Tomorrow's skies

I'm kinda the same way, and was like that with drawing as well. I want it to be perfect from the get-go and didn't really want to make any mistakes or trial-by-fire

Even if it's just little notes and not real sentences, just do it you can always build from it later

AtomicEmpress

I have a lot of short stories and some half finished stuff, I get nervous about it in the middle.

Tomorrow's skies

That's still pretty good progress

TheAngel

Writing can be very intimidating, especially if you want to do it well. Writing a novel can be a multi-year commitment and there's always that fear that you won't finish, it won't be good, etc. The biggest thing is to get rid of all those fears and anxieties. Write only for yourself. Don't worry about publishing or being the next Tolstoy or King or Martin, or whoever you love. Just write because you have a passion for it.
Start with "word vomit". Sit down for 10,20,30 minutes at a time and just write. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar, anything. Just write as much, as fast as you can. It's a good exercise to break though that wall. Nothing may come of those little stories or passages, but sometimes you can pull some great ideas from them, or maybe get the start of something that you'll want to clean up and turn into a book.

AtomicEmpress

I miss when we had that writing/fan fic board for that brief time.

froggiepopple

Thanks Amy and Angel.

Tomorrow's skies

Good luck and let yourself start out slow

froggiepopple

I wrote today. It wasn't story. I was just trying to get rid of my surface thoughts. I'm not sure when I will start a story. I don't have any idea what I want to write about yet.

Tomorrow's skies

That's still good

There are so many days I'm so excited to write, but then I only end up doing preliminary notes and stuff -- but hey it's still being productive and maybe those early hurdles will work to my advantage later?

Lain

Exactly! Maybe it's because of my approach on how to write my story but planning basic stuff takes me about a month, writing very detailed story notes for every single chapter takes me at least a year, and another year or so to write it in story format. And this is while I'm juggling school.

It is a commitment and you will run in to writer's blocks many times. Happened to me several times with the story I'm currently working on. But if you're passionate about it and keep at it regardless, it will all fall together.

Of course with the publishing, there's the frustration of getting it out there but that's a whole different story.

froggiepopple

I just wrote two book reviews. One for Wings by Aprilynne Pike and one for Divergent. I had a hard time with the one for Divergent. I should have wrote it after I read it.

mary ksand

Writing a review sometimes can be completely easy for me personally and when it's easy, it's usually when I did not like a book I know it makes me look quite impulsive, but I can't do anything about it, when I read a book, especially the one everyone kept telling me to read because it's super-awesome, and find it terrible, I have so many feelings about it and I want to express them so I just keep typing and typing. Harder with a book that I liked or loved. I always try to find the right words to express my feelings and tell people why I think this book is worth reading without my review looking cheesy.

Well, you're not alone in that. It takes me years to finish a novel, that's probably why I still haven't finished mine. I have a lot of notes about what's going to happen, not just in the first novel, but in all of them since I plan to make it a series (quite dellusional for someone who STILL haven't written a solid chapter for this particular story), I know basically how is it going to end, but a lot of these things change constantly in my head and I have to write more and more notes. So when I'm actually about to sut down and try to write a chapter or two I end up being lost and desperate

froggiepopple

I know that has been recommended to me to just without the thought of publishing in my head. I'm wonder though is anyone here writing to get published, and if so are you writing what you want to write or what is marketable?

mary ksand

I'm not thinking about getting published at all. Not because I don't believe in myself or think it's too much of a never-come-true kind of a dream, but simply because I have too much to think about in terms of the story-line and how am I gonna deal with all that mess so a thought about actually publishing it all didn't even cross my mind, since I literally have no idea whether it's ever gonna be finished or not. I already have a finished story, it's not a novel, but not a short story as well and I published it online. I post a lot of my work online, right now I don't think I'm great enough to get published so I'm just trying to focus on becoming a better writer. I already have a few published articles though.

froggiepopple

Well I used to be worried about being published until recently (thanks Amy and Angel.) Right now I'm just trying to write a little bit everyday for a few minutes. I think once I get used to writing again I will be able to write more each day and finally come up with a story line.

I used to worry about what was marketable at the time. I want to write for YA and what's marketable for YA right now is dystopian novels. I have no ideas for that. I'm not worried about that anymore, because by the time I finish my book something else will probably be marketable.

So for right now, I'm just going to write to write and just get my story finished no matter what it is about.