Ever get the feeling that you are in way over your head?

You start a story with a solid idea and all the enthusiasm in the world. As you go on, you realize this story is much more convoluted and intricately woven than you realized. You go on, still liking the outline. Even further ahead, you realize that you, as a writer, are still miles away from being good enough to pull this off.

Think of it as a casual pianist suddenly wanting to try Rachmaninoff's second sonata (rumored to be the hardest piece of all time). You know it will sound incredible if and only if executed perfectly by someone several orders of magnitude more skilled than yourself. Worse, it has the potential to sound awful if not done well.

So here I am, with an idea and not yet enough skill to do justice to its potential. To complicate matters, my muse won't let me sleep (would have sounded better had she been a real person ).

Sigh... back to writing. 12000 words down, God knows how many to go.

Here's a thought:forget the solid idea. Forget the carefully conceived outline. Just write the next sentence. And then ask yourself: What happens next? And then: And what happens after that? And maybe in 3,00 words, 5,000 words, you may find yourself pushing back from your keyboard and saying: So that's what it was all about. That was the story that was trying to get out. Oh, yeah! Time to send it off to Laurel.

I haven't had the feeling yet, no, and I'd really rather not have the feeling.

Certainly have. I usually have these ideas that start so incredibly simple, and before I know it they are these complex and exhausting stories, with much more detail and requiring a lot more work. Somewhere along the way, you start to wonder if you're going to actually be able to pull it all together. If it will work the way you wanted it to. The demons of doubt crawl up my legs often when writing. You doubt the way you've written it, and wonder if another writer could take the concept and spin the tale in a much better way. And mostly, you worry if readers will even enjoy the concept that you were so excited about in the first place.

But at some point, I realized the feeling wasn't real. It's a trick of the mind. I always have to remind myself this. And actually, I've learned to accept the fear and doubt. Because they are necessary. They make me strive to do better and not grow complacent. And I remind myself that other writers (better writers?) could take my concept and write it differently. But... not better necessarily. A mind's eye cannot be stolen or even replicated. No one can see that vision I had for a story. If I cannot write it, no one can. Sure they could be well versed or better at handling a concept, their grammar and punc impeccable, their organizational skills of writing more honed.

But they are not you. Every writer has his/her own flavor. Each story starts with that one vision or idea, the thing that moved you to weave the tale. That vision is what will bleed through. Things don't always turn out as we plan. But they don't always turn out terrible.

I recently made a switch in how I write. I start at the ass end. I don't know anything but the end when I open WORD to write.

One I'm writing ends with a woman murdering a niece she loves more than anything.

So fucking what? Is the next step. Maybe the niece is a major problem for the aunt.

Again why? Maybe the niece wants something the aunt has.

And after a while you get to the beginning and the initial cause. The cause must always fit the effect.

A writer like Tolstoy ends WAR and PEACE with a resolution that requires decades to bring to harvest, and answers the fundamental human problem: HOW DO I BECOME MATURE. No question he knew the answer when he started writing, ditto ANNA KARENINA.

JAMESBJOHNSON said:

I recently made a switch in how I write. I start at the ass end. I don't know anything but the end when I open WORD to write.

One I'm writing ends with a woman murdering a niece she loves more than anything.

So fucking what? Is the next step. Maybe the niece is a major problem for the aunt.

Again why? Maybe the niece wants something the aunt has.

And after a while you get to the beginning and the initial cause. The cause must always fit the effect.

A writer like Tolstoy ends WAR and PEACE with a resolution that requires decades to bring to harvest, and answers the fundamental human problem: HOW DO I BECOME MATURE. No question he knew the answer when he started writing, ditto ANNA KARENINA.

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I usually have an ending in mind when I begin, but my latest story just refused to go there. I ended up with a different story than I thought I would. Once I let the ending go where it wanted, my struggle to finish the story disappeared.

Many times and I embrace the challenge.

