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East Gorteau22261 Posts
I was going to write another Sora blog but I found myself some ten pages into a new novel so that'll have to wait
I've always enjoyed fiction. Both the kind of fiction I'd pick up at the library and tear through in a matter of hours, and the kind I create myself. Especially the latter. I must have somewhere around 20 half-finished (or not even) novels on various hard drives (some also printed) lying around, and I couldn't find half of them, much less pick up where I left off, even if I wanted to. I procrastinate a lot, and that one major flaw has made me abandon worlds I dumped hours upon hours into. I wrote a novel I called the Hunt that took place Terakeya - an asian-themed dark fantasy world separated by a wall much like GRRM's, only in this world it was all about the racism. Anyway, I wrote over 400 pages and I felt like the story was approaching its conclusion when my brain just up and left the project. Repeated attempts to reignite the "flame of inspiration" and I swear I heard my creative self laughing at me.
So yeah, I have a major problem with finishing up. On that same note I was writing out an idea for a Final Edit (sorry GMarshal) about Swedish Starcraft with a GoT-theme, but once the idea had begun to take shape and I'd written a bit, I just kind of trailed off and stopped. I know I had a bunch of great (everything is relative) ideas for how I'd make that work, but while they're still there I can't make myself write it all out convincingly. The same has happened with a bunch of other projects. Short stories, fan fiction, novels, comics, you name it, I've done it and failed to give anything a proper conclusion.
And still, with all of this in mind, I'm attempting a new one. Having played Red Faction and Borderlands 2 recently I've gotten back into the Science Fiction genre, and so I've been reading a lot of WH40K (I know the WH40K novels make some people cringe but I enjoy the dark and grim setting) and a few books by Peter F. Hamilton over the past few weeks and that, in combination with my still-break from swimming kind of forced my brain into creative mode. What I've come up with is (once again) something I really like. The intial idea is to write a story set on an as-of-yet unnamed prison planet, where a galactic empire as-of-yet-not-given-a-catchy-name sends every political prisoner, repeat criminal and just people the government in general does not like. I liked (Borderlands) Pandora - I felt like the setting was phenomenal, so I'm drawing some inspiration from that along with a whole lot of dark and dangerous from the Warp/Chaos Planets from the WH40K universe. There's a lot more to it than that, or so I like to think, but that's the general gist of it. I'm keeping the story to a simple "Innocent man dropped on dangerous planet, has to find a way out but is forced to become a monster to do so" and I'll just see where it goes from there - I was never a believer in writing everything out from the start and following your established formula; I prefer writing a very basic outline of how I want the story and the world to be and then fill out the blanks as I go.
Drawing further inspiration from (Breaking Bad) Walter White's evolution from desperate cancer-sick high school teacher to full-fledged bad guy, I'm hoping to at least somewhat decently capture the main character's journey from peaceful idealist to (best-case scenario) a whatever-it-takes cynic.
I know this is a rag-tag blog and I don't really feel like I'm conveying the true essence of the whole thing, but I'd still like your thoughts. Is the project too ambitious for a single novel? Is my writing (if you've read any of it; if not - spontaneous reactions please) good enough for this to potentially be an idea, or are there some changes you'd make if you were writing?
And also, how do you handle the "writer's block"? I know it's an issue most writers have at one time or another; how do you keep writing? Or do you not and just hope that it'll come back to you with another flash of inspiration? I feel like the vision I have for this story and the world it's set in is one of my better ones and I'd hate to see this one join the others in the Idea Graveyard.
I realise this is a little awkward but there's really no one I know IRL who could feasibly provide me with some actual feedback - it's all either "You're very good at writing (insert zero motivation) or "Nah man I just watch Transformers"
 
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It sounds a bit like you let others' work affect your own creativity too much. There's nothing wrong with being inspired by other books and authors, but you don't want these inspirations influence you too much, especially when you're still struggling to finish your own first novel. It might actually be worth taking some time off from whatever genre you're thinking about writing in, or fiction in general (I know, the latter is hard in our times). Try to think about what you really want to write, rather than what ideas of other people you find interesting.
