Obsidian Proboscidean
Maybe you could just go ahead and write the part you want to write first. You don't have to write the story in order. You could write "Story Scraps" and write the bits and pieces of the story you want to write first. Then when you're done with a draft of them, you could make a game out of connecting them, like a puzzle. Then, you could arrange it in whatever order you want and fill in more gaps, if necessary. That seems to make it more fun and take the stress off, in my experience, and sometimes it gets the ideas flowing.
As for the second part (getting a better idea and quitting to write it), I'm not sure what you mean. Do you completely throw away the original idea you were writing, or just put it down for a while?
I'm an elephant. Rurr.
Outline outline outline. You can't get to the part you want to get to because you dunno how to get characters from point A to point B. Make a beginning middle end outline. When you've done that make a better outline that goes:
Beginning
- scene leads to
- scene leads to
- scene (good part!) which brings us to
- scene
MIDDLE! CRAZY STUFF HAPPENS PLOT-TWIST WARGH
- Scene (reaction to plot twist?)
And so on until
- scene(s) leading to
'''THE BIG CLIMAX EXPLOSIONS! KISSING! GROCERY SHOPPING!'''
END
- resolution
- Happy ever after?
Seriously. Try it once. And Don't Stop Writing.
if you get other ideas in the middle of your story, write those other ideas down, and then set them aside. ideas are a dime a dozen. Writers can get addicted to new ideas and never finish. Finished novels are the good stuff.
edited 1st Nov '11 11:48:35 PM by OriDoodle
Doodles
I've been having the same problem for the past 6 months. I get started on a project, and I keep telling myself that I will get it done. But then I either run out of ideas, or have no clue how to get to the part I want to get to in a script or story I write, so I continue to stare blankly at my computer screen brainstorming.
Then I get a better idea, quit what I was writing, and the whole process starts over again. How do I break this habit?
if I had enough money, I would donate a bunch of coloring books to the blind.