Advice for jumping back into writing?

[sillypanda]

Due to forces beyond my control (isn't that always the way), I haven't been able to write for a good week or so.

I went back to the story I've been working on and can't seem to get back into the mindset I had when I was writing before - anything I try to do seems jarring, as if it's completely changing the flow.

I've tried going back farther and rewriting, but I seem to like what I had before better than what I'm rewriting now.

Does anyone have any advice for getting back into writing after an absence, or specifically how to recapture the flow you had started with an unfinished story?

As always, any advice you can offer is extremely appreciated!

Thank you very much!

- SP

 

[Bebeslut]

Print out what you've got up to the point you stopped last week. Open a new file, then just start retyping from the printout. By the time you hitting the stopping point, your juices may be flowing again.

 

[_Lynn_]

Let it go and start something fresh. If one day you feel like going back to it, great.

 

[sillypanda]

That's a great idea Bebe - thank you! I'll have to give that a try!

And also a great suggestion Lynn - thank you! If the retype doesn't work, I can set it aside for a while and start something new!

Thank you both for your excellent ideas! :*

 

[lovecraft68]

Due to forces beyond my control (isn't that always the way), I haven't been able to write for a good week or so.

I went back to the story I've been working on and can't seem to get back into the mindset I had when I was writing before - anything I try to do seems jarring, as if it's completely changing the flow.

I've tried going back farther and rewriting, but I seem to like what I had before better than what I'm rewriting now.

Does anyone have any advice for getting back into writing after an absence, or specifically how to recapture the flow you had started with an unfinished story?

As always, any advice you can offer is extremely appreciated!

Thank you very much!

- SP

I've used both methods the other author's suggested and I will give you one more that sometimes works fro me. I f you have written other stories go back and reread them sometimes that will kick your mind back into gear. Another trick which may only work for me but try it. Is at night and first thing in the morning when you are half asleep that is when the mind os most fertile, let the story run through your mind what you have written and just drift. I get a lot of ideas that way. It's when the "muse" strikes so to speak. Or it could just be those burritos I shouldn't have had. Good luck!

 

[Bebeslut]

That's a great idea Bebe - thank you! I'll have to give that a try!

And also a great suggestion Lynn - thank you! If the retype doesn't work, I can set it aside for a while and start something new!

Thank you both for your excellent ideas! :*

Wasn't actually my idea, I got it from a professional writer in one of those books about how to be a professional writer. Hope it works for you.

 

[mynameisben]

It may well be that you are reluctant to go back to your story because it has a weakness you are unable to identify, but your intuition tells you there's something terribly amiss. You might want to give your story to someone you trust and ask for honest critical feedback. If someone can point out a flaw in your story that has been eluding you, you'll at least have an incentive to fix it. Then, with that ugliness out of the way, you might regain the will to move it forward.

 

[sr71plt]

Take a break and do something else. When it's time to come back to writing, you'll know it is and there won't be any blockage.

 

[SamScribble]

A friend of mine who – also for reasons beyond her control – often has two or three weeks off a project has a little ‘trick’ which you might like to try.

When she finds herself having difficulty reconnecting with a project, she writes a critical review of the project to date. She says it’s important to actually write it and not just think it. It doesn’t have to be long. Around 300 – 400 words works for her. But by the time she has completed her review, she’s either back in the grove or she’s spotted a serious flaw in the work to date.

I’ve only used the trick once myself, but it worked a treat.

Good luck.

 

[CharleyH]

Due to forces beyond my control (isn't that always the way), I haven't been able to write for a good week or so.

I went back to the story I've been working on and can't seem to get back into the mindset I had when I was writing before - anything I try to do seems jarring, as if it's completely changing the flow.

I've tried going back farther and rewriting, but I seem to like what I had before better than what I'm rewriting now.

Does anyone have any advice for getting back into writing after an absence, or specifically how to recapture the flow you had started with an unfinished story?

As always, any advice you can offer is extremely appreciated!

Thank you very much!

- SP

Get up earlier than everyone in your house for one. In a quiet zone? Everything falls into place. Beyond that? Headphones. Play those songs that mood you in your story zone ... over and over. Much luck.

