Forcing Yourself to Write

So, you've hit the hard part in the story, and have to slog through disinterest, not knowing where you're going, unpleasant topics, lackluster character interaction, and a whole slew of other possible pitfalls. How do you force yourself to keep going when the words don't come so easily?

I x out of the internet. It needs to die for work to happen.

take a 20 hour nap.

Skip over that part. If it's not interesting to write, it's not going to be interesting to read. Summarize it or refer back to it if it matters. You may find out later that it's not even necessary.

Personally I would take a break and hang out with some friends before returning to the story, but everyone who posted above me have shared some really good ideas too.

Edit: Damn my grammar...

edited 16th Dec '10 12:20:29 PM by EldritchBlueRose

Whenever I get stuck on the project, I usually write a completely unrelated work.

It helps keep the mind fresh, at least I think so.

Although sometimes, it distracts me from what I was reading in the first place and after a read all of it and just get reacquainted with it.

If you don't feel a certain scene, write an outline/summary of it for now and come back later. As people said above, perhaps it's hard going because there's something wrong. Move on til later and perhaps you'll be inspired and have ideas for what you need to do in there.

In addition to what's been said, there's also forcing yourself to write the scene in a way that you know isn't terribly good, and then telling yourself it's okay because you can come back and edit it later.

Seriously, the thought that what I was writing wasn't good enough used to be my biggest writing hurdle, by far, until I read a book about writing that suggested the first draft is hardly ever great. "Great books are edited, not written." Or something like that.

The first thing every would-be writer has to learn how to do is write badly.

Think about the last book you read; did every passage "wow" you? was every line epic and memorable? Probably not. There has to be some beige for the purple to have any meaning...this is why so-called "purple prose" fails, because everything is designed to be eye-catching and awesome, so as a result nothing is.

This applies to scenes as well. If a scene's boring, just make it as brief as possible and don't worry about it. If it's truly terrible, ask yourself if you even need it. Just get it over with however you have to, so you can get back to the "good bits".

My tactic has been to just swallow the bitter pill and get through it, even if it's as little as one sentence a night. As long as you don't stop.

That reminds me of the other point I wanted to bring up, not writing something because it isn't as good as the book you just finished reading. That book? What you read was, in all likelihood, at least the 6th or 7th draft. So there's nothing wrong with writing something imperfectly the first time, as long as you come back to edit it.

edited 16th Dec '10 10:48:28 PM by deathjavu

Exactly. Just freakin' get it done, and then make it perfect. Bang it out and fix it later.

Just don't push through it if you know it's going to be completely terrible. I mean, not to be a pessimist, but we don't need another Death Bed: The Bed That Eats.

A bed that eats people could genuinely be terrifying. It just has to be handled right.

I can only write when I'm not supposed to be writing; like when I have an assignment due tomorrow that I haven't started.

@Loni: Ah, yes, I know that one. I can write awfully well when writing is my procrastination; it's a lot easier than when the writing is what I'm supposed to be doing!

I've often thought I should take a creative writing course at uni, just to see how I cope when the writing IS the work I'm trying to procrastinate away from.

If a scene is that boring for me to write, it's usually a sign that I could probably change things to make it more interesting. If you're going to spend fifteen minutes dreading over a passage anyway, you might as well shift your perspective a bit, figure out why the scene is such a chore to work through, and how you might change it, or the bits of story around it in order to liven it up.

At the very least, you can figure out in great detail exactly why such a scene is making you so disinterested.

@Snaaazzzy Seriously that's not healthy unless you're actually sick or something.

Maybe he means 20 minutes instead of 20 hours, because that might make more sense. Can't believe I missed that one.

Forcing yourself to write when you don't want to is a little something called "discipline", people.

You can't just sit around waiting for inspiration or doing fancy tricks to try and coax it nearer when there are deadlines looming. Just lower your standards a bit and make a note to fix it when editing, or just rewrite the whole thing when you have time.