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I don't know how published authors go about their writing, and I highly suspect there are a number of ways one might develop a story but after I got past the initial scene that inspired me to write (initial meaning first inspiration, not necessarily what happens first) I always had a beginning, a climax, and an ending. Beyond that I filled the dead space with what I thought happened between those events. I found that for one novel I had started the premise was fantastic and praised by a couple of bookworms that I knew but I didn't have an ending and so it sits on my hard drive two chapters in and will probably remain that way for a very long time.
On the other hand I'm pretty far into my big fantasy project and while it has taken longer than I wanted to I'm satisfied with the direction and duologue up to now (previously my weak point). The structure I had going into this one was rather peculiar for me because I had never had something so vast that it would take multiple books (or one 2,000 page monstrosity) to cover. I thought originally to do something akin to the style of GRRM or Johnathan Stroud but decided to go with one subject for each novel.
I think you need to experiment to find out what works best for you. Maybe writing a number of short stories instead of one big novel and then publishing them as a collective would be best? The only thing you really have to worry about there is making sure each chapter, so to speak, could be a stand alone piece.
Salazarz had a good point and I'm glad I refreshed before dipping into that but to echo his sentiments don't draw too much from other works. It will make you seem illegitimate and wont help you with your issues. In fact I might be privy to say it's the cause of your block.
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I disagree with Salazarz. One of the best ways to discovering your own style and likes/dislikes is through trying to emulate other authors. I do think that reading too much when you're in the midst of a heavy writing project (key word: "heavy") is harmful, and there are many authors who flat-out stop reading completely when they're writing their novels, since writing style and rhythm bleed very easily. (Note: Never listen to slam poetry when trying to write, it will wreak havoc on your writing.) But there is nothing wrong with borrowing ideas as long as you know why you are borrowing them and as long as you know how to manipulate those elements with a deft hand.
Zealously, I think your idea by itself is fine. Most ideas are fine -- good writers can write about anything and have it be good -- it's just the execution that will probably break you. From what I've read of your writing so far (only the Qualifier Chronicles and ofc your nonfiction writing, but that's completely different), it does seem very ambitious, because your fiction writing comes off to me as very unpracticed. Furthermore, I guarantee you your simple plot is going to blossom into something much more complex, esp. thematically, which is where things will get hairy. This doesn't mean you shouldn't try, of course. However, I would start off with short stories (maybe set in the same setting you discuss?) so that you get enough practice with constructing a finished and complete self-sufficient and tight story before trying to write a whole novel.
Here's a tip to help with finishing: Before you start writing, make sure you know what your ending is going to be. This sounds like common sense, but you need to know how to get from Point A to Point Z, and if you don't know what Point Z is, how are you going to craft a decently-paced story out of it?
As for writer's block: all I can say is, "Keep writing." Some people start other projects, others begin to edit whenever they get blocked (BAD IDEA, but it's one of my bad habits), but the key is really to write through it.
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Writer's block is tough man. It's taking me weeks to finish "POKEMON BATTLE: Battle of pokemons".
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When the problem is an unreliable/unpredictable "flame of inspiration", then my advice would be to try and depend less on it.
Structure your ideas, work out the themes, topics, issues that are adressed by text. Create a system where ideas, when they come up, are set into a context and checked against your goals. When you know what you´re going for beforehand, I find it easier to achieve, because writing then becomes more about calculated realization than less about spontaneous creativity.
EDIT: Don´t even start before you have a satisfying end for the story.
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I get writers block 6 days out of the week. Then on Thursday I pump out another story to post on Friday. Rofl. So bad. Rock's House took me 3 hours to complete (way shorter than most of my other stories) and I consider it one of my best. Other stories I put more time and effort in and they aren't as good.
Having a deadline to post stories seems to help with my writer's block. Even though it's mostly out of laziness instead of actually not knowing what to write.
Dammit CatPlanet! Hurry up and finish lol.
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On August 19 2013 03:16 Daswollvieh wrote:
EDIT: Don´t even start before you have a satisfying end for the story.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/G9Vr7Le.png)
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On August 19 2013 02:16 babylon wrote:
I disagree with Salazarz. One of the best ways to discovering your own style and likes/dislikes is through trying to emulate other authors. I do think that reading too much when you're in the midst of a heavy writing project (key word: "heavy") is harmful, and there are many authors who flat-out stop reading completely when they're writing their novels, since writing style and rhythm bleed very easily. (Note: Never listen to slam poetry when trying to write, it will wreak havoc on your writing.) But there is nothing wrong with borrowing ideas as long as you know why you are borrowing them and as long as you know how to manipulate those elements with a deft hand.
