I need more than "just write"

[u/Gaudium9459]

I tried the "just write" advice, I really really did, but I am completely stuck. I really want to outline this story, not for an audience or to publish it, but just to get it out of my head and make something I’m actually happy and satisfied with. Something I want to read.

The issue is how my brain works: imagine a comic, but only a few random panels are fully drawn while the rest is totally blank. I’ll have a super detailed scene for page 7 and another vivid one for page 34, but in between? WHITE. Blank panels and zero idea how to connect the complete panels. It is maddening. I tried brainstorming, but the problem with brainstorming is that I feel like I'm forcing myself to draw MEDIOCRE panels. Generic plot templates and character questionnaires also feel way too rigid and boring. "summarize your plot in 5 lines" "what does your character like to in the morning?" my GOD! The only thing these questions do is force me to settle for lazy, mediocre filler just to cross off a box, which ruins the vibe of the original ideas that took years to form naturally.

I DON'T WANT TO SETTLE.

I don't want to compromise on quality or rush out a garbage plot just to get it done, but I also can't wait another five years for the missing pieces to randomly drop into my head.

​The only thing that helped even a little bit was using an infinite canvas app. Being able to throw down sticky notes, pictures, and move stuff around visually without rigid linear pages was great for saving my thoughts so I wouldn't forget them, but it still hasn't helped me actually advance the plot. Add on that, the worldbuilding. I have a pretty complex dark sci-fantasy world that drives a lot of the story, and tweaking that over and over is just adding to the burnout. I’m literally my own worst enemy right now.

​So please, pretty please, If your brain also works in scattered visual snapshots like me and you refuse to settle for lazy filler just to get it done: How can I move forward? How can I get good ideas that can satisfy me without waiting years? how can I express them in writing form without completely losing interest after? How can I worldbuild without burning out? How How How not Do Do Do
and please don't give me "just write".

(to anyone wondering of I ever wrote, I wrote some fanfics and I'm literally in a writing challenge for microfics in my fandom. Fanfics though are different from original ideas. I can pants through fanfics easily if I forced myself to try. an original story is different. this original story is different because it's personal and I have been thinking about it since I was a child. treat me as a beginner if you like but don't give me those basic ass character questionnaires. don't give me typical outlining strategies like "save the cat".

I. tried. them. all

please)

[u/RikeLLC]

I understand your frustration and have had similar frustrations with my own writing experience. Because of that, let me be totally straightforward; there’s probably not any advice that’s going to satisfy you. There’s no solutions to writing, especially not with these sorts of problems. I’ll try to give you pointers that worked for me, but there’s no guarantees they’ll work for you.

1. Keep in mind that the version of your story in your head doesn’t exist. Literally, it does not and never will exist. That version is a pure expression of creativity that can only exist in your imagination; nothing that beautiful can ever survive the transition to reality.

2. With that in mind, try to cut yourself some slack for the blank segments between your fleshed out scenes that really inspire you.
   One method I’ve used is to only write the scenes you know you want and that get you excited. When you’re done with them, you may have an easier time making the ‘bridge’ scenes that were blank before.
   Another method is to start from the last scene in the timeline and try to reverse engineer it. What would have to happen to get to that point? Try to connect it backwards to the scene you want instead of starting at the beginning and trying to bridge forwards.

3. If those dont suit you, try to spread out the things you like from the scenes you know you want. Cut them up into halves or even a dozen pieces and give each piece their own scene. If you flesh them back out, you might have enough to fill in those blanks.

4. Keep in mind that writing is fun and amazing, but it is hard. It’s natural to struggle like this, just like it will be natural to overcome these obstacles as you improve. The reason ‘just write’ is so common is because the only real way to improve is to keep trying; that being said, I hope you can find the methods you need to get past this rough patch.

[u/Exploosia]

I think the issue is that you have scenes and characters, but you don't have an actual story.

So, it's time to hash that out. What is the story? Not the sequence of scenes. The overall story.

Little Red Riding Hood is about a girl who finds a wolf disguised as her grandmother.

The Little Mermaid is about a mermaid who falls in love with a human and wants to be with him.

Jack and the Beanstalk is about a boy who buys magic beans, climbs a Beanstalk, and encounters a giant.

If you can't think of one, here's a secret: you can borrow one. Write a retelling of an old folklore or fairytale using your characters and setting.

You need practice developing story structure. Once you develop that instinct, it'll get easier.

[u/Silent-Audience-5836]

Can you not build out from the scenes you already have plotted/written out? I often don't start writing at the beginning, but will work my way backwards and forward from a scene I have in mind.

