We have moved to new forum software and posting here is closed!

PLEASE BOOKMARK THE NEW FORUMS

Posted By: Unknownhero Jan 18, 2003 - 09:29 pm

Have you ever tried to write a part or section of your story. You have it planned out. You leave enough of it unplanned for your imagation to do what it wants. But when you get to writing,you're just burned out. You can't write much or if you do write you only make a little bit of progress. You stare at the screen or paper but nothing happens. You try to move on to something else...like somewhere ahead or behind in the story and still you get burned out after writing three sentances. It happens a lot to me and I usually can't stop it. Though I finish what I need to get done it just takes me forever to get it done. Like two months for ten pages. Is there anyway I can help myself?

Posted By: Akilae Jan 19, 2003 - 02:57 am

dunno... I feel like that all the time.. my longest stretch was ten pages before I finally fell down on the table out of inspiration.

nowadays I do only minimal planning, especially ever since I found out a had an outline-actual writing ration of about three to one pages... it was the outlining that was the problem!

usually when that happens, I do something else, like that forty-page seminar paper I needed to turn in a few days later :-p

when there isn't a pressing paper, I find that Bach, Mozard, or Beethoven do wonders. Not TV, it dulls the mind. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 usually gives me something to write about.

Posted By: insomnium Jan 19, 2003 - 06:36 am

Well, I guess you wouldn't be a writer if you wouldn't get that feeling every now and then . To avoid it try planning everything before starting to write, although I wouldn't recommend doing that too much as it's good to actually leave that little something for your imagination to figure out. Also, you could write the part you want very briefly(not too many in-depth descriptions etc. you get the idea) and move on.

And although Akilae mentioned music already, I'll mention it again. At least for me it works, and it might do wonders to you, too.

Posted By: insomnium Jan 19, 2003 - 06:47 am

Oh, I forgot to mention about what kind of music I listen to. While classical music works for me too, I usually listen to metal music(I know many of you may be prejudiced towards metal music, but there's nothing better than death metal to get to that melancholical and sad mood, for example). Metal music maybe isn't for you, but at least it's better than those top-of-the-chart pop songs, which often hold no deeper meaning whatsoever.

Posted By: Ding_man Jan 19, 2003 - 07:23 am

Don't get me started on POP. Boy bands eck! I listen to rock and soft rock. Anything where the people actually play instruments. Not Alternative Rock though(Metal) I can't concentrate with that. Soothing music not to loud can help me concentrate.

Posted By: insomnium Jan 19, 2003 - 09:18 am

Not all metal music is 'loud', for example finnish Nightwish(which is considered as Opera Metal(lead singer is female with a stunning opera-like voice), but I simply hate categorizations) has some(almost everyone of them, in fact) very beautiful songs, and I advise everyone who enjoys good music get some samples from their website http://www.nightwish.com/english/mp3.html
Though most of the samples have some heavy aspects(which doesn't automatically mean it's bad) Walking in the Air for example is very beautiful piece.

Now, should we derail this topic even further?

Posted By: Ding_man Jan 19, 2003 - 09:50 am

Yea We often go offtopic on this site.

Posted By: Unknownhero Jan 19, 2003 - 09:04 pm

Yes music does help but its hard to find new music to listen to. It gets so old to listen to the same type of music over and over. Tho I could listen to radio I don't want to put up with listening to songs I don't want to hear.

Well I figured out if I just wrote the conversations and nothing else I could actually focus on putting whatever my imagation wants and don't have to worry about explaining it because it will be written in later. So I could write a important conversations between two characters then...a little later in a different time and different mindset like (trying to get this story readable) I could fill in the details, what they did...acted..etc.

Posted By: Krastakin Jan 20, 2003 - 12:49 am

When I get tired of a story, I won't write it. I will go to something else that's fresh and new, and forget completely about it until the other is finished, or until I get an idea for it.

As for music...wide range, everything from Enya to Metallica, like I've said before.

Posted By: Dreamer1206 Jan 20, 2003 - 06:44 am

I often get excited about an idea of a plot or race of humans or a city in my world, but then find it hard to know where to start.

Back to our off-topic music conversation, I listen to movie themes (the "good" ones, such as Braveheart or Armageddon) and also listen to songs written by famous "contemporary" composers - they don't write classical, nor do they write modern music.

One movie composer I REALLY enjoy to listen to is Bill Brown. You can download his songs at his web site for your personal use:

www.billbrownmusic.com

A lot of his music, plus the movie themes, really inspire me.

Posted By: Akilae Jan 20, 2003 - 09:40 am

I usually have the most problems with dialogue and description, that's where I get stuck. After a while my brain simply stops churning out words for the characters to say, they just start staring at each other, lol

while we're talking about music...

Game music these days are actually picking these days, like the conspiratorial (sp?) tracks of Deus Ex, NOLF's 60s lounge music (well, for those guys in the shagging mood I guess :-p), C&C and Frank Klepacki's industrial/rock music, Trent Reznor's (sp?) stuff for Quake II. Didn't Bill Brown do the soundtrack for Return to Castle Wolfenstein?

Posted By: shadow Jan 20, 2003 - 10:32 am

burned out is such an unpleasant idea. i don't imagine one can be truly burnt out until they've hit the age of ninety and have written at least ten novels, and even then I'm sure there is room for more.

I'm not saying that I haven't been uninspired, b/c that happens to the best of us (of which I am not), but most authors seem to agree that the best strategy is to continue writing. what you produce is generally crap, but eventually, if you work through it, something will strike you.

Akilae, heh, I have that problem in real life... I start talking and then always end up my conversations nodding awkwardly.
but seriously, maybe you should try reviewing your dialogue and seeing if it is really necessary. Are you using dialogue as info dumps?

(bad example:"John, did you know my father is the very same evil man that we are chasing, and that we are actually a race of aliens that is planning on taking over the earth?" ) If you can show some things through action rather than dialogue, perhaps your conversations will seem more to the point, and end up being a little shorter.

Posted By: Dreamer1206 Jan 21, 2003 - 01:39 am

Yes, Bill Brown did do Return to Castle Wolfenstein - he also did the music for Timeline, a book which I am reading now and enjoying very much. He has a great variety of music on his site.

Posted By: Akilae Jan 22, 2003 - 01:38 pm

shadow: my dialogue problem traces its roots back into real life, hehe... I think my dialogue ends up being a tad bit too short and too much to-the-point. Or is that not a problem at all?

Dreamer: I took a medieval course a few years back where the professor had a jolly good time over the historical inaccuracies in Timeline. Forgot what they were, but if I can find my class notes again I could remember. Not to bash on the book, I loved it too.