Inspiration is a Fickle Thing

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?

Unwritten

I've been struggling with inspiration lately. As far as poetry goes, I'm fine, but anything above the length of a status update has had me stumped. I know I'm not the only one to experience this seeming drought of the imagination, there are hosts of YouTube videos and blog posts concerning just this, but it can seem like you're all alone when its happening. I can't help but question everything, my eating habits, my level of exercise, how much TV I watch, how many people I've talked to that day, ridiculous things. Finally, after not updating for a few weeks, I knew I had to post something, so why not talk about writer's block?

I've found I experience it more when I am the least productive. When I had my work study in my college's English department, I wrote all the time. I have a notebook filled with at least seven novel ideas and a couple short stories. I would think of a brilliant idea in class and scribble in the margins of my notes. And while cleaning or doing homework, words would just come to me like water from a faucet. There was no limit. Since school has gone out and I don't have a job, I've been busy taking care of my grandmother, visiting my grandfather in the hospital, and keeping up with the summer reruns. And I find I have a lot of spare time in the afternoons and nights...of which I take no advantage of. I have a notebook I carry around in case inspiration sparks but nada. I've been working on some poetry and I have come up with a couple more novel ideas, but what's an idea without follow through? Just scribbled words on a piece of college ruled paper. Easily disposed of.

I have two fanfictions I need to complete, a short story I would love to have done before my creative writing course in the fall (squeal!!!), and a novel I would love to have halfway finished before school starts. Luckily, http://www.nanowrimo.org/ is hosting a summer session of its notorious 30 day novel writing event, complete with message boards, encouraging e-mails, and a social network of like-minded individuals, all at my fingertips. I'm hoping to use this time to a.) jumpstart my summer writing and b.) finish this novel idea I've had percolating for a couple of years now. I've completed two novels using this method and a half a novel which I may go back to some day, so I know its effective, if a little stressful.

Other than that, my summer is looking pretty empty. What are your summer plans? Leave a reply in the comments, I'd love to hear from you!