My entire life I have filled notebooks with ideas for stories. Not once has my imagination run dry when thinking about something I would like to read or see a movie about. When it comes to actually writing these stories, however, I’ve had a bit more trouble. Character planning, plotting, and conflict resolution have always been a bit harder to achieve. I know what kind of story I want, I know how I want it to end, but it’s the bits in between that I have to work for. I can find myself sitting at my laptop or with my notebook, a story idea fresh in my mind and sometimes even an outline, but when it comes to actually writing it, I draw a blank. Is it writer’s block? I’m not entirely certain anymore.
Then there are times when I won’t have anything planned, I’ll just happen to have a notebook or be at my computer and a story hits me and I just write. I can’t tell you how many poems and short stories I have finished this way, and my novella, and all my fan fictions. Pretty much anything I’ve had success with I have not planned. Now, I have had success with planned projects. For the past two years I have participated in NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) and I have completed my novels both those years (PhantasyCreator90, if you’re interested). I didn’t do any extensive planning for either, but I did have outlines which I stuck to fairly well.
I don’t know what the problem is sometimes. Maybe it’s that I’m not passionate about that particular project or I’m just a pantser, writer who writes by the seat of their pants. Whatever the issue, I’ve had to learn to just go with the flow and accept that not every project I think up will be completed. Which is fine, I have far too many ideas and completing them all would take YEARS! I am just going to focus on the projects I care enough about to keep my butt in my seat and write and maybe one day I’ll see success with them through my hard work. Who knows?
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