What is the hardest part of writing for you?

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Drewby

Narcoleptic Insomniac
Joined
Mar 18, 2002
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The hardest part of writing for me is coming up with names. I can create these great lands and characters and everything in my mind, but I can never come up with a name for the people or city or whatever it may be I am working on. Any tips?

What is the hardest part of writing for you?
 
Thankfully nothing stands out as hard to me. For names I usually have a mix of normal and made-up names. I keep a few lists split into Male, Female and Made-up names and I constantly add to it whenever I think of one or hear a cool name.

Try http://ebon.uni.cc/ It's got some good ones from different cultures. Make sure you download the extras for it.
 
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The hardest thing for me: Finding the time to write.

Time when I haven't something nagging at the back of my brain..

Time when other members of the family are busy and will leave me in peace.

Time when I am not too tired and I don't have the strength to do more than just browse the internet.

Also beginnings, where to begin the story. At what point in the tale do you want your audience to join in.....

At the moment my present piece,( barely started) has three beginnings.... One begins with a letter, two begins at sea, three begins some 50 years in the future. ie. the furture as compared to the main action of the story... In fact it is the ending or the beginning. Life is after all one big circle.......
 
Originally posted by Drewby
The hardest part of writing for me is coming up with names. I can create these great lands and characters and everything in my mind, but I can never come up with a name for the people or city or whatever it may be I am working on. Any tips?
Click to expand...

I hate doing names, but I've never found a random generator that worked for me either, they come off as random letters (which they are) and not as a good name. If I'm really stuck, I'll go through the phone book, flip open to a random page and poke my finger down. Repeat for last name. You get some interesting combinations.
 
Originally posted by Holbrook
The hardest thing for me: Finding the time to write.

Time when I haven't something nagging at the back of my brain..

Time when other members of the family are busy and will leave me in peace.

Time when I am not too tired and I don't have the strength to do more than just browse the internet.
Click to expand...

Ditto.
There's always several other voices screaming for my attention and drowning out the writer in me.
I guess I should run away to some isolated cabin in the woods or a cave in Tibet!
 
Time. There is not enough time. Work, work, and work. Then comes kids and wife next. Gotta spend time on those things. Writing falls behind.
To finally finish my last book I had to just stop and take 4 months off of work, no other way to do it.
Names, strangely enough are not a problem. I love the process of creating the world and naming the people and places. It is the really enjoyable.
Frankly, there are times I would rather focus on world building and let someone else tell the stories...
 
For me, the hardest part is wrapping everything up at the end. I have NO trouble identifying when the story is actually over, but sometimes on a read through I see IMPORTANT threads that were started, but their ending was sort of half-assed. An example. In one of my novella length stories, I had a meddling alien influence that played a big role in the explanation of what was going on and why and how, but come to the endgame and that alien influence is just quieted with a few short lines... very unsatisfying for me.
 
Does anyone want to see my book, perhaps? Check out what i mean on when i say i have good idea but it was put in the wrong head!

Mike
 
The hardest part of writing for me is actually sitting down at the computer and writing the first few sentences. Once I have that, it flows pretty easily.

Of course finding a few hours of uninterrupted time isn't very easy either. Usually the only time I have free time is after my daughter has gone to bed, and by that time I'm too tired to do anything except listen to music and browse the net.
 
I think the most difficulty I have is with finishing what I start. I don't know how many stories I've started and just left hanging - either because they start to suck, or I just lose interest. In most respects I think finishing is related to the issue of time though.

I have periods where I can consistently work on something for a month or so, but then I'll go through weeks where I don't even get enough sleep. (Yes I have falled asleep at the keyboard.) Then I come back to a story where I'm 20 - 50 pages in and I've forgetten so many details that I lose interest. Couple that with the fact that I probably have a new idea in my head and it's no wonder I start the cycle over believing that "this will be the one."
 
I have no problems with names, plot, etc - but I have the attention span of a gnat and I never finish the bloody long stories!! Even though I continue to write plot decives and situations for the progress of the story...

Frustrates even me.

Although my current monster is chugging along very well...

Solaar
thinks it could be it...

hopes it could be it...
 
The rewriting.

But's all good fun.

Actually, maybe it's approaching the agents - because apparently even a success rate of 0.5% is considered high. Cracking those odds...remains to be seen.
 
Now that it is mentioned- the beginning is horribly slow for me too. I usually force myself to write and crank out a few ideas for the first chapter and then carry on with the story only to come back later and see which start was best for the overall story.
 
For me, plot..I have , IMHO, good ideas, but to string together a good, solid plot is a bit difficult. I think I nail dialogue pretty good and found out that some authors start with dialogue and the plot evolves from the dialogue!
 
The hardest part for me is going back to a book that has already been published and rereading it. Or just going back to a book that i finished a year ago and put away after starting the next one! I read my own work so critically after some time has passed, and I am never satisfied, so it is hard to reread an earlier book or manuscript.
Now I have a new editor and a new publisher, so I hope she will do that for me and spare me the pain.
 
I find it difficult to find time even though I know that to become a writer I must do so.

I also find it very difficult to focus on one idea at a time, and end up making no real progress on anything.
 
My only real problem is in getting past the first few pages. I absolutely love the process of inventing a story, characters, and a plot, but actually taking all of what's in my mind and putting it into rational words and sentences is extremely difficult.

Figuring out where to begin the story, what the reader needs to know, and how exactly the story should progress from the beginning are my weak points. But once I push myself past the beginning of a story, I usually flow pretty well for a few weeks. After that initial burst of energy has dwindled, however, and/or the current story within whatever I'm writing has been finished, I need to kick myself to restart the writing process.
 
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