Young Writers Society

hey so I have a really good idea for a story but I'm having a really hard time writing it. Is there any way someone could help me out and tell me what they think? Thanks!

Is there something in particular about writing it that's giving you trouble?

What is hard about it? Are like whom has had the entire story almost done in my head, but just can't get it down? XD

I would love to hear your idea-shoot! I am all ears

Kyllorac wrote:Is there something in particular about writing it that's giving you trouble?

I'm having a really hard time with the tense and the POV. I don't know why, because usually I'm pretty good, but I think I started it in a really weird way and now I don't know hot to fix it. I'm also having trouble with my word choice. It's not bad, in this case it's just really uncomfortable. (If that makes sense.) Thank you so much!

CHRISSY321 wrote:What is hard about it? Are like whom has had the entire story almost done in my head, but just can't get it down? XD

I would love to hear your idea-shoot! I am all ears

I have about 4 or 5 pages already completed, and I know it's a good story but my writing is the issue. I'm having tense and POV issues and it just feels like I'm getting lost.
Thanks!

I would recommend just chugging through the first draft so that you have at least one completed draft. Things like word choice and tenses are what are called line-edits, and they're usually the last stage of the revision process because if you find out that there's something wrong with the story on a major structural level, all of that work can potentially be lost.

Having at least one completed draft, rough as it may be, is very helpful in pinning down the major structural issues and figuring out how to solve them (such as the issues with your beginning).

As for your issue with PoV, there's no rule saying that you can't change things mid-way in a first draft. ;P If you feel that the PoV is an issue, change it and just continue writing from there.

Sounds to me like you're insecure about the mechanical side of your writing (in other words, actually putting it down on paper). In that case, I can understand it, and I think many if not most writers can; things we imagine in our heads can rarely end up exactly the same on the page, and to us it usually feels like our actual writing ability is lacking in comparison to our imagination. It's a tricky thing, and usually in those cases the only thing you can do is rely on the feedback you get from a trusted reader or group of readers, until your own mind realises that it's not all as pointless as it sometimes seems.

As for POV and tense issues, I'd say the best first step towards fixing it would be to analyse what exactly is wrong with it. If you don't know exactly what's the issue, what is it that makes you think there is an issue at all?
Reading other people's writing can help you learn more about different ways of expressing thoughts, and various structures that play around with grammar and bend the rules without breaking them. Reviewing other people's works (or at least thinking about them) makes it easier for you to spot the things that don't work and understand why -- and all those things combined lead to you being able to understand and fix your own writing as needed.

Also, keep in mind that some stories are just really difficult to start! I've rewritten the intro to my novel something like five times already, and I know it can be extremely frustrating and discouraging, but when that happens it's usually the best to either a)put it aside for a while and then return to it to look at it with fresh eyes or b)resist the temptation to edit and just go on writing it, leaving the editing for later like Kyll suggested. It's not unusual that you only figure out how the story should've started once you've written quite a bit (or all!) of it already, after all.