forum What's The Biggest Challenge You've Faced While Writing?

Started October 11, 2019 by Deleted user

tune

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Did you overcome it?
Is it still an issue?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Being lazy. I have ideas that I want to write down, feelings that I need to explain, but then I get lazy with all the details required. I'm better at being more detailed than I was a few years ago, but it's still a struggle.

Writing myself into a corner, where I'm going down a rabbit hole I know won't really go anywhere, but I'm pressed for time and have to bullshit my way through it anyway. It sucks, man.

Making the good characters/plot.
They tie into each other, and I end up making simple characters following a loosely-strung plot that doesn't have a good ending.
It's still a problem now.

I absolutely cannot write well when I'm not fully invested in the scene. It's good-ish for creative writing since it means that I rework everything so it says interesting and there's no lulls, but it sucks for essay writing/school mandated writing and "just get it on the page!!" writing.
Also I have an issue with giving a lot of backstory to minor characters and then they become not-so-minor.

I have a really hard time keeping things simple. My plot will start out really simple and easy to work with and then my brain goes but wait there's more! and then suddenly one book turns into 6 and i'm crying surrounded by INTRIGUE

Not feeling it so not writing.

Also perfectionism.

Also way too much and not enough at the same time. Like, I can tell you why the dweorv are considered fierce warriors and why that is wrong, but do I know the middle of book one? No!

Oof the perfectionism one is too real. I'm trying to write just a short ten-page story to submit for a writing thing this month and I'm already stressing about it not being good enough/unnecessary obsessing over rewrites.

Rewrites Oh man do I struggle with those.

My biggest challenge is simply not having enough time on my plate and putting myself in a box.
The first one is simple, I just don't have much time in the day anymore to work on my projects, although the second idea is a little vaguer and requires details.
I will stack ideas upon each other, create a cohesive and functioning plot, but will be unable to work with it an produce it more after because the concept completely bores me at this point. Getting the willpower to work with it is a huge challenge, and really puts me in this box of my own ideas. However, I do manage to break through that and get progress done, but its still a current challenge for me that I must learn to combat to progress as a person.

Probably the actual writing part. I’ll spend weeks planning out the whole plot and coming up with all of the characters and personalities and such. But when it comes to the actual writing I usually can’t get very far. And when I come back to it I usually have some new ideas and have to adjust the plot and start all over…

I feel like happens to all writers. XD

What about character wise? any struggles there?

It took me waaaaaaaay to long to figure out Sorace’s personality. He was a self insert before. Ironically, he takes after me a lot. He thinks of everything as a problem to be solved, for better or worse. It can annoy many. It also is a useful tool.

Staying motivated is a big one for me. I get all excited about these ideas that I have but I don't always follow through with them. Or else I do follow through with them but I lose steam partway through.
I found last year that participating with Nanowrimo really helped me stay motivated (seriously, I'd probably still be like 7 chapters into my first draft if I hadn't participated in Nanowrimo last year). When it's not nanowrimo, I guess I find it helpful to do things that are still working on my story without actually writing it. Things like making character aesthetic boards, playlists, drawing my OCs, or just working on backstories. Writing is hard sometimes, but doing stuff like that is fun and it keeps me invested in my projects.

What about character wise? any struggles there?

I definitely tend to pick favourites. I like to pretend that I love all my characters equally, but I definitely do favour some and I invest so much time working on them that some of my other characters get kinda pushed to the side and are less developed as a result.

Probably the actual writing part. I’ll spend weeks planning out the whole plot and coming up with all of the characters and personalities and such. But when it comes to the actual writing I usually can’t get very far. And when I come back to it I usually have some new ideas and have to adjust the plot and start all over…

^^^

Keeping an actual plot straight for long enough to start writing

OR

Sounding repetitive when I actually write.