I have several projects on the go at the moment - a novel, a series of short stories and I have just begun a new story. I cannot seem to finish!! Is it just me?
I have to write what comes and am finding the thing of sticking with one piece very retricting. Is this usual?
Helllllllllllllllllllllllp!!!
How can I stop being a literary butterfly??

I have to write what comes and am finding the thing of sticking with one piece very retricting.

Writing what just comes is where we all start, of course, and I think this is very common. But getting a piece finished is so much more that what just comes, and getting a piece ready to fly has some very dull and ploddy and bum-glued-to-chair patches. When you're working on a piece, and something else comes prancing along looking irresistible, it's always possible to make a note for later, and go back to the One until at least the current stage is over. If you don't, but allow yourself to be diverted, it could be for a number of reasons, some good, some not good. Like infidelity, abandoning One for Two is as much about what's wrong in your relationship with One, as it is about the allurements of Two. A few thoughts, in no particular order.

One is at a sticky or baffling point, needing hard, analytical thought and/or a scary leap into the dark. This sparkly new idea for Two seems so much more alluring: it's needs free-ranging thought, un-judgemental and undemanding. It's fun: One isn't being fun at all at the moment. Your call which you work on, but it's worth recognising why your One doesn't seem to understand you anymore...

One is written, revised, re-thought, revised again, and now it's nearly ready to go out. That's very scary - putting yourself and your work on the line publicly in a way it isn't when it's just you and the piece. Wouldn't it be easier just to take a break, before that, and try something else?...

You've worked on One so long and so often, too-ed and fro-ed, done major surgery and minor tweaks, and you can't see it straight. In fact you can't respond to it at all, and so you can't tell what else it needs. This could be a good reason for trying something else. I and many writers often do something which I call leapfrogging, where you have a main project on the go, but have something else which you do when that main project really needs to go in a drawer for a bit: after a big revise, or when you're stuck and need to wait for the answer to arrive. Working on something else clears your palate, as it were, and you come back to it with fresh eyes.

Something external has happened to damage your confidence in One or your writing talent/future in general: negative or unconstructive comments from friends about the work; ditto about your (lack of) hope of ever getting somewhere with it; a similar book/idea being published; an agent or editor's comment that what you're writing 'doesn't sell' these days. These are external to the actual quality of what you're doing (as opposed to tough-but-constructive comments from your writer's group, say), and don't tell you anything about whether it's worth doing. Whether you get over the wobble by getting stuck into One just to show them, or by putting it away till you fall in love with it again, you'll have to decide.

But in the end all writers structure their work different ways. Learning to write is partly about learning to handle your own writerly self, and this sort of issue is central to that learning.

Emma

<Added>

One other thought is that sometimes you want to pursue Two for fear that it'll slip away and never come back. But it will come back. Besides, there's no reason that while your main work is still One, you shouldn't make notes for Two, collect bits and pieces from magazines that seem to be relevant, take photos, buy books or make a note to get them from the library in due course, even jot down the name of the song on the radio or the picture or the place that you were, when you suddenly thought something important, as well as the thought itself. Even use a day off to go and research a place (unless doing that for One is more important).

The only thing not to do, if you're trying to finish One, is to actually sit down and start the first draft of Two, because you can't pay that level of concentration to both. But there are lots of what I'd call sub-prime jobs when writing a piece. When I'm leapfrogging, I'm often alternating prime work on one piece with sub-prime on the other - either research/notes before, or proof-reading, fiddling, checking after.

Emma, thankyou sooo mcuh. I love the way that you have written this. You make my writing sound like love affairs and as if i am bring unfaithful to my longterm lover in favour of a quick fling. I see what you mean...You see, the thing is this - I am a poet. The way that I write poetry is very 'inspirational' I suppose. Ideas come at night and pop into my head. Some poems have to be emotionally wrenched out...and this is what seems to be happening in my writing. I am getting bogged down by paying attention, I think - to what I conceive as good ideas that I could just write a few lines about. I like the anlogy though with it being like a love affair and that I should stick with 'The One' and just admit that there are others around and its OK to be a bit jaded with something you have been with for quite a while.
I know that you are a published author ( I read your interview) I would be really honoured if you would read my work . Not 'portobello morning' ( its hogwash that just came into my head this morning)
Would you read 'B and Monsieur Truffle' This is a series of short stories that I'm working on and...am a bit stuck with ( hence the lapse in fidelity...) Would you be soo very kind and try and nudge mee along a little? I am truely stuck with it.
smiles across the miles from
Linda B (aka 'guilty in the corner)

Disregard this if it doesn't ring true, or if it's too trite, but...

All good relationships will reach a point where they just need hard work, if they are to grow and not fizzle out.

The good news is that literary projects are not people.

pt

All good relationships will reach a point where they just need hard work, if they are to grow and not fizzle out.

Something in that, I think - though I wonder if it's more that they just need work, in a way which they didn't feel as if they did.

PP, I've WWmailed you. And thanks for your post prompting my analogy of infidelity, because it's triggered a blog post...

