I can't seem to get my bearings on writing or think by myself

[YuriDoggo]

After taking a long break from writing, my independent creative ability seems to have atrophied away to nothing. While I have ideas in my head, I can't put them down on paper whether as a story, or even something as bare-bones as a planner, because everything is all jumbled up and raveled. Does anyone have this problem, and how did you solve it if you did?

I'll keep going at it but progress is hard.

 

[Kotohood]

What I do is re-read the past chapters of my story, maybe do some editing. Eventually, I'll get back into the drift as I start to remember my story. I also keep my glossary, plot outline, ideas and other resources in standby and very close to me.

Although, the best option is to not take a long break at all. Take maybe one or two days off occasionally, but never a long stretch of time.

 

[YuriDoggo]

What I do is re-read the past chapters of my story, maybe do some editing. Eventually, I'll get back into the drift as I start to remember my story. I also keep my glossary, plot outline, ideas and other resources in standby and very close to me.

Although, the best option is to not take a long break at all. Take maybe one or two days off occasionally, but never a long stretch of time.

What's done has been done, and with my hopeful return, I'm basically starting a new story.

 

[Kotohood]

What's done has been done, and with my hopeful return, I'm basically starting a new story.

Well. You can always re-read your old stories.

If nothing else, you can always do a one-shot. Good practice those things. With luck, you could probably expand it into a series.

 

[Phantomheart]

When I get stuck on a plot point and can’t find a way to write, or have all these ideas but can’t type them down, I talk to my friends, and usually they pop with a suggestion. This is because authors are blind to flaws in their own work most of the time, while others with a different perspective can easily pick them out.

 

[mrsimple]

Start talking to yourself.

...What? It's not that crazy. Like, I mean, if ya decided to pretend someone else was in the room and struck up a conversation with 'em, then you could start describing to them the opening scene. And then, this "other" could throw a question or two at you. Things that might come in handy to know, and ya write those down in order of the query. Plus ya can also do this with your characters and just do a back and forth, and be sure to jot down your reactions to these things, and ya got yourself an interaction scene.

Pretty simple for me, really, but then again, I'm not quite right in the head.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

What I do is re-read the past chapters of my story, maybe do some editing. Eventually, I'll get back into the drift as I start to remember my story. I also keep my glossary, plot outline, ideas and other resources in standby and very close to me.

Although, the best option is to not take a long break at all. Take maybe one or two days off occasionally, but never a long stretch of time.

Glossary? Plot outline? Ideas? What is this heresy? I just smash my way through the story like an assault gun and the majority scenes are improvised on the spot, or at least the chapters always turn out differently than orignally planned.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

After taking a long break from writing, my independent creative ability seems to have atrophied away to nothing. While I have ideas in my head, I can't put them down on paper whether as a story, or even something as bare-bones as a planner, because everything is all jumbled up and raveled. Does anyone have this problem, and how did you solve it if you did?

I'll keep going at it but progress is hard.

What are you doing? Continuing a story, or writing a new one?

 

[YuriDoggo]

A new one.

 

[Llamadragon]

Ah, yes, the bane of my writing career.

In my case, the cause is usually stress. Whether I notice that I'm stressed out or not. Writing is actually a pretty good warning signal. If I'm unable to write something that feels coherent, it's because my thoughts probably aren't coherent, and I'm not in a great spot mentally. It's like knitting - if the yarn is all tangled up and I need to sped time unraveling the knots in order to progress, it's time to just put the yarn down, de-tangle everything, and then pick it up again when I'm done with that. For me, that might mean that I need to drop the internet and screens all-together for a week and maybe I'll grab my tent and get out of here. Unravel. It's not like writing when I'm stressed is impossible, just like it's perfectly possible to knit with tangled thread - but it's needlessly slow, and it's frustrating, and it's easy to make mistakes that doesn't look good.

