Newbie, science fiction, writers block, HELP!

Hello, nice to meet you all. So I'm new here, and I'm currently writing down ideas for a short story book with the same theme in all stories. I have a general idea, but when I'm writing it down, it's like a blur, I don't know how to explain it. When I actually closed all pages that are distracting me, I felt this fear in my stomach. I think I'm scared to start writing, and I'm not sure why. Do you have any ideas of how to set up your plot? Character names, where do you get your inspiration? Etc. I haven't written for almost three years, so I'm feeling a bit lost.

Hi there! Been dabbling in sci fi myself so I can sort of talk about what I've been going through recently.

Seems like the first thing you need is direction: you have an idea and stories, which is great. What got you hooked on your premise? Was it the idea itself or the characters?

99% for me (any story) it's the characters, whether that be their problems, personalities, or interactions with others. Then, if I have an idea that's interesting, I start building the idea around my character's development, because the majority of the story is going to be that and how the idea shapes or impacts the character.

Once I have that I think about how the character changes from the start in terms of the timeline and important events, that's basically my outline. This works for relationships as well (not just romantic but if two characters are involved). Then I start filling in the exact details of the outline.

Your story approach will likely be different, but it will be very useful to at least have an idea of your story's direction before you even start writing, even if you end up changing some major things. At least for me, if I get stuck I at least know that I need to get from point A to point B in some way.

I'm not sure what kind of sci fi you're writing, but you can either approach it by establishing your universe first or writing the stories and seeing how the science fits (see https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness). It depends on what your plots require: I'm going with mainly the former because much of what my characters use involve talking about the ideas and concepts on a regular basis, so I thought it better to get the concepts down before doing too much story planning.

Good luck!!!

edited 3rd Mar '15 6:27:46 PM by Coujagkin

Some people set up plot outlines, character backstories, world-building, etc. to help them get started. I'm a "seat of the pants" writer, so I usually start with a single scene, the one that I can visualize most clearly. That's usually the final scene for me, but it could be anything- the point is I almost never write sequentially. So start anywhere you feel you can- and then go from there.

3 Easy Tips for Overcoming Writer's Block

1) Interview the Protagonist. What are they like? What do they want? Why do they want that? How do they plan to get it? Why do they want to do it that way? Why don't they have it yet? So on and so forth.

2) Explore the Scene. Where is your protagonist? Is it morning, daytime, evening, nighttime? Is it spring, summer, autumn, winter? What does your protagonist see? Hear? Feel? Taste and/or smell? What are they thinking? Why? How are they feeling? Why? So on and so forth.

3) Make a Plan. Write the last scene or chapter of the story. Write the beginning. Fill in the rest. Write one scene a day. On chapter a day. Or maybe go by weeks. Maybe by hours. Just start somewhere and keep going.

If none of that is working, then you are well and truly foocked. You might not really be into the story you're trying to write if you can't answer any of those questions up there. The most important question you can ask is "why?" - that can pull you forward until you reach the end of the story and look up like "wait, how'd I do that?"

Where does that fear come from, first? Do you have some inner hater that shouts you down about clumsy sentences and bad ideas when you haven't even begun? Or do you have great expectations that are perfect in your imagination, so much that it ruins it to make it real…or something?

One thing that really helped me was to keep a dream diary. First, it's a diary, so it's not a careful artistic construction so much as a report: I saw this, felt this, then that happened. Next, it's of dreams, which I would usually forget if I don't write it down right away. This means when I read my dream diary over, I can read myself describing things that even I don't get because it's not in my head anymore. This is what it means to write to/for readers: bringing something that's inside your head, to the inside of somebody else's head, when we are not telepathic. So, while groggy-just-woken-up Me is scribbling to after-coffee-conscious Me, I'm even groggily thinking of ways to describe it to my future self in ways that the details of the dream won't be completely lost. Then it starts to feel more natural to do, consciously, for things that actually make sense.

I also highly recommend reading Gail Carson Levine's book "Writing Magic" because it's full of exercises and encouragement, obviously tailored to younger people, but full of heart and advice that I think other how-to books miss (when they're written by maybe more high-profile authors, for older audiences.)

One thing that she recommended was to just write. As in, just write anything. Write junk. Don't try to make it make sense.

Maybe then the act to writing, or typing, can become so mechanical and habitual that it no longer becomes a fear trigger.

I hope all this helps! As for where I get ideas from and character names…well, each of them have their own story behind the story that I, uhh, don't want to get further into the habit of being arsed with because I haven't even written the story.