I feel... pointless - Writers Forum

scifi maniac · 11-13-2005, 05:47 AM

I really do feel pointless and will-less. Perhaps it is becaue I have just lost the will to continue a novel that reached 30 000 words. I don't know what to do, where to start, how to do things. Ever since I gave up on the novel, a hurricane of ideas have been hitting me left right and centre. When I sit down to write even one of them down, though, I loose the plot and give up one paragraph in. I feel that writing serves no purpose even though I really want to write. This happened a few years back, and it was only at the start of the novel I've just talked about, that I regained the courage to write. I'm afraid that it will take years to recover from this blow, and I don't know how to do anything anymore. As I sit down to write, I also have a tendency to read over everything again and again and again. I have great ideas but I can't write them down, and if anyone knows why I can't, please enlighten me!

Nano · 11-13-2005, 06:39 AM

I guess I'm having the same problem, too

Avarice · 11-13-2005, 08:07 AM

when i get like that with my life and my writing i take a radical action, i get friends and drink heavily, get destroyed and then wake up, have an urge to fix my life, like work out and all that and use that enertia to write more. It's horrible but I dont like casual change. Its either hiroshima or its not baby! [ and yes hes irish hence why drink comes to mind...]

mammamaia · 11-13-2005, 10:41 AM

sounds to me like you just need to work on an outline, before going any further... did you just jump into this without one?... that's what usually results when a writer doesn't plan ahead, in writing a novel... it's not like writing short stories, that can sort of write themselves, from just a nifty opening..

for a novel, you have to plan carefully and make sure all your plot elements and sub-plots gibe properly, that time frame doesn't get scrambled, that the characters' characters are consistent, and so on...

since you're only about a third or fourth into the writing, it's not too late to stop and do some groundwork... if you need help with it, and there's no violent content in your story, i can send you an exercise that works well with screenplays in trouble and can also be used for novels...

love and hugs, maia
maia3maia@hotmail.com

casperthesheet · 11-13-2005, 12:30 PM

Sounds like the same problem I have except when I get all these ideas running though my head and when I sit down to write...well, they refuse to get out of my head.

Thanks for the advice maia, I'll defiantly try it out!

mammamaia · 11-13-2005, 12:52 PM

gosh, there's no need for defiance! ... total capitulation will do nicely...