What's your greatest writing struggle?

[Auticorn]

I've probably asked before, but I'm asking again because the thread has disappeared. :P

What are biggest challenges/struggles with writing? Have you ever tried finding ways to overcome those issues? What are some of the things you've tried?

For me, one of my biggest issues is planning. As said in this thread here, I struggle with this greatly. It's something I've tried to overcome, but it's not easy for me. I have a tendency to get completely excited over my stories. This causes me to rush right into them head on and try to write them that way. I also do it because it helps bring out some of my ideas for my stories. I have a hard time writing down my ideas without being able to write them in chapters first as well. I end up posting those chapters, only to keep redoing them over and over until I feel like they are perfect.

Another issue I have is finishing stories. I like to blame this a lot on my ADHD. I grow tired of writing and re-writing chapters constantly for certain stories. I also end up recycling/redoing a lot of them over time because how tired I grow of others. It is a never ending cycle for me, and it's something I've tried to work on. I just can't seem to do it because another reason is for it is what I said in my first paragraph above this one too.

Also, I don't if it really counts... but I do write on my iPad as well. I do this because if I'm not at my laptop, then it makes it easier for me to write anywhere else I am at the moment. However, I end up creating many typos. One other issue I have too is that I can't re-read or proofread my chapters if I do, it just makes me more tempted to loathe/hate them and have to redo them over again, even if besides typos/grammar mistakes they seem perfectly fine. :/

So, what are some things you struggle with in terms of writing?

 

[Miz en Scène]

For me, one of my biggest issues is planning. As said in this thread here, I struggle with this greatly. It's something I've tried to overcome, but it's not easy for me. I have a tendency to get completely excited over my stories. This causes me to rush right into them head on and try to write them that way. I also do it because it helps bring out some of my ideas for my stories. I have a hard time writing down my ideas without being able to write them in chapters first as well. I end up posting those chapters, only to keep redoing them over and over until I feel like they are perfect.

I'm the exact opposite, lol. I tend to spend so much time planning my stuff out that I spend no time at all writing. There's probably a balance somewhere, but I've not managed to find it yet because when I write I'm still forcing myself to do so.

Anyway, for my struggles:

On PC: Keeping motivated without an audience.

The fact that I'm posting my stories online means I don't write just for myself, and I would assume that a lot of writers also share the same feeling. However, because of that I lose motivation to continue writing anything if no one says anything about it because it feels like no one else is reading it. This is particularly pertinent for chaptered fics. For myself, it's not an issue that's easy to overcome because it's not something I can control. But for others who may share the same feeling, I always at least try to post a review for the sake of showing that someone likes or has read their work. At the very least, I do think encouraging someone to write consistently by showing them that they do have an audience is way, way more important than all the other miscellanea we post when we review, so I at least try to put a positive spin on my reviews. Edit: Notable caveat: I think this is less important for established writers, veterans, or general adults who post stories, so I'm a bit lighter on the compliments then unless I really like it.

Following on from that, I want to share an anecdote. This is a tangent, but when I first started writing on PC, I posted this really godawful fic resplendent with plotholes, grammatical errors, logic errors, and all sorts of cliched, hackneyed content. But, and this is the key here, people posted on my story saying that they liked it and wanted to read more. And I felt really happy that people wanted to read my writing because it was literally the first time I'd ever posted a story online, no matter that the story was crap.

Those comments were barely reviews; they were mainly compliments and such and I would never do something like that these days because I usually have more constructive things to say. However, I do think that without those few first people posting on my fic, I'd never have continued writing and I'd never have stuck around this place (disregarding my 4 year hiatus). /rant

Anyway, sorry for getting all serious there for a moment. Umm, one of my other struggles is starting a new story. I always struggle to come up with a perfect scene to launch my story, especially when the scene is descriptive because I find it very hard to come up with beautiful scene writing the way some people do. Actually yeah, add writing beautiful description to one of the things I struggle with.

I mean look at this:

The autumn leaves blew over the moonlit pavement in such a way as to make the girl who was moving there seem fixed to a sliding walk, letting the motion of the wind and the leaves carry her forward. Her head was half bent to watch her shoes stir the circling leaves. Her face was slender and milk-white, and in it was a kind of gentle hunger that touched over everything with tireless curiosity. It was a look, almost, of pale surprise; the dark eyes were so fixed to the world that no move escaped them.

