posted
Before I start: I'm not asking for an editor, I'm not asking for a research assistant, I'm not asking for an introduction to a publicist or anything else. Really I'd mostly like to just have some musings on writing for those of us who aren't writers.
My recollection of my own personal 'back in the day' (i.e. high-school, early college) was that I constantly had ideas for stories but was a terrible writer. Not much ever materialized, which I don't consider a failure seeing as how I never intended to be a writer, that's just the way it was. Now, while I still have no desire to be a writer nor the ego to imagine I have anything resembling the skill to transcend into the 'marginally publishable' realm I do like to think I could write something down that would have something of both me and my original idea in it. Yet now I seem incapable of having any original ideas.
I'm at home for the holiday break and a friend invited me to a writing group this week. I didn't say yes or no, but I did think it would be fun to try and throw together a story while I was waiting for my finite element model to run. Yet now all that comes to mind if rip-offs of The Crying of Lot 49, or some other form of plagiarism. What happened to my creativity? It seems like the only clever thing I can do any more is smart-alec one liners which doesn't make a person overly popular.
posted
If you would be a writer, then you must apply pen to paper. Or fingers to keys. Or whatever.
At any rate, that's what I hear all the professional writers say: Write! Write! Write. Spew it out. Don't stop. Turn off the internal editor. Get those ideas down on paper. Silence the critical voice inside your head.
posted
So far as ideas go, I find that there're hundreds of ideas out there (for me they're song ideas, but for you they could be story ideas) -- the trick is recognizing them.
As Sherlock Holmes said (roughly): It isn't enough to see; you must also observe.
For me, carrying my idea book with me and paying attention is all it takes to stoke the fires of creativity. Ideas are all around us.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
To be a writer, as others suggest, you have to write.
Some people, especially professional writers, are down on Fan Fiction, but, if nothing else, it is writing practice. Even though the story inhabits someone else's universe, you still need to have a story arc, it still needs to be an interesting read, you still have to understand the various characters so you can create a believable framework in which they can act. It is also a great help in general grammar and structure.
Of course, it is only practice. To be a real writer, you have to create a universe of your own. Though only within a certain context. JK Rowling sets her story in the existing world. They travel to London, Surrey, Scotland, Devonshire, and other places that are real. However, she expands the context of the existing world in her own unique way.
So, writing is the best practice for writing. Also, to write, you need to do a lot of research. Though never for more than personal fun, I've written some HP fan fiction. I had to research character names, locations, language, and many other aspects even though I stole JKR's universe from her.
Something as simple as character names can take tons of research. I believe characters already have names. It is not up to me to give them a name, but to discover what their name is. I search high and low for a name for one character, and eventually found the perfect name on a pack of English cigarettes. But before I got there, I search indexes of first name, surnames, English writers, Scottish writers, Russian writers, phone books, TV and Movie credits, city names, product names, and on and on.
My point is, that writing takes work. And like all work, you can just do it when you feel like it. You have to labor away at it all the time, even when the inspiration doesn't seem to be there.
I have pages of notes, for stories I've never written. A long list of magic spells I devised by searching Latin dictionaries. Many character names that have yet to make an appearance. I had to name an entire Quidditch team. Countless location notes; streets in London, locations of various street markets and what those street markets specialized in. Specifically, I was looking for a fruit and vegetable market.
So, the point is, if you want to write, then you have to write; you have to work at it, even if you don't have professional ambitions as a writer.
Originally I thought no, as I had read that (mostly via OSC) many times, yet now ... I had an idea! Either good timing or it really did help to me reminded once more to just write it. Thanks.
quote:Are you trying to get people to evaluate your story ideas?
Or, are you trying to get people to give you tips on writing?
Or, are you simply looking for a sympathetic ear?
No.
Your first sentence was closest I suppose, though I admit to having no specific track in mind for the thread when I started it. I guess I'd just like to hear from others what they do when they want to write. I guess the non-professional part is that when I'm not feeling inspired or don't feel the drive, I wont write, seeing as how it's a diversion and not a job. Thus I'm not asking how to break through writer's block nor where to go finding ideas per say, but just understand what it's like for another non-writer to start from the beginning and travel to the end. Make sense?
posted
One saying that I keep in mind is this: If the muse doesn't show up on time, just start without her.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
One possibility is that all those original ideas you had as a youngster weren't, and you're now experienced enough to recognize it. Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
One things that is worth doing is making notes when you have a story idea. Even if you don't feel the inspiration to write the story then, you can outline or summarize various aspects of the plots and critical scenes.
Then you at least have a framework for the story, and when you come back to it, you aren't completely dependent on memory.
Though I am more of a stream of consciousness writer, I find that when I try to summarize aspects of a story so I can remember them. The summary get longer and longer and more and more complicated, until I've virtually written the story.
If you start with note or a outline on key plot point, you can alway come back and expand on it.
However, if an idea comes to you, and you just let it go, there is a chance it is gone forever. In the future you might have some vague idea of what the story was, but you will have lost the detail and the critical scenes.
Even if you never take it beyond an outline or plot summary, you've at least got it out of your system. You've at least got something to show for your idea, and you never know, you might come back to it in the future and expand on it until you actually have a complete story.
quote:Originally posted by scifibum: One possibility is that all those original ideas you had as a youngster weren't, and you're now experienced enough to recognize it.
No doubt this is quite true. I'm not sure how much better that makes me feel about the whole thing ...
quote:Even if you never take it beyond an outline or plot summary, you've at least got it out of your system. You've at least got something to show for your idea, and you never know, you might come back to it in the future and expand on it until you actually have a complete story.
Hmmm, I like that. I suppose that's the point of this whole interweb thing right? A place to note down ideas from anywhere and all you have to carry around instead of a bulky pen and pad is a simply laptop computer!
Really though, I like that idea, thanks!
I did manage to write a few paragraphs last night. I don't know that it'll go anywhere but it did make me feel better.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
![[Wave]](graemlins/wave.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
