writing

is fucking hard

as of the 2nd of Nov. has 6 weeks for a broken collar bone to heal and types 1 handed and slowly

indeed.

Well observed.

Satan help me... I've been hit hard with some stuff in real life and I realized that in SIX MONTHS I've only written 4 chapters to Nightmare, and at that first drafts. Correction: I've almost written four chapters.

Sure, I did all the world building and research, made the plot, and bits and pieces latter on to get the feel, but I've basically done nothing. One of the other topics I said that my life's ultimate goal was to get my book sold across the country.

What kind of failure am I? I couldn't finish high school, and I don't even know if I will be able to keep myself and my temper in check when i get this job im applying for if i even get it.

I can't even manage to get myself to clean more than half my dishes at a time (though they are a bunch, and I have to do it by hand, and i wait till none are left lol).

How the hell can i get myself to write my damn book whenever i cant do anything else in my life? all this passion and energy, but with nothing worthwhile or meaningful to direct it at. im a bit of a introverted mess right now. and that scares me somewhat; ive always been an extroverted person. maybe its all these months ive lived alone now. i would think i would have more time to write but im always like:

'no, im not in the mood' or 'im too mentally tired' or 'im just too sleepy/lazy'

as of the 2nd of Nov. has 6 weeks for a broken collar bone to heal and types 1 handed and slowly

:l Where's that "I know that feel, bro" macro when I need it?

Ever since I hit the sixty thousand word mark and started scrambling to do my summer reading homework, I just lost the energy. School is dampening my spirits.

Warm hugs and morally questionable advice given here. Prosey Bitchfest

Oh, come on. Remember what Harlan Ellison said: "Writing is easy. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and open a vein."

Under World. It rocks!

Damn straight, Harlan.

As someone who left high school under deeply negative circumstances himself, I must point out that doing so does not ensure failure by any means, just as a master's degree does not ensure success. Doesn't mean it's not depressing as hell, though.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Amusingly enough, I've never found it hard to write. I can always sit down and turn out something.

My troubles come from sticking with a story.

Nous restons ici.

I went through that sort of phrase. After my first attempt at a novel was killed by summer break, I spend the next year and a half going through twenty different beginnings of a novel, with none of them getting past page fifty (and that one was a second attempt). Kira Is Justice spawned out of nowhere and took my time until it faded away, then I went into an on-off phrase before joining the Shonen Project and Manifestation Files.

The thing about stories is that usually your best period for writing are the beginning, and the end. For example, when working on Rift County, I belted out eight pages a day before ditching it for Manifestation Files. For the end of Manifestation Files, I wrote twelve pages for the climax, and finished the last twelve in about three days or so.

So it's all about picking a project, focusing on it through the middle, and waiting for that writer's rush to come back to propel you to the finish line.

Ironically, it seemed like my production for Manifestation Files dropped since school started. Getting pages done at school is harder than getting pages done at summer camp. I also don't have the time to sit outside to write anymore. I got to focus on getting those revised notes done.

I've never found writing that hard. Good writing? Different story entirely.

If you feel like that, then give up. Right now. Subsist upon short pieces of micro-fiction or short stories and never write a novel. Never do that which almost all writers dream to do. Get out while you're ahead. You're a failure if you allow yourself to be.

Or you could change the way you think, getting yourself into a position with a greater chance of success.

You can't use world-building and research to avoid writing the story itself.

From what I can tell you have little passion or energy, and whatever you've got you know what you have to do with it, but don't want to leave the somewhat-comfortable place of 'not-writing (which is very comfortable, let me tell you).

And above all, you cannot ever use "I'm not in the mood" as an excuse not to write. We're craftsmen. We craft stories. If carpenters only worked on cupboards whenever the hell they felt like it, they would be starving and we would have shitty cupboards that couldn't hold anything.

Writing's hard. So's life. What else is new? Because the reality is that if you don't get yourself into a work ethic, you're not going to come up with any works.

edited 22nd Aug '11 4:37:06 PM by Kraken

Do you have any advice for "getting in the mood"?

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am...

There's no "getting in the mood."

There's "writing" and "not writing."

Which is to say that even if you don't feel like writing, you push on through anyway until you do feel like it, if that ever happens.

Basically, "write crap until you hit something good"?

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am...

I mean "do it until it becomes habit."

And you should always try to write the best you can.

Sometimes I feel like crap is the best I can do >___>

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am...

I'll be the judge of that.

(but I won't get back to you until the end of the week)

Oh, I don't mean that I'm capable of only writing crap, I mean that on some days it seems like I write crappier than usual. ^__^;

Thanks for the offer though. Man I feel like I'm turning into the resident critique beggar...

edited 22nd Aug '11 5:40:57 PM by Merlo

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am...

Who was that guy who said you have the get the million crap words out of you before you produce your magnum opus, or something to that effect? He had the right idea.

Even if I don't have a chance to write much, I always think and plan what I'm going to do as soon as I am able to write.

Warm hugs and morally questionable advice given here. Prosey Bitchfest

Kraken is the Winston Churchill of this website to me. That was a nice combination between harsh and motivational. I myself just got over an eight-month slump during which I didn't write a single word.

How did I get over it? Well, uh. I hid my video games and distractions from myself, looked up a ten-minute "Ambient Thunderstorm" track and wrote without any heed of how good it was.

I feel drained and kind of free. Sometimes you get tired of waiting for the mood to come, and you have to tell yourself that if you don't start now, you might never start.

I hope you enjoy whatever is written above. If not - well, I'm afraid that's life.

You really can't wait for "mood" or "the muse" or anything like that— you have to write. Pro writers work the same hours as a regular job— 9-5, 5 days a week, at the computer, typing. Most of it sucks, but that's what editing is for. Most of us amateurs don't have eight hours to dedicate to writing, but we can still set up writing times or daily quotas to keep ourselves on track. That's how you get a novel done— you write every day, regardless of whether or not you want to.

Easier said than done, though.

Thanks for the all fish!

It's important to remember that so long as you have a paying job, you don't have to write. If you don't want to write any more stories, stop writing stories. If you want to keep writing stories, keep writing stories. The problem only comes when you talk and talk about wanting to write stories despite not really wanting to write them.

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

I feel that how difficult writing is in inverse proportion to how much inspiration you have. The more inspired you are, the words will fly off your fingers. The less inspired you are, you'll spend five minutes figuring out the next word.

With blood and rage of crimson red ripped from a corpse so freshly dead together with our hellish hate we'll burn you all that is your fate

Nothing worth doing was ever easy.

I am a nobody. Nobody is perfect. Therefore, I am perfect.

So you mean to say that ease of writing and inspiration level are directly proportional?

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."