Zealously, I think your idea by itself is fine. Most ideas are fine -- good writers can write about anything and have it be good -- it's just the execution that will probably break you. From what I've read of your writing so far (only the Qualifier Chronicles and ofc your nonfiction writing, but that's completely different), it does seem very ambitious, because your fiction writing comes off to me as very unpracticed. Furthermore, I guarantee you your simple plot is going to blossom into something much more complex, esp. thematically, which is where things will get hairy. This doesn't mean you shouldn't try, of course. However, I would start off with short stories (maybe set in the same setting you discuss?) so that you get enough practice with constructing a finished and complete self-sufficient and tight story before trying to write a whole novel.
Here's a tip to help with finishing: Before you start writing, make sure you know what your ending is going to be. This sounds like common sense, but you need to know how to get from Point A to Point Z, and if you don't know what Point Z is, how are you going to craft a decently-paced story out of it?
As for writer's block: all I can say is, "Keep writing." Some people start other projects, others begin to edit whenever they get blocked (BAD IDEA, but it's one of my bad habits), but the key is really to write through it.
This is completely true. Babylon is totally on point with this, as he always is when discussing writing it seems, get the brain juices flowing and just write. Zealously, if you're having some writers block, I can direct you to some RSS feeds and blogs that just give you topics when you can't think of any. Just write, if it's good, no matter the topic, people will enjoy it  .
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Oh, I'm not saying that if you want to write then you shouldn't read, period, or anything like that. Of course picking up ideas from other authors (and other sources of media) isn't a bad thing at all. But, if you're a novice writer and you're struggling to find an idea that you can really stick with and see through until the end, it can be good practice to distance yourself from outside influences for a while. Some people (myself included) are too easily excited by others' creations and it can be so easy to look at something and say, 'wow this is a great concept, maybe I can use it in my writing!' only to later realize that it's not really something that really fits your style or the genre that you really want to write in. It definitely helped me when I was having similar to OP's woes.
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On August 19 2013 10:07 Salazarz wrote:
Oh, I'm not saying that if you want to write then you shouldn't read, period, or anything like that. Of course picking up ideas from other authors (and other sources of media) isn't a bad thing at all. But, if you're a novice writer and you're struggling to find an idea that you can really stick with and see through until the end, it can be good practice to distance yourself from outside influences for a while. Some people (myself included) are too easily excited by others' creations and it can be so easy to look at something and say, 'wow this is a great concept, maybe I can use it in my writing!' only to later realize that it's not really something that really fits your style or the genre that you really want to write in. It definitely helped me when I was having similar to OP's woes.
Yeah, but how will you realize it's not really something that fits your style or genre unless you hack at it for a while? :O
There are many arguments that one can raise against emulating other writers (style bleeding is an authentic concern, and consuming too much media when you're trying to write will stall you), but for novice writers, I think that any writing is valuable writing, even if it's I-thought-it-was-cool-but-it's-like-pulling-teeth writing. After all, writing is all about learning by doing. In "copying" other authors, you will be able to figure out what works for you and what doesn't. You can also figure out what works for an audience and what doesn't, which is just as important if you want to become an effective writer.
When I was younger, I spent many hours writing bad plot-driven high fantasy, because I was (and still am) an avid fantasy reader. These days, I exclusively write character-driven fiction (sometimes with a sprinkling of fantasy, sometimes not), but I don't regret trying my hand at some good ol' fantasy yarns.
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1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
And also, how do you handle the "writer's block"?
Drugs and/or alcohol.
I'm not even joking.
disclaimer: I don't write scifi so I dunno if that would be effective for that sort of writing
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On August 19 2013 12:53 lichter wrote:Drugs and/or alcohol. I'm not even joking. disclaimer: I don't write scifi so I dunno if that would be effective for that sort of writing
i'd say any activity which catalyzes an altered mental state.
a really hard core work out can do that as well.
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EPT
