What do you hate most about writing fiction?

[Truegho]

What do you hate most about writing fiction?

For me, how to write a good ending is always a pain in the backside. I have tried to write the ending first, but even then you have to work out how you are going to get there.

Another aspect of writing that I don't like - and which bores me to tears - is having to over your work again and again to iron out any mistakes, repetition etc.

Finally, it can be a huge headache trying to dream up a story that hasn't already been done to death (e.g. vampires, serial killers in the woods after teens etc.).

Writing, at times, can be like suffering constipation and trying to climb Mount Everest at the same time!

[Lilies13]

Writer's block! Um I even like the revision, the correction, I like the process...it very meditative. I never feel frustrated when writing, it's only when I'm not writing...then I'm a bitch on wheels! A friend once told me that she likes me better when I write, cause then I'm the nicest person in the world! When I'm not writing, everyone I know keeps their distance! Lol! Hell has no fury like a woman's temper!

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

Personally I think writing's the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Perhaps you should try a musical instrument? Or painting?

Long days and pleasant nights

[DarkWriter]

Nothing. I enjoy using my imagination. Seeing how far my characters are willing to go and what really is hiding behind door number two.

But that is just me, others may be more suited for writing non-fiction.
Either way you need to go over your work to edit and make corrections.

Whether I am writing or reading, I hope never to lose the enjoyment of the printed word.

If you have written fiction in the past and are just now finding it unbearable. Maybe you need to pull back and refresh yourself by working on something else.
Or if you are not under a deadline, take a day or two to kick back and just read.

I wish you luck.





If it shakes and moans, don't open the box.

[Prince of Darkness]

I like last thing you said there! :biggrin2:

And yeah, you have a point. The best thing for me about writing fiction is probably zooming out on the computer and seeing the black on white, or just looking at the pages from a distance. Makes me feel like I did something worthwhile :grinning:

But seriously, revising is irritating to a point and the worst thing probably has to be worrying about the originality and roundness of the story. :eyebrow:

My WorkInProgress is second draft now, just beginning, and I just have so much troubles with style. My draft has a prologue and an epilogue that follow on each other like in Salem's Lot.. and it frustrates me that I can't do it another way and make it original! :oo:

But that's writing for you, you can't live with it and you can't live without it. :smile2:

[TheWalkinDud]

Research. The protagonist in the novel I'm currently writing is a doctor, and it's resulted in hours of mind numbing research.

[aussiewonder]

The fact that I cant do it, would be my biggest dislike!:eyebrow:

[SKfan2006]

writing fiction can actually be funner since you can think of so many people and places that could and couldn't exist. for example i've got a bunch of characters and they all have one thing in common, they're teenagers and since i'm a teenager i know how to write them. non-fiction would have to be harder since you have to spent years researching the person or place and make sure everyone's personality is correct or you'll be critisied big-time.

[PatInTheHat]

The impending perjury charges...oh uhh, never mind:blush:.


Personally, I've never really thought about writing anything but zingers and actually, never even those until this magic pipeline called the internet came along...they just simply popped out of my mouth.
The great thing about this is, I can delete them if I want before I send them out...or even if I didn't, nobody can then crack me upside my punkin' head...nah nah na na nah!

Since I've been on here however, and have participated in the Halloween story the last two years (thanks to the encouragement of a very sweet bawdy broad on here who's out on bail...you know who you are you desperado you), I may give it a whirl for the hoot of it one day.
Besides doing those stories, the last time I'd really written anything that would be considered fiction, has been over twenty years ago in the last year I was in high school...no not an assignment, more of a shall we say, reasons I didn't need to be there:rolleyes:.

I'm constantly impressed by you folks on here that can write to your hearts content, for if nothing else the satisfaction it seems to give you.
The inevitable frustrations I read about, seem to lend themselves to that satisfaction in very strange ways...I think I'd like that oddly enough (and there's not much danger for you to lose an eye or a digit or two like doin' woodwork either...now that's pretty cool right there is what I'm thinkin':oo:!).
Is cathartic the word I'm looking for?
I'm starting to envy y'all enough, that I'm trying to wrap my head around it...the actual process of it that is.

I gots me some pretty groovy and whacky (and just plain whacked) stories, but since they're all absolutely true, nobody could possibly believe them...truth being waaayy stranger than fiction and all that stuff.
(I'm supposing you just change the names & zip codes?:wink2:)
I guess that's why I love reading fiction so much, it doesn't seem to stretch my imagination to the breaking point nearly as much as reality certainly can (has).

Anyway, thanks so very much to you all for teaching me a few things...where the hell were all of ya back in high school:laugh:?

[SKfan2006]

well the last time i actually wrote something was a couple years ago for english where we had to write an original short story or poem so i did one based on a dream i had like 5 years ago about being taken to an alien space station and finding out i had powers like the power rangers. let me tell you the story was terrible because i only had a couple days to think out how to plot it out.

