether the character is actually any good.

Also, join storybooks! It's a really good way to play with characters and experiment by adding in unique twists to each character. Then you can see through the storybook whether or not the twist works and decide if you want to use it in your other writing.

Well I hope this isn't too long, but I love to talk about writing and please write me or PM or whatever if you have any other questions or want any other advice. Plus, I just got back from a huge Writer's Conference, so I'm full of advice and tips that I learned there.

Anyway, hope this helps, keep writing!!

Thanks @Cailey! I'd deffinately like to PM you sometime.

And I am joining an SB ( Escape From Rainbowland ) and I'm really looking forward to it! My characters I make for SBs ( not that there's many ) always seem more like real people, and fun, so maybe the character sheets really are helpful.

Holy, if you want, you can develop your story in a land very much like rainbow land.

How so, @lostthought?

XD @Cailey, we're both in Rainbowland, I hadn't noticed!

Me either! Haja, that's awesome! It looks like a pretty fun SB.

I'd recommend taking a look at this: Five Steps to Finishing a Novel. Good luck .

Thanks @GoldFlame!