Young Writers Society

Ok, this is bad. I've been writing for two years now, and have 3 files (not computer files) and 18 computer folders full of ideas. I want to keep them but then again I have too much to write. Also, does anyone have tips for sticking to a story?

One idea for all thoughs Ideas, why don't you combind them? That's what I did, I made up idea's for a whole year, and ironically most the idea's fit together in one way or another. The idea's that didn't fit I'm using in the next book. -- Stevie

The only real way of sticking to a story is forcing yourself to keep writing. But, for the sake of clarity, let me be a little bit more specific.

This is what happens (for me) as far as story writing goes.

1) I get an idea.

I usually get an idea for a story or such doing something completely random. This idea may be good or not... it's really hard to tell without fleshing the story out. Most ideas sound cliched until you actually start writing it, so never totally disregard an idea just because it's been done before.

2) I dream about it.

I take an idea I particularly like and then concentrate on it whenever I'm bored. For example, chores are a wonderful asset! Washing dishes, raking leaves, and vacuuming are some of my favorite things to while dreaming about ideas. Play with the characters, find out what they're like, and from what you learn about the characters, the rest of the story will fall into place. Try to spot any mistakes and play with them. Don't write anything down yet, not unless you have things to research and you want to write about it.

If you're one of those people, draw pictures of your characters and play with dolls to get what they're doing in your head. But at this point, you're just having fun.

3) Character Experimentations!

Next thing you want to do is play with the character. Try to do character sketches.

So... what are character sketches?

Basically little things to see how you can capture the reaction of your characters. Little things. You're not writing abut the story yet, but you're getting yourself so psyched about it so that you'll have no choice BUT to finish it.

So... for my story FREAK, I did several character sketches:

First one
Second one
Third one
Fourth one
Fifth one
Sixth one

And those are all of the ones on YWS.

Now, I don't expect you to read all of them, if any, but still... that's just a couple of the better ones (if you can call it that). But really... there's three stories, one script, and two poems all of them having to do with one story. Scary? Definitely. But right now, you want to get a better feeling of your characters. Plus, you can use some of your less-worthy ideas in this case!

4) Write it!

By now, you should be so obsessed with it that it's painful not to write it. And if it's not painful... well, you have so much invested in the idea that most likely you'll stick with it whether you want to or not.

And this time, who knows? You'll probably stick with it.

Good luck!

Well, the best place to go for this sort of thing is Nanowrimo. If you've never heard of it — basically, every November, thousands of writers from all over the world gather together online, each of them separately writing a 50 000-word novel in 30 days (i.e. the span of November). It's advertised as a contest of sorts, but it's not really. You don't win anything (by "anything" I mean cash, although people would argue that the things you learn there as a writer are invaluable), but at the same time, Nanowrimo is one of the best ways to churn out a novel. The resources they have are amazing; there's an entire forum within Nanowrimo devoted to any questions writers might have about basically anything. There's overwhelming help and support from other writers, the discussions on plot and character are great, and it's more or less an awesome site for any writer. (Also, writing 50 000 words in a month isn't as hard as it sounds; you have to write less than 2000 words a day, which takes less time than you'd expect.)

Even if you don't decide to try it out, pick up a copy of Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! or sign it out of the library or something. Chris Baty organizes the whole Nanowrimo thing every year, and the book is great. (And while I'm recommending books: try Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott, or even On Writing, by Stephen King.)

When it comes down to writing, it's mostly just self-discipline. How long can you force yourself to keep producing words, no matter how much you grow to despise the story or characters? It depends on different writers; I know some people plan out their novels extensively, but if I personally plan too much, I tend to grow bored with the story. Some people don't even bother planning — when they write stories, they write it by the seat of their pants.

So bear in mind that everything I say (both before this and after) is entirely based on what works for me, and what I've seen that tends to work for a lot of other people. Snoink's post extensively covers how to get started, so I'm just going to mention some different ways to keep going once you've begun.

1. Reward yourself. - This may sound horribly pre-schoolish, but never underestimate the power of rewards. They can be relatively small — letting yourself check your e-mail after writing a certain scene/chapter/number of words/whatever — or they can be biggish (buying yourself something amazing when you've done the entire story, hanging out with friends after you've finished a particularly tricky scene, etc.). If you set up a reward system and follow it strictly, chances are you'll be encouraged to write just for that.
   
2. Tell people. - This might backfire depending on what your family is like (I try to avoid telling them if/when I'm writing; much less hassle) and how your friends will respond. But when I'm writing a story, chances are I'll tell at least a couple of my friends, who are bound to egg me on or ask me how I'm doing or something. The constant reminding fuels the guilt that I have whenever I don't write, which often pushes me into writing. If nothing else, get someone on YWS or a similar writing board to send you harrassing PMs about writing the next installment.
   
3. Race someone else. - This depends on the availability of eager writers, online or amongst your friends and family. With YWS's writing year thingy, hopefully it'll be a little bit easier to find people who will write with you. On Nanowrimo they had this amazing thread called "30 Minute Word Wars", where basically everyone would write for thirty minutes and then post their word counts and compare. Most of the time, people weren't necessarily being competitive — but that hint of competition never fails to motivate.
   
4. Set goals. - Either formally or informally, whether you mentally decide that on Thursday you will write that scene where little Jimmy gets killed, or formally, where you actually write it down somewhere. If you decide to go with the latter, make sure you've written it somewhere where it's visible. Post-its are your best friend. Plaster your computer, bed, walls, notebooks, locker — everything in them. The side bonus (or maybe not so much of a bonus, depending) is that people will start to notice and maybe even start asking about your story of their own volition. I put this one last, but this is probably the most important one. With the goals, make sure you set a date for when you want that goal to be done, too. And once you've met your goal, go back to Tip #1 and reward yourself.

...like I said, these are things that work for me (and only sometimes, too) — they may not necessarily work for you. Experiment with a couple and see what works for you. And good luck.

I like Stevies idea, I've tried it with two stories I'm writing at the same time and all the pieces fit.

You should write when you feel like writing, I hate to force myself to write it just makes my writing bad. I love to write when I'm watching people and that way you can work on how your character interacts with others.