[Presque Vu]

Interesting thread! I guess what I dislike the most is that I want to hurry things up and get to the end or whatever finale/catharsis there is in my mind for the characters, so I sometimes need to slow my writing down... as for the 'outside' factors, since I've started working, I simply don't have the time to write, which really makes me unhappy at times.

[Lilies13]

Research. The protagonist in the novel I'm currently writing is a doctor, and it's resulted in hours of mind numbing research.

I love research! The thought of going to the library gets me all excited! Ruffling through all those old dusty books....yummm! I also like online research! I was always very good at it, especially when it come to subject I am very interested in, like once I wanted to write about the Aztecs. Just got everything I could on it and immersed myself into their world...all I can say is one could get lost among the research! And no the story is not penned...goodbye to wasted hours! Oh well it was good while it lasted.

[worddance]

The only thing I hate about writing is finding the time to do it. Between job and husband and family and house and paying the bills and walking the dog and having some semblance of a social life there's very little time left. So I ignored my husband and family, let the house go to pot, stopped paying the bills and walking my dog and cut all ties with my friends.

Now I have nothing to write about.

Mary

[DarkWriter]

The only thing I hate about writing is finding the time to do it. Between job and husband and family and house and paying the bills and walking the dog and having some semblance of a social life there's very little time left. So I ignored my husband and family, let the house go to pot, stopped paying the bills and walking my dog and cut all ties with my friends.

Now I have nothing to write about.

Mary



:biggrin2: Well, if you let everything go long enough you may have a story in the making.

As your husband turns into a mad man walking around drooling with a knife and fork in hand looking for something--anything to eat. The dog once a sweet little thing...Now running throughout the house growling with a leash between his teeth. Twice the size he once was from holding back what should have been left on the sidewalk long ago for some unsuspecting jogger.





If you see a masked, blood soaked figure and it's not Halloween...RUN

[Nero]

I have a hard time not jumping ahead. I'm trying to learn to let the story write and develop itself.

What I'm working on right now is living proof, I have to consciously ground myself because my mind is on story crack and wants to scoot scoot scoot along before I can finish the last thing I thought of...

[LadyHitchhiker]

Writer's Block.

[JRLauer]

The fact that everything I put down on the paper is a damn lie.

That's a joke.

[SKfan2006]

got my new charger so i can finally start writing my stories.

[mogget3]

Ive actually just started with writing stories. And I must say so far it's all going a bit too easy for me. Of course when I read back I delete and add a lot of things,mostly grammar-faults. The weird thing is,I'm dutch but somehow just can't write in dutch. It sounds stupid to me. So I write in English,but sometime I'm using the past tense when I shouldn't and the other way around and then I find out I have to change a whole part.

I'm working on a story now,and although I know how the story goes,characters and things just happen without me really knowing about it. So when 'm coming to a certain part I go,''oh, of course, why didn't I think of that?''. And ,of course,I know I did know these things but it's like it's creating itself.

When I've been able to do some writing I really feel good,like I've accomplished something for a good cause.
Do dutch writers publish in the states,mod? (I'm not ahead of myself,really...)

[kisun]

Mine is remembering to show, not tell.

But that's about it, :biggrin2:.

[Kim L.]

I like writing, especially if I have a deadline. It's not being able to write that gets me.

[jacobtlong]

I hate writer's block. It's one of the things that can make or break a writer, and everytime I get it I keep thinking that my muse has deserted me. It's horrible. But once I get the idea that cures me of the old blockage I'm ecstatic. Everything else about writing is just part of the craft and part of the fun.

[the_last_gunslinger]

I hate trying to incorporate the real-life details to give the story authenticity. I'm only 22 so I do not have a lot in the way of life experience. Trying to accurately write what it is like to live in a high rise apartment in New York City, for example. Or knowing what kind of gun to use in what kind of situation.

Basically, the facts that really can't be researched.

[Agincourt Concierge]

Au contraire, dancing is the most fun you can have with your clothes on!! (and sometimes clothing is optional for that, too....depending on which club you frequent!).:D

[Lepplady]

What do you hate most about writing fiction?

Editing fiction. Rewrites can easily become the tenth level of hell. A lot.
:eek2:

[bookworm101]

the fact I can't write. I do good to produce a coherent grocery list.

[xuxa]

Writing is like stepping through a magic door. The only thing bad about it is having to stop.
Then someone comes back and says" you have a lot of spelling errors". That sucks too.

[Bryan James]

I hate too many thoughts and interruptions.