 

[sr71plt]

Get up earlier than everyone in your house for one. In a quiet zone? Everything falls into place. Beyond that? Headphones. Play those songs that mood you in your story zone ... over and over. Much luck.

I work the other end. My best writing time is after the rest of the house has settled down for the night.

 

[CharleyH]

I work the other end. My best writing time is after the rest of the house has settled down for the night.

We all work on different time structures, I forgot to point that out. Thanks for pointing that out, though, SR7. Whatever works ... me morning, you night, as long as we write, right.

 

[sillypanda]

A friend of mine who – also for reasons beyond her control – often has two or three weeks off a project has a little ‘trick’ which you might like to try.

When she finds herself having difficulty reconnecting with a project, she writes a critical review of the project to date. She says it’s important to actually write it and not just think it. It doesn’t have to be long. Around 300 – 400 words works for her. But by the time she has completed her review, she’s either back in the grove or she’s spotted a serious flaw in the work to date.

I’ve only used the trick once myself, but it worked a treat.

Good luck.

Thank you all very much for your suggestions! I really appreciate it!

I've managed to get back into the flow for now, but I will definitely still employ a lot of these ideas for when I get stuck AND also just in general!

I especially love the idea quoted above - as the saying goes, most of us are our own toughest critics! Whether I get stuck or not, I'll definitely do this with a story before I post it, or even give it to others for feedback!

Thanks again everyone, and best of luck to all of you as well! :*

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Hopefully this is just a trivial matter of getting back into it, but I think it should be mentioned that there are a lot of reasons we might lose interest in a project, some of them minor, some of them major, and maybe justified. There's nothing that guarantees that everything we start will be finished, or deserves to be, and I think it's a pretty poor artist who doesn't have a stack of abandoned junk lying around: half-baked ideas, poorly executed scenes, stubbornly flat characters, whatever.

I'm kind of an impulsive writer so maybe this happens to me more than to others, but I've had what seemed like great ideas fizzle in the time it took me to get them halfway onto paper. I've had scenes turn out to be so difficult to pull off that I just lost enthusiasm for the rest of the story. I've got a lot of stuff I walked away from.

I guess what I'm saying is, for me at least, if I can't climb back into that place where the story seems fresh and exciting and emotionally involving to me, I'm not going to wear myself out trying to fake it just for the sake of finishing the damned thing. Quality's more important than quantity as I see it.

 

[_Lynn_]

Hopefully this is just a trivial matter of getting back into it, but I think it should be mentioned that there are a lot of reasons we might lose interest in a project, some of them minor, some of them major, and maybe justified. There's nothing that guarantees that everything we start will be finished, or deserves to be, and I think it's a pretty poor artist who doesn't have a stack of abandoned junk lying around: half-baked ideas, poorly executed scenes, stubbornly flat characters, whatever.

I'm kind of an impulsive writer so maybe this happens to me more than to others, but I've had what seemed like great ideas fizzle in the time it took me to get them halfway onto paper. I've had scenes turn out to be so difficult to pull off that I just lost enthusiasm for the rest of the story. I've got a lot of stuff I walked away from.

I guess what I'm saying is, for me at least, if I can't climb back into that place where the story seems fresh and exciting and emotionally involving to me, I'm not going to wear myself out trying to fake it just for the sake of finishing the damned thing. Quality's more important than quantity as I see it.

I agree and have said many times that not all ideas have to be or will be a finished story. Fighting with a piece to make it work disrupts the flow, in my opinion. Either the idea will become a story or it will become another document in the 'unfinished' folder. Completing every idea I start isn't going to happen, but each piece counts toward improvement.

 

[sillypanda]

Thank you both!

Very true, I have quite a few pieces (though not erotica, since I just recently started writing in this genre) that got off to a wonderful start and then fizzled out.

Fortunately I managed to get back into this one - I think the problem was more switching from left brain back to right brain after letting it atrophy for a while - but I definitely agree, some pieces are best left unfinished!

Have a great evening all!