What are the most frustrating things about writing?

[oggbashan]

My Muses take extended holidays and then come back with too many story ideas at once.

[Kurokami]

Mostly for me, it's a combination of being easily frustrated when I have difficulties getting my ideas down on paper, and a real propensity to get distracted. I mean, whenever I'm writing, the internet is right there within reach.

Also, for an erotica writer, I have an awfully hard time getting sex scenes to gel properly. There's something about that kind of immediate writing that just sticks in my head and refuses to work right. Sometimes, it's something I really need to struggle through.

[soflabbwlvr]

I get annoyed when a new story idea pops into my head and I don't have the means to record it. This happens most often when I am driving, but there are a multitude of other circumstances that produce this result. The frustration occurs the next time I am in front of my computer and I open my story ideas file, and all I can draw is a blank. Sometimes the idea has to pop into my head three or four times before I write it down. Sometimes it never comes back.

[Jaime_H]

The problem with writing in general:

Edit, edit, edit:
No matter how many times you edit, still you find mistakes. To be able to read what's come out of your head dispasionatley and accurately is a nightmare. The more you read it, the more you you know what's coming up and your brain fills in the blanks. Looks like my first effort on Lit needs a healthy going over...

Writing emotionally about sex is a gift some writers have. The temptaion is to become mechanical and gratuatous which isn't what erotica is all about. Well, that's may take on it!

New euphimisms for gentialia might help. One can only write 'cock' and 'pussy' so many times. The temptation is for the story to become an ubdergrad's medical journal. Or, if your British something from Viz.

No prizes for spotting typos in this reply......

[TxRad]

Originally Posted by soflabbwlvr

I get annoyed when a new story idea pops into my head and I don't have the means to record it. This happens most often when I am driving, but there are a multitude of other circumstances that produce this result. The frustration occurs the next time I am in front of my computer and I open my story ideas file, and all I can draw is a blank. Sometimes the idea has to pop into my head three or four times before I write it down. Sometimes it never comes back.

I carry a small tape recorder in the console of my truck just for such situations. I drive a lot on the way to and from jobs sometimes and ideas do pop up. I also carry it when I'm somewhere waiting and can't set up my laptop.

[soflabbwlvr]

Originally Posted by TxRad

I carry a small tape recorder in the console of my truck just for such situations. I drive a lot on the way to and from jobs sometimes and ideas do pop up. I also carry it when I'm somewhere waiting and can't set up my laptop.

My phone has a voice recorder function, but A) I never bothered to learn how it works (can't be too hard); and B) I'm always worried that one of my kids will pick up my phone and access those files. But that would solve the problem--at least when I'm driving.

[sr71plt]

Originally Posted by TxRad

I carry a small tape recorder in the console of my truck just for such situations. I drive a lot on the way to and from jobs sometimes and ideas do pop up. I also carry it when I'm somewhere waiting and can't set up my laptop.

I tried dictation and it just doesn't work for me. The cable from my brain to the page seems to be through the fingers rather than the mouth.

[TxRad]

Originally Posted by sr71plt

I tried dictation and it just doesn't work for me. The cable from my brain to the page seems to be through the fingers rather than the mouth.

I don't use it for writing as such. More for notes and an overview of what i have in mind at the time.

[sr71plt]

Originally Posted by TxRad

I don't use it for writing as such. More for notes and an overview of what i have in mind at the time.

I have to get those written down too--and, worse than that, since I can't read my own handwriting anymore, I have to get to a computer and enter them in a "notes" file.

[drteetho]

Mine are similar to many of yours, apparently.

Lack of time.
Difficulty expressing ideas in my head into written words on the page/screen.
Tendency to be too self-critical and over-edit things.

I would also add other distractions. Since all my writing is done on the computer, as I'm sure most everyone else here does, it's sometimes too easy to try surfing the web, playing games, etc. at the same time as writing. Easy to do multiple things at once... hard to do any one of them well!

[topace]

Another thing I hate: bits and pieces of stories that I just have an idea for popping into my head for no damn reason at all.

Like today, I was reading a great story at FanFiction.Net and this scene for a story that still in idea for popped into my head when I took a pause. I actually could see what was happening, like it was a movie playing in my head. Worse about it, it started in the middle of the scene and conversation they were having. Something about one of them growing to normal size (they were the size of Lego-figures) and making an artificial lake for their watercraft (police boat, ski-doos, subs, boats, etc.). It was totally disorienting for a few seconds.

