Does anyone have any suggestions that might help me overcome or at least deal with this problem? Thanks in advance.
Put every thing into do-able units. Example: every time you open your computer write sentence or paragraph, even if they are unconnected to each other. Every time you do the dishes put a quarter into a jar toward paying for a writing conference (or book) that interests you. It is the little accomplishments like this that make a person say "I can". It is little things like this that make ideas start to flow. Put a post-it inside your medicine cabinet that says: It's time to write something. Get a cup with a WRITER emblem. Declare a time period each day as your writing time (5-6AM) and do it. Find a writing power spot in your house and make it yours.
When we ascend a staircase we go one step at a time and seldom leap from the bottom to the top. There are other aspects of your life that you make happen by taking the necessary steps, correct? Writing is a job that must be built one step at a time.
But, but, but, no, it is not a job! It is my love and my passion. Wait! Passion won't get me anywhere I have to put butt on chair, Gag, this is boring. Cripes the baby is crying. Hello--Telemarketer--shut up. I have a pencil, pen, paper, computer everything a writer needs so where's the goods? The mind explodes screaming "writer's materialism" as round coffee stain rings were made on the manuscript. Hey, I have to work, an artist needs to be independently wealthy that just isn't me. Months later: Opps, it seems as though no ink is on the page.
Am I close? Or, no cigar?
If you're one of those, get a tape recorder and tell your story into it. Then sit down and play it back and type what you said into the computer.
Once you've got something typed in, you have words on the screen you can work with, instead of trying to force those words onto the screen in the first place.
I don't know if it will help in your case, but it's something you might want to try.
When I don't feel the motivation to write, I find that if I delete the last part of what I wrote last time, and then proceed to rewrite the scenes, I find that I keep writing beyond it! Perhaps you had some good prose last time that you might miss when you rewrite it, but at least you will be able to write... maybe this only works for me ?
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I am pretty new to the writing world and have a hard time sitting down and focusing on the projects I am working on?
Now let me be a little more compassionate.
I am guess that your "block" is the result of wanting to be published. Every time you get an idea, the "inner editor" rears its ugly head and says, "You can't sell that piece of crap." You need to get this dude to shut up.
What worked for me is resolving to take on a quasi-apprenticeship. I promised myself that I wouldn't worry about sending anything out until I wrote 50 short stories (a short story for me is anything under 17,500 words--i.e., anything not a novella by the SF community). During this time period, I not only write as much as I possibly can, but I'm reading as much fiction as I possibly can as well as books on the craft of fiction.
The primary reason for taking on this kind of apprenticeship is that the craft of fiction is hard to master. Think of all the things you need to do to write a successful story: You need to know who to develop characters and conflicts between them. You need to know how to write true-to-life dialogue as well as vivid descriptions. You need to learn how to pace your story, building suspense with every page. You need to learn how to write clearly and, if you really want to be good, how to write gracefully.
The result of taking on this apprenticeship has been quite amazing. My inner editor has shut up. Since May, I have written over 50,000 words, I have completed 6 out of 10 short stories, and I'm a day or two of finishing my 7th story (a novelette). I've experimented with different writing styles and points of view. Each week that passes, I can feel myself getting better.
Of course, all of this is based on a guess: I'm guessing the reason you can't write is that you're too worried about being published. But if that's not the reason, maybe you have to face the grim fact that you're not a writer.
I wrote my now represented book with the focus on producing something that would be publishable. I followed the first book "formula" to the letter no matter what. It went very well and I liked the results--and much to my surprise it was not that hard to put my idea into a mold.
With rewrites it has come out of that mold--but by doing the formula it has gone somewhere. And my agent feels that my idea is original. Yippy.
I think if you are serious about publication, you have to write with market in mind. But if you look at the shelves there are so many ideas out there so many tastes that you should just write your idea without thought to "no one will buy this".
Shawn
Output per day does not make a writer. Rather, getting the story finished makes you a writer. Once it is finished and out there, it can be purchased and then printed. And that's all you need to be a "writer."
Now, making a living at writing takes output. And writing every day is necessary to improve to the best of your abilities. But neither is required to be a "writer."
So don't go to the other extreme and get guilted out because you can't write X number of words a day. You can still achieve a lower level of success without it.
As for getting focused--or silencing your inner critic--a technique I've been using lately is to be schizophrenic. When writing a first draft, I am not Andrew Rey. I'm Dwain Rogers (or sometimes Dwight--I have trouble remembering 
). He's a hack writer, who has no sense of style, and his works are unpolished garbage. He just whips out any thoughts he has and throws them on the page. His work is completely unpublishable.
However, when I read it, I often find it has potential. Sometimes he has good plots and ideas, and they can be salvaged. (I'm salvaging one of his works right now.) I have to add some motivation here, delete some bad dialog there, and generally rewrite the whole thing. But, in the end, I usually get a decent story.
What this little self-deception does for me is to help silence the inner-critic. Since it isn't "Andrew Rey" who is writing the story, my ego is not as involved. I've actually found myself having more fun writing as "Dwain Rogers" than as myself. So as long as I can keep telling myself that I'm not myself, I do fine.
Of course, wasn't that what Stephen King wrote about in "The Dark Half?" 
Quite frankly, I find it takes the fun out of the whole thing, and puts unneeded pressure on yourself – just the thing to put an inner critic into overdrive. At the beginning, you’re just finding your way, figuring out the tools and skills you need to be able to tell a story. You’re going to write some drivel (well, probably a lot of drivel to be honest about it). There’s probably salvageable bits in there too. Rewriting is your friend, and if you keep the different versions, you’ll see how far you’ve come in your writer’s evolution.
Basically, be persistent and write regularly, but don’t beat yourself up about it.
[This message has been edited by GZ (edited July 16, 2003).]
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Rewriting is your friend, and if you keep the different versions, you’ll see how far you’ve come in your writer’s evolution.
either that or dig something out of the closet that you wrote 5 years ago.
Shawn
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I promised myself that I wouldn't worry about sending anything out until I wrote 50 short stories
That reminded me of something in the book "Worlds of Wonder" by David Gerrold that I read recently. In that he says your first million words (or some similar figure) are for practice. You practice writing stories. You practice submitting them. You practice getting rejection slips. And even if a publisher makes the mistake of accepting one of your practice stories, you're still practicing...
Very good advice I reckon :-)