I’ve always been the kind of person to just jump into projects. I’ve never been a fan of having to spend time practicing technique or learning things. I’m very hands on. It doesn’t really matter what it is, writing, art, baking. I want to do the thing first try and hope it turns out great.
Which, I guess had never been a problem for me with writing in the past. I had done it pretty consistently for years and just naturally got better. But I took a break, and honestly my whole creative side has been kind of beaten down during that time. I spent almost three years waiting for it to get better before I finally decided that if I want to get back to this I need to just do the thing. Unfortunately, it’s been really hard for me to feel good about anything I write because I’ve gone backwards in skill. I don’t even know how to get back to where I was. It’s frustrating.
Beyond that, which has been weighing on me significantly the last few months is the feeling of urgency. As much as writing is fun to me, there’s this part of me that’s also desperate to finally go somewhere with it. After putting years of my life into the hobby letting it go had been letting go a piece of me. I feel like i need to do this prove a point to myself if that makes sense. That it is possible. That it’s something I can have among a sea of nothing ever going right.
I don’t know long story short. I’ve been working on a project, and everything has been ridiculously bad. I don’t want to give up. I don’t think it’s the project. I just, I don’t know what to do. I just keep saying editing is a thing for a reason but it’s just getting hard for me to keep pouring hours into this for it to go no where because it’s all so bad.
KASDJFSDKF I relate to this so badly What works for me is to give the story some space-I normally head back to reading, watching movies or just crocheting or really anything besides writing to help my creativity flow sometimes we tend to create a mental block for ourselves be stickng to something.
Sometimes coming back to it-gives you a new angle like a mystery- you know? But also just know that writing is never done in one sitting-you’ll always be revising your story and plot. You make your own deadlines and you understand where you stand on your creative journey the best. You can also create a 3 part story or maybe a super short story or work off some prompts-I tend to use my prompts into whatever story I’ve been blocked on because often they tend to turn out pretty good when I don’t have the sense of pressure or urgency pressing me down.
We’re also the harshest on ourselves so give yourself a break! I hope this makes you feel a little bit better, girly!
I second Incognito_latte’s suggestion about reading, watching movies, etc. It sounds like you need to refill your creative well!
What might help is reading a favorite book, and while you’re reading it you could outline it – nothing detailed, just a sentence or two per chapter of the major plot points that move the story along – and see how your favorite authors put together their best stories. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
When you say your creative side, do you mean you are having troubles with ideas? Or do you mean something else (like maybe the words are having a harder time finding you)?
That could be the case, but are you 100% positive of that? I’m not trying to tell you that you are wrong or gaslight you or something, but I’ve had instances where certain things I write click better for me. There’s not really a rhyme or reason to it, some stories it is easier to find the words and to have flow better.
I know you said that you don’t think it’s the project, and I certainly don’t think you should abandon it, but you saying that you feel everything has gone ridiculously bad with it makes me think that it might be a clicking issue. By that I mean, it might take you a lot longer to get where you want with it, however I think you’ll end up finding your groove on it eventually.
Ah, I feel that. That’s something that frustrates and worries me as well! I have two ideas on how you might handle this. The first is to try to see this as an investment. You were saying that you feel your skills aren’t what they were and that you need to build them back up. You could try to view this as an opportunity/stepping stone of doing just that!
The second thing is very specific, but if it’s a feeling born of disliking your word choices rather than having issues of figuring out what happens next, then you could just leave the words you don’t like and speed through a draft to get it all done. That can be really discouraging and painful to stare at though; so maybe not, but at the same time it could be worth doing if you are afraid you are going to lose all your steam anyway!
As Incognito and Akje have said, it’s also possible that consuming more media might help you out too! You’ve got to stare at rainbows to know what they look like (or something like that )!
I don’t really know how to describe it and it’s not just with writing. It goes for a lot of my other hobbies as well. I just don’t feel the same inspiration and drive as before. Like there’s no passion there ig. It makes it a lot harder to commit to anything when they start going poorly.
it’s been an across the board thing. This is the third or fourth attempt to work on something different. The first few were projects I already had started. I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. Just I’m feeling impatient. And I honestly think a lot of that frustration is coming from the fact I know what’s wrong, but I don’t know why or how to fix it? I know it’s a case of I need to take a step back and address this before I move on, even though I don’t want to. In the long run, if i just keep going like this I’m just making things harder for myself.
It’s kind of neither? Well i guess in abstract its word choice related too. I’ve never really had this problem before. I feel like I’m over explaining everything, repeating details excessively, my descriptions are ridiculously bulky and awkward. I’m debatably at a really simple spot. I know exactly what needs to happen, when and how. Just, it’s not coming together? I’ve skipped around to a few different spots just because the beginning was really hard and awkward. But the simpler the scene the worse the overdoing is.
I’m trying my best to do this as well. I’ve been really big into binging audio books right now which has helped quite a bit. I’m just struggling on the technical side of things right now. The ideas are there, I know what I want to say, I just can’t seem to get it into words correctly.
Something that’s helped me to express myself better in writing is going old school…like really old school. Back in the old days, like in the 1700s-1900s, prospective writers used to train themselves to write by copying out their favorite books. It forces you to examine a work at the sentence level to see how the greats constructed their sentences. While you’re doing it, you can’t help but start mentally editing their work the way you would write it, and it helps you find your ideal voice. Maybe doing something like this would help you find your writing rhythm…? ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
I’ve actually heard of that pretty recent and am thinking about trying it in the future. I’m a little in over my head in projects that I need to finish before I work on that. Also…probably want to finish the book I have in mind before I do that lol. I am terrible I have like 20 half read books to finish. It’s a problem lol. Thank you though, sounds like a great idea!
What works for me is to give the story some space-I normally head back to reading, watching movies or just crocheting or really anything besides writing to help my creativity flow sometimes we tend to create a mental block for ourselves be stickng to something.