When the writing doesn't come easily...

[LongDraw]

Same here, but I do generate what can only be described as a "Guideline outline" When I start I (generally) know where I want to end so I mark that out with two sentences separated by several blank lines. Between those two lines I'll put a few "road marks" that I want to hit along the way from Point A to Point Z. Everything between A and Z is fluid for me and it is kind of fun keeping my muse (and my ego) on track.

I looked but those dreaded words "Sign up for free trial" stopped me in my tracks. I do this because writing is cheap. If I was going to spend money on a hobby I'd have one of the greatest model railroad layouts that you have ever seen.

Just make a dummy email account. I used my retired email account to try it out, then registered with my current email and copied everything over.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I'm a planner. So when writing doesn't come easily, it tells me I haven't thought things out well enough. My work schedule is 3 on, 4 off, 4 on, 3 off, and 12-hour days. I don't write at all on my work days. Thus it gives me plenty of time to come up with new ideas or plan current stories. Most of my really good aha moments have been at work while chewing on a scene. I jot it down on my phone's notepad and keep going. Happily, I'm not a brain surgeon where letting my mind wander could kill someone.

 

[Duleigh]

I'm a planner. So when writing doesn't come easily, it tells me I haven't thought things out well enough. My work schedule is 3 on, 4 off, 4 on, 3 off, and 12-hour days. I don't write at all on my work days. Thus it gives me plenty of time to come up with new ideas or plan current stories. Most of my really good aha moments have been at work while chewing on a scene. I jot it down on my phone's notepad and keep going. Happily, I'm not a brain surgeon where letting my mind wander could kill someone.

Taking a break from the writing often helps a lot, I just hate doing it.

 

[cuppatea]

When it doesn’t come easily: stop, take a break.

If the page is staring at you, the ideas are floating around but not solidifying into a cohesive narrative, it’s time to put pen to paper and get the words down.

You know your own mind, enough to know when the ideas are there and when they are not.

There are times when the story is there, but the route to getting from point A to point B is uncertain, I know that half of what gets put down on the page is utter crap and will get cut in future edits. What is important, as others have said, is that you get the words down and have something to edit later.

I find that the rough idea contains nuggets of details that get expanded upon later, often opening up other avenues of plot and possibility of character development.

In short: power through it, or take a break.

 

[Zenith77]

I looked but those dreaded words "Sign up for free trial" stopped me in my tracks.

$11 a month.

If I was going to spend money on a hobby I'd have one of the greatest model railroad layouts that you have ever seen.

$437,000 (to start) and a new house with a big enough space for the track.

Yeah... writing is still cheap.

Agree with you though, I don't want a subscription service when what I really just need is time, practice, discipline and an empty page.

 

[LongDraw]

$11 a month.

$437,000 (to start) and a new house with a big enough space for the track.

Yeah... writing is still cheap.

Agree with you though, I don't want a subscription service when what I really just need is time, practice, discipline and an empty page.

It's a 2 week free trial. With a dummy account, that's a full month. If you don't find it useful after a month, then cool. But if it does end up being really helpful, you could create all your documents on there, then just buy a 1 month and print everything to PDF files like I did. It's a way of saying thanks for them creating the tools you used.

 

[Stimtheone]

...do you struggle around every word, trying to get it if not perfect, then as good as you can in the moment...

or do you go for volume, as fast as possible, and come back to it to finesse later?

I try to have some variation in my work, but I do not struggle around individual words. Rather, I struggle on what should happen next and if it has value to the plot. Or I struggle with details in a particular scene. Often at these times I go for a walk to help the mind wander a bit and consider things. A talk with a boss turned into skipping that to just talk with the IT guy. Several implied sex scenes were skipped just because they added nothing other than "they fuck daily".

Often I do add some stuff when doing the proof-read. I see a word overused, I see some context missing or something duplicate. Yes, I mentioned already that the disguise is not tangible. But the second go is just for minor corrections and not a complete rewrite or the whole thing derails. Need to hold that idea or I'll get lost in the trees.

And obviously I'm not gonna get it perfect. It gets how it gets. Even if I try to impress every lit teacher there is, a lot of people can just glaze over it.

 

[Duleigh]

$11 a month.

$437,000 (to start) and a new house with a big enough space for the track.

Yeah... writing is still cheap.

Agree with you though, I don't want a subscription service when what I really just need is time, practice, discipline and an empty page.

Exactly, and here in the real Nassau County a house with a basement is advertised as
"Indoor Pool"