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Fri Jun 02, 2017 1:58 am
comrie says...



Hi everyone,

This may be longer than it needs to be, but please, bear with me.

Background: I took a major break from writing (and reading, unfortunately) around Fall 2015. Uni graduation was around the corner, and the stress of passing boards, finding a job, and literally everything in between were on the front steps of my mind. At the time, I made a decision to cut out a lot of things I considered "distractions." This included writing and reading. Two things I had enjoyed to the absolute fullest. But at the time, I thought that they had to go if I was going to be successful in my academics and future career.

I'm now at a point where I feel stable in my life, and ready to take writing head-on again. I've recently written tiny (and I mean, tiny) drabbles here and there, but nothing substantial has come out from them. It makes me wonder: Am I to just rely on inspiration? Am I just not creative enough to write a full-blown story? Am I forcing something that's not meant to be? Am I just not wanting it enough?

Before, it seemed easier. Granted, I never actually finished anything (I think my longest work was 25K words), but my ideas seemed to have been plentiful and I always found myself thinking of my stories and characters, painting them in my head, and breathing them to life on paper.

Now I can barely think of anything.

I've started reading again. Today I finished my first book in almost two years. And at the end of it, I found myself surprised at how happy it made me. Because of the story, firstly, and also because I actually did read it to the end. It just brought on an onslaught of emotions that I did not expect. So I'm going to try and continue reading, because reading this book made me realize just how much I do love reading and what it does for me.

With writing: I'm trying to write every day now, or every other day. Or whenever possible, honestly. But it's hard because I get discouraged. At my lack of ideas, my abilities, comparing my material to others. Comparing my journey to others.

So I'm asking for advice on how to move from this standstill point I'm at. Would you suggest I keep writing? I just feel so out of ideas, and when I try and buckle down, I just find myself staring at a blank page. Am I to just force myself to think of ideas? Shouldn't it be a little bit more natural?

Also, side question, I find it easier to think up characters before plot. Like the bare bones of a character. Nothing detailed. How would you suggest creating a plot from a character? Should I really do those character profiles and then move on from there?

Sorry for the length. I tried shortening it, but I couldn't. This feels more like a rant more than anything, but I honestly had to let this out. I just feel so lost. Also sorry if it seems all over the place.

If anyone has ever been in this situation or just has any suggestions on how to help remedy it, please feel free to respond. I would really appreciate it! Thank you all in advance.

-comrie
  





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Fri Jun 02, 2017 2:50 am
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PrincessInk says...



My two cents:

-Maybe it's because you haven't been writing for such a long time that story ideas don't come as easily. But if you keep writing and keep your eyes and mind peeled open for ideas, they will come, I'm sure. You could also look back at your old ideas and see if you're interested to develop them or refresh/continue your old projects. And then you could smash a couple of your old ideas together to create a new one!

-Creating a plot from characters isn't too difficult (at least in my opinion) if you know about them quite a bit (like motivation, inner conflict, flaws, personality, backstory). Motivations of several characters can clash and form a conflict! Perhaps a character can struggle with a fatal flaw that'll pull the plot forward. Maybe a character is in a situation that's the worst kind for them.

For example, let's say we have two characters, Pat and Zoey. Maybe both of them are actresses and there's this show with this lead role they both want. An audition will determine who gets it. Boom! You get a conflict already. And then Pat's family are all smart and talented people, and Pat feels inferior so she wants to show her talent in acting (raising the stakes). Maybe she's also compassionate and when she learns how much Zoey needs to get the role for some significant reason, she wonders if she should just let Zoey get it.

I hope I helped. :D
always daydreaming, always clumsy
  





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Fri Jun 02, 2017 3:21 am
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Rosendorn says...



Breaking this up into two parts!

Out of Ideas = Should I Quit?

In short: no.

Long answer and a ramble about me!

I used to be a prolific writer. I mean multiple millions of words in a ridiculously short timespan. I wrote and wrote and wrote.

