What am I doing wrong as a writer?

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I mean I see writers on forums and my friends who also write as well... and even here. I always feel more and more self-concsious because everyone makes it look so easy and as for me? I feel like my writing really sucks. I'm not the type to stop trying but I just need some inspiration... something that wants me to write no matter what. I get as far as story development and I pretty much just get all locked up and my mind shuts down.

I mean does anyone have tips about story development? At least ways to make it easier and how to break it down so its not all one big thing? I just like to have things broken down for me so that I'm not overdoing it and giving up. If things aren't broken down then I end up walking away froma good story that could have been one of my greatest.

Does anyone ever have this trouble? I don't want to read from books because it f***s up my attention span since its so terrible its not even funny. I just want to have ways to be able to become better at writing while also being able to break everything down and doing what I can.

They may make it look easy, but writing is not that easy. Yes, I've had a few moments when I "caught fire" and the words just poured out, and the result was great. Those moments were less than 1% of the time I've spent writing, though.

And how you feel about your own writing says very little. Every writer I know has a tendency to either think their writing is $h!t or else that it is greater than Shakespeare. Some of us go back and forth between those two opinions... It takes a long time and a lot of effort to be able to judge your own work with even partial success.



It is hard to be sure from what you say, but it is quite possible you're trying to use a process that isn't working for you. One dirty little secret of writing is that the processes which turn out to work for you are not always the ones that you'd think should work for you. Even if you find a process that does work for you, you might need to try another one to write a particular story.

But if you want to break things down, Lazette Gifford's Two Year Novel course is pretty good, and pretty flexible. You do not want to try any method which is too inflexible, because unless it was designed specifically for you, you'll trip up over something. Even with Zette's course, I got hung up over one particular step - and the ironic thing was, it wasn't a necessary step, it was supposed to be a fun break. But it was a step I couldn't take, and being aspie, I had a hard time just moving on. So be aware of the need to just move on if you really get stuck. Sadly, Zette isn't giving the free course over at Forward Motion any more, but the e-books for the course are over at Holly Lisle's site and don't cost that much. (I'm an affiliate, but I'm deliberately not including a link. So I won't get paid for recommending this. I'm recommending it because I think - even if it doesn't work perfectly for you - that you'll learn something about the writing process.) Holly Lisle's books are good, too. She shows you her process, but explains it so you can tweak it to suit yourself.

I hope that helps, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

As the published author of four books, I can tell you that every writer feels like that their writing sucks at one point or another, often at several points during the writing of a novel. The main thing is that you have to be disciplined and stick with it - you can't give up. The more you write, the better you'll be at it.

One thing that helps me is to set a daily word count goal. I keep a record in a spreadsheet. Start small, so that it's an achievable goal and you don't feel like a failure. But make sure you stick to it. If you write a little bit every day, it's better than trying to write a lot on one day, because your brain will be constantly be working on your story in the background.

Hope this helps!

Although mainly aimed at Screenwriters I highly recommend you give this book a read:

http://amzn.to/riF7F8

It's helping me who is a screenwriter (student...but), hopefully it should help you in some way.

Second the McKee book - also love this one:

Save the Cat - it's also a screen writing book but the principles of storytelling are the same whether you are writing a novel or a screenplay.

http://www.amazon.com/Save-Last-Book-Sc ... 1932907009

Tempted to get Save The Cat actually.

It's brilliant

Do it! There's actually a second book, Save the Cat Strikes Back, which I own but haven't got to yet, because I'm too busy trying to revise this freaking book proposal for the FOURTH TIME. Grrrrrr. And this was supposed to be the fun book....

http://www.amazon.com/Save-Cat-Strikes- ... 184&sr=1-1

Check this blog out. It's filled with advice. Most is centered on fantasy, but many topics apply to other genres too.

Here, read this, by Ira Glass--he's 100% right, and while he was talking about documentary making, it really applies to everything and anything creative:

http://writerunderground.com/2011/04/28 ... -our-work/

So just write, and write, and write. Then keep on writing. With creative endeavors, quantity isn't quality, but it's the path that will get you there.

+1

No one will ever write anything good without first writing tons of crap. (Even Heinlein, who claimed to have published the first book he ever wrote, turned out to have an unpublished draft of an earlier work in his files. Which has a few interesting ideas, but never would have seen the light of day if he hadn't written his later works. And who knows how many even worse pages he tore up before he got that draft down on paper?)

The science is rather simple you must have a vowel to consonant ratio of about .64-.73 and have a metaphor to simile ratio of about 1.32.

Nice one.

I know you said you wanted to avoid books on writing, but a very good one, that's very short and to the point is This Year You Write Your Novel, which was written by Bill Clinton's favorite author, Walter Mosley. Basically, he lets you in on the tricks of the trade he had learned over the years of writing. As a (yet to be published) writer myself, I admit I haven't followed everything he suggests regarding the discipline one needs in order to get published, but I consider it to be an invaluable source. And as I've already stated, it's short, but also very well written and engaging, so I think it should be able to keep your attention.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer