We've all been there. We have the best idea for a story ever and we write it. Then it's the bets thing we've written so far. Unfortunately, a year or so later we go back to read it and just think, "Oh God, why?" I just had that moment tonight while I was reading a fantasy story with Princesses, Castles, Magic, and a secret civil war, a young hero forced to rise to the occasion, and the "impossible romance".
Don't get me wrong, I like the premise still but reading HOW I wrote it just made me want to burn the papers and hide away in my closet until the world has forgotten about its existence, the world meaning me. But there is an upside to this tragic moment in our writing lives. Want to know what it is? You do? Seems weird you'd trust a young, inexperienced writer like myself but OK!It shows us how far we've come as writers. I often question if my poems or short stories are becoming better. I don't see the difference right off the bat.
The story, almost literally, has to collect dust and be forgotten for a while. So you go on with your life making more stories and whatnot then one day, while you're cleaning your room or office or where ever, you come across a dusty little story that you barely remember writing. Then you read it and your memory starts coming back of this ingenious story... wait... did you really write that? Yes, that right there? Was it really necessary? Did you really just spend the last 3 pages explaining things you barely understand before moving on with what was supposed to be going on? Seriously? You misspelled the word 'Princess' and used the wrong 'there'.
Maybe it's just me whose clumsy enough to make every writing mistake in the book with such an incredible story idea, but I'm sure we've all looked at our own writing (at some point in time) with fresh eyes and realized what could be better and what could be taken out then put back in. So go ahead and write that incredibly legendary novel or short story, my fellow writer. Forget about what grammar is. English is complicated anyways. Besides, it's the first draft of a story you probably won't see again until next year when you're wiser, smarter, and more experienced. So their!
I gave you an idea of how to fight off those mixed feelings toward your writing, but just in case you think you don't have enough ammunition, here's another few tips you can do to confront and combat it:
1) Look at it in the eyes of the reader. What things take away from the flow of the story? Do you spend too much time describing what's going on or describing why something is the way it is? The blockage could be coming from how you worded everything else!
2) Again - leave your story on the shelf for a few days. I left mine on the shelf for 4 years (mostly because I have terrible memory and it served as a great paper weight) and upon reviewing it, I realized how I wanted it to be. Of course, it was in a completely different direction, story-line wise, but the characters and some of the events in the story would still be there. The difference would be that I left room for me to continue through the story.
3) If it's character development, then write a completely different short story where your character is younger and the story is something that happened that helped make them who they are in your main story! That way, you'll get an idea into your character and you'll be able to understand the types of decisions your character will make in different situations. Otherwise, it might throw off the reader and make your story confusing.
4) Finally, experiment. Blockage comes in a lot of shapes and forms that I could not possible begin to understand nor explain (though I will try in future Hubs) but sometimes it can be broken by simply experimenting different types of outcomes (outcomes being what comes next). If you don't know what comes next in your story, then experiment with different types of ways to continue the story, maybe you'll find the way out or it'll give you an idea for what to do next.
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CHECK BACK EVERY TUESDAY FIR A NEW BLOG ON WRITING!!! I swear it'll be better next time, I promise! ;)
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