Process Again: Getting Started and Keeping Going

[littlemissattitude]

This topic has been addressed tangentially in other threads here, but I don't think it has been looked at head-on: How do you get started writing when you have an idea, and how do you keep going if you're working on something and writer's block hits?

The problem I've been up against recently is that of making the transition from idea cultivation and research into actually beginning the writing on a project. Thank goodness, I think I've solved the problem; I began the actual writing process today in a formal way (although I have been playing with ideas on paper for about a month). But it can be a problem.

So can hitting a wall once the writing is under way. You know what you want to write, but it won't make the journey from mind to paper. Or, you suddenly don't know how to get from where you are to where you want to go in what you are writing.

What do you do? How do you deal with getting a writing project from the thinking/research phase to the writing phase? And/or, how do you deal with writer's block when it hits?

My process, whether dealing with starting, or continuing, has come to be arguing it out with myself on paper, in a writer's journal. Sometimes I make lists. Sometimes I go thorugh alternatives of how I think I might want to proceed. And sometimes I just complain on paper about how frustrated I am with myself for being indecisive between alternatives or not being able to generate any ideas at all.

I started doing this just so that I wouldn't get down on myself for not writing at all when I am not getting anywhere on a project. I justified it by thinking, "Well, at least I'm getting word count of some kind down on the page, even if it isn't words in the actual manuscript." But it turned out to be very beneficial to the work. I have found that putting things down on paper tends to clarify things for me in a way that just mulling them over in my mind does not do. Sometimes I can see by looking at the ideas on paper that one approach is much better than others. Sometimes I can see that I have already made up my mind what I want to or where I want to go in the piece, but I just haven't liked that direction the best of the alternatives. And then I can usually get on with the writing project at hand.

It works for me. What works for you?

 

[Brian G Turner]

There's also the issue of how sometimes, you have just got to force yourself.

Curerntly I haven't written for a few months - this is very bad - but with all that's been happening...I still need to force some time for writing. I had tried that but it just wasn't happening. I really really want to get this novel finished and sent out to agents this year. I'm not actually that far from finishing, but as with all things that take great effort, it seems to get harder and harder to sit down and finish the more I try.

 

[littlemissattitude]

It's true that sometimes you have to just sit down and force yourself to write. Usually, though, in my case what I write in that initial "forcing" usually ends up not usable, but as a warm-up period to get back into writing mode. Then, after that clears out my mind, I am ready to do useful work again.

This is often where my writer's journal comes into play. It gets me started putting words down on paper again (I always handwrite my writer's journal, as opposed to composing it at the computer keyboard). I know I find that the longer I go without writing something, anything, the harder it is for me to get started again.

That, in fact, is one of the things I like about posting on forums. It keeps me writing something, even if it doesn't have much to do with what I'm working on in terms of "real" writing projects. And it warms me up before I start to work on my official projects. Posting on forums has also helped me a lot with sort of "thinking on the fly" in my writing. Before I started doing this, I would often have to sit and think for hours before I could think how to start writing something. Now, I can produce something that makes more sense more quickly.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Well, when I'm on a stroy that I know is going somewhere, I make sure I keep to a certain minumum word length a day, and I also asign a particular time and place for writing so that it becomes a proper 'job', as it were.


When the story doesn't seem to be panning out, I prefer to hack at it anyhow for at least another week. If it still isn't happening I put it away. I have a whole stash of stories that didn't make it, waiting to be re-visited. Right now I'm just keeping myself bubbling under with slight pieces like the ones I have been posting here, just to keep my writing hand in. I remember reading a quote by Edgar Rice Burroughs about not being an 'inspirational writer', a writer whosits around hoping inspiration will strike and doing nothing in the meantime, but soldier on at some form of writing each day, regardless. That makes sense to me.

 

[Marianne]

Your original post really addresses many facets of the process. How, when, where to write....what to do when you can't write. After talking to many writers of various stages of development I find that the process is very different for enery single person. You have to find what works for you.

I have the incredible gift of time...I have every day to write and read. This doesn't mean I have no distractions. I am terrible at discipline, so I have to force myself to sit at my desk each morning(I hope no later than 8 a.m.) and ignore the e-mail, the PS2, the book I am reading. So far, in the last two years(and two novels) I have not experienced writer's block. I find that, if I get stuck all I need to do is go over my notes, review my research, and I get moving again. Also, I outline. Did she say 'outline?' I think about my storyline for a long time, then I make a rough outline of the plot...where the story is to go and where I want it to end. Of course, in the process of writing this changes a lot...but I am not married to the outline, so change is good.