This is the kind of thing I wish I could write (cookie to anyone who recognises it since it's fairly famous), and I agonise for hours over a single paragraph trying to get it to reach just that level of perfection. Eventually, I just give up and stop writing--unless I have a deadline (like for a contest or something).

TL;DR: Sorry not sorry for the wall of text. This is a writing forum, goddamnit. People post fics way longer than what I wrote. I will absolutely not write a tl;dr for this.

 

[Aisu]

My biggest struggle would have to be sitting through a scene. So ADHD, I have a very short attention span, and nine times out of ten when I start writing a good scene I'll walk off to do about five other things and come back, and by then I've already lost all flow, so there's that :P Haven't figured out how to get past that yet wow

 

[Bay]

On PC: Keeping motivated without an audience.

The fact that I'm posting my stories online means I don't write just for myself, and I would assume that a lot of writers also share the same feeling. However, because of that I lose motivation to continue writing anything if no one says anything about it because it feels like no one else is reading it. This is particularly pertinent for chaptered fics. For myself, it's not an issue that's easy to overcome because it's not something I can control. But for others who may share the same feeling, I always at least try to post a review for the sake of showing that someone likes or has read their work. At the very least, I do think encouraging someone to write consistently by showing them that they do have an audience is way, way more important than all the other miscellanea we post when we review, so I at least try to put a positive spin on my reviews. Edit: Notable caveat: I think this is less important for established writers, veterans, or general adults who post stories, so I'm a bit lighter on the compliments then unless I really like it.

Pretty much me here. Less so on PC since I haven't posted much of my work here in a long while but in other places like FFnet, Tumblr, and AO3. I get discouraged when I see someone else gets loads of feedback more than me and that made me compare myself to others too much. However, after I read a work I do try to leave feedback when I can since I'm sure the writer might feel the same way and I want to let them know I enjoyed their work, at least.

 

[Jason Wolf]

I certainly agree with the feelings here about being motivated to write without an audience. Its part of why I RP more than I write sometimes, someone literally has to be there to make it exist.

But by far the biggest one has to be varying main character. I write very much based on parts of my identity and what is going on in my life so often character are very similar as the character is me. Even when I say they are someone different and develop that in normal text that become very similar in dialogue. I want to improve it, but I just don't feel like I can develop characters that aren't like me because I can't fully understand anyone but myself.

 

[クリスタル]

Finding time and motivation to write, that's all.

I run a hectic life that I always need to think and worry about working and money. I don't really have the leisure anymore like the old days when I was still a student. Maybe my time table can become more manageable when I get use to my work, but until I can settle myself in a secured job role, life is just stressful to the point of killing every single bit of my hobby interest, not just fanfic writing.

 

[Caite-chan]

I guess my biggest problem right now is I have all these ideas for my story but I just don't feel like writing them. I mean I want to and when I sit down and get ready to I just look at it and then decide meh I don't feel like it.

 

[The Mighty Trubbish]

I think the problem most authors have (myself included) is the lack of imagination and discipline. (At least lack in imagination when it comes to writing a good respectable story) Is the idea unique and interesting enough to write about, will you be able to develop your own niche as a writer, and how will readers react to it?

How do you write a story that separates yourself from other writers? In the past month how many pokemon fanfics have you read that start out with a insert 10-17 year old MC waking up at like 7 in the morning to meet the professor and insert dickish main rival? How many of us have written that fanfiction? (Raises hand because I certainly have.) Imagination is curb stomped by a premise and story intro that was laid out for us in every mainstream game/beginning episode in the series. Following this thought, it is also apparent in fanfics that aren't about pokemon, most entry level fics just rip off the main story line with their own insert.

