I want to write

I have a story in there floating. I can't catch onto the start of it. I can feel it.

I know my story and how it goes. I can't catch on the words and make them go in order to show the pictures in my head.

Grrr... I want to write stories and get the stories into life. I have some good ones going on. Why can't I just have a projector on the front of my head that can play the movie and get it out.

I'm already feeling scrambled and it's not even 1:00 yet....

Hi there,

When I'm trying to write something, a research paper, or something more personal, if I start to have writers' block, I take out a sheet of paper and write ideas and then bullet points with other topics within the idea. I feel like its harder to stare at a blank word document on your computer rather than to scribble some words down.

Are you writing a journal? What is the theme of what you're thinking about? Id be glad to help

Thanks. It's not writer's block. It's part of my cognitive issues, I think.

I'm trying to force something out. Not my main story. I have replayed it all the way to the end in my head. I know how it goes I just need the words. So, something new maybe I'm trying to get out.

I'm downloading a new cognitive game today to see if that helps me.

National Novel Writing Month

I understand what you mean. I'm a writer too, but it can be so hard to translate the great ideas in your head into great words on paper. The writing project I got the farthest with was for NaNoWriMo, which Odee provided you with a link about above. In this event, participants write a 50,000 word novel in a month. This translates to about 1,600 words per day. Since my output had to be so high, I had to let go of my perfectionism in order to meet my word goals. I learned a lot from this experience; the biggest lesson was that the best way to write something is to just write. Don't worry about whether or not your writing is "the best you can make it" when you're first getting it out. Whatever you produce, however beautiful or not, you can always edit the crap out of it later. And it is much easier to edit something that is already there than it is to produce something amazing out of nothing. So, I suggest that you just set aside a certain amount of time to write everyday. Then, write! And don't worry about whether or not what you produce is "good enough"; this is just your first draft! Good luck.

What you're experiencing is called the "incubation" of ideas, and it goes
on for a long time before creativity begins. The longer you mull over ideas and plans, the better your writing is likely to be, unless you just happen to be another Ernest Hemingway or Virginia Wolfe.

Ideas have to mature. When you're ready, then comes the writing, re-evaluation, editing, and refining. Oftentimes, the complete story will just suddenly appear at a serendipitous moment.

I know of some who put their ideas on tape and later put it on paper, organizing,etc.

And, oh, man, nothing's worse than sitting in a course in college knowing
that you need to write a full explanation of something and writer's block hits you suddenly.

Much work goes on in the head for a long time often in preparation for
creating something.

I disagree. You do not let an idea brew in your mind in order to improve it. You work on it. You give it form and then improve it. You don't improve your ability to draw by envisioning the picture in your head for longer than necessary, the same is true of writing.

Secretum knows it well. The point of NaNoWriMo is to simply create. She wrote everything that I was too lazy to write. (Maybe that's why I only made it to 11,000 when I tried NaNo?) Creating great work doesn't happen right off the bat, every word is subject to revision the same way that every pencil stroke can be erased -- and will. It's all about creating, creating, creating, working, working, working, and less thinking about it! Letting anything sit in your head will never improve it. Giving it form is the only way.

I disagree as well. You put it raw onto the page and rework it until its right. A story tends to write itself and you just have to continue to evolve with it, making adjustments and changes as you go. What you start out with in our head rarely makes it exactly to the page.

My suggestion? Just write. Nonsense or some senses or poetry or prose. Sentences or words. Keep it coming out and it will come together.

Just keep on keeping on!

I envy all you writers, I wish I could write well.

DH-were you able to start writing?

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Sorry. I disagree with this theory.

The idea doesn't sit idle in the head, Odee. The mind organizes, plans, and thinks until some sort of meaning is established. Every writer has his own technique in creating, but unless the idea is spawned in the brain and given a reality there, there's very little likelihood, in my view, that a creative effort is going to be successful.

I would suggest that you read some of the works of people who treat the subject of creativity and how it is accomplished. That might give you an idea of how professionals feel about it.

Frankly, I was a little discouraged by the idea that one just writes and
writes and then edits and edits. There doesn't seem to be in that the
depth of character development that the mind is capable of originating.
To me, that would be like throwing everything out there and hoping that
something sticks. I just don't see depth in that, honestly.

Most authorities whom I've read suggest that the incubation period is
vital for creativity and often, a really great work may take years to complete because of the need to extrapolate from life the things needed to make characters really believable.

Poetry is a classic illustration of incubation in creativity.

Perhaps there is a misunderstanding of what incubation is. No idea
sits idle that incubates; it is there that the core of the work really gets its origins.

I have a feeling, after thinking about it, that you are young people who are being taught that creativity is a kind of "throwing it all out there and hoping that something sticks". That is a major theory in the business world where "think tanks" are generated to create ideas that are marketable. That's not the kind of creativity I'm thinking about.

Beethoven was deaf; you can't believe that he just put it all out there and
continued to edit and edit and edit, can you? That's a creativity of the
mind of a genius; however, so perhaps that isn't such a good illustration.
But valuable creativity is, in my view, largely a part of the creative mind's
ability to see,think, form in the mind, and even edit in the mind, to some
extent. Getting it on paper is a release of the mind's active creating.

I agree that it requires re-examination, editing, and refining before being
published.

Creativity is just the active mind in many ways.

i want to write a new poem- because i've not written forever.

but i don't seem to have those creative juices recently- think that from shadows to eluminations took it all out of me.. that 1 took me ages to write!