Then I took a break for school, and suddenly I couldn't produce anything in a reasonable length of time. I spent 3 years on my first finished draft of my novel, and I'm pushing 3 years on the second— with only 20k to show for it. Important addition: I have written a quarter of a million words of fanfic in that time.

Why is that fanfic number important? Not just because it was taking up my time, but because it was the stark difference between my original writing and my fanfiction that made me realize why writing was now pulling teeth.

Writing, as a teenager, was what gave me purpose. It was everything for me, from my escape to my therapy to what felt like my god-given mission. Then I started to shift away from everything that had made writing absolutely necessary for me, and everything dried up.

Then I ran into a situation where my coping strategies were inadequate and the only thing I could do was rewrite how I lived in the situation. I dove into fanfic because nothing felt safer than being with characters I knew could defeat evil. Writing became my therapy again, and the words just flowed (between me and my cowriter, we did 60k in a week).

That is just a very long winded way of saying: find your purpose for writing again. You put it aside because you didn't need it, so now it's time to rediscover why you need writing. Admit the reasons why you need it to yourself, and accept those reasons as valid, important reasons to pen stories.

Basically, unlearn the narrative you'd told yourself for two years: that writing wasn't necessary.

Plot from Character Skeletons

I'm a firm believer in the following formula:

Characters+ setting+ clash= plot

So if you create skeletons of characters, focus on what they want, how they act, and their responsibilities. Then figure out where two items don't add up.

Headstrong rebellious guy who's expected to quietly take over the family business? Girl who wants to travel the world but finances keep her down? Character wants a peaceful life but war is knocking on their doorstep?

Figuring out how they respond to that situation is plot. It can either be them learning what they have is pretty good, or running, or deciding "screw it, I'm doing what's right" (can either be a selfish reason or a selfless reason, depending on their definition of "right").

The world is an important component to this. I rather literally build my fantasy worlds in relation to the character and how they fit into it. This helps both keep the worldbuilding manageable and gives me instant beginnings-of-plot. I tend to build only as the plot needs it, which means sometimes I have some staggeringly large gaps in knowledge for how things work. On the flipside, I don't get lost in too many details.

It's a bit difficult to get the hang of at first, but once you figure out the characters in relation to the plot, you can do a lot more.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  





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Fri Jun 02, 2017 7:51 am
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AvantCoffee says...



This is my humble advice from my own experiences...

I had a similar situation during my senior years of high school, when school became extremely oppressing and stressful for me. Because I no longer felt free inside myself, I found that my normal endless stream of story ideas ceased completely, and it became a struggle just to push one creative thought onto paper. A month or so after I graduated, I noticed myself loosen up and reclaim my identity. Suddenly I could write again, because I didn't feel forced or constricted in any way.

My point is, maybe your mind is holding back its creativity now because either your identity or your freedom feels restricted. Once a person feels safe to freely express themselves (and not rushed for time), their mind soon opens up to creative ideas. There is no such thing as "not being creative enough" or "writing coming naturally", only how trusting and at ease one feels in themselves to embrace and let out that universal source of creativity. If you feel pressured or anxious about your writing, don't. Remove any expectations, remain fully open, DON'T compare yourself to others (that is the worst thing of all), and have patience. Trust in your ability as a capable and imaginative human being! :D

Another thing I recommend you do is go out and read the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert (description found here). It covers this very same problem you're facing.

As for whether you should keep writing, I think you answered your own question:
comrie wrote:... writing and reading. Two things I had enjoyed to the absolute fullest.

If something makes you feel joyful and inspired, then that is definitely something you should hold onto in your life, even if it's just a hobby. Don't disregard your love of writing as unimportant. Would you cooperate if you were disregarded? Probably not. If you treat something as valuable, it will bring value in return.

Final advice: be kind to yourself and to your writing. Writing pressure is good in certain situations, but not when your creativity is choking. Figure out what makes writing fun for you, and do that. Simple reflection time is also highly necessary for any writer; most of my good ideas come while daydreaming, not while running around being busy.

Also, have you tried joining a storybook on this site? Maybe writing for a character in a story someone else made up would take the pressure off needing ideas and get you inspired again.

I hope what I said was relevant. Everyone is different XD If what I said was useful, I don't mind talking about it some more via PM.
  





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Fri Jun 02, 2017 12:53 pm
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Tenyo says...



Hi Comrie!

Thank you for posting. This is a feeling that really hits home and you're not the only one who goes through it. Academic pressure (as I have learned all too well over the past year or so) has a way of forcing itself to take precedent over a lot of creative things.

My advice is to treasure the drabbles. Think of it like a little kid learning to talk. Those random coos and babbling noises are the experiments that grow into language and that's kind of what drabbles are. Some of them will be entirely real and some entirely fictional and most will be a combination of the two, but in all of them your mind will be taking random, forgotten sensations and playing them until little sparks start flying.

It's a healthy process, and a necessary one for easing back into creativity. You may be eager to jump straight back in where you left off but there is a lot of merit in being gentle with yourself and taking your time.

Another thing is that you've probably changed a lot since you were writing, especially with your life experience changing too. Meaningless drabbles will give you that chance to explore yourself and adjust to the natural changes that will have happened to your method and style, and to enjoy them.

Lastly, I absolutely agree with @Coffeecat . Storybooking is such a good way to get back into writing. It's all the fun parts of playing with words and characters without any of the angst, and if you run out of ideas there is a group of people with plenty more who can help move you forward.

Keep drabbling =]
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Mon Jun 05, 2017 2:15 am
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Kale says...



Something I've found as I've gotten to the point where I complete stories consistently is that inspiration is overrated. It's important, yes, but inspiration alone will not help you write, much less complete, a story.

Inspiration is also notoriously mercurial. It changes on the fly, it slips away if you don't jot it down, and sometimes you happen upon it and all you remember is that it happened.

What inspiration is great for is getting you started on the road to writing. Inspiration can also be a great way to motivate yourself to complete something when you get stuck in a rut, if that inspiration is tied to what made the work so compelling for you to write.

For the most part though, writing involves more perseverance and skill than raw inspiration, and it's a hard lesson to swallow because it's tedious and painful, but there's a reward to seeing a project finished in full because having the finished product fulfills the pain and tedium and makes them worthwhile. Plus you get to finally share the results of that initial inspiration, which is a reward all its own.

So, before you focus your efforts on trying to capture inspiration, I would challenge you to instead determine what it is that motivates you to write. As others have mentioned above, knowing why you write is empowering. It's also practical because it provides you with a direct metric by which to judge how successful your writing is.

For example, my main motivation for writing stories is to entertain. Therefore, if people read my stories and are entertained, then my writing has accomplished exactly what I wanted it to (even if they were sometimes entertained for unintentional reasons). To that end, things like being traditionally published matter less to me than to other writers, particularly those whose goal it is to reach as wide an audience as possible.

Different writers have different motivations, and thus different goals, for their writing. If you can pin down what yours are, the next steps you need to take will be easier to see.

On a side note, have you tried free-writing or free-association exercises? Those can be useful for getting the creative juices flowing, and you can come up with some pretty interesting conceptual links that you might not have been consciously aware of before.
Secretly a Kyllorac, sometimes a Murtle.
There are no chickens in Hyrule.
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WRFF | KotGR
  





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Mon Jun 05, 2017 6:18 pm
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comrie says...



Thank you all for taking the time to read and reply!

I really appreciate all of the thoughts and advice you guys have offered. I've read all of the responses, and it's comforting to see that I'm not alone in this (I felt very alone, especially with the people around me not into writing/reading the way that I was), and that you were all willing to offer your two cents/backgrounds. It makes me appreciate this website even more. I'm more motivated to keep writing.

I was typing a reply to everyone, but I found myself repeating myself over and over. I am taking everything into account and learning to be less harsh on myself, and relearning what it was that got me writing in the first place. Thank you all again!
  








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