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Young Writers Society


Can writers feel lost?



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Tue May 31, 2011 3:02 am
spinelli says...



In a non-dramatic, non-teenage-angsty sort of way, I'm feeling very..."lost" as a writer. I've been at work on stories for years, which may or may not mean a whole lot considering how you look at it and considering I'm only 18 and I've been doing this since I was only 9. I've gotten these feelings before. Perhaps it's only accentuated because I'm growing up, facing the real world while at the same time trying to deal with fake ones that are in my head. Or perhaps I'm missing something. And this whole game of "perhapsing" is exactly what the dilemma in question is.

Now, I don't mean to ramble so I'll try to refrain from that, but pardon me if[when] I do. I've been doing this since I was 9, and let me tell you if you didn't already know, but 9 year olds very rarely have any idea what they're doing. I like to think that in between these 9 years of writing I've finally learned what I'm doing. And there's always times when I get to a part of a story and I think "YES, this is my story. I am a WRITER."

Then this happens.

Three chapters in and I'm feeling... lost. Other stories can't start themselves. Ideas aren't coming to me anymore like they used to. Is this some kind of mid-life crisis?

Another thing: I don't "write" like people are supposed to. That's just a fact, and it isn't even a choice to me, it just sort of happens. I like for words to happen, and I don't like to read books or hear lectures about how to write. Not because I'm a rebel or any of that, and I used to actually read those kind of things. But for me, personally, I sort of take the surrealist approach. I didn't choose to be a writer. And I don't choose the stories that are meant to be written.

I'm finally starting to let people read my work because I feel like I finally need someone to tell me what I need to do. And I write this post because I dunno. Does anyone else ever get this way? The whole reason for this trouble is because I always felt like a writer, and somewhere deep inside my internal organs I guess I know that I am. But lately I feel like I'm not. Is this normal?
  





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Tue May 31, 2011 2:18 pm
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Dynamo says...



I'm kind of the same way, I think the closest thing to a writing class I've ever taken was highschool english class. The last book I ever managed to finish reading was the second book in the Eragon series, and that was God knows how long ago. In fact, everything I know about writing I learned right here in YWS. If you ask me what an adverb or adjective is I cannot for the life of me give you an answer, all that matters to me is that I know how to use them, if that makes sense.

But I understand what you may be going through right now. I've been trying to write things for almost a decade now, most of which all ended up just being practice and experimentation for the story I'm trying to write now. The words used to flow so smoothly for me when I was in highschool and I would kick out chapter upon chapter of stories I was working on simply during my lunch break. But now, it feels like I have to force myself to sit down and think about things to write. Even now, about four months since starting my "real" novel, I'm still working on the first chapter. I find myself thinking really hard about what to write, and sometimes I can only manage to get down two or three paragraphs before I get destracted and do something else. Though, my ADHD may have some part to play in that.

So to answer your question, if I'm feeling the same thing as you right now that means others do too, meaning that this is normal. Maybe it's something all writers have to overcome some point in their life. When I was around your age I actually thought I was never going to finish the story I wanted to write since highschool and ended up giving up on it all together, but as I learned a few years later when a writer comes up with a great idea for a story the only way it will ever get out of his or her head is if they put it into words. So, despite all the crap I'm going through with college, thinking about my future, and the current problems with thinking about what to write, I still put time aside every week to work on my novel.

Don't think of this as a sign that your writing career is going to end before it even started. The fact that you haven't given up on writing is evidence enough that you're going to pull through. I think the thing you have to remember is that when you write it's not for recognition or profit, you write because you want to. As long as you remember that you should be okay. I hope this helps.
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Tue May 31, 2011 3:27 pm
Kale says...



You sound like a spontaneous writer, so go throw everything you've ever heard about how people are "supposed" to write in the trash because it doesn't apply to you. There are many different ways of writing, and for us spontaneous folks, it just happens to be sitting down and just writing to see what comes out. :3

I know your frustration, and I can say from experience that you really shouldn't stress over it. If you do, you'll push yourself and force yourself to write, and if you even manage to write anything, you won't like anything that you wrote, and then you'll hate anything new you write, until you eventually hate writing itself, and then you'll go off and not look back on writing for a very long time. Happened to me, and writing and I were estranged for five (almost six) very long years.

Ideas take a while to coalesce and connect themselves to other ideas so that they're strong enough to support a story, even/especially when you're not consciously aware of them, so it might just be that you've used up your current ideas store and need a little time to replenish it. So take a break, get out and enjoy yourself, and though it may take some time, when you finally do sit down to write again, you'll be going "I know exactly where to take this story!" and then laughing at yourself and wondering why you didn't see such an obvious thing earlier.
Secretly a Kyllorac, sometimes a Murtle.
There are no chickens in Hyrule.
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Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:51 am
spinelli says...



You guys are wonderful! :D It's good to know this isn't an uncommon thing, and it's better to know that this is a thing that can be overcome. I've had similar feelings like this before, but I guess with being older and having to take things at a seemingly more logical approach, things are feeling different than they have.

Oddly enough, the reason that writing or not writing is such a big deal for me is that increasingly it's becoming an involuntary "when-things-aren't-going-well-in-life-I-gotta-write-me-a-ditty" theraputic method. XD So even if in the end I ever decided that becoming a commercially successful writer wasn't in my DNA, I would forever write words because... well, I just can't help it.

And on the matter of being a spontaneous writer: uh, yes. :D I've taken writing classes in public school and sat through a number of "writing" lectures since I was in the 4th grade, and since then I've learned exactly what not to do as a result of their insistance on what to do. I decided to join this website however, because I feel many of you are passionate, not attention-seekers [like I've seen on many an annoying website -_-].

Ultimately, thank you guys. I'm exciting to finally find other writers. :D
  





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Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:25 pm
Stori says...



Maybe yours is a case of the road not taken. Have you read that poem? You can actually find recordings of it on Youtube.
  





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Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:40 pm
MeanMrMustard says...



Writers are people. People are many things. We all feel lost. We write about people. We write about emotion. We write about it all. We pretend we're happy when we're not. We hide our real feelings from others. We share very little in reality, or at least most of us share very little. We never truly understand each other, though sometimes we sort of do, in the occasional right match up. It's all writing. It's all confusing. Try not to think too much about writing and live happily in some way or another. Pessimism is a great way to stifle writing. Life is the only remedy, just don't waste it.

Kyllorac's advice is the right idea anyway. Your mindset in life and when you write affects what you put out though, everything converges to a point if you let it, so learn to control your emotions and harness your energy, and focus. That's the problem most writers today suffer. They lack focus and control.
  





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Thu Jun 02, 2011 7:39 pm
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spinelli says...



Well, I certainly am an optimist. I don't really believe I could ever not be a writer. That's my way of functioning. And of course, I've written about this whole "episode" when I find myself at the lowest point in my brain. I know the words are always in there somewhere. It's simply a matter of synchronizing my external to my internal.

And Stori, I have read that poem. In fact my mom made me memorize it when I was 10. [Robert Frost is my mom's favorite. :smt003 ] And my 7th grade English teacher used that poem to describe me. XD He was a cool dude.

I guess I'm just getting caught up in reality, or what those who aren't really writers consider reality. I was going to say something else here, but I feel like I should go write or something now. Haha, whatever. :P
  








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