Needing a little help on my story....

[Guest blondboi1]

So, I have been attempting to write this story (really a book) for nearly six weeks now, and I have the middle of it and the end of it all perfectly planned out...but I just can't seem to get it STARTED!! It is soooo frustrating! I know already that once I have like the first five chapters finished, it will just take off-but I can't even seem to get past writing page two. I've never encountered this situation before, and I have written a lot. Does anyone have any advice for me, please?

 

Sincerely,

Super Frustrated in Portland, Ore.

[NotNoNever]

Yeah, keep writing. I know that might not sound helpful, but it is actually the only thing that will work if you don't have a plan. Eventually you'll get to a place where you are dissatisfied with what you do have, and you will be able to see what's wrong, which is half the battle for putting it right. Just accept the tedium that is going to be writing rubbish for a while.

[Ashi]

I have this problem regularly when I write something. But I don't know your situation specifically. Is it due to motivation or due to your perfectionism kicks in so no matter what you wrote down, you feel like to scratch everything out?

 

One thing you could try is...., if you don't know how to make an opening, start from the middle. That is, open the story in the middle of an event or an action.

 

Keep in mind you're going to scratch everything out and edit them anyways, so don't be obsessed with perfect opening if that's the problem.

[Andy78]

What I find helps is just simply write the chapter. Don't think about what you're writing, just get some ideas down. You may well end up with 2000 words of complete rubbish, but you should find a few hundred words that are worth keeping and will form the basis of the chapter.

[harcallard]

If you get to a point where you have run the preverbal brick wall, think about your character and where he or she is at in the story.. okay now if they are , lets say for instance, being held at gun point... what is the next thing they would do? would they try to run away? or would they try and fight the guy for the gun.. in this way you are thinking of news ways to take the story on to the next place you want it to go.... and hopefully you will have jumped the wall... I hope this may be of some help.

[Celethiel]

lets see now...

How i do it is...

I just like plan out a chapter ahead of time... as in whats going in it, at least in a general sense...

then just start writing, I might get a flash of ispiration during the writing but other then that...

I don't worry about anything in the form of editing or rewriting until the chapter I started is actually finished to my satisfaction...

sometimes i want to rush the storyline and I have to hold myself back and place other things and break things up to suit my needs...

I also however tend to go by the advice of a book written by James V. Smith Jr on how to write a story as well...

[Benji]

...........Get advice, either from your readers input, or your editor if you have one. The groundwork you laid in the beginning and the end need to mesh somehow in the middle. You cannot have 'Sam went out for a pack of cigarettes and never came back' in the middle of the story........and leave it as WTF? In other words you cannot box yourself into a scenario that you cannot explain yourself out of.

 

My suggestion is to meld both the beginning and the end together and work your way into a middle back and forth that can satisfy you.

 

Characters moods and actions can play a big part in transforming the middle of the story.

 

My 2 cents!

[stephendelmar]

I don't know if this is helpful or not, but when I am really stuck I work on a different story for a while. I always have a few things going. I find somethings just need to rest for a while.