How do you keep going?

[MillieDynamite]

My 750 word stories have no outline, I sit down, open my mind, and write.

I don't believe there is such a thing as a "real" pantser, "real" meaning that the writer just starts writing what comes to mind and keeps going until he or she gets to a convenient place to call "the end". Every writer starts a story with an idea for the beginning. It may not be when the writer writes the first line, but at some point, the writer develops at least some idea of how the story is going to end. I suppose there are writers here who try to do that, but I can't understand how a writer can have any continuity in the story or characters without at least a broad idea of where the story is going to go.

 

[ronde]

I'm not sure you should read highly-rated stories here. Maybe it's better to develop your own style.

Except, you can read my stories! Even there, I'd guess that half of them are only so-so at best. Also, there were a few stories that I still like but the readers didn't, and the scores on those were really low.

I don't think any writer should attempt to copy another writer's style. All I was saying is the OP should read a few highly rated stories to see how the writer got from the beginning to the end and compare that to their own stalled story to see if there's a reason for not being able to finish.

 

[ronde]

My 750 word stories have no outline, I sit down, open my mind, and write.

Even in a 750 word story, do you not find that either your plot drives an ending or your ending drives the plot?

 

[MillieDynamite]

I find the story by typing the words. When I sit down, I don't even know my characters' names. I have just an idea for the story. I can write up to 3,000 words this way. Sometimes I have the story in my head first, I have been thinking about it. But that doesn't mean I know the beginning, middle, and ending when I start. Sometimes I know all three, sometimes the beginning, and other times the ending.

Even in a 750 word story, do you not find that either your plot drives an ending or your ending drives the plot?

 

[gunhilltrain]

I don't think any writer should attempt to copy another writer's style. All I was saying is the OP should read a few highly rated stories to see how the writer got from the beginning to the end and compare that to their own stalled story to see if there's a reason for not being able to finish.

My suggestion would be to read a lot of "mainstream" fiction - although some of that is very explicit nowadays too. Why? Because it has gone through some editorial filters merely to get published at all. People are more exacting when they are paying you to write and expect some kind of return on their investment.

 

[WCSGarland]

One word at a time.

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

This thread makes me think maybe my workflow is super weird compared to everyone else...

I've never worked on more than two stories at a time, I just don't ever get past the "messy notes" stage of a story unless I'm confident that I know what the key plot points are going to generally look like, and I'm excited by it enough to see it through.

You and me both.

It wasn't until I was reading the "how many stories in a year" post as well as this one, that I realized that

1. I am verbose as fuck
2. I am prolific as fuck
3. I do not write at all the same way as many of you, lol.

For me, I've got a general story idea in my head that is desperate to get out onto paper. I have general ideas of scenes I want to do, and sexual scenarios I want to write. Sometimes those have been swirling around in my head for a while - like one scene I am about to start on today as I finish the final chapter of my second epic-length series - and sometimes they just hit me, like a scene I wrote at 4 AM today that woke me up and I had to get down on paper before I could go back to sleep.

I don't know where any of this comes from. It just started last October, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. I have one partially written story I started back in February, but that's it. Everything else is done or planned, and I try not to start on a new one unless I finished the last one.

What keeps me going, primarily, is stubbornness and a desire to not let down the folks who I know enjoy the stuff I'm writing. That's what pushes me through the inevitable writer's block.

 

[YmaOHyd]

This thread makes me think maybe my workflow is super weird compared to everyone else...

I've never worked on more than two stories at a time, I just don't ever get past the "messy notes" stage of a story unless I'm confident that I know what the key plot points are going to generally look like, and I'm excited by it enough to see it through.

And if I get another idea that seems exciting, I park it in notes until I finish my current story, and it motivates me to keep moving forward.

It probably helps that I've never written more than 6k words at a time, I don't think I have the attention span for longer-form fiction

I have three going right now, but one of them will be done by Friday and is just a loose collection of plot holding together three-ish sex scenes, which isn't normally what I do.

My process is like... I know who the main characters are (probably). I don't know everything there is to know about Emily from WLoM but I have a pretty good idea of what makes her tick, what her anxieties are, what her weaknesses and strengths are, what her family's like (even the ones who haven't appeared on screen yet). So I feel like I know how she's going to react in most situations. I (mostly) know what the places they're going to be in are. A big chunk of chapter 2 takes place in a bar. It's not exactly a real place, but I could probably draw a map and tell you one or two things about the bartenders and servers, what's next door and down the street... So I'm more-or-less writing characters that I get in places I understand. I have a couple places I want them to be at particular times but how they get there is their business. The only thing I knew about that conversation at the bar before it happened was how that conversation about harassment and assault might go.

 

[Cagivagurl]

There’s this point in the middle of writing where it just sucks. At first, the setup is fun you're laying the groundwork, building that tension, and the first few sex scenes are like a rush. Then somewhere along the way it starts to feel like a drag. You know you can come up with ways to keep the heat going and the plot moving, but after a while it just feels, repetitive? like you're writing for the sake of writing not because you're genuinely into it anymore. You know the ending coming but it feels so far off.

So what do you do to push through that wall?

You asked how you keep going???
The answer lies in why you write in the first place....
because it's fun, fulfilling, therapeutic, and it give breath to your need to create...
At some point all creative ventures will pass through a phase, or time where it is more difficult than others...
It's the creative mind searching for improvement...
Creators are never happy... Always searching for that little extra, the final 10% that will make it perfect.

Yeah, we all search for perfection. The icing on the cake... The polish that brings out the gloss. Something...