And even if you have a unique idea, most authors tend to rush into it and write themselves into a corner farther away from their beginning objective than intended or just completely stop writing altogether. The project is labeled a failure and quickly abandoned just to be re-purposed later into another non-thought out story. Ask yourself, How do I go about writing a story? What makes a good story? What makes a good character? What are the physics and details of my universe? This and actual writing technique are completely disregarded, proper english should always be a priority when writing, but a lot of people forget their basic grammar. (Grammar is my weakness, most of the time I am to dumb to even realize I've made a mistake.)

Realistically, writing is a long thoroughly thought out process with a lot of hit and miss scenarios. Idk, maybe I'm just talking out my ass and have completely missed the point but if not then cool.

 

[Nolafus]

I always struggle with the actual writing part. I can spend years building the plot, world, twists, and especially the characters. I can plan out the entire story, give you all the details about anything you can think of, but when it comes down to putting pen to paper, I freeze. Maybe it's the fact that writing up until that point is almost a game to me, and this is where the actual work starts, or maybe I don't want to let myself down with how the story turns out. I managed to complete one novel idea, but unfortunately I've struggled since then. I still haven't given up on my most recent one, but I haven't been working on it like I should.

 

[txteclipse]

People post fics way longer than what I wrote.

And shorter.

Just saying.

Pretty much everything Miz said holds for me. I like praise. I especially like good criticism. Both are in limited supply not just here but pretty much everywhere. There really isn't a fix, beyond possibly forming a group with other writers who are willing to do the commenty critiquey thing and don't disappear for like six years at a time.

Otherwise, I just don't feel motivated. And it's not for lack of ideas: I have metric fliptons of ideas, but whenever I sit down to write I tend to get about 200 words before I trail off. I think my brain just gets ahead of itself. I have all these scenes and visions in my head that are super awesome and amazing and then I tell my brain "okay, now describe that in words" and it goes "nope time to flop around on Tumblr." Basically, I'm lazy. I want you to experience what I'm thinking without having to go through the pain of writing it. Especially considering that good writing is hard. Have you ever tried to describe music purely through metaphor? I have. It gave me a condition.

That brings up another point, actually. Standards. Miz touched on this as well, but your writing standards can be your worst enemy when it comes to actually getting something on the page. I think I spent three hours on a sentence once. Your inner editor is not your friend, not even an acquaintance. It's a rabid dog you let loose at the end of the dinner party to chase away the guests who've stayed too long. (Dinner party = story writing process. Unwanted guests = stuff that needs to get cut out of the story. Good? Good.)

Anyway. This thread was about solutions I think. For the first one...review other peoples' stuff and don't expect much in return. You know the old adage, be the change you want to see in the world but don't expect the world to change?

For the second one, vomit-write. No seriously. Pretend writing is puking. There's crap in your brain that doesn't belong there: it belongs in your Word document. Get it out. Go spend an hour on Write or Die. Unplug the interwebnets so you're not tempted to procrastinate. Write with pen and paper if it gets you in the right mood. Light some candles.

Also, remove your backspace key. For real. It won't hurt your keyboard. Unless it does in which case I deny all responsibility. DON'T EDIT is the point here. Print that out in big bold letters and staple it to your face. Then you won't be able to see all your mistakes. You'll get rid of those later with the dog, remember?

 

[TogeKisser]

The greatest struggle for me, is Deciding on whether or not i should tell them the truth. My parent's have done horrible things to me, and i write about them in some of my stories, but most of the time, at the end i say, this was fiction, or fantasy. but really, its not. its what iv'e been through

 

[Ice1]

Insecurity about quality. I'm a pretty fast writer, and I have a lot of ideas, but I tend to doubt what I've written, and ache to do a rewrite. This is especially true with longer stuff. Another problem I have is with maintaining focus. I just randomly alt-tab with writing, and lose track, having to regain my attention again half an hour later.

 

[Adam Levine]

Damn procrastination, and school. Seriously, for some reason, most of the time, I prefer spending my time on the Internet instead of writing.

Also, I kinda have, like, four different stories to work on. It's hard keeping up with them.

 

[Miz en Scène]

Also, I kinda have, like, four different stories to work on. It's hard keeping up with them.

Lol, I have no idea what kind of schedule you must have, but that is taxing even for the best of us. I mean, if it works for you then by all means, but be careful not to burn yourself out. It's been known to happen. /friendlyadvice