If the story gets stale, and I feel I am not doing justice to the work, I set it aside for a day and i pull out a short story and work on polishing it...just don't let a day go by without working on something. One way I stir up the juices is to read a good book on writing. Even one I have read before...it always gets me thinking about my own characters and setting...and I jump back into the thick of things.

So my advice? Don't start writing until you have the idea fully fleshed out...and once you start find the 'tricks' that work for you to keep going...and when all else fails...go fishing Yes, I mean fishing....if you don't like fish, don't use a hook, but go sit by a body of water for an afternoon and let the clean fresh air clear out the cobwebs....it works for me.

Marianne

 

[littlemissattitude]

Marianne, I agree that fishing is a good cure for just about anything. I don't get to go anymore (no fishing partner, and it isn't a good idea to go out there alone in these parts ). But I used to go regularly, and it's a wonderful thing.

And, yes, you are right that process is different for everyone.

 

[Esioul]

Well, when I get stuck I write in my diary, which somehow always makes me want to start writing again. When I've got ideas, I think about them for a bit, usually ever day as I walk to college, and then start writing them down when I feel sort of confident about them. At the moment I'm at a sort of stuck place with my long story though, because I'm not quite sure what happends next. I'm just going to have to think about it for a while.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Hi Esioul, and welcome to the chronicles-network.

 

[Brian G Turner]

sdsd

 

[Esioul]

Thanks. I'm just getting used to the format of it. It seems like a good site.

 

[Brian G Turner]

It'll be getting much better quickly.

You've sort of caught us in between some major changes.

Anyway back to the point your raised - yes, a break for some thinking time often helps. If I may say so, though, I often find the greatest inspiration comes from observation. Simply pushing aside a story, to talk to people, or watch people, can be very inspiring - especially those little anecdotal stories people mention in conversation rich in incident and detail that you just couldn't make up youself.

 

[Esioul]

People do inspire me a lot- the behaivour of my friends and how they interact as a group is interesting me so much at the moment that I've got a story growing out of it. Not that they'd be very happy to know this, of course! I've worked out one of them is a bit of a tyrant (a nice tyrant, of course) who controls everyone. I thought it would be interesting to work out how a tyrant manages everything, so I'm analysing this person. It's probably rather mean of me.

What's going to change?

 

[Brian G Turner]

It's funny how writers often have to extricate themselves from the crowd, in order to observe it - then write about it. :0

As for changes - there are going to be 3 domains for the entire chronicles-network, restructured around specific themes. Lots of new content to add. There's also going to be a major redesign of the place as well.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Keeping a diary helps a lot. I've always felt the main reason finishing a story can seem difficult is because you are not used to aroutine of a certain amount of writing each day. I fill my diary with story scraps, musings and whatever else occurs to me. Sometimes, when I am utterly uninspired I write whole chapters of Eddings-ish quest fantasy. The idea is to keep yourself in the habit of concentrated writing, so that you do not falter when real inspiration comes along.

I have one problem. Lately, I've been stopping stories when I realise that they are very personal - not in a literal sense, but they touch on very personal feelings, and I feel uncomfortable at the thought of anyone else reading them. Has anyone experienced this, and what do you do at such times?

 

[Brian G Turner]

Lately, I've been stopping stories when I realise that they are very personal - not in a literal sense, but they touch on very personal feelings, and I feel uncomfortable at the thought of anyone else reading them. Has anyone experienced this, and what do you do at such times?

If you're able to write them down, then I would say there's certainly real promise there on just that detail alone - it would threatent to give a depth and sincerity to a story, and its characters, that is not always present. I would say it is a good thing. The golden rule, though, says not to use other people in a manner that would/could lead to their direct identification - this is mainly aimed at family and friends, which may not at all appreciate being spoken to in public behind their backs. As for lovers - either talk about it - but if they are lovers long parted from, then tick it down as part of the hazards of dating a creative person, that something of the relationship may be expressed in your work.

 

[Esioul]

Hmm, I was writing a story a few months ago that started getting a bit personal- the main character had just been rejected from a promotion he had wanted. I'd just been rejected from Oxford, which is probably why I found myself writing that in. I do actually intend to go back to that story when I have more time, because I quite liked the character- It's rare that I can do a male POV character (no idea about how bloke's minds work!). In a way it helps if you understand exactly how your character is thinking and feeling- I knew exactly how he would react and what it was like for him, but I think I was probably taking my anger about it out on the story a bit!

I do know though that I'd feel uncomfortable about other people reading it, because they'd automatically connect it with me. Using real life people usually doesn't bother me too much, as I only use aspects of them.