Young Writers Society

I am writing the "notes draft" of the second short story in my series. Something that happened with my last story is happening again, and I don't know what to do. This is basically it:

1.I get an interesting idea for a story.
2.I procrastinate for a few days, which then leads to a week. However, in this case, I'm writing some notes down.
3.I get frustrated due to lack of progress and other things.
4.In the middle of my frustration, I get an idea for a new story. (Where I am now)
5.I start to hate my current story and rush through it so that I can write the one I just thought of.
6. Repeat

I have ideas for two separate stories, and my current one is annoying me a bit. I still like it, but the procrastination is killing it. Should I keep going with it or work on the other story with this one on the backburner?

Here's the thing about any writing project, you need a fair amount of perseverance to get through it. What you're talking about is 100% normal, and probably everyone on the site has been there. As a hardcore procrastinator myself, I know the way that procrastinating can kill an idea, but the thing is, you've got to stop letting procrastination get the best of you. Thinking about the story won't do you any good unless you actually sit down and do something about it. For me, that means diving in and writing it with only a vague idea in my head. For other people, this means planning in some form.

Whichever story you go ahead with, there will be times when you despise it with every atom of your being. That's a simple fact of writing. When that happens, it's okay to let it sit for a while, and to work on other stuff. But in the end, you just need to push through your issues with the story, even if it isn't as much fun, even if your writing is absolutely rubbish. Then, something might just happen, you'll come up with a new idea for the story, and you'll fall back in love with it. But being bored with it shouldn't mean you should give up. Make a couple of changes, rewrite part of it. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and write. Believe me, it's worth it in the end.

If I ever find the cure to procrastination, I'll let you know, but such as it is, it's just something you'll have to learn to overcome. Whether you schedule a certain amount of writing time every day, or you get someone to force you to write regularly, you just have to find a way of writing as often as possible. Personally, doing #15in15 has really helped me write more regularly.

At the end of the day, you just have to keep at it. As much as that can sometimes suck, it's also very rewarding. If you're irritated with your lack of progress, go try to make some. Whether it's 50 words or 5000, that doesn't matter. You just have to keep muddling away, even if your interest is waning.

As for which story you should do, you should write whichever one you're more likely to stick with. You might find plunging into a new idea is what you need to do, but at the same time, the work you've done with your current story might make the task less daunting. Just make sure you're writing it.

Yep, that happened to me all the time.

What I did was stop writing the idea I was working on, write down the general ideas for the next story, then go back to working on the first one. Because I'd written down the idea for the next story, I didn't have any rush to finish the one I was currently working on in case I forgot my ideas. Taking a break to write down ideas helps ease my worry I'll forget them, which in turn helps my focus for the present story.

You can also work on two stories simultaneously and bounce between them as you lose interest in one and want to work on another. This depends on if you can keep two stories separate in your head, or it could actually work out to blend them together because you are working on the same set of characters. If you work on two stories at once and they end up combined into this super awesome thing with all your favourite things to write, that's actually a good thing.

One thing that really helped me stick to one idea is constantly ask myself what would keep my interest in the current story I'm working on. When I want to work on another idea, it usually because I'm pretty bored of my current one. So I sit down and ask myself what would make me interested in the story I'm currently working on. This can mean blowing up the ending, can be changing the conflict, anything. Just figure out what would make the story so cool that you want to write it.

That being said, writing honestly isn't going to be fun all the time. Sometimes, you have to just grit your teeth and write it. As Tri said, you can set daily counts, where you write for 15 minutes every day. Or 300 words every day.

One piece of advice I remember is people setting goals for scenes, then setting wordcount goals to make sure everything is properly expanded upon. So you have a scene where, say... you have a dinner, where people with slightly conflicting opinions have a fight. You want to rush right through it because, well, you just want to rush through it (there's something more interesting later, there's another story to write), but instead you tell yourself "this is an important scene, so it has to have at least 500 words to it." So you force yourself to write out the fight, write out the conflict and the simmering emotions and you figure out how your characters actually handle slight disagreements like this, and you get a much stronger story and an interesting scene out of it. You learn your characters more, and you might discover a conflict you had no idea about, and will make your story much better.

Set yourself goals, make things interesting for yourself, and generally learn how you can avoid procrastinating. If it helps, know professional writers set themselves goals for the day because they have to in order to hit their deadlines. It's not something particularly fun to do, but it is a part of writing.

Procrastination is something that plagues all writers to some extent, although I'm sure every writer has a slightly different reason for it. Because it daunting or because of anxiety, etc... and it's just something we have to push through. However, sometimes it doesn't have to do with mind games. It could have something to do with the story. Have you sat down and really asked yourself why you procrastinate? There might be an answer there you didn't expect.

As for getting inspired for a new story before finishing the old one... I say go with it. Write what you're inspired to write and not what you're supposed to write. Then go back to the old story when you finish the new one. It sounds like there are so many stories flowing from your head that they start to pile up on each other. Maybe try to spend a little less time making notes? In my experience, inspiration is a rare commodity that, when I get it, I have to hold onto it and do something with it before it fades away again. Maybe you're the kind of writer that has to outline everything before you start writing, which is fine, but in my case, I think if you have enough figured out to start writing it, then do that before your inspiration fades or another story idea pops up in your head. Hope this helped!

-Lefty