Dealing with Writer's Paralysis

You probably know what I'm talking about. The times when you can't write anything until you've worked something out but you don't know how or even where to begin and you don't dare do anything because you're convinced that you'll make a hash of it and prove to the world at large what a worthless failure you are. Well, I seem to have developed a chronic case over my latest literary endevour, a sci fi story, since there so much stuff I need to work out and research in order for the setting to hold up under scrutiny and the more I think about it the more things I realise I need to get to grips with (currently the list includes how to generate artifical gravity, spacecraft propulsion, the medical effects of low gravity on someone who was born in it, intersteller infrastructure, economics and trade between multiple species, and several other things on top of that) . I don't know where to begin and I'm starting to feeling like I've no right to write a sci-fi story since a proper sci-fi author would already know most of it and that anything I write will be rubbish so it'd be better for everyone if I stopped trying and didn't bother anyone with my worthless attempts at writing.

All in all, it pretty much sucks. Since I want to actually finish something though I've got to overcome the literary equivalant of the 'rabbit in the headlights effect' so I thought I'd ask for advice.

edited 26th Apr '11 7:18:36 PM by Weaver

I would feel the same also. For me, I would constantly have the feeling I haven't read or watched enough in order to have experience writing a certain story. So I go look around for media to consume, to join in my imagination. You wind up in an infinite pit this way, where learning one thing entitles you to learn another thing related — so on and so forth. You wonder when you're ever permitted to stop. It might be because I'm subconsciously avoiding the actual writing in this process; and I have trouble writing when I'm pressured by outside work. (Which is very often.)

It might be because deep down, I believe I wouldn't ever create something as good as what has inspired me.

But this is not a goodly mindset.

edited 26th Apr '11 7:08:56 PM by QQQQQ

This is me and historical fiction.

Reading helps, but sometimes I think the best solution to this problem is just to start writing, and see what happens. There's always time to edit, after all.

-raises hand- I'm a victim. It's one of the reasons why I hadn't got to writing Ian Down, due to the historical elements that would requite quite a lot of research.

I never seem to have much of a problem doing research for my story. Though it may just be due to the fact that I like researching history the most, which is... quite central to the story, since it involves a cast of long-lived magic users.

Ergo, Vince. Who predates the Roman Republic.

Now that I think of it, my problem is actually writing a coherent plot. My thoughts are disorganized, and stuff tends to come to me in a very nonsensical order.

edited 26th Apr '11 8:05:30 PM by CrystalGlacia

things like how they generate artificial gravity can be hand waved easy a few different ways. I do not think most people who read Sci-fi honestly care how the gravity is made; it causes more problems for a story and explaining when it isn't there in a ship.

as for trade, I imagine it would be just the same as with us unless they have some kind of Communist Utopia.

(which would be a nightmare for me in RL, i hate communism)

As for space craft propulsion, if you mean FTL then do something with warping space or the standard subspace/wormhole thing. These things are pretty standard and do not need to be really changed unless it is to directly effect the story, they are staples in sci-fi unless you are going for something way different.

It's the plot, characters, and theme that really matters in any story, even sci-fi, even though it does have more focus on technical stuff.

Maybe you are just hyper focusing too much? I do it too, I think all of us do it to a degree.

You'd be suprised. Plus I'm aiming for 'firm' science fiction (ie, fairly hard but with a bit of give where absolutely necessary) and I've got a feeling that how you deal with artifical gravity is something that affects your position on the scale. Speaking of which after spending some time debating the respective merits of rotation vs linear acceleration, I'm currently leaning towards the former.

I thought as much. The problem is that I'm not 100% sure how it works in real life, although I do have some idea, and things are further complicated by the fact that in my story multiple sapient races (about six of them so far) are involved, not to mention that a lot of resources (eg, metals, various gases, etc) can be found pretty much anywhere in space so I doubt that anyone would bother trading for them. For something to have a worthwhile value, it'd have to be something that only occurs on a planet with life on it, and preferably just one at that.

I've already got a rough idea of what I'm going to do, it's working out the finer details so that they make sense that's the problem. There's also the matter of STL, which unlike a lot of sci fi actually has a proper role. There's a lot of possibilities but due to my very poor grasp of physics and the fact that most of what I've found is theoretical I'm not sure which would be best for what I've got planned.

I'm not having much luck there either. I'm having trouble coming up with a plot that is a) long enough and b) likely to be interesting to other people. Everything I think of seems stupid and likely to result in scorn, something which I have a low tolerence for since it's promptly added to the already lengthy list of reasons why I suck.

Probably. I tend to do that a lot, both when writing and in reality. I've just got this feeling that in order for something to be perfect and therefore worthy of approval, I've got to have everything worked out down to the smallest detail so that there's nothing that cannot be justified or explained.

Yeah, this is me. I feel like I can't write this story properly until I've figured out all manner of seemingly unimportant stuff. Like what houses were made of in this setting.

jasonwill 2, I am guessing you are not much of a hard SF fan.

I'm going to go on record as saying I do care where the artificial gravity comes from - "magic" artificial gravity is an Acceptable Break from Reality, but if there isn't even a mention of "gravity generators" or something, I'm going to be annoyed. I myself write hard science fiction, mostly due to an interest in real-world physics, but whether soft or hard, I place a high emphasis on internal consistency, and that means an explanation of some kind.

Anyway, I don't think this has anything to do with the actual topic. Carry on.