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why am i not writing??

argh!
in the last month ive wrote about 2000 totally rubbish words!
i just cant do it anymore! my 'novel' is still stuck at 40,000 with no editing done (although i now have it all printed off ready to continue editing)

i have about 5million ideas, qoutes, thoughts, jokes and stories but they refuse be put to paper!
sorry for the moan, i just dont know what to do.

Comments

  • Yky, it's a predicament we all get into from time to time. The plain truth of it is your work won't be perfect at the moment and your negative side will try and make this the main focus of your thoughts. You have to remember the editing process is a long winding road, that changes your story each and every day. No matter what you start off with, it will be drastically changed with each draft. Whether it's a complete structural overhaul, a character change, or even just tweaking the order of chapters and paragraphs what you have now will differ greatly from the end product. This part of you telling you your work is rubbish is a useful tool for a writer. Never lose it, in fact embrace it, just learn to limit it's influence. It will tell you to give up, but what you need to do is rewrite, or just finish writhing in the first place. A single sentence, even a single word, can change the entire meaning of a novel, so you can't truly assess the quality of your work until you have a finished piece to play with. Finish a draft of your novel, putting your negative voice on a lower setting, and then take a proper look at what you have written. It's much easier to edit a full draft, and by that time you might have had a complete rethink or stroke of creative genius to help turn your novel into the masterpiece you know it can be! Good luck, and keep up the good work. 40,000 is amazing!
  • By the way sorry about the awful formatting, I wrote the above on the bus on my mobile :P
  • edited August 2010
    hey yippee kye yay....been there. Take it easy on yourself, you've done a good amount. Now you need to treat yourself to a drink of something you like and a meal of something you like too. Then you can go back to your computer. Doctor's orders.
  • Hello Yippee, think of it this way; you're having a clean out. The good stuff will come soon.
  • Hi Yippee. Your predicament is so common, Every writer I know has had the same problem at some time or other. I'm in the doldrums at this very moment. I published my last book - a non fiction history book - a few months ago and nothing creative has happened since. I have five unfinished symphonies on disc and have run out of steam on all of them. Suddenly your bright idea loses its glow and the enthusiasm goes. My past strategy has been to put it away and start something - entirely different but look at the results - five unfinished novels! If you come up with the definitive solution do let us all know. At least I can assure you, you are not alone - far from it.
  • Yips, check in on my writing progress thread. The pushing helps ...
    Norcot, ditto!

    Basically, write anything. Keep what you write in a separate folder/directory, get it out of your system, then try again. One day, go back to the 'rubbish' and see what gems there are there.
  • I'm with Dorothy here - write it all down, even if you think it's rubbish right now. It may be just the nudge you need for starting something better later on, and in the meantime, you have not lost the, also very necessary, ability to plod on regardless.
  • thanks everyone its so encouraging to know other writers go through this at some point or other.

    dorothy i spent quite a while last night reading through your progress thread and ive got to say i felt so inspired, i knew exactly what i was going to write next... until i opened up my document and bam! nothing there!

    i'm going to spend half an hour on here and then im locking myself in my bedroom to get some work done. i'm dedicating the night to work on a christmas storybook which ive had in the planning stages for a while now. hopefully a change will do me some good!
    thanks again everyone.
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