Writing is like that. How do we say that better, explain more clearly...
All stories, no matter how epic. Always have to pass through the scene building stage. Whether it's a physical thing. IE: Describing a building, or a location.
Or, perhaps it's an internal mental scene setting. Explaining the why...

How do we keep going... The reason we sat down to write in the first place. "We think we have a story to tell. Something to say."

So we write... often working through the hunger pangs because we feel it...
Sometimes wishing somebody would come and disturb us. Drag us away. But... There in our mind is the story we're trying to get out.
That thing we're trying to say...

How...

We keep writing... 20,000 words becoming 80,000, and we sigh happily. "What the fuck."

Cagivagurl

 

[OddLove]

I'm no expert, and we all will develop our own creative process that works best for us. But I'll share a few things that help me.

1. When I'm working on a story I try to stop with a good idea of what's going to happen next rather than write until i burn out or run out of ideas. The reason is because when I go back to work on the stort I can start writing out that idea and it builds momentum and gets the creative juices flowing before I even come up with more plot ideas.

2. I focus on solving the characters problem. So for example if a character has trouble being assertive, it gives me a direction to take the story. And I can create scenes that show how to character struggles with being assertive and how it effects their sex life. That the sex scenes will change as the character changes. And for my personally I feel like it keeps the writing fresh feeling cause my sex scenes ain't just about writing the hottest sex scene, but more about telling a story.

3. If I get stuck on a story and don't know where to go with it, I just let it sit in a folder and go start a new story. Then when I'm looking through the projects I have I might see it and be inspired later on, but if I'm not, then that's fine cause I still spent time practicing my writing.

 

[designatedvictim]

There’s this point in the middle of writing where it just sucks. At first, the setup is fun you're laying the groundwork, building that tension, and the first few sex scenes are like a rush. Then somewhere along the way it starts to feel like a drag. You know you can come up with ways to keep the heat going and the plot moving, but after a while it just feels, repetitive? like you're writing for the sake of writing not because you're genuinely into it anymore. You know the ending coming but it feels so far off.

So what do you do to push through that wall?

I didn't see this thread before I just posted my own.

I have encountered an issue where I put little placeholders in the body of the text and move on.

Then I back-fill the connecting material.

I find as I get closer to being finished, working on those placeholders gets tedious and takes more and more time to do.

 

[YmaOHyd]

I'm no expert, and we all will develop our own creative process that works best for us. But I'll share a few things that help me.

1. When I'm working on a story I try to stop with a good idea of what's going to happen next rather than write until i burn out or run out of ideas. The reason is because when I go back to work on the stort I can start writing out that idea and it builds momentum and gets the creative juices flowing before I even come up with more plot ideas.

In the first few pages of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Murakami says that when he runs he stops at a point where "the exhilaration I feel at the end of each run carr[ies] over to the next day. This is the same sort of tack I find necessary when writing a novel. I stop every day right at the point where I feel I can write more." And, he says, that's how you form the habit of writing. It's hard to build up the habit, but once you have it it's easy to maintain (which is probably true if you're among the greatest novelists ever. Less so if you're doing it as a hobby, maybe).

 

[TiberiusPrime]

I find the story by typing the words. When I sit down, I don't even know my characters' names. I have just an idea for the story. I can write up to 3,000 words this way. Sometimes I have the story in my head first, I have been thinking about it. But that doesn't mean I know the beginning, middle, and ending when I start. Sometimes I know all three, sometimes the beginning, and other times the ending.

Exactly how I tend to write. Sometimes a title comes to me and I build a story around it.

 

[FidelityBoss]

There’s this point in the middle of writing where it just sucks. At first, the setup is fun you're laying the groundwork, building that tension, and the first few sex scenes are like a rush. Then somewhere along the way it starts to feel like a drag. You know you can come up with ways to keep the heat going and the plot moving, but after a while it just feels, repetitive? like you're writing for the sake of writing not because you're genuinely into it anymore. You know the ending coming but it feels so far off.

So what do you do to push through that wall?

Ah, the dreaded mid-story slump! It’s like running a marathon where the finish line feels miles away. When it hits, I try to switch things up, maybe write a scene out of order, focus on a character’s backstory, or even take a short break to recharge. Sometimes just reminding yourself why you started the story in the first place can reignite the spark. Push through, it’s worth it when you hit that ending!

 

[YmaOHyd]

A thing I am having to teach myself to do is not be afraid to deploy the 'yadda yadda yadda'. I have a couple things that need to happen on particular days that are big moments in the story (hopefully). It's hard to get myself to realize that I can just... skip ahead in time. If I have character A and character B meet on Monday and realize they have chemistry and a mutual attraction, and I know I'm going to have them go on a date on Friday, I don't need to write Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday with, like, a forensic level of detail. I can just kinda yadda-yadda-yadda past it, as long as the relationship has developed enough on Monday to support what I want to do on Friday.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I don't need to write Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday with, like, a forensic level of detail. I can just kinda yadda-yadda-yadda past it, as long as the relationship has developed enough on Monday to support what I want to do on Friday.

You've discovered the art of exposition. ; )

 

[YmaOHyd]

You've discovered the art of exposition. ; )

Doggone it, if it takes 72 hours to live through it should take 72 hours to read!

 

[M_K_Babalon]

If you love to write, you push through because you know that getting it done and putting it out there is more than worth the grind. ; )

I get too deep in writing, most of the time, to feel like it's a chore.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

and I thought my ten half-done and parked aside stories were too much

That's about where I'm at, but most are layouts.

 

[AllenWoody]

and I thought my ten half-done and parked aside stories were too much

Some people say ten unfinished stories is too many. I say my half-a-score unfinished stories isn't enough!