Timeline for Dealing with inability to sustain interest in an idea
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 30, 2018 at 7:03 | comment | added | Simone | My very humble two cents say this answer is mostly right. @ToddWilcox has a point when he says you need more then just typing, but the key point is: if you don't type, you won't achieve anything. Many people think writing a book is a fun ride through fantasy and imagination, but it's actually a lot of work in the first place. If you can't get yourself to do all that work, then creativity and imagination and organization and preparation and research will get you nowhere. So, +1 for this answer. | |
| May 29, 2018 at 20:13 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | Pushing through to finish the first draft is important. Both for emotional accomplishment and so that you can take a step back and better understand what's wrong. | |
| May 29, 2018 at 20:11 | comment | added | SFWriter | @ToddWilcox Ahh. I was projecting from all the writers I know who give up on projects. Like, 60% of the aspiring writers I know start a project and get bored somewhere in the middle. They have a great idea (maybe a scene) but once the scene is out, they lose steam. I've wondered if its down to stories having these different 'parts'. Endings and middles are very different than beginnings. You could be right, and I sure don't disagree with you. Of course, of those that finish, the next hurdle is to find a way to publish, and it sounds like that's hard to. Then finding readers, also hard. | |
| May 29, 2018 at 20:07 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | That makes sense. My view of your experience there is that you didn't merely type, you followed a strategy and employed some specific tactics. So it wouldn't have happened with out typing, but I still think typing alone is not enough. I could be wrong about the asker's problem. My take is that they don't have a problem typing, instead what they are typing is coming out as boring. More typing might not make much of a difference. Just my read on their situation. | |
| May 29, 2018 at 20:06 | history | edited | SFWriter | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 56 characters in body
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| May 29, 2018 at 20:04 | comment | added | SFWriter | @ToddWilcox It's interesting, I consider myself a plotter (and visual, I have an arc drawn out for story two) but... the interesting parts to story one came after I had the skeleton in place (the complete first draft.) After I had all the bones (110,000 words of them, Acts I-II-III) I had a much better handle on it all. The layers have been added in each iteration. Layers = character motivation, relationship, plot twists, tension. The story is currently 92,000 and far more complex than it used to be. I see discovering as something that can happen after the framing of the entire skeleton. | |
| May 29, 2018 at 18:19 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | I'll be that guy who disagrees with the highest-voted answer. Here's my issue with it: An idea and a lot of typing don't make a great story. My take on the question is that the writer is bored because what they have written is boring. What is probably needed is developing the idea. Discovery writing is one way to do that, and maybe that's what you're suggesting (it's not clear), but using the idea to craft a compelling plot on a cork board is just as valid a development step. Working (typing) is essential, but it's also not usually enough. | |
| May 28, 2018 at 23:30 | history | answered | SFWriter | CC BY-SA 4.0 |