staying focused (ish)
One of my inner battles involves honing in on one writing idea and progressively attacking it until completion. I have a multitude of novel ideas, floating and meandering and wandering in and out of my head, and I can't seem to lock onto one and work through it. Just when I start in on one, I think about another idea and wonder if maybe I have that one more realized in my head than the others, so I switch gears.
I have tried to focus in the past, have even written a considerable amount of words on novels, but I get stymied whenever I find that the world building isn't deep enough, the story not plotted enough, the characters not developed. Some people can just throw themselves at a story, and keep going without having all the details in their head and still manage to come out with something interesting and readable. I am not one of those writers.
Perhaps that's why I do so well with poetry, which allows for a more free flow form of thoughts. I still have to come back and edit it into a form that functions, but because they are short, it's not a big deal if I set aside one poem, letting it gestate while I play around with another one.
That doesn't work so much with fiction. If you try to jump from novel to novel you will never finish any of them. Or, at least, that's what I've found.
Mostly my novel writing involves my going *poke, poke* at an idea to see if its done ripening yet. I don't think things are just going to come together on their own though. I think I'm going to have to actively work out the beats and flush out an outline, and then do the writing work, and then deal with the whole editing thing. None of which is surprising to anyone who's ever done any writing at all.
First step, though, is to pick an idea (one idea), get to work on it, and keep working on it.
I have tried to focus in the past, have even written a considerable amount of words on novels, but I get stymied whenever I find that the world building isn't deep enough, the story not plotted enough, the characters not developed. Some people can just throw themselves at a story, and keep going without having all the details in their head and still manage to come out with something interesting and readable. I am not one of those writers.
Perhaps that's why I do so well with poetry, which allows for a more free flow form of thoughts. I still have to come back and edit it into a form that functions, but because they are short, it's not a big deal if I set aside one poem, letting it gestate while I play around with another one.
That doesn't work so much with fiction. If you try to jump from novel to novel you will never finish any of them. Or, at least, that's what I've found.
Mostly my novel writing involves my going *poke, poke* at an idea to see if its done ripening yet. I don't think things are just going to come together on their own though. I think I'm going to have to actively work out the beats and flush out an outline, and then do the writing work, and then deal with the whole editing thing. None of which is surprising to anyone who's ever done any writing at all.
First step, though, is to pick an idea (one idea), get to work on it, and keep working on it.