How do you stay focused on one story?

Jada59 said:

Mine are Lit pages.

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Is that Lit pages on a computer or Lit pages on a phone or tablet? They are different.

Zeb_Carter said:

Is that Lit pages on a computer or Lit pages on a phone or tablet? They are different.

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Out of curiosity, how do phones break the page? I thought a Lit page always broke around the 3,750 word mark, because that's how it stores in the database. My tablet is no different to my computer - the page break is dictated by the feed from Lit, not the device. I've never read anything on a phone, hence the curiosity.

How do you stay focused on one story?

Jessicathe69 said:

How do you stay focused on one story?

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Jessica, it's really hard to stay focused on one story. I have 7 published stories and about 30 starts which I can never focus on without moving to another, or getting hard, or whatever. So I have been trying to get into RPs with other Litsters and writing more but in smaller grabs. That way you get to write several stories at once and don't get bogged down or blocked. If you turn on your contact info we can talk more. Eric

electricblue66 said:

Out of curiosity, how do phones break the page? I thought a Lit page always broke around the 3,750 word mark, because that's how it stores in the database. My tablet is no different to my computer - the page break is dictated by the feed from Lit, not the device. I've never read anything on a phone, hence the curiosity.

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There is no difference I can see, if you view the story in a browser on your phone. The pagination is exactly the same. It's very different if you view the story via the Literotica app -- the pages are much shorter.

Jessicathe69 said:

How do you stay focused on one story?

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If your mind/muse challenges you on this maybe you're being too dogged about focusing on the wrong thing at that moment. If my muse keeps grabbing at me, I go with it. Then my mind's clearer when I come back to whatever I set aside.

SimonDoom said:

There is no difference I can see, if you view the story in a browser on your phone. The pagination is exactly the same. It's very different if you view the story via the Literotica app -- the pages are much shorter.

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Okay, ta. I think I'll stick to the kindle. At least I can see the screen, and every feather on the...

...oops .

gordo12 said:

I feel your pain. I currently have two stories submitted and 85 in my draft folder. Something bites me and out comes one to add to.

It's like running a day care center with 85 whiny me, me kids!

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That's a lot for the drafts folder!

To use a baseball analogy, think of the drafts as the dugout where your starting line-up is kept. Of those, probably one is always about to go to the on-deck circle. (Actually having three or four drafts at most, not eight or so, works better for me but that's of course flexible.)

You'll then have stories that are on your computer but not in the drafts folder. They're at the ball park but not on the starting team yet. They may be called on at some point if warranted.

Then there are stories that may be computer files or maybe just written notes, but these are not at the stadium; they're somewhere else on a farm team. Some of these will eventually move up to the major leagues but a few may not make it and drop out of the game entirely.

electricblue66 said:

Out of curiosity, how do phones break the page? I thought a Lit page always broke around the 3,750 word mark, because that's how it stores in the database. My tablet is no different to my computer - the page break is dictated by the feed from Lit, not the device. I've never read anything on a phone, hence the curiosity.

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It's actually the Lit App that controls the pages on the android device and then it depends on the font size you pick. With the font size I use, the page is approx. 90 words long. Which means that even a one page lit story on a computer is 41 pages long on my phone.

Trying to keep this ON TOPIC:

How do you stay focused on one story?

Thanks to all who contribute to the topic!

Short answer: badly!

Longer answer: I have to set myself deadlines. 3,000 words by Sunday, for instance. Then I have to summon the self-discipline to actually do it.

That said, if I'm really into a story, I will lavish time on it with no trouble at all. This is especially true at the start of new projects. Once I'm past the honeymoon stage, though, the real work begins.

Jessicathe69 said:

Trying to keep this ON TOPIC:

How do you stay focused on one story?

Thanks to all who contribute to the topic!

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I write three stories a year, 20-30K words per story (6-9 LitE pages).

Stay focused? To me, it's not important that I stay focused. I write because I enjoy writing. If, on a given day, there's something more appealing to do with my free time than write, I don't write. It's not like I'm getting paid to publish stories, or I'll every use the success of my incest stories to get me a real writing job.

