STORY WRITING 101 - Lack of inspiration, concentration, motivational issues and writer's block

[bondagefreak]

Being among the more prolific writers on the site and having published a fair amount of written works over the years, I thought it might be good to scribble down a few tips and pointers that work for me, but that don't necessarily belong on a general writer's guide.



One of the things I've noticed about myself over the years is that I tend to either produce A LOT, or produce very little.
The ideal would be some form of steady balance between the two, but one of the things I've found is that once I get to the point of completing and publishing a chapter, I can usually immediately get back to work and start producing the next one.

As soon as I take a step back and stop producing for a week or two, the task of actually sitting back down, making the time and focusing on the tale I'm trying to produce becomes seriously arduous and demanding.


Even in cases where lack of inspiration is not an issue, I've found that my desire to produce written works usually comes in waves, and I've made it my top priority to ride those waves, even at the expense of answering PMs on time and participating in non-related forum threads.

When the inner fire gets going, try to keep up with it.
You might be surprised to see how far it brings you.




Now getting that flame to kindle and actually grow can be harder said than done.

The one constant I've found is that the less I write, the smaller the flame'll be.
Once I invest myself in my writing and get to the point where I've produced a large paragraph or two, then the ball tends to get rolling.


To maximize my chances of that happening, I've done a lot of experimenting over the years and was eventually able to find the time and location in which my mind is most productive.


For me, it definitely has to be at night or on particularly snowy/rainy days.
Being an outdoorsy guy when I'm not on here, I've found that the time when I'm the least productive is when the sun is out.

Funnily enough, the actual area of the house where I sit down to write has an even greater impact on whether I'll be able to focus or not.
Ambient background music and white noise does tend to help in my case, but the area of the house where I tend to be the least productive is my patio deck, my living room, or any room that has large windows and/or a nice view.

When it comes to writing, I'm almost always more productive in a dimly-lit room, with the blinds partially shut and no potential distractions in my immediate surroundings.


Sunlit areas of the house and the patio deck can sometimes work as well depending on what kind of chapter I'm writing, but in general, my mind tends to favour a darker, quieter environment with few to no outward distractions.
The quiet setting allows me to focus entirely on my work without being distracted by everything that goes on outside, whether it be the honk of a horn, a noisy passersby or strong winds.



Aspiring authors or authors who haven't quite found their comfort zones yet should try to keep track of when and where their minds tend to be more productive, and exploit those findings as often as possible.

And to recap what I mentioned above, if you're writing a multi-chaptered story, the more you put off writing, the harder it becomes to get back into it. So if you've started writing a story but can't seem to find the motivation to get back into it even though you know where you wanna take it, try sitting down and try forcing yourself to produce a couple lines.
Sometimes that's all it takes to get the ball rolling again.


Hope this helps.
Cheers!

[RopeBunny]

I didn't post on the original story help thread, which is now over a year cold, but I've thought to. Now, seeing this fresh post on the general subject of writing, I decided to add what help I can.

A fair amount of what [mention]bondagefreak[/mention] says is relevant to me too. I tend to either have all the ideas and motivation, or none.

I think prehaps where we differ is our method.

Sticking purely with the posts subject, inspiration and concentration and motivation, not the actual writing process, I find it helps to always be ready. To explain. I tend to write on my phone, using an email draft which I can copy and paste onto the site once it's ready. The benefit here, as I've discovered many times, is that when I AM in the mood to write TUGs related content, my current story (or stories if I happen to have multiple ideas brewing) is (are) always to hand.

The other thing I'll mention, which is something already mentioned in the original post, is that at times I will simply force myself back into a story. It can be hard sometimes to get motivated, but, sometimes not always, if I sit and make myself write a sentence or two, then I'll find myself still writing twenty minutes later.

I usually know what I want to happen next, but putting pen to paper, forming the correct description, can at times seem like too large a mountain to climb, so you put it off and put it off. That's when I need to give a small push.

I hope at least some of that helps.