Is this normal when writing a book?

[Citizen Bleys]

Or you could try something like tGA. I've developed a lot as a writer from playing tGA, although I still tend to write so much plot that the actual game never gets anywhere near caught up.

Some of my funniest material has been at tGA. We've tried to do something similar here at EoFF in the past (Magestar and I think a couple of other ones that lasted up to a week) but it never took off. We also tried it at GHF, but the only thing I remember about it was the awful sex scene I wrote, hoping that it would turn into an in-joke.

EDIT: Actually, it hasn't been done here in a while, so I'm going to write up a proposal in the Writer's Corner forum. Sod that, I took one look at the RP subforum and ran for my life. So many one-post and one-reply threads. There's no way EoFF could ever support a proper collaborative attempt. Besides, I've got nothing funny.

[Rye]

To embellish on my answer - most of my writing is done in my head. I have hundreds of ideas a week for writing, but most of them never touch paper or word processor. However; I've been writing a bit more lately. I came to a big realization that I'm more suited to write short stories, so I've been more eager to put them into form.

[blackmage_nuke]

I am currently writing a book and I have had the story and character ideas in my head for many years, but it doesn't seem to translate when I am writing it. I am about 35 pages in

This is indeed very most abnormal. The majority of people "writing a book" have everything in their head but havent written a single word

[Rostum]

Just break it down and write a narrative treatment first. There's a lot to be said, not just for writing a book, about planning things out on paper first.

[Kossage]

I agree with Bleys. RPing at tGA is basically like collaborative creative writing, and it allows you to try different kinds of things with your writing. I'm like Bleys in that regard because tGA has helped me overcome some writing problems and has also allowed me to try to take my characters into different situations and see how to write from there. When I was unsure of how to proceed in a short story I was writing for the university, I used the idea first in tGA RP to see how well it worked and how others reacted to it. Once I saw what worked and what didn't, I could go back to my original piece and edit it, thus overcoming that particular obstacle in writing. And RPing at tGA is just fun in general (especially with Bleys's Scun posts which are always a riot to read), so that's an added plus. The plot's still ongoing if you wanna join in on the fun.

I've also suffered from the "chronological" storytelling block. The easiest solution to that is to just write out of order and later bridge in the gaps. Another tip is to just write what comes to your mind and worry about "perfecting" it later. I tend to sketch ideas and just write whatever comes to my mind, and later I pick out good ideas from the trash and figure out how to work them into the narrative. It's challenging, but that's part of the fun of writing. Try different points of view, different events, different reactions, different tone, and see what ultimately works best for you. Sometimes having music playing in the background helps to set the mood and can be inspiring in general (at least it is for me).

[Pike]

I am currently writing a book and I have had the story and character ideas in my head for many years, but it doesn't seem to translate when I am writing it. I am about 35 pages in

This is indeed very most abnormal. The majority of people "writing a book" have everything in their head but havent written a single word

This!

If you've written at all, you're farther along than most people!

[Depression Moon]

Yeah, all that you mentioned in the first post is normal. Right now I'm having some trouble actually continuing a certain scene in my book. Usually after I watch a good movie it comes into play easily and I tried writing after that last night and it didn't really help because it was past 2 in the morning so I was too sleepy to do anything. If it wasn't that late then for damn sure I would've written at least 2 pages.

You could always do what I do: Write until you don't want to write anymore, and then stop, and never share what you've written with anybody. You'll never get published that way, but I never understood peoples' obsession with publishing. Writing for its own sake is rewarding.

That just sounds straight up foolish to me. How can one improve without being aware of their flaws? i know you can catch some stuff on your own, but there will always be someone who'll see something that you don't. I also highly disagree with righting on its own sake is rewarding. Why waste all that time frustrating yourself when you're just going to keep it to yourself? I could've just kept the whole thing in my head without all the frustration.

One thing I do know is that once you get the book done everything else will be easier. All you have to do is edit. Correcting grammar and spelling errors is boring, but picking up on any plot holes, bad/weird sounding dialogue is the fun part.

[Pike]

One thing I do know is that once you get the book done everything else will be easier. All you have to do is edit. Correcting grammar and spelling errors is boring, but picking up on any plot holes, bad/weird sounding dialogue is the fun part.

That's subjective; I LOATHE editing. Worst thing ever. I'll write all day (and I don't even like the process of writing that much), but editing makes me want to curl up in the fetal position somewhere and sob.

As for writing for its own sake being rewarding-- I do think it is. I've written entire novels that I don't plan on showing anybody (before I started writing ones that I would, in fact, like to show people someday, and have done so). I don't have a single regret about them. I learned so much from writing those early proto-novels, and they were, in fact, very, very rewarding to finish.

[Madame Adequate]

Editing is absolutely the most abominable experience I have ever undergone as a writer. It means I have to read what I wrote, and doing so causes me to be aware of just how awful it is. Not in any editable, improvable sense, just a general belief that it's completely meritless and awful.