Bottlenecks in writing

[NotWise]

This came out more about me than I thought it would, but here it is anyway...

Early on in my writing the worst bottlenecks I had were caused by scene transitions.

The simple "*****" as a standalone paragraph is effective for a complete break and reset, but in most cases I want a continuity of thought across the scene change, not a break. I eventually found changes that did what I wanted -- sometimes changing scenes between clauses in a sentence.

Transitions are still a bottleneck, but they aren't the problem they were and I expect that as I get more experience the problem will subside. Does experience cure all?

My current worst problem is with emotional scenes. Maybe it's because I'm a guy. It isn't like I don't have emotions, but I'm trained to keep them to myself--to NOT express emotions. With some of my earlier stories I simply made potentially emotional scenes more sexual and less emotional. As my writing develops I find that I have to confront my characters' emotions.

It takes me a lot of work to write an emotional scene. There's a goodbye scene in my in-progress chapters that I've written three times--each completely different. It takes a while for me to sort out how a character will feel in a situation, how they will express themselves, and how to describe it.

Is this another problem that will go away with experience? I'm starting to think that this is actually "the" problem for me.

How do you deal with it?

 

[sr71plt]

I just try to be inside the scene myself, blank everything but the scene out, and not let anything get between me and the computer keyboard (easier now that the cats are dead).

 

[Hypoxia]

My greatest obstacle: not writing.

When writing, my worst bottleneck: deciding which path to follow -- does a jilted lover go vengeful, or morose, or free & wild, or into exile, or what?

If I've got that sorted out, the next quandary: devising a satisfying twist.

The rest is easy.

 

[SamScribble]

It may sound a little silly, but I usually spend a bit of time thinking about the character before I start writing the scene. And, if I get this right, it's just a matter of asking myself: What would the character do? When I reach the 'end' of the character's action or dialogue, I just move on to what (I think) the reader will want to know next. The reader makes the jump. I don't need to. Of course, I don't always get it 100% right.

 

[Nezhul]

My greatest obstacle: not writing.

I can relate to that. Like, currently I have the end of the story laid out in front of me. About 5 chapters, and I know EXACTLY what I need to write in them. I could probably finish it in two days.

But maaan is it hard to just make myself sit down and write when there's this new youtube video on my subscriptions list....

 

[ElectricBlue]

My current worst problem is with emotional scenes. Maybe it's because I'm a guy. It isn't like I don't have emotions, but I'm trained to keep them to myself--to NOT express emotions. With some of my earlier stories I simply made potentially emotional scenes more sexual and less emotional. As my writing develops I find that I have to confront my characters' emotions.

It takes me a lot of work to write an emotional scene. There's a goodbye scene in my in-progress chapters that I've written three times--each completely different. It takes a while for me to sort out how a character will feel in a situation, how they will express themselves, and how to describe it.

Is this another problem that will go away with experience? I'm starting to think that this is actually "the" problem for me.

The emotional stuff doesn't seem to be a problem for me. One of the best compliments I received (from another Lit writer, what's more) was that I wrote intimate scenes in such a way that she wanted to go away, close the door and leave my characters to themselves. I've got one scene that still brings tears to my eyes every time I read it (and I wrote the bloody words!).