Any advice would be helpful

[Beth10]

I am so frustrated right now. For the past year I feel like I have a major block and I don't know how to fix it.

I have a filing cabinet filled with half written novels and short stories. Plus an organized box filled with ideas for plots, characters, sentences, etc. My problem is that I get half way through stories and can't come up with an ending to finish it. I have 50,000 words towards a novel that I don't know how to finish.

A few weeks ago I started a short story that I was so excited about. A few pages into it, I didn't know where to have it go and I never finished it. These were characters that I thought about all day at work. I feel like I let them down.

Tonight I started working on a writing exercise that started to turn into a short story. Half way through, I thought how boring it was then I got fidgety and couldn't finish it.

I feel like one of those cliched tourtured writers who will never finish anything. I want to be the writer who writes all the time. In line at the bank, in her car, on lunch... I want to write a few novels a year and many, many short stories a year. I have a lot of free time and don't feel that's too much to wish for.

But for god's sakes-why can't I finish anything?? I ALWAYS get stuck. Always. I don't understand it. I feel like I have this crazy creative engery floating around deep down inside of me and I can't get it out. I have a wall blocking it. It's torture.

I am so frustrated and so saddened by this. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks in advance

 

[rosemerry]

I used to be in the same boat as you and it's still hard for me.

Pick one of your novels or short stories. Maybe an earlier would be better than a more recent one.

Find a time when you can sit without interruption. Read your the work you chose. Do not edit just read. Make a little note on the side but don't rewrite. This is about completing the work.

Now just start writing until it's done. Even if it's garbage. Don't worry about it. You can edit it later. Just keep writing until you come to a conclusion. Most of it will probably junk. I know, just concentrate on finishing the story. When you have come to an ending then go back and edit. After you edited the complete story give it to someone to critique. Tell them what you want them to focus on; grammar, flow, character, setting whatever. Then edit again.

You just have to make yourself write through it. It's hard. I've written stories and had to get rid of half the story becuase it was garbage. Maybe the stuff I edited out can be used in another story maybe not.

Pray and ask God to help you focus.
Hope this helps

 

[breezynosacek]

I find that I usually can't finish a book when I haven't a good problem to overcome. The problem has to be one I can resolve. If it is something I am unfamiliar with, I have to research it until I know it well enough to find a solution.

When I can't finish what I started, that is usually the cause.

Steph

 

[Jenafer]

Perhaps do a detailed plotline for chapter to chapter. I find it helpful to thrash out a plot with another person. Helps to get the juices flowing to throw ideas at each other, then refine the ideas unitl one is happy with them. Yes, a body wonders why one writes, when it ceases to be inspiration and becomes perspiration (hard work).

I have heard of a computer program that gives various ideas for plots, when you feed beginnings into them, or bits of info.

Another way to go might be to get a writing mentor.. somebody who pushes you to get the whole detailed plot nutted out, before you begin the writing. Sally Odgers is an Aussie writer with a sharp mind for plotting, but be warned she will tell you the truth regards any flaws she sees in your work (as well as commenting on the good stuff).

Sally's fees are reasonabe, and she has a quick turnaround time. Just a little chinwag here, Jenafer

 

[Tariel]

ok...well...I'm going to add my opinions here. To be honest, there's a chance that the reason you've driven your story into a dead end--happens all the time to me not fun.

So I advise you to take a good long look at your story. Is it getting stale? Have your characters lost their motivation? Are you stuck in one part that you just can't get past and are going crazy over?

If it's one of the first two, I'm not quite sure what to tell you--but if you know what the problem is, the solution should be easier.

If it's the last one (which it usually is for me) try to glaze over it for a bit...hurry on to an exciting part. That usually gets my creative juices flowing again.

And be patient. Don't expect to come up with what to do with that empty space right away. I had this one hole in my story for like three drafts...

Good Luck

 

[akulion]

The best thing for you to do is "just do it"

I know it may sound a lil crazy but basically thats what it boils down to!

When preparing for my GMATs I was involved in over a dozen other projects and I wasnt finishing any one of them and would complain a lot that i never get anything done. Until one of my friends said, Stop Whining and JUST DO IT!

So I sat down and did them one by one - no matter if i felt bored or demotivated I just kept working on one thing until it was complete!

Before I knew it I was free as a bird and everything was done

So Dont gve up half way if you feel bored or demotivated - just take a lil break and get right back at it!

 

[Jenafer]

The best thing for you to do is "just do it"

I know it may sound a lil crazy but basically thats what it boils down to!

When preparing for my GMATs I was involved in over a dozen other projects and I wasnt finishing any one of them and would complain a lot that i never get anything done. Until one of my friends said, Stop Whining and JUST DO IT!

So I sat down and did them one by one - no matter if i felt bored or demotivated I just kept working on one thing until it was complete!

Before I knew it I was free as a bird and everything was done

So Dont gve up half way if you feel bored or demotivated - just take a lil break and get right back at it!

Dear Akulion and all who wrote in this thread,

thank you for your advice and I sure as heck feel more motivated. My problem was dialogue in fiction writing.. well I have found a style of writng fiction on a creative writing site that I like. This style of writing puts the dialogue down on the page without the 'he said' or 'she replied'. It takes some effort to work in this style of writing and have it flow well. This style would not suit romance or young children's stories.

Akulion, thank you for your advice about getting the work done. The only real way to work through problems with creating writing, is to work through the problems. I used to think all I wrote was not good enough, hence I would not write at all. But I am trying to dump this notion and just do the best I can..

Thanking you, Jenafer