[Peaches_n_cream]

Originally Posted by Jaime_H

The problem with writing in general:

Edit, edit, edit:
No matter how many times you edit, still you find mistakes. To be able to read what's come out of your head dispasionatley and accurately is a nightmare. The more you read it, the more you you know what's coming up and your brain fills in the blanks. Looks like my first effort on Lit needs a healthy going over...

Writing emotionally about sex is a gift some writers have. The temptaion is to become mechanical and gratuatous which isn't what erotica is all about. Well, that's may take on it!

New euphimisms for gentialia might help. One can only write 'cock' and 'pussy' so many times. The temptation is for the story to become an ubdergrad's medical journal. Or, if your British something from Viz.

No prizes for spotting typos in this reply......

I totally agree, we need more euphemisms besides dick, cock, and pussy:P If anyone has any good ones, please post them--I'm getting frustrated with the limitations that google has on the subject..


Not one single one of these words would ever make it's way into my stories, but I did enjoy the tallywhacker one, I might use it day to day:P


snake
cherry picker
heat-seeking moisture missle
Mister Happy
pocket rocket
pork sword
skin flute
tallywhacker
todger
tube steak
willy
crotch cobra
giggle stick
girl-o-meter
kidney cracker
little German soldier
love whistle
Old Blind Bob
pants penninsula
pecker
pocket perch
purple helmet warrior
trouser snake
Uncle Wiggly


---and then it just gets WORSE for vagina euphemisms:


Bacon strip
Badly wrapped kebab
Bajingo
Bald man in a boat
BAP (Bad Ass Pussy)
Bologna curtains
Baloney sandwich
Bearded clam
Bearded taco
Beaver
Beaver Cleaver
Beefgina
Beef curtain
Beef garage
Beef jacket
Bermuda triangle
Biff
Biffen
Birdy
Birth cannon
Bitchcake
Bizzle
Black cat with its throat cut
Black hole Of Calcunta
Blood tap
Blurt
Bone hone
Bone yard
Boogina
Bottomless pit
Box
Box lunch at the Y
Boy in the boat
Breakfast
Breakfast of champions
Buhgina
Bulldog’s lip
Bunny
Bush

[TinyBeth]

Originally Posted by Jaime_H

New euphimisms for gentialia might help. One can only write 'cock' and 'pussy' so many times. The temptation is for the story to become an ubdergrad's medical journal. Or, if your British something from Viz.

No prizes for spotting typos in this reply......

Oh boy do I have to agree with that one. Having to constantly hit a thesaurus page; not just for euphemisms for genitals but also for new ways to say "feeling" and "sensation" "caress" and "stroke" is the hardest part for me. That and the fact that I can't write if my husband is sitting next to me on the couch so he has to give me privacy. I just can't do it with someone reading every word as I write it. Oddly enough he prefers to have me watch while he writes.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Originally Posted by topace

Another thing I hate: bits and pieces of stories that I just have an idea for popping into my head for no damn reason at all.

Like today, I was reading a great story at FanFiction.Net and this scene for a story that still in idea for popped into my head when I took a pause. I actually could see what was happening, like it was a movie playing in my head. Worse about it, it started in the middle of the scene and conversation they were having. Something about one of them growing to normal size (they were the size of Lego-figures) and making an artificial lake for their watercraft (police boat, ski-doos, subs, boats, etc.). It was totally disorienting for a few seconds.

God invented notebooks for these things.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Originally Posted by TxRad

I don't use it for writing as such. More for notes and an overview of what i have in mind at the time.

Dear Reader

Ol TEX has a drop down oxygen mask fall upon him whenever his 2 cycle mind switches from breathing to chewing gum.

[SevenSquared]

Most annoying thing is when I know where my characters are and I know where I want them to get to, but for the life of me I can't work out a sensible path between the two.

[StephenMiletus]

Not being able to properly research sex scenes for my work in progress. Last time I was performing research, my wife got a charley horse. That ruined the mood & I had to stop my research.

And it kills the mood when I stop to take notes, too!

[annanova]

Originally Posted by SevenSquared

Most annoying thing is when I know where my characters are and I know where I want them to get to, but for the life of me I can't work out a sensible path between the two.

I had that problem with two of my characters. They were supposed to explore the city and they insisted on staying in bed in the hotel! At least it turned out to be a good scene.