Emma

I do feel, more than ever, that sooner or later a new novel needs one to knuckle down and work at it. Having had writers block in the past, there is always the lingering fear of not being able to write, and so it is so seductive to start something new, and be in the throws of first love with the words flowing onto the page, rather than to stick with something that has become hard work.

- NaomiM

I hadn't thought it might be writers block; I have tried and tried with this particular MC and can't seem to slot anyone in around her without it sounding 'forced'.. - I just dont understand why I can't move it along. Reading what is posted, it sounds like a skeleton story and needs other chrecters moving in and out of the storyline - maybe what I need in fact - is to go and find myself a creative writing course..evening classes.
I've already abandoned ( for the forseeable future) a novel and I had about 80.000 words of that (unedited) but the chapters were all mixed-up. I started this new series of stories as a way of learning new approaches and I also found it fun - I dont mind hard work - I just cannot find the right approach - you all sound experienced at this but until 2 yrs ago, all I had written was poetry.
Because Im a beginner, I admit that very often when I wander around the site - I come across posts and words that I dont understand and sometimes I think I will never get the hang of it all.
( I sound like I'mhaving a 'poor me' thingy....
I'm not though - its just that I'm stuck and dont know how to unstick myself.aGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I don't think we ever stop learning, PP
As far as editing a 80K novel is concerned, that is just one more skill a writer needs to learn, and usually that only comes from doing it. There are how-to books that can help, such as Sol Steins Solutions for Novelists, but his 'solutions' are only tips. Some will work, others won't.

There is a difference between hard work in terms of doing lots of writing - thrashing out 80K words is hard work. However, there is also the hard work that comes from, eg, untangling chapters; moving the plot forward when one is stuck; changing it all from 3rd to 1st person simply to see it will work better that way; changing the MC; writing it from a different character's pov and having to find the right voice for them....most of these things are suck it and see, you don't know if it'll work until you try.


- NaomiM

Also, I've been looking for somewhere to post A copy of the motivational letter sent out by NaNoWriMo. And here seems as good a place as any.

Dear Author, It's happening. You're writing a blue streak. You're piling up the pages. You're roaring through this novel like a forest fire. Then suddenly you hit the immovable obstacle. WHAM. Ow. You're flat as a piece of typing paper, your mind as blank. Panic! Whether you're taking a month or a year, this is always the question. What happens next? Fiction is all about decisions. Let me give you a personal example. Working on White Oleander, I kept hitting this wall, about chapter 8. It was all going great, all the wheels in motion, and then WHAM. I just couldn't decide what to do next. I'd try this, try that, but each time I'd get stuck. The character would put her toe in and pull it out again. No, not that. Should I just bag it? Write a different book? Go to law school? Watch reruns of Hogan's Heroes? I was absolutely blocked at the crossroads. Luckily I was seeing an amazing therapist at the time. I explained I was afraid that if I chose route 6, then I would be eliminating all the other possible routes. What if route 15 was better? Or 3 1/2 ? So I hedged. I couldn't commit. I was stuck. And she gave me the piece of advice which has saved my writing life over and over again, and I will give it to you, absolutely free of charge. She said, "I know it feels like you have all these options and when you make a decision, you lose a world of possibilities. But the reality is, until you make a decision, you have nothing at all." So you have these options, but which one to go for? When in doubt, make trouble for your character. Don't let her stand on the edge of the pool, dipping her toe. Come up behind her and give her a good hard shove. That's my advice to you now. Make trouble for your character. In life we try to avoid trouble. We chew on our choices endlessly. We go to shri nks, we talk to our friends. In fiction, this is deadly. Protagonists need to screw up, act impulsively, have enemies, get into TROUBLE. The difficulty is that we create protagonists we love. And we love them like our children. We want to protect them from harm, keep them safe, make sure they won't get hurt, or not so bad. Maybe a skinned knee. Certainly not a car wreck. But the essence of fiction writing is creating a character you love and, frankly, torturing him. You are both sadist and savior. Find the thing he loves most and take it away from him. Find the thing he fears and shove him shoulder deep into it. Find the person who is absolutely worst for him and have him delivered into that character's hands. Having him make a choice which is absolutely wrong. You'll find the story will take on an energy of its own, like a wound-up spring, and then you'll just have to follow it, like a fox hunt, over hill, over dale. GOOD WRITING! Janet Janet Fitch is the author of the Oprah Book Club selection White Oleander and more recently, Paint It Black. She regularly blogs about writing on MySpace.

Thanks naomi,
I see your point and the article is brill. I will try another approach - it so good to know its 'not just me!' I wil really work on this MC and flesh out what will work in the chapter - I love words so much, I could write endlessly but - I am going to knuckle down and - in a few weeks )hopefully less...) I wont be stuck.
Linda

Naomi, I love 'You are both a sadist and a saviour'. I think we all know the glee of seeing some really nasty predicament looming over the horizon for our unfortunate characters...

I've just blogged about this here:

http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2008/11/the-other-novel.html

so thanks for the inspiration, PP.

Emma