I can't write it.

[M Crim]

Ever have a good idea but don't feel like you can turn it into a good story?

I may be rambling but I have a pretty good idea for a story, I even sketched it out but I don't want to write it yet. It's like I'm waiting for some magical day when my writing skills will be amazing.

 

[BlackShanglan]

*nods*

I have half a dozen or more of those.

Sometimes I write for a while, then set it aside ... half waiting for it to "gel," half waiting for me to be up to the task.

At least you've got the notes. I like to keep some record.

Shanglan

 

[carsonshepherd]

Ever have a good idea but don't feel like you can turn it into a good story?

I may be rambling but I have a pretty good idea for a story, I even sketched it out but I don't want to write it yet. It's like I'm waiting for some magical day when my writing skills will be amazing.

Huh. You're lucky. I'm honing my writing skills, waiting for that idea to come along. You've got the idea already. That's a good thing!

 

[M Crim]

I guess I'm going in the right direction.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Sometimes it helps to go in bites. Try a scene or two and give yourself latitude to tinker it, toy with it, completely throw it out and start again. When I'm at that stage, I save dated drafts; then if (as sometimes happens) I decide that I really liked it that other way after all, I can go back and find it.

Personally, I also like the "dump draft" where I just throw everything down on the paper written pretty damned poorly. I let go of precision in hopes of just getting the rough shape of it down there. Then I go through a paragraph or a page or a sentence at a time and begin to hone and refine it.

It helps me. But I think writing process is a personal thing. It's more about finding the one that works for you.

Shanglan

 

[elsol]

I may be rambling but I have a pretty good idea for a story, I even sketched it out but I don't want to write it yet. It's like I'm waiting for some magical day when my writing skills will be amazing.

You're going to learn more from writing a story that you feel is past your present skills, than you are waiting for your skills to catch up to it.

This story has an idealized version in your head... it's a lot easier to pick apart your own writing when you know how GOOD a story should be.

An exception to this is a 'novel' length story if you've never written anything more than a 3-6 page stories... that can be brutal.

Sincerely,

ElSol

 

[BlackShanglan]

That's a good point on ElSol's part - although I know that horrible frustration of a text that doesn't match the "vision." Still, it's not permanent - you can always write it again. Perhaps it's not the same as starting fresh, but ES is right - it's not getting closer to that perfect vision by not being written at all.

Shanglan

 

[brightlyiburn]

Ever have a good idea but don't feel like you can turn it into a good story?

I may be rambling but I have a pretty good idea for a story, I even sketched it out but I don't want to write it yet. It's like I'm waiting for some magical day when my writing skills will be amazing.

That's not a problem I ever have with romance stories.
Fantasy work, however...ugh! It's a pain in the butt. For some reason I can't seem to get together everything I need.
The best you can do is practice. The thing about ideas is if you don't try to utilize them, you can't refine them, either.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Hello brightly. It's nice to see you on the AH.

Shanglan

 

[brightlyiburn]

Hello brightly. It's nice to see you on the AH.

Shanglan

Yes, yes. I promised Rumple Foreskin I'd try to participate more often

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Feeling that the story's beyond my abilities is a pretty common thing with me. In fact I think it's chronic.

But you know, sometimes you have to go and write the bad stuff, just so you can look at it and try to figure out why it's bad. I figure that as long as you can recognize crap and tell why it's crappy, you're still making progress. God help me if I should ever write something I really think is good.

---dr.M.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Feeling that the story's beyond my abilities is a pretty common thing with me. In fact I think it's chronic.

But you know, sometimes you have to go and write the bad stuff, just so you can look at it and try to figure out why it's bad. I figure that as long as you can recognize crap and tell why it's crappy, you're still making progress. God help me if I should ever write something I really think is good.

---dr.M.

God help us all, I think I'd quit writing.

 

[Seattle Zack]

I keep a notebook with me at all times, and write down all sorts of stuff ... snippets of conversation I overhear, character descriptions, story ideas. Lawrence Block suggested that in Writer's Digest, and I find it very useful. Sometimes they languish there for months, then when working on a story I get it out and flip through it and bang! it all comes together.

My easiest story sprung full-blown to mind when I saw a couple of Asian girls playing chess. When I got home I wrote it, 5000 words, in about three hours. I couldn't get the words out fast enough. Others, I struggle sentence after sentence. I have dozens of half-finished stories on my hard drive.

Lucas gets a lot of criticism for continually redoing the Star Wars movies but, on one level, I do understand it. I never really consider a story complete. When you sell it, you have to let it go, but when I read it later in print I sometimes wince at some awkward turn of phrase or a transition that seems jarring or a clumsy metaphor.

 

[M Crim]

Well I bit the bullet. I started writing it along the lines that it was just a rough rough draft so I could change anything or everything later. I also decided to write it in more a than one sitting, taking one or two scenes at a time.

Thanks for all the good ideas and support.