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I wish you would post that for us here, Shattered Sanity. Was "From Shadows To Illuminations" the title ?

To illustrate my point about incubation, your statement that "that 1
took me ages to write" is an illustration.

I would like so much to read it if you would consider sharing.

Thanks everyone. I just feel like... it's so hard to explain.

I have one novel that's done, as in the writing is complete. It just needs a lot of editing. It is 150,000 words. I don't think you understand what I mean when I say that everything is there, but I can't get the words out any more. It's like a wall in my head. 150,000 words writen in 20 days. That's not perfectionism. That's getting the idea out. I know how to do that.... it's not the issue.

I am frustrated. Because I've lost something extremely precious to me. If you look at the story I was working on on my blog, you'll see I'm not worried about perfectionism. It's all unedited and rough draft. That's not the issue.

My ideas are very clear I know exactly about the world. I have the map fully in my mind. I know all of the locations and characters as if I've known them for years and walked through the streets and forests and valleys. I see it all perfectly. And that is just one story. I have so many....

It's like... I see it in my head. I sit down to write it out. I see it. There are no words there. It's like a black hole in my head. It's like let's say you watch your favorite t.v. show and then after you are asked, "what happened in this episode?" And you know exactly what happened but you can't explain it. That's as close as I can get to explaining.....

Anyway, I have an idea....

I have my story blog. I noticed I can make other blogs that are linked to it.

So.... I'm going to make other ones. Just start putting all of my stories there. Different works on different blogs and whatever happens happens....

one thing that might work well is to write a series of short stories, all pertaining to your original idea, and then tie them together later. would make for a fun book.

nice descibe!

it's beauitful when creativity is easy dhx.

...unfortunately the artist must suffer in extra-ordinary ways!...as opposed to the regular suffering...however equally ridiculous to whom-ever!

it will return to you...and with energy that exceeds what you lost in the meantime...

it just would not be fair otherwise.

...and you are obviously a craftswoman!

...so vulnerable to the things that provide your inspiration and likewise take away your ability to express it!

innocent desire is powerful and always gets what it wants!...

eventually

Thanks. This does make me feel a bit better.

I have been fighting this so long, I get so frustrated.

yes, the title is " from shadows to eluminations"

it's about the change from mannic to depressed in a family situation- in this case, in and out the house

as for sharing it, well, i don't really share my stuff.. the only time i've shared my poetry is on another forum as part of a fundraiser... the administrator of the site in question would donate £3 to a charity for each of the poems posted on that thread, so i thought.. well, why not

so i shared that, stay with me a while, and also i am

usually though i don't share it- firstly because i don't think it's really that good, and also it's kind of personal to me

i may think about sending you it privately though- not sure

understanding does not solve the problem though ....despite being immediately rescued by it!

but it does not solve the problem....understanding has a bitter taste to the accidently spiritually immaculate!

...in the emotionally mathematically miscalculated world?

things just never add up...and confusion only multiplies and we become desperately divided within ourselves...

and even after all this long lost personal division?

nothing!....nothing can take away what you were born with

it's un-equalled

(I'm un-afraid to make no sense....fearless to create nonsense dhx)

often writers block is caused by invisible boundaries within our own imagination...
writing is a glorious expression of life and death and everything in between and it's all infinite...

it doesn't have to make any sense...

and the weird thing is that...we simply must make sense of it anyway.

it's like waking up after nightmares and urgently putting the nightmare pictures into spots in our minds just so we can face the day.

nothing makes sense...not at first or even halfway past it

write the nonsense...

and like a verbal viper!...your words might just poison their way through to the other side

I think it will come back to you too DH. I think you've been so understandably busy and overwhelmed for aq long time! And the cognitive probs you've been going through
Pretty cool though that your stories have not left you, still there with you, waiting on the brink. It will be a beautiful deluge when it all breaks open onto paper.

Genetic: I can't see why ideas can't incubate on a piece of paper. I would certainly forget everything I thought of if I didn't write it down.

I do have to admit, everytime I write poetry it is all done in my head first. But poetry happens to me once every couple of months, and inspiration will come into my mind at places like work or the bus and I don't have a chance to write those things down. I never actively try to write poetry.

I guess a lot of thought before hand goes into creating something great. But creation is still more work than it is ideas (IMO). I love to draw, and I believe drawing is 10% skill and 90% persistence, because when I draw SO MUCH TIME is spent on revising and improving. I tell people that I am not as talented as my drawings might make them think I am, because I work and work and work on them. It is SO much work. Also, when I have tried writing a novel, most of my ideas were spurred by the process of writing it, so being creative made me more creative. I knew that I was going to have to rewrite the story, but writing helped me think of a better one.

I am enjoying this conversation.

The best stories don't need to incubate. They happen all of a sudden all by themselves. It's more like a fever of words. When it comes, you have to get them out right now, and the story unfolds before you. It's more like a flood gate. You can't stop it.

I do not believe in making outlines or anything like that. Because you can't plan it. It's just like real life. Plan all you want, but stories are living things and they do what they are supposed to do.

That's why it's frustrating. I used to have this all the time and now I don't.

I feel like my writing has been going really good this month and I want to thank all of you for kicking me in the butt to not give up on me. I think making the story updater has made me feel better about the fact that if I'm not writing, I can write about not writing. How funny is that?

Anyway, I just want to give a big thank you to all of you for all of your helpful suggestions.