Details: One thing that might help is to restrict the descriptions to those details that are essential to move the plot forward. It's ultimately a question of writing style; Beige Prose works better for some people than Purple Prose. Just experiment until you find something you're comfortable with.
Plotting: I'd say go ahead and write the scenes you already have set in your head down, then fill in the other scenes once you find the inspiration later. I'll admit that openings are some of the hardest things for me to write when I do sit down and decide to write something.
edited 11th Jan '13 2:30:55 AM by Specialist290
For description, I suggest read other people's work, write your own, and find somewhere/someone to show it to. The only way you're going to get better is through practice and refinement. The same thing goes for planning your stories out. Outlining might help you set the scenes, though I don't know if you do that.
Where force fails, cunning prevails
Resources like The Writer's Thesaurus can help. I'd also suggest just researching. Everybody has their weaknesses and it's not something that comes natural for all. It takes work and practice to bring things to life. So, well, practice! Practice, use other's feedback to it, polish, etc.
Improving as an author, one video at a time.
I agree with the above.
I'd also add, don't worry about describing every little thing, just describe what's relevent to the story, but make sure the story's complex enough that a lot of things are relevent.
Like, if you're describing a house, think about why you're describing it. For example, if it's about to become the setting for a gunfight, you might want to describe points about layout and cover that the characters might be considering as they enter. If on the other hand it's a main character's home, then your description should communicate something about their character by what posessions they have and what sort of state it's in. Once you know what you want your details to achieve, it should be a lot easier to invent things that serve that purpose.
Same goes for story, really. Each event is an opportunity to highlight your characters and their struggles, so think about what sort of events could help achieve that.
And in the end, I find personally that a lot of it is just intuition and inspiration. If your setting and characters have enough personality, they'll pretty much write the story for you.
edited 24th Jan '13 11:51:28 AM by Kesteven
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When I want to add more details to something, I usually just write normally, then go back later and find things that actually need to be described.
If you describe everything, people may get bored.
Thank you, everyone.
I have found a writing style I'm comfortable with. It's not the best out there, but I'm pretty much fine with it.
Right now, however, I'm suffering from a case of Writer's Block. I have these ideas in my head, but I don't feel like writing them for some reason.
edited 25th Jan '13 8:29:10 PM by judasmartel
Where force fails, cunning prevails
That's not really writer's block (which I feel doesn't truly exist anyway, but that's a different story) but more a lack of motivation on your part. Find something to give you the drive to write.
Improving as an author, one video at a time.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Correct. This is why I'm looking for ways to motivate myself into writing new chapters for my story.
Where force fails, cunning prevails
This then comes to the question of why do you write? What is your objective as a writer?
Improving as an author, one video at a time.
I have a lot of stories in mind, but I tend to postpone them because, quite simply put, I suck at writing details.
It seems like I prefer writing like this:
->*events happen*
Like that.
For example, I know the scene happens in a house, but when I try to describe the house, it's gets too long winded that I don't want to bother including it in my writing.
Like I said, my stories already have general plot directions, I know how each of them would end, but I'm having difficulty beginning and steering the story to its end in an effective way.
My stories so far:
I know how are these going to end, I have a general idea about the story arcs, but I don't know exactly what happens in each story arc.
Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
edited 10th Jan '13 9:03:20 PM by judasmartel