Self "Adaptation Decay" in writing a story

So I decided to make a thread here since many people in my bogus IJBM thread actually relate to this. I thought maybe more people here would relate as well. This time I promise I'm not dicking around :P

Anyway, so there's a weird thing I have happen sometimes, I wouldn't label it Adaptation Decay but I can't think of a better word/phrase for it, when writing a story. Once I finally put the word down on paper, things inevitably end up changing (plot alters some, character personalities are more/less intense/utterly different from before, I have to fill in a plot hole I never noticed). But, at the same time it just doesn't feel the same any more. In addition, there's that weird feeling of not having the same feel as it did in my head. I tend to picture my stories and translating them to words makes it feel strange.

Inevitably, things have been altered so it doesn't quite feel like the same story. Occasionally, this causes me not to have the same love for it as I once had and the possibility of just junking the thing sometimes feels tempting. Not always though, because, even if it can be annoying, it's also a very organic part of writing a story. So, when has this happened to anyone else? Does it ever get too frustrating and what do you to combat the feeling?

This happens to me a lot. Sometimes, there's a scene I have been working on for days in my head and I've been waiting to put it down on paper/computer screen and it just comes out... wrong. I can usually get it right after lots of editing, but it's never the same.

Prior to creating something, I always see it vaguely in my mind as some kind of idealized form. And the finished product, even if it's good, always disappoints after that original conception. It doesn't necessarily even have to involve making changes; just the mere fact of translating it into a tangible form is to degrade it somehow.

I guess that art (in this case writing) is limited to the degree with which it can render the visions we can imagine. A shadow of it, or a copy.

The exception might be if you were just going to churn out some piece of trash and it ended up exceeding expectations.

I thought the only reason people made outlines at all was to deviate wildly from it when they actually started writing.

Seriously: The problem with creativity is that trying to control which direction it goes in once the ball starts rolling is really, really hard, since your vision is purely internal and you therefore have all the control you want up there.

External factors will always make the finished product different, and accepting this will make you far happier in the long run than endless nitpicking. This is not adaptation decay, but the growth process of any creative work.

This is why I always say I'm not a good drawer.

Not so much that the drawings actually suck, but compared to what you had in your head, they do?

Pretty much.

Sometimes I write a scene and it's better than when I had it in my head. Those are the days that writing is better than any sex.

this.

Not so much that the drawings actually suck, but compared to what you had in your head, they do?

doesn't this happen to like EVERYONE

I have this thing with drawing but not with writing anymore. I had it with writing for the first few years, too, but in the meantime, I've learned to say exactly what I mean. It just takes lots of practice and clarity of thought. That said, I am still often dissatisfied with my own results because I realize post-factum that I haven't visualized the story well enough before writing it, so I ended up writing a shallow plot.

edited 5th Jan '11 12:18:16 AM by Koveras

A lot of people have done a good job saying this already, but you think in thoughts, you speak with words, you draw with a pencil, you type with a keyboard, etc etc.

If you still have doubts about how different thinking can be from delivering a piece of prose, write a short passage. Next, wait a day (perhaps more if you've got a good memory), and try to write the same passage, attempting to be as objective as you can about your writing process each time.

Unless the passage itself has little leeway in how it can sensibly be written, you'll usually end up with something that doesn't feel entirely the same, even if that vision in your head barely changed at all.

If you really want the stuff in your head to end up on the page, then you'll need to focus hard; just because something feels good doesn't necessarily mean that once it is trapped in written word it will be as scintillating as it was.

Thoughts simply aren't automatically interchangeable with words.

For a start, you might try working to ensure that throughout the day, the thoughts you have always take place in clear, formulated sentences. This can begin to make your conceptions more concise before you even put them on a page.

This often happens to me during the emotional climaxes of my story. Often, the narration just doesn't seem right for what I'm trying to create, and I spend hours tinkering with it.

My suggestion: go outside, take a walk, clear your head. Reconsider the structure and benefits of the way you have it. Write on a bit after it, see where it can take you. Letting someone read the new piece is always a good move to see if they can spot something.

This happens to me all the time. Seriously, I don't think I have ever written a page's worth of text that didn't end up completely different than I imagined. Or rather, I have, but they are very, very rare. Conversations are constantly getting derailed, characters decide to do something different than I planned, the anonymous weak mage becomes the greatest wizard known (in a setting where that means he's pretty much a God), and the double agent reveals the ending information at the very first opportunity.

Basically, half the story is created while I write and I love it. Sure, it's not anymore what I thought it would be, but most of the time it's better.

I tend to retcon my settings alot. Not the stuff the actually happens in the stories, but the background. For example recently I heavily altered the history of the Netherworld because I wasn't quite happy with the old version. It doesn't directly affect the stories since we're talking stuff that happened over 10 000 years before the story took place, and the end result of the events is still the same. Hell, at one point I decided the Netherworld is made out of floating continents, then I decided it is, then I decided that it is and then finally made up my mind and declared that no, it isn't (I ran into too many problems trying to figure out how to keep water from falling off the edge and rivers not eroding the continents into oblivion give enough time).

In my case it's almost the reverse. A few scenes and character traits will be clear in my head. To flesh them out, to make them live and breathe, I have to dredge out the links into my subconscious and find out what made them bob to the surface. The story doesn't become real until it's finally on paper.

I hate it when I read a passage that in my mind sounds So Cool Its Awesome. Until I notice it doesn't fit with the rest of the story or has a pothole or is full of Unfortunate Implications.

So when I try to correct it or deconstruct it, it will only end up becoming a little bland or unreadable because it's lost its spontaneity

Frequent victim of this: only God knows how many times I have rewritten the same scene. I especially hate it when I come up with the perfect wording when I'm out or something but when I get back home or to a piece of paper the wording is gone forever.

My overall plotline has stayed the same but a few of the subplots have mutated, characters have been destroyed, others added, some promoted from background to secondary protagonists, lost of personality changes.

I'm actually pleased with most of the changes but now my secondary characters pretty much overshadow my protagonists. Tackling this. Slowly.

But a lot of the time writing is better than food, and since a recent Australian poll stated that food was better than...