Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Trouble narrowing down stories and completing them...

This is topic Trouble narrowing down stories and completing them... in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by WolfofWar (Member # 3156) on :

I'm a fairly creative person, I'm an artist, I'm going for college for Graphic Design, I love to write, and I always have stories in my head. But I have too many stories sometimes. It seems like every couple of days I have a new spark of inspiration, of a topic totally different then what I was previously thinking about. They just swarm me, and I lose my drive on the last thought. Everything seems like a better topic, and I never find myself completing any stories. I always seem to wandero ff into new themes, new stories, etc.

Has anybody experienced this problem? is there any way to overcome this? its a serious detriment to my writing.

Posted by J (Member # 2197) on :

I had this problem in the worst way. I wrote the first 7 or 8 pages of probably 10 different stories, but I could never get past that point. The ideas were good ideas, I could just never get very far without getting stuck, then getting seduced by an even better idea.

The, one day, I had the idea that we'll call The Idea. I was very excited about The Idea, but that's not special, because I'm always excited about new story ideas. After I thought about The Idea for a day or two, I articulated The Idea to my wife, and was able to articulate an entire story arc to her. She liked it. I started writing, secretly expecting that The Idea would go into limbo somewhere between pages 6 and 10.

That was a couple months ago. I'm writing about 5000 words per week, on average, and the more I write, the clearer and better The Idea becomes. It takes discipline to write, and not to stop and edit, but the unseen insurmountable resistance to creation that I felt with previous ideas is gone, and its absence is wonderful.

I know that's probably not helpful for you, but there is some hope to it. Just find the story you're ready to write, and that's ready to be written, and exercise some discipline, and it will happen.

Posted by Leigh (Member # 2901) on :

Sounds like me. You have an idea, a feeling of strength that this could be your big work piece, then one or two days later you have a new idea, and the feeling comes again.

I've had about 20 of these in the past year, some stronger than others now. I've written pretty good starts to each of the individual stories, but now I've scrapped them, not literally as they're still saved on my flash drive.

What I've done to get over the initial change of having a new idea every two to three days, is I've combined all the ideas together somehow, just through some tough thinking on my part and created a world. I write fantasy, a world is nothing new I know, but I've done it in a way so I have a history, races and creatures, as well as planes of existence where my worlds gods, demons and angels exist.

I'm not sure if that can help you, but since I created my world with most of my ideas I've stopped having the inspiration of the day with new ideas and concepts, if I do I write the idea down, who's involved and all that on a piece of paper to write later as a part of my world.

Posted by RMatthewWare (Member # 4831) on :

I have a file where I keep all the ideas i get. I just scratch them down when I have them, then put them on the computer later. The most recent is one that I know will be the next book I'm going to work on. I can't wait to get started, but I know I have to finish the book I'm on now.

As J said, it takes discipline. Write all your ideas down then go through them. Find the one that is your favorite, that gives you the greatest desire to write, then stick with it. Other ideas will come, write them down and move on. And try to resist the urge to edit until you're done.

Your mind is like a stage with you as the director. You will have the actors and actresses on stage that you like trying to create the work you like. Other actors will jump on stage and try to get you to do something with them in it. These may be wonderful people with great stories to tell. That's great. Take down their name and number and give them a call in a few months. They'll still be there because, in your mind, they have no where else to go.

Matt

Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :

I have a great solution to this problem. Sit down and TELL what the new idea's story is about. It takes me about an hour or so to do it, but I've been doing it every day of the year for seven years. Once you have TOLD the story, you can return to a previous work and work. Later, you can return to the real gems and develop them.
The key is that you are not actually writing the story. you are not adding any detail (scenery, moods, technical detail, discriptions,) that does not TELL the story. I will include a bit of dialogue if it is necessary in telling the story.

