tfa_kink | DISCUSSION/OFF-TOPIC POST

What are your biggest hurdles as a writer? Do you struggle with motivation, plot, dialogue, description, editing, criticism, etc.? I'm just curious. Personally, I struggle with self-motivation and writing purposeful dialogue.

Motivation, especially sudden and complete loss of interest mid way through writing a story. I have four WIPs that died that way and they still haunt me :/

If anyone has tips for maintaining or regaining interest in a story, I wouldn't mind hearing them...

Finish it, even if you hate it. Work in small chunks, write one scene and then put it away. Leave it alone for a while. Read through objectively, revise if you want to.

Eventually it will reach a point where it's "done enough."

This is solid advice. Another point I'd add is: finish it, let it sit for a day or two, then revisit it with a fresh pair of eyes to make your edits.

Or try writing a skeleton draft first of the and then go back and beef it up, scene by scene.

Whoops, you basically already said the first part of my comment in different words. Sorry for the reading comptehension fail. In other words I totally agree with you.

I second the other advice. I am guilty of doing this myself, although one of the big things with me was that I sort of fell out of love with the fandom and just couldn't force myself to finish them. But I do hope one day I can go back and at least do 1 or 2 chapters to at least try to wrap some of them up. Even if it is sentence by sentence.

I usually start with a vague idea that spirals into a long plotty fic, but once I know how I want it to end, I lose all motivation to write.

My other big hurdle is the opening sentence. I can't start writing a fic until I know how i want it to open. So, really, I guess my hurdle is being able to write the body of the fic since I'm always set with the beginning and ending.

There are three things that hold up my fic writing most:

1) I write the most interesting parts of a fic first and then go back and fill in the necessary "things that happened to get to this point". So I often struggle with the scene-building stuff that I know I have to come back to. I know what needs to happen, I just don't particularly feel like writing the scene itself. Yay for time-skips.

2) Also, I often find the logistics of porn difficult to write and that can take me a while.

3) Finally, inspiration and ideas. That's what I'm here for :)

I don't really find I struggle with it at all, but I do have trouble coming up with titles. Titles are finicky beasts.

Urgh, I hate coming up with titles. And summaries. Especially since I mostly just write porn snippets - there are only so many creative ways to say "...they bone".

Talking heads, ikea porn, and boring anyone who reads my shit to death.

Anxiety, making time to do it...plot. I'm getting better at plot, but PLOOOOOOT

I feel like I struggle most with writing characters' thoughts/narration/POVs. Like, I do fine with describing action, writing dialogue, plotting, etc. but writing a character, for example, come to an internal realization without just flat out saying "THIS IS HAPPENING" is a struggle.

I also tend to write a POV that's kind of third person limited but also third person objective, in that the POV closely follows the character but doesn't delve into their thoughts that much (which can also be tricky when the character I'm writing is an unreliable narrator)? I dunno. I feel like that's a major flaw of mine and it's a constant battle to overcome it. People don't really seem to mind it but I did get a comment once from someone that my writing seemed detached/cold because of it.

My biggest two are wanting to write big long complex epics (that I don't have the motivation to take on in full, though anything under 12k is generally fine) and sinking all my time into planning those, and not finding my motivation again after getting mucked up by IRL shit/depression and anxiety.

So basically, starting projects and not finishing them.

Drama and porn.

I WISH I could write the types of fics that consistently move people to tears, but I've always been more of a humor writer. Any time I try to write angst or drama, it just comes out kind of -- flat.

With porn, I don't always get the reactions right, if that makes sense. Like one character is doing an action, and I'll have no problems describing that, but he could be doing it to a plank of wood for all that the other character reacts. It's something I've been working on, but I always dread when I get to a porn scene.

Time. 12 hour shifts with a 2 hour commute on crowded city transit don't leave much time for free thought.

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