One thing I do is have the whole story plotted out in my head before I start. My stories IMHO have elaborate plots, and it's exciting to me to get all of the twists and turns down on (electronic) paper. When I first start writing, I'm immersed in my story, thinking about it all the time. It's usually easy to make a lot of progress early on.

When most of the story is written, I frequently hit times where I want to write but can't get myself to. That happens most often when I have to write a sex scene. The more vanilla the sex scene, the harder it is to motivate myself to write it. I was stuck on the story I'm working on currently for a long time because I couldn't get myself to write the final fuck. What I find helps is to find a porn video of a fuck that's like what I want in the story. Then it becomes more like transcribing instead of writing.

I haven't read all the posts, so I may be repeating, and except for one little 'doodle' I don't write on Lit.

I am generally working on at least three things at a time - diverting from one to the other when ideas occur to me or I can't immediately figure out how to structure a scene or sequence. I find that mini 'vacations' from a piece allow things to swirl around in your subconscious and produce little 'ahas' that seep out of your brain as a surprise. Not always, but maybe (guessing) 60% of the time.

Only one answer

Discipline/Willpower

Start a story and stick to it.

Jessicathe69 said:

Trying to keep this ON TOPIC:

How do you stay focused on one story?

Thanks to all who contribute to the topic!

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Sorry . AH threads have a tendency to go off topic, it's just what happens. We loose focus and our mind wanders off onto other things. Like more story ideas.

So a nagging mind, "write only one thing at a time," can be a good idea. As I mentioned above, discipline is key, if you want to minimise distractions (AH is one of my distractions, which is why this thread got... distracted).

Focus? Ha. I don't. A story or arc wants to be written, or I really DO want to write it, then it gets written -- or else it's not written anytime soon. Whatever.

I am supported in comfort. Writing pr0n is not my job. I need not focus, work, produce, yada yada, not unless I want that certain emotional tang, that zip when words become substance. Laying that wordy egg is its own reward.

Focus: It is an effort that is sometimes elusive, but sometimes comes easily.

There are times, I have the focus to write and I sit in front of the computer typing away until my back hurts. Then there are times I sit down to write and take a deep breath and get up and walk away trying to psych myself up to write some more.

Stay on a single story has become a problem lately. I have so many I want to write that there is a conflict within my mind as to which I will work on any single day.

Reshbod said:

That is my main problem as well. I'll be working on one story then something completely different pops into my head and I can't focus on the original one. Often, the stories are so different that I really can't merge them together. It is very frustrating.

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This may help. I've found that if a story is reaching or is at some point of viability it's worth printing out a hard copy and reading it that way. Somehow seeing it in print is different, more tangible (?), than what's on a screen. Even if the story is "stuck" somewhere printing it may be worthwhile.

I also think it's easier to edit and proofread on paper. But then again I'm kind of a geezer who remembers publishing from the days of photo-offset printing - an age not completely digital yet.

Jessicathe69 said:

How do you stay focused on one story when you may have a half-dozen stories forming in your head? Right now I have four that I've started typing out in Word - and it's been so much fun doing that - but I've got four or more I've got started in my head and nothing seems to be happening on screen right now.

Any positive and helpful advice from seasoned writers?

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While this long thread was going on I thought of a simpler answer.

When you get story ideas in your head definitely write some notes about them. These can be on a computer but some people like to write in a notebook. That way you won't forget what you thought and you'll have something to refer to in the future.

Don't actually start writing those stories right away. If you're the kind of writer who is comfortable doing one (or a few) things at a time, get back to them later when the previous work is finished.

gunhilltrain said:

When you get story ideas in your head definitely write some notes about them. These can be on a computer but some people like to write in a notebook. That way you won't forget what you thought and you'll have something to refer to in the future.

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My standby has been a small voice recorder -- cassette a couple decades ago, digital more recently. Walking, lounging, driving, bicycling, building on any rhythm in any space, the ideas just spew, words flow, songs and essays and stories write themselves. If quiet is needed, like middle-of-the-night in the housecar, I key an outline or notes into the Android tablet and email to myself for retrieval on the laptop. Or scribble into a notepad, and hope I can read it and my partner can't.

I don't. I've got 8 drafts in the box in various stages of completion, two or three of which are getting most of my attention.
Write what you feel like writing at the moment. If you are forcing yourself, it will show.