Maybe this applies to you or maybe not, it just struck me because this is the reason I usually take breaks, myself. I get frustrated because I'm stressed out in general and I need to give myself a break. Maybe not from writing, but from the bigger picture, y'know? Just food for thought.

 

[Vanny]

If you have a lot to say, write like you can't keep those words in. Talk our ears off.

 

[Scribbler]

You must find a balance between mindfulness and thoughtlessness. Think too much and your words will have no soul, or you won't write at all. Feel too much and your words will have no structure or be unreadable. You must find a balance between the two, where you words come out as you envision. This is also something I struggled with when I first started writing.

I also had the thought that my understanding of the English language wasn't good enough, so I read half a dozen books - and another on grammar - and tried my hand at writing again. You don't really say why you can't write, you simply say you can't; I find that quite annoying. If you're going to ask for assistance then the least you could do is state your problem clearly, or give clues if you don't know it.

Also try and aim for around 500 words at the start and eventually work your way up to 1,000, to 2,000, to 3,000 and so on. It's hard for a work to feel finished if you don't already have a vision for how it'll start and end. And it's much easier to imagine a larger piece if you work up to it. I think it's like reading a book. Reading a 1,000 page book when you've only ever read 200 page ones seems nearly impossible, but if you work your way up, it's much more manageable.

My fix for balancing thoughtfulness and mindlessness so I could constantly write in that flow state, where everything just felt right, was to write when I was sleepy, so either when I woke up or was about to sleep. At first I couldn't do it at will, but I eventually remembered and emulated the feeling, so I could write even when I wasn't sleepy. For me, It's kind of hard to remember what the flow state feels like, since an hour passes in an instant, but it's like a churning fire in your chest. It might be different for other people though.

I think a lot of writers are boring because they don't write while they're feeling it/in the flow state; or they don't think one exists or is obtainable.

Am I missing anything? No, I think-I think that's it. Find balance. Believe in yourself, but not too much. Work hard.

You say you've written before, but finding balance was literally the first thing I did to start writing. I think it's like riding a bike; once it clicks it stays, a sort of muscle memory.

Uhhh, and don't forget your toothbrush!

 

[Kotohood]

Glossary? Plot outline? Ideas? What is this heresy? I just smash my way through the story like an assault gun and the majority scenes are improvised on the spot, or at least the chapters always turn out differently than originally planned.

I used to things like that with my previous work(which can no longer be found), but eventually, I kinda run out of steam. I drove myself into a corner which I cannot explain without introducing plotholes or a pretty big asspull and I have no direction of where the series is to go so I have no overarching plot and whatnot.

So nowadays I choose the concept of plan first then do. Each chapter outline, I try to think of future plot points so they don't contradict each other and stuff.

Well, that's not to say that some of my scenes aren't improvise or done on the spot. They usually turned out different and often times better than what I originally plan. Though, one must keep caution when doing this as like I say before, it's very easy to drive yourself into a corner.

 

[TheOneWho]

When I find myself troubled with writing I just try to sleep on it. But maybe that's because I like to write like at 3 in the mourning. So take my advice with a grain of salt.

 

[Minasharpwrites]

Write everything you have no matter how jumbled up. That is step one. And whether you get going full steam ahead or stumble along like a drunken sailor there's one very important thing to remember and that is progress is still progress.
Don't stress about how much progress you're making it won't help.

Now since this is a new story. You have two questions you need to answer.

Question One: Who is your character?
I mean like who is your character really. Are they a cop? Do they like to swim? How old? How tall? Are they fat? Etc.
Write down every single thing you can think of on your character. Everything from looks to what's important to them to what they like to eat to what their daily normal routine is.

Question two: What is their goal?
They want to be the best panini there ever was. They want to find the lost city of asparagus. Whatever.

If you've already done that for each of the important characters. Then the next thing is usually to decide what is point A and what's point B. Point A is the starting point and point B is the ending. Or you could do point A, B, and C. That's where you outline the major plotlines.
That's usually what helps me but everyone's different.