Of course, when I first get an idea, it goes onto a piece of daily tear-sheet calandar pages I have laying around, all over the place, and write a sentance or paragraph to remind me of the idea.
When I write, and post them on line, I show how the idea could be used.
With me, I cannot write 365 novels a year, so I post my ideas on line in hopes that someone else uses them. I will likely have 4,000 ideas near the end of next year. It would be nice if all of them were published, by anybody.

anyway, just take a moment and TELL what the story is about, begining to end, and get it out of your head.

Oh, one advantage of this is that if the "blurb" you write has a good plot line from begining to end, and you follow it reasonably close, it can be used as your outline. I am not sure, but it could also be used as your synopsis. One big advantage of doing this is that if your novel changes direction, write the changes into the blurb and make sure the story will work.

Posted by Tara (Member # 4638) on :

I think it's necessary for a writer to go through hundreds of dud ideas before they come upon the IDEA. So have hope. It'll come eventually.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Lotsa stuff dies on me as I'm writing it. But I leave 'em, and sometimes look at 'em later, and sometimes they come back. What I'm working on now, a novelette, started with one old idea, that abruptly wedged itself up against another old idea, and produced something that's pushed past ten thousand words in a week.

Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :

One of the writing teachers I had called that an Idea Pool. I have an Idea Pool saved on the P.C. AND one in my physical filing cabinet. Sometimes a story will naturally cannibalize some of the other ideas, sometimes you will need more ideas for yor tale.

I share your "too many story ideas" problem, and the Idea Pool is my solution. ANYtime I have an idea--if I'm in a place I can--I type or jot it down and put it in my Idea Pool. This serves another purpose: when I get back to the book I'm writing, I have fresh eyes.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I should probably have added---and this takes this topic off the rails a little---that I usually don't consult my old notes when I begin a story. I write something down, I file it, and I sometimes reread the files---but of late I've subscribed to the practice of "if the idea was any good, I'd remember it without notes."

But I still write stuff down. Last week, when I was hunting around for a diskette to put my new story on, I ran through some of the ideas on two different disks going back to, oh, late 2003. (A lot of file space was taken up by failed novel attempts and second- and third-drafts, though---I wound up starting a new diskette.) Then again, just looking at them make me think all over again. Sometimes I've forgotten everything about them. (Just what was this idea I titled "The Head Collector"?)

Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :

I have a problem like that as well. I find it helps if I just start writing on 3 or more Word Documents at once to get everything sorted out.
Rommel Fenrir Wolf II

Posted by Zoot (Member # 3176) on :

I think every aspiring writer has or at least had the problem you describe. According to OSC this is becuase you have not got a fully developed idea, therefore it falls on it ass halfway through writing. But then catch 22 how do you get a fully developed idea without going ahead and just writing?

Everybody has different ways of working, but rstegman nailed it for me. I do exactly the same and go ahead just TELL the story to myself...

When I first come up with an idea it's usually in the form of few paragraphs, written in the voice in which I first feel compelled to write in. I will then open another document and splurghh out one big info-dump, just random ideas of how the plot will go, the characters habits, raison d'etres, then one day this happens and his world falls apart etc etc... Once you have a basic idea of the direction your story will go in you can approach with the correct voice, tense, scene selection etc

At least thats my theory, it's this analysis of my story and selection of style that I have yet to master, hence the lack of any published material on my hard drive.

[This message has been edited by Zoot (edited February 17, 2007).]

Posted by tigertinite (Member # 4803) on :

Too many ideas? That is impossible. If you ever want to write books for a living you should write down your various ideas, I prefer putting them in a little notebook on the side of my bed. Some are duds, no doubt, but those duds for one story may actually give you some insight for another story. Some ideas that I had written for a science fiction story ended up having a major plot element in the novel I'm writing about right now.

As for the I can't focus on one at a time, pay attension to what inspires you. I have several books,music groups, tv shows, or movies that tend to get me going on one story or another. Try to find the ones that do it for you and whenever you feel that you are going off topic into another story watch, read, or listen to your stack of inspirational materials and get on with your story.