If you've never had the over your head feeling then that means you've continued to play in the shallow end of the pool in your comfort zone

Its sink or swim when you take on something beyond what you think is your limit

Its good to have to work for it that keeps you sharp and always improving.

Any writer who says they have never been where you are is either lying or happy to dwell in their comfort zone

Or they see the deep end of the pool as an opportunity to show that they can swim, not as being in over their head.

LaRascasse said:

So here I am, with an idea and not yet enough skill to do justice to its potential.

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I know that NOTHING I write can live up to the plot-bunny potential. I proceed with writing anyway.

Lots of my submissions are adaptations of journal accounts, not three-act dramas, and such need no dramatic resolution. Events happen; life goes on to the next event; et cetera.

Some of my non-journal tales were adapted from other storylines and thus have resolutions built into them. Good thing, 'cause I'm lousy at resolutions. I need to plagiarize more.

My one original idea so far, BRIDE OF KONG, languished in my head for close to a decade 'cause I couldn't think of an ending. I finally let the characters write their own story, and then I wrote an addendum with a half-dozen different endings. Got THAT covered, anyway.

I've a folder with a half-dozen half-finished good stories, just waiting for inspired resolutions. Well, I know how a couple of those will end; I'm just not sure yet how to get there. Gotta keep writing, ya?

Over my head? No. Overwhelmed, yes.

The first thing I ever wrote ended up being a 287 page novel. Not a good novel maybe but I went about it just like I have the five I have published in mainstream since. One paragraph at a time.

At first it looks overwhelming but go back to the one line at a time and it will write itself. Well, if you do the research and digest what you find.

You're a writer, so write.

Hypoxia said:

I know that NOTHING I write can live up to the plot-bunny potential. I proceed with writing anyway.

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I'd say that just about all of my stories exceed in final form what I saw in them for plot-bunny potential. That may be because I start writing on the basis of only a few notes with my muse being far ahead of my consciousness on what I'm writing.

I have backed off on stories that I didn't feel I was ready to write. One story that I want to start soon requires more background material than I currently have at my command. It delves into a field I know nothing about, so I'm trying to learn a few concepts before I tackle that subject. I don't want my ignorance to be readily apparent.

I have also held back on writing stories where I didn't think I had the requisite skill to pull off. I could plug away at it and then keep subjecting it to numerous rewrites until I get it right. Instead, I've chosen to push myself in other directions where I think I'm ready to expand. My last two stories have been unlike anything I did before, and once I gain a little more experience I'll revisit some of those outlines that now appear rather daunting.

soflabbwlvr said:

I have backed off on stories that I didn't feel I was ready to write. One story that I want to start soon requires more background material than I currently have at my command. It delves into a field I know nothing about, so I'm trying to learn a few concepts before I tackle that subject. I don't want my ignorance to be readily apparent.

I have also held back on writing stories where I didn't think I had the requisite skill to pull off. I could plug away at it and then keep subjecting it to numerous rewrites until I get it right. Instead, I've chosen to push myself in other directions where I think I'm ready to expand. My last two stories have been unlike anything I did before, and once I gain a little more experience I'll revisit some of those outlines that now appear rather daunting.

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I find that its easy to get a heated quarrel going regardless of knowledge and experience. I had a heated conversation with my sister about our father, she's 7 years younger than me yet believes she's an authority on events that happened before she was born. I was there! She thinks he served in Korea, he didn't, his brother Frank went to Korea.

JAMESBJOHNSON said:

I find that its easy to get a heated quarrel going regardless of knowledge and experience. I had a heated conversation with my sister about our father, she's 7 years younger than me yet believes she's an authority on events that happened before she was born. I was there! She thinks he served in Korea, he didn't, his brother Frank went to Korea.

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I just had that on a story comment. Told to do my research and my response was that my research was that I was there. (The issue probably being that the commenter is stuck in the "now" and this was a "then" story.)

There is a point in every project when I panic, mostly because I try to force together things that aren't a natural fit. If it's an online class I'm writing, a new unit, a game or activity, I remind myself that I'm a pro, and I can handle it. I push past panic and finish.

