The Struggle Of Writing.

by Red Omega

So, how many ideas have you tossed into the waste paper bin?

 

Don’t try denying it, I know you have, I do it daily! All of a sudden a great idea flashes through your head and within minutes you’ve fleshed out a book, it’s sequels and the actors you are hoping will get the lead roles in the movie adaptation. I believe all writers do it, especially those who say they don’t. So why is it these ideas end up thrown to one side or worse, thrown away and forgotten about?

Lazy, procrastinating writers, that’s the answer. Writers who cannot be bothered to follow the idea through and commit it to the page in front of them. Why do they do it? Why are they wasting time? Why can’t they just settle down and get writing?

There are a number of reasons, truth be told. The first can be simply that they have so many ideas that they don’t know which one they want to settle on. There’s the one where Kathy’s met the man of her dreams but he’s getting married to her best friend, or the one where the genetically engineered superhero has to launch a one man assault on an alien planet threatening earth with war, or what about the one where Jimmy gets lost in the jungle and stumbles across a temple full of terror and treasure?

It can be a bit much, can’t it? You have this handful of ideas, but you enjoy all of them, you want to write them all. At the end of the day this is understandable, it’s a huge undertaking to write a novel, potentially years worth of commitment. Which of these ideas deserves that commitment? You just can’t decide and so you distract yourself and never start any of them.

Another problem is you’re doubting yourself. We are all our own worst critics, this one I am especially guilty of. You want your work to sound good, to sound fluid, and when you read it back you rake through the words questioning their place in the sentence, if there’s a better way to word it or even if you need that sentence at all.

A few months ago I found myself writing a chapter at a time, then reading it alongside the works JK Rowling, Tolkien and George R.R Martin. I wasn’t interested in the content, I just wanted to see if it flowed as well, if my grammar was good and see if there was a better word to use. How silly is that?!

The fact is we all have our own styles and we all play by our own rules, quite frankly it’s one of the best things about being a writer. The resources we have now are unlimited, we have the internet, we have books, and best of all… We have each other. If you doubt yourself, please… don’t. Read, read often and read hard. Even book you open is a bank of knowledge to those who pay the right attention, even if the book simply teaches you what not to do.

One last thing I will say is that we get ahead of ourselves. As I said at the start, we plan to far ahead. The novel I am currently working only resembles the original idea through it’s basis and inspiration. It’s amazing, I had cast Michael Fassbender and Jared Leto within minutes of the story’s conception. I knew how it was going to end and I knew which characters would make it to the end.

The other big mistake is telling people! Don’t! Shh! Shut up! Quiet! Keep it to yourself or you may find yourself demotivated to tell the story. Why write a story that everyone knows the ending to along with all the twists and turns. If you have a close friend you can trust, by all means flash them a few samples to receive some feedback but even then, don’t share it all.

In closing, write! Write every idea you have. Stop worrying about how it reads, you can always go back and edit it or start again. Keep the idea to yourself and make sure you keep yourself as well as the idea grounded.

I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve got!

I remain,

Red.