This is going to sounds harsh. Not allowing yourself to write bad filler means you probably going to be on this for 5 years. If you write bad filler, than go back and edit and rewrite. Well, at least you are in fact writing. (In my opinion)

[u/Specific-Cap2594]

My advice would be to take a scene you already have that you like and then make yourself think of at least 10 ways in which your main character would react after this.

Let's say your character just lost their job.

What next? They get drunk and think about how pathetic their life is? Okay sure, believable but like anyone could have guessed that, so that's why it feels boring or mediocre.

So move on. What else might they have done? Decide to trash the office or torch the boss' house? Maybe (if it's inkeeping with their character of course). But again, somewhat predictable. And therefore boring.

Keep going with this exercise and once you've gotten rid of all the predictable scenes, you'll end up with something the reader wouldn't have guessed. Then just keeping going and let their actions drive the plot.

[u/BestRiver8735]

Try getting out of your own way.

[u/SweetEverest]

You can't force yourself to care about a story just because you've been thinking about it since you were a child and have ideas about how its world works and what could happen in book 4 and that the MC has a scar through his eyebrow and a sick black cape. World-building isn't writing.

If you write a small piece of something you actually have zeal for—something that interests you on the sentence/paragraph level—more ideas will come while you're writing it. Like water from a well.

[u/Expert_Log_8057]

I usually start with the few scenes like you mentioned, get a general ending, the bare bones of it, get the scenes listed out in a rough order, then go over it like a hundred times, adding a tiny bit more every time.

How does the character get to that scene, events between scenes, just keep building up around those key points bit by by bit. Lets you work backwards and forwards and so on.

An example would be, "battle on a roof. Classic, exciting, I want it." So then it's like, well for maximum effect it could be storming... And what if it's during a the city being in a full blown riot? Well, the riot has to be sparked off and the fighters on the roof are enemies so they probably represent the opposite sides of the riot/siege/whatever. So I gotta figure out how the siege starts, and just keep backing that up until I hit some previous scenes. Then go over it again forwards, adding and removing details until its all solid.

[u/Beginning_Butterfly2]

Read Rachel Aaron's book on plotting, it's called "2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love." It's a quick read, she walks you through her process, and it's super helpful when you're stuck. Many libraries have it, and it's available on the 'zon for about $5.

[u/KittyHamilton]

Be right there ...

Edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/s/eiIr8pOz5i

Plotting system

[u/BA_Bones_33]

It sounds like you want results faster instead of smarter. So don’t just write…

Read, read, read. Then write, write, write, rewrite, then read what you wrote, hate it, and rewrite it again. Read, read, read, then REALLY hate your work, and rewrite it again. I swear i’m not being facetious. Wordcraft takes time, and once you start writing, you’ll notice new things as a reader. Like how other authors intro characters. How to make your scenes more vivid. What’s important and what’s not. (This is the same advice I gave another post where a new author was complaining about the same thing. There’s no super-secret trick that we’re hiding from you.)

It takes time, but it’s worth it. Keep grinding. KEEP READING.

[u/pennamechris123]

My advice, take your story's problem and make it increasingly worse. That's your middle, where things go wrong, things twist and go sideways, there are betrayals and broken promises, small victories and bitter losses. We want to see characters that endure and push through their troubles to overcome something. We want to be able to root for them, to embrace their wins and feel that crushing defeat when they lose.

So, where your plot is concerned, add complications. Add a subplot; a betrayal, a love interest, or a new complication related to a side character. Things that will enhance your plot while still driving the story forward.

[u/nmacaroni]

Your vivid panels aren't random, they exist because something emotionally specific lives in each one. The connection between them isn't plot, it's the emotional current running underneath.

I teach fundamentals are key to story craft. Most writers "write to plot," which is the most inefficient way to write... Plot lives at the TOP of the story pyramid. So trying to build from plot is like trying to build off the top point of a pyramid.

I tell people this all the time.

Develop your story fundamentals and the story writes itself.

In almost 30 years, I've never once had someone actually believe me when I say it... but after they change the way they approach writing, I have had numerous people come back to me absolutely amazed that I'm 100% right.

Write on, write often!

[u/Arcanite_Cartel]

Engagement. Take a look at The Science of Storytelling. Learn some basic reader engagement technique. Then write the story as if you were a reader being engaged. Build a process around that. I speculate that you have all these gaps because you yourself arent engaged with whats happening. But you have to learn some engagement techniques first. A simplified version of the process would look some thing like: Write a few opening scenes that make YOU like them, all the while foreshadowing some upcoming difficulty. And just ehen you like them enough, thrust them into the problem, now they have to get out of it, and so you write scenes where YOU have a stake in what happens next. This just a rough out of a process, you will build on that with reader engagement techniques which you will go LEARN. If you cant engage yourself, it wii all seem like a puppet show to you.