Writing Writing is hard.

Personally, it’s maintaining momentum. Starting stories is one thing, but continuing them? Without changing everything or losing your way? That’s how the process weeds out the weak.

I’ve never finished a story (that I recall) that wasn’t a short story. Maybe one day

 

For me, I've always had issues with the motivation to write. I've no shortage of creativity, but sometimes I find it difficult to find the drive to actually put them down onto paper and actively make something out of it. I really love writing, but I just have way too many issues finding that fire. My head is swimming with ideas, but I do nothing with them!

 

I have many ideas swirling around in my head for stories, many strange or gruesome. But I have trouble formulating a coherent story around that idea. I’m thinking of a short story I wrote a few months ago, where I started with what I wanted the ending to be. It was difficult to create a coherent beginning and middle to match that ending.

Sometimes my issue is coming up with an idea for a story. I try my best to think of ideas on my own, but sometimes I’ll have to go online and search for story prompts.

My last problem is the lack of motivation to write. I haven’t been on my Wattpad accounts as much recently, and while I generally post in the “random” category, I have one book that has all of my short stories. I’ve barely updated my usual books, let alone the short stories book, which I haven’t updated in months.

 

Most of the time it is motivation. If I set a regular schedule and force myself to work during those times, I find that I stick with a story no matter what. But if I miss even a single day, then I might as well stop working on it all together. The moment I introduce doubt into my writing schedule, is the moment that I lose my motivation. Also, I find that I develop stories in such a way where I have an intermission between plot points and I say that I'll make it up as I go along. More often then not, these intermissions are what get me the most creatively stumped. Sometimes, I just get rid of the gap in between plot points just because I can't put my mind into finding stuff to fill the gaps. This clipping of the gaps often makes my otherwise long story, short and negatively effects my attitude towards the project as I think it could have been more. The only good way I have with dealing with these creative slumps, is to force myself back in the schedule and force myself to work out a solution.

I tend to have a serious problem working with environments. Part of my problem is my lack of vocabulary. Due to reasons, English is very hard for me and I have a condensed vocabulary. To top it off, I am a very logical mind, tending to tell only what's needed to paint the picture and never describing the beauty. The other part of the problem is I just have a hard time visualizing details of anything. I can make a character move any way I want it, like a puppet, but I can't tell you the details of that puppet. My mind is just so focused on the characters, it has a hard time viewing the world around said character with any degree of clarity. Its a serious problem that will only get better with practice if it will get better at all.

 

I have a lot of ideas, but it's almost impossible to get them onto paper, or google docs. Or I write 100 words can just can't get any more out. It sucks.

 

Oddly enough, the hardest thing about writing for me is that I see it both as a way to relax, and something productive that I do with my day. I feel great when I do get writing done, because then I'm able to unwind while still feeling like I'm doing something with myself. If I have too many days where I don't write though, I begin to feel more stressed and rushed in general, because not only do I not have it in my schedule to do one of the things that I want to get done in the day, but I'm also missing out on some down time. So I guess it's not that writing is hard for me, but when I don't do it it makes my days harder to deal with.

 

Motivation, setting, and doing an aftermath scene are the biggest ones for me.
Motivation: I have a lot of ideas but I'm not 100% sure how to transfer these ideas onto paper or google docs, but I feel better if someone vocally says that they like my stories or gives me some advice to get better at writing and that would motivate me to write more, but sadly I'm in short supply of people like that.
Setting: I can't tell when I should or shouldn't describe the surroundings, the time period, or give the background of a certain character.
Aftermath Scene: I'm ok with an action scene but I'm not sure how some types of characters should say or think after that action scene, should he be concerned? Should he be frightened? Should he be overly worried about his companions? I don't know.

 

This entire thread is one big #Huge Mood.

That having been said, for me, it's focus. I want to write. I have time to write. Once I get started, I can probably hammer out a bunch of words in no time flat. The problem is ... making myself stay on task instead of looking at 2030572091 other things. Hence why I use FocusWriter, to be honest. The typewritey noises helps (even more so than the fact that it takes up your entire screen, believe it or not). But really, the more I say to myself that I have to sit down and write, the less likely I'll do that, even with FocusWriter. And there's not really that much I can do about that except, well, just sort of let it pass. Get up. Walk around. Come back to a half-finished sentence and finish the other half. It's a slow process, but hey.

 

The worst part for me is that I need third person so I can be descriptive but I can't do a balance of showing and telling. Then there's the problem of one story gets me a new idea and I have so many unfinished works (29 Harry potter fanfics, 3 Pokémon fanfics and 2 original ideas that came while writing fandom fanfics)

 

Don't even mention the use of past or present tense. It is very confusing and is hard to write a good story

 

*Takes a breath and tries not to mention tenses* welp...i think its taking a break from things to play with other ideas.
I have one book, that is my passion project but...even when I'm stuck I don't take a break to work on other things (Like for example: my yugioh fanfic, jacksepticeye fanfic, pretty cure fanfic, power rangers fanfic, daemon's mark book, miraculous fanfic, 2 digimon fanfics, 2 Pokémon fanfic) I have so many other things I could work on but...I refuse to even when I'm too stuck to write anything on my book.

I'm just about to finish it and that's gonna be break to work on other stuff time. =)

 

I feel you. What I most struggle with would be, probably, showing and telling. Like—what if someone doesn't get the clue I'm trying to aim at--the surely I should explain it a bit more... and more... and it practically turns into an essay with big words and all because that's what I tend to read and so I subconsciously end up writing like that. What I also have a lot of trouble with is starting. Just starting is the most difficult thing in the world! As well as remembering where everything was, mostly in RPs where there are people and Pokémon, it's difficult to keep track of them.

 

Ah yes... is such a difficult thing to write, especially the small plot points that are quite boring but essential to the story or a character's development. And one also has to make sure the dialogues are natural to the certain character. My last story was great at first, but eventually I ran out of plot points and the story became as straightforward as a first-gen Pokémon game. So yeah, writing is hard~

 

I love writing, I really do! Thing is I don't really write as much as I should. Sometimes I will write a story and I'll stop and then I will never pick it up again thanks to a lack of motivation. Either that or I think my writing isn't all that great so I ditch the story.

 

Writer's block. Sometimes I'm super inspired and I'll stay up till midnight flinging words onto the page, and other times I just kinda... nope outta there. Why can't I be in inspired mode 24/7?!
Another problem is balancing projects. There are so many things I want to write that I can't balance and then I struggle with too many.

 

The details! Uh-its hard.
I don't know why but I have the habit of not including much details with respect to the scene going on right now, I just speed everything. Hardly do I write about the surrounding, clothing, deep feelings and stuff like that.

 

Considering that it's been several years since the last time I ever put words to a page, I can easily tell you that my biggest issue with writing is the sheer motivation to do so.

For some reason, I can always find a way to procrastinate on something, even if it's something I really want to do. I'm chock full of good ideas, my FanFiction account would tell you that this is so. However, I've lost most of the motivation to do anything of the sort, rather sticking to the wall and letting other things fly past me while I fight with myself to just sit down and write something.

Just earlier, however, I thought about rewriting my main Pokémon fanfiction, so I may be able to get that started if I can simply push myself to do so. However, this will be a struggle, regardless of what I do, and I need to overcome this weakness to show the world my thoughts and feelings right on the page.