When I get overwhelmed with a story, I take the opposite approach. I'm new at this. Nobody expects it to be any good. If I can't get past panic, I do a crossword puzzle or read a book and try again later.

Somehow I always connect the dots in the end.

sr71plt said:

I just had that on a story comment. Told to do my research and my response was that my research was that I was there. (The issue probably being that the commenter is stuck in the "now" and this was a "then" story.)

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Uh-huh. I once got told I was a liar for mentioning that back in the 1980s, my parents found a kilogram of pure heroin while cleaning out my grandparents' house after my grandmother died.

It's really not that remarkable a story: heroin was a legal prescription painkiller until 1953 (around 30 years later than in the USA). Grandpa was a MD and something of a hoarder, and after he died in the late '60s my grandma was afraid to touch his stuff (not without reason - he also had a bottle of concentrated H2SO4 and other nasties) so it just sat there until she died.

But this person - a nurse - was so hung up on HEROIN IS EVUUUUUL that she could not comprehend that it might once have been legal, even after I pointed her to references.

Disposing of it, now, that was a tricky problem.

LaRascasse said:

You start a story with a solid idea and all the enthusiasm in the world. As you go on, you realize this story is much more convoluted and intricately woven than you realized. You go on, still liking the outline. Even further ahead, you realize that you, as a writer, are still miles away from being good enough to pull this off.

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I started writing a short fantasy story back in December, and it ended up mutating into something that probably needs a full-length novel with a lot of effort on world-building and has almost none of the original characters. Hooray mission creep!

I'm going to give it a go anyway, but it'll probably take me a year or more.

sr71plt said:

I just had that on a story comment. Told to do my research and my response was that my research was that I was there. (The issue probably being that the commenter is stuck in the "now" and this was a "then" story.)

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Sure. You have perfect authority for your claim....you wuz there.

JAMESBJOHNSON said:

Sure. You have perfect authority for your claim....you wuz there.

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Speaking of which, I just heard a news report on Cannabis University in Tampa Bay. Was you there?

sr71plt said:

Speaking of which, I just heard a news report on Cannabis University in Tampa Bay. Was you there?

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LOL Prolly. But back then we called it Commuter U. The college closest to my home is Pasco-Hernando College but we call it Pixley-Hooterville College.

I had someone tell me I had no idea what I was talking about when I referenced an occult work in a story.

A spin in my chair and I'm facing a copy of it in my book case(copy being the key word original would be pretty impossible to locate never mind afford)

It never occurred to me to reply and try to prove myself.

Unlike others my ego is not so fragile I must argue with people through a keyboard to prove myself right.

Like my AV says. Whatever.

http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_13019.shtml

The reporter is speaking from an old cigar factory along I-4 and 22nd Street in Ybor City; it was a U Haul storage facility for many years. Its also located next door to the Hillsborough County Sheriff Administrative Bldg. Some of the pupils look suspiciously like deputies.

lovecraft68 said:

I had someone tell me I had no idea what I was talking about when I referenced an occult work in a story.

A spin in my chair and I'm facing a copy of it in my book case(copy being the key word original would be pretty impossible to locate never mind afford)

It never occurred to me to reply and try to prove myself.

Unlike others my ego is not so fragile I must argue with people through a keyboard to prove myself right.

Like my AV says. Whatever.

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I win lotsa bets.

JAMESBJOHNSON said:

I win lotsa bets.

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But it's interesting how Lovecraft68 turns whatever he can into a personal attack on the forum.

Talk about obsession and insecurity.

JAMESBJOHNSON said:

http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_13019.shtml

The reporter is speaking from an old cigar factory along I-4 and 22nd Street in Ybor City; it was a U Haul storage facility for many years. Its also located next door to the Hillsborough County Sheriff Administrative Bldg. Some of the pupils look suspiciously like deputies.

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Yep, that's the one. CNN interviewed the university "president" today. Lots of fun--and thinking ahead.