Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Words for Wednesdays

Alrighty, so I've settled on "Words for Wednesdays"... I'm sure there are other wacky titles I could use, and when I think of them, you can be sure it's going to change ;)

Today's quote:

"Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself - it is the occurring which is difficult" Stephen Leacock


I am always daydreaming.

I think at least fifteen times per day (sometimes more, sometimes less), I think to myself, "what if". It's usually based on something that transpires around me, or some random thought that meanders into my brain, but I'm constantly thinking, "hey, maybe that would be a great idea for a story".

The thing is - apart from that one liner, many of those ideas never come to fruition (that may actually be a good thing because otherwise I'd have a lot of half written stories lying around). If I remember however, I do jot them down, and hope that one day I'll return to them.

So while I don't exactly have trouble with ideas occurring or with jotting them down, sometimes, when I start panicking, or worrying, I do have trouble with expanding on them. One idea doesn't always lead to another, and some days or weeks, I can be stuck for hours, racking my brain, and wondering what the heck I was thinking. Sometimes what seems like a great idea at the time, is much more difficult to build upon from that one liner.

It's true though. Jotting down your great ideas is relatively simple. Keeping hold of the ever slippery muse? A whole other story ;)

What about you? Do you ever struggle with coming up with ideas? What part of writing is the easiest for you?




17 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

The basic storyline is easy for me. It's the details and rationalization, the logical procession of one scene to another, that give me trouble.

Jodi Henry said...

I write mostly adult urban fantasy and have recently branched out into ya paranormal romance. I have never built a world, town or setting I wasn't already familiar with. This will give me problems when (or if) I choose to do it. Of this I am sure.

Getting the emotions in a scene right is always hard. I write a chapter and then take at least another pass at it for each character in the scene. Tedious, yes. But in the end the emotions are at least half-ass good, if not 'right on.'

See you around,

Jodi

Talli Roland said...

I always get lots of ideas for settings. The trouble is constructing the storyline around the setting! I've found it helpful to ask myself what the highest stakes are - what could this character gain - or lose - from her actions? Then I start to get more ideas.

Kenda Turner said...

I come easily to the setting, the historical era (children's historical fiction here), and even the picture of the bigger world and what's going on around my MC--but it's her story that often eludes me. What does she want? How do these things impact her? But it's okay. I look forward to watching her story unfold as I write!

One thing I plan to do differently on this second project is to develop my one-sentence summary/one paragraph pitch first. Didn't do that with book one,which I started long ago before I realized how much I still had to learn :-) That's the stage I'm at right now...

Elana Johnson said...

Oh, yes, I struggle for ideas. Surprisingly, I'm always thinking of titles. Things that would make a great title, but I never write that book. Then the books I do write, I struggle to come up with a title. Go figure.

For me, the easiest part of writing is the drafting. I'm super-quick at it because it's just a mess.

Robert Guthrie said...

I've got a journal that I think of an idea incubator. Maybe it's a phrase, a character sketch, or a 20-page outline... but all my projects begin there. Some grow and hatch. Some never come out.

Melissa said...

I feel a little awful... I mean, so far, my trilogy... I've never had to THINK on anything. It's all in my subconscious. Things are revealed to me but its never a surprise because there is always all the framework there waiting for me.

Ideas aren't hard...its the writing them down that stumps me.

notesfromnadir said...

Sometimes those ideas just float around but disappear like popped soap bubbles, But other times they last and you will be able to write about them.

The easiest part about writing is when I finish the article or story and take a few hours off!

Jai Joshi said...

When I'm having trouble coming up with an idea I just relax and trust myself to come up with something. If it doesn't come at that moment then I'm not ready for it.

That's how I look at it, anyway.

But when the idea does come you can be sure that I'm jotting down like crazy!

Jai

Stacy Henrie said...

Most of the time I don't struggle for ideas, but I do struggle with starting a new book. I wrestle with the fear of having nothing written down yet - the entire book ahead of me. Once I make myself sit down and start and get a ways into it, I find it gets a little easier.

Melissa Hurst said...

Playing around with the "what ifs" is so easy for me. Developing them into a full length story is much more difficult.

Theresa Milstein said...

Like you, the ideas come easily. I get those what if's too. But going past chapter one and falling in love for the duration is another story.

Joanne said...

I do keep a file of ideas on hand, and agree with Theresa. The ideas are pretty easy, but they're just a starting point. Maybe a foundation. And from there, the building begins ...

Anna Banks said...

I think I'm the minority here. Most everyone said they come up with ideas galore, but putting them to paper is hard. I'm camping out at the other end of the spectrum. I can sit down and write just about anything. Seriously, I've always been able to. Unfortunately, that doesn't help much because the high-concept IDEAS elude me. The crap I think up is unoriginal and flat--creativity's version of a skid mark. The concept doesn't reach much higher than my ankle. So I have to make up for it with my writing technique/voice. Bummer.

Anonymous said...

I love to daydream and I probably do it most often when I shouldn't be. :]

I have one other story idea that I think is halfway decent but I find it very hard to juggle more than one book at a time and so I have yet to expand on it. I have to concentrate on one thing at a time.

The easiest part of writing for me... Uh, chapter titles? I have a list of chapter titles that I'm eager to use.

The Words Crafter said...

I can remember a good idea for years, even the plot/storyline. I can come up with the whole skeletal structure of the story....it's all the details, the conversations, the incidents and the progressive move from one plot point to the next....sigh.

The Words Crafter said...

I can remember a good idea for years, even the plot/storyline. I can come up with the whole skeletal structure of the story....it's all the details, the conversations, the incidents and the progressive move from one plot point to the next....sigh.