I've had several ideas over the past two months even written a bit but either don't like where I'm going with it or find some fault with it and abandon it.

I've found that some writing apps help a bit currently I'm using Celtx,ywrite, and writemonkey(for the typewriter sound).

I'd appreciate any tips or tricks you might have that could help get me out of this funk.

I'm looking for things to avoid and what-naught story wise that is, things that might help me organize my ideas into a coherent sequence of events, worst/most painful cliches etc.

 

Plan in detail, but don't worry about going off plan whilst actually writing. Thats the biggest hint I can give. If you plan, you'll have the motivation to keep writing. But when your writing you may find something you planned doesn't work as well as you thought it would, don't panic either go back to the planning stage and try to resolve it, or change it on the fly to what seems to work.

Always read over what you've written at least 24 hours after you wrote it, before posting it anywhere. What seemed like literary genius last night after you'd been up for 36 hours straight and were high as a kite on caffeine may not look quite so good in the light of day.

 

Seriously, what Mordecai said. I have about 30k that I've never posted because while what I wrote seemed like genius at the time, I read over it days later and was pretty disgusted. :|

 

Start small. Do 1k word one-shots until your style gels and you get the confidence to actually finish your ideas. Only then should you try that longer story. Check out the DLP Thank God You're Here challenges for some writing prompts. Or try your hand at the monthly DLP writing contests. Make use of the Work By Author pages to get feedback from others on the site. Be willing to listen to the feedback you receive.

Pretty much any word processor will be adequate for generating prose. Making typewriter sounds when you hit the keys isn't terribly important.

When you do start writing longer pieces, proofread your last day's writing to get yourself in the mood for pushing ahead into that day's.

Everyone's outlining techniques are different. I tend to work with a loose plot and scene outline with a few key scenes mapped out in detail. Others need more structure. Others still find even this too constraining. Learn what works for you and go with it.

Don't start a new project until you declare your present project absolutely positively not-to-be-modified-again finished. Every new idea seems shiny and awesome and fresh. Your brain, which normally can't come up with an idea to save the whales, will find twenty killer new story ideas as soon as you sit down and start any given idea. Without fail. Learn to ignore that voice in your head saying to stop what you're doing and go work on something else.

 

Alright thanks for the insight; one of the fics I have is sitting at like 20k. I mean I don't find it repulsive but it seems to have a cliche around every turn and I started weeding some out and had to re-work and it got frustrating.

I've looked at TGYH thread recently and it seems stagnant no new challenges. Anyone have something to throw at me; I can't do time limits though lol.

 

Ok, I've thrown one into the TGYH thread for you man. Nice and simple one to start off with. If you want to make a regular thing of it, I can PM you prompts whenever you want them, rather than cluttering up threads with them on a more regular basis.

 

I'm a failed fanfiction writer.

Around 5 years ago I tried my hand at writing a full length Naruto fic - one of those Naruto gets trained by Kyuubi fics (back when they weren't actually that cliche). I had a whole bunch of ideas and was really pumped about writing scenes and events further into the story.

But 40k in and I found myself having to write boring training scene after training scene until I gave up.

The thing I took away from that? If you're finding the scene boring to write, well, scrap it. There's nothing really wrong with skipping out on the uneventful things and covering it in flashbacks or whatever (to a reasonable extent). It often makes it less monotonous to read as well. Keeps you motivated.

 

This.

It's practically the fall of me as a writer, the biggest reason why I can't seem to get any of my stories done. As tempting as another plot might be, you've got to learn to resist it and finish what you're working on before moving on to the next one.

It's not easy, and I certainly haven't been able to resist working on other things despite having enough on my plate already, but as long as you manage your time spent between fics properly, you should be okay.

 

Never use too many modifiers, or otherwise bog yourself down with superfluous words. I did this during my first WbA attempt (here), and Rymrock, Swim, Toothpicks and Portus all proceeded to tear me apart for it, among other things. I used their criticisms while writing The Last Dance, which turned out much, much better than Faith, especially when I compare them side by side. I mean, Dance is a oneshot, but my writing style improved markedly between the two. And I think I will be resuming Faith at some point, I just need to get the storyline planned out. So yeah, in conclusion... be brief.