I was fictionless for almost 20 years. Whatever a "Summer Creative Writing" (South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts) school didn't burn out of me (although I did get a glowing review of one of my short stories by James Dickey live and in person--the man actually quoted some of my 17 year old kid-writing stuff, that was fairly cool), was certainly cindered in law school, right?

But no.

I had an interesting personal experience recently, and I thought I should jot it down. So I did. And the damned floodgates opened.

Now I'm churning out short stories and two page sketches, and I have three solid books underway. Two of which might be sellers.

What I hate most about fiction writing? 1) Me distracting myself with too many projects (probably out of fear or laziness). 2) I don't know the business end of it. When I do finish something, what do?

BJS

[Medeann]

I have no trouble with the beginning. The ending usually comes on it's own without me expecting it. But the pages and chapters that connect the two....they kill me:glare:

I have been working on "book", (I use the term loosely because it doesn't know what it wants to be yet), for 7 years. I have had the beginning since year one and the ending since year two, the rest just doesn't seem to want to fill itself in :down:

[tempest]

What do you hate most about writing fiction?

Everything :rofl:

I am a READER not a WRITER :laugh:

[sam peebles]

The fact that I never finish what I start. It doesn't even matter if I know exactly what the ending is going to be, because the simple fact is I will never get that far (I do have two works that are twenty-thirty five pages long apiece, but I haven't touched either of them in months). It's pretty depressing. I'm thinking of using aderall to assist me in my writing impairment.

[Mr Nobody]

I hate writing. I love writing. Both those statements are true. I love the feeling that this, here, is something I've done, something I've created from my own imagination. Even if something like it has existed in the world before (there's nothing new under the sun, after all), this is mine.
But I hate starting the process. It's too slow. I can see the whole damn thing, but having to lay it out one word at a time can be boring.
Once I'm out of the blocks, though...well, then I have to be dragged away from the computer, or the pad of paper, or whatever I'm using. And then I get to go through the 'getting started' process again the following day.
It's not so bad if I can switch off from the world in between sessions - it's still a drag, but doable. It's when I have to face 'reality' and do other things that the real problems begin.

But like I say, once I'm writing, it's all good. Losing yourself in the flow, seeing the whole story before you, having new, better/different ideas fly in out of nowhere... I love it. I can't get enough. And that's what keeps me going back to fight through the Start-up Blues.

[Balrog21]

the fact that there is not enough time in the day for all i want to write about or when i am in a good groove and real life steps in and demands my attention and takes me away from the world of make believe...that's about it!
best,
Bal

[worddance]

The fact that I never finish what I start. It doesn't even matter if I know exactly what the ending is going to be, because the simple fact is I will never get that far (I do have two works that are twenty-thirty five pages long apiece, but I haven't touched either of them in months). It's pretty depressing. I'm thinking of using aderall to assist me in my writing impairment.


Wait! Before you resort to medicating yourself, do you think it's the perfectionist in you that keeps you from finishing?

New ideas have such great potential. They can be anything. But it's hard work to actually write a story and make it come out the way you imagined it.

What if you make yourself work on one of those stories? Just push yourself to get to the end, no matter what. Don't think about if it's bad or good, just find that place of passion and write from it. Finish the story. When it's all done, you can pat yourself on the back and feel good about what you've accomplished.

Then you rest a few days to give yourself some distance and you start rewriting to make it better.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Mary

[dsurrett]

The worst part about writing fiction is not being able to do it full time. I have 2 jobs so only have a few hours a week to devote to my writing.

[DelvianBlue]

The worst part for me is that I get distracted too easily and put down my writing for too long at a time. D*** Facebook! Then when I get back to it, it feels stale and it takes hours and hours just to get through one page. The only other part I really don't like is when some key component doesn't work the way I'd hoped, and then the whole sublplot or chapter unwravels into a pile of worthless mush. It takes weeks for me to get my story back on track after that happens.

[sam peebles]

Wait! Before you resort to medicating yourself, do you think it's the perfectionist in you that keeps you from finishing?

New ideas have such great potential. They can be anything. But it's hard work to actually write a story and make it come out the way you imagined it.

What if you make yourself work on one of those stories? Just push yourself to get to the end, no matter what. Don't think about if it's bad or good, just find that place of passion and write from it. Finish the story. When it's all done, you can pat yourself on the back and feel good about what you've accomplished.

Then you rest a few days to give yourself some distance and you start rewriting to make it better.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Mary


I dunno if diissatisfaction due to perfection can be blamed for my lack of dedication. I have written things that I've been quite pleased with...at least at the time. I'm sure if I went back now and read them over again I'd find hundreds of faults. I don't enjoy the idea of self-medicating with such a disgusting and over-prescribed drug (we all self medicate in some way, and I'm no different, but my choice has always been a cold beer or an ice-choked rum and coke). I don't have ADD, but it might be worth trying on the weekend as a sort of psychological/writing experiment.