 

Carmine gives good advice. Don't try to write "beautifully" until you can write plainly but well. The only author I'd credit with beautiful prose on DLP is Swim, and from what I know it took him years of writing to get to the point where his prose was amazing and awesome.

 

Just write. That's the best advice I can give, and one I fail to follow. Don't be afraid that your writing will be garbage, that's able to be improved upon, both technically and in terms of content. Just.... put words down on paper to get in the habit of actually 'writing', if nothing else.

One-shots in various writing styles and genres are great starting points. Or just...scenes that could be part of a larger story in your mind. I'm sure there's been stories written around that awesome battle scene, that turned out to be great in their own right.

 

Have something actually happen in every chapter. That might sound obvious, but you might be surprised by how many writers forget it. It doesn't have to be a huge action scene, or a stunning plot twist, or even necessarily advance the plot significantly. Just make sure there's a point to the chapter, rather than pointless filler.

Edit: ninja'd by two posts that probably have the best advice in them.

 

What Eidolonic said. If you were thinking of an action-based fic - write it. Refine your writing technique with oneshots based on action, conversation, etc., basically all the main facets of writing. Then you're more prepared to write a decent fic that encompasses more of them (as long as you take any criticisms onboard).

 

This. Filler chapters are so fucking boring to read. Don't worry about word count - the most important thing is getting the point across. This doesn't mean you should squeeze everything into as few words as possible (though cutting down on unnecessary verbiage is a good idea), but things that aren't important should be alluded to or implied.

 

At the same time, though, some things aren't as bad as you may eventually think if you reread them too much or even if you just aren't in the right mood for them. So never delete what you wrote (or at least not immediately) and wait some more time before going back to it to officially declare it shit.

Asking for someone else's opinion is also very useful. Ignore the possible risks of embarrassment and submit your work to someone you trust at least a bit, before feeding it to the actual sharks.

Uncle Stojil

 

Maintaining productivity is a huge problem. Addressing that is more likely than not going to be your main concern, because getting better at writing is a more natural process.

You can make that process better by structuring it in various ways. On improving your craftsmanship, I recommend just keeping a Word document full of all the impressive and poetic phrases and bits of imagery you run into. For example, see something cool in a Ted Hughes poem, like:

'Rainbow their arcs, spark, or settle
Cooling like beads of molten metal'

Or something neat in a R.A. Salvatore fantasy novel, like:

'The air above the pool was veiled in steam, and
chunks of floating ice drifted through the misty waters like meandering ghost ships.'

I'm recording that bitch.

I pulled those two examples are from my own document. I have stuff from Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, J.V. Jones, George R. R. Martin, Claude Baudelaire, H.P. Lovecraft, Shakespeare, John Keats, Edgar Allan Poe, Dan Gimmell, Guy Gavriel Kay. Literary giant or no, everything goes.

It helps with your own imagination, and over time you're able to use language in a pretty way. You can't outright copy some lengthier passages, cause of, you know, plagiarism, but the intangible benefit is still there. And sometimes you can use what you read directly. A lot of evocative material comes in pairs like "forgotten lyres" or "Elysian airs" which recur amongst multiple writers and poets, which you can use yourself.

Hopes this helps.

 

Thanks it all helps. Thanks for the ideas, I especially like Andromalius's idea of making a quote file I was looking at Tennyson and a few others for making a sorting song or something. Mordecai I updated TGYH for my challenge let met know how it is please.

 

As a beginner? Just fucking write. That's what they hammer into most beginning writers in every class I attended. Just fucking write, and over time you'll get better.

Also, instead of going over your past works and shaking your head in disgust, hold those words up to the light and say, "How can I make this better?" Don't look at the shit you've produced as shit, but as a lesson to improve. (For me, this attitude still dominates everything I write. I'm never completely satisfied, which depresses me, but the end result ain't too shabby imo.)

But you may ask, "How do I make them better?"

Delete a passage and try rewording it.

Delete the scene and try rewriting it.

Does it still feel off? Is the character doing it just because you want him to? Or did you give him a reason he himself wants to?

Also, follow the advice of those above and wait before posting anything. There's a high I get when completing a scene, that fades with time. And finally, don't ever fall in love with your own words, at least not to the point where if someone criticizes it causes you to get your back up. That's pointless. We're all in this to help each other, and sometimes you will disagree with our critique. That's cool, just don't throw a tantrum about it.