Biggest challenge?

[Super_Nerd]

Here's something I'm curious about: as a author, what is the most difficult part of pulling your story together? Is it something you're weak at and know it? An affliction of writer's block?

For me, it's the fact that I absolutely have to have an outline before I start anything--that I know exactly where my story's going, how it's going to end, and what the major plot points along the way are. I have a tendancy to foreshadow or spoil too much--just because I'm in the know doesn't mean the readers should be, right?

It also leaves me uninspired and unmotivated when I have to slog through portions that don't really have those connections to the broader outline--I see them as 'filler', if you will. (Yeah, the reason I'm posting this now is to stall working on a section like that...)

 

[GastlyMan]

I use too many run-on sentences. Also, I have a problem with nobody reviewing my stuff. So I'm not sure how to improve.

I usually outline as well, but only the basic stuff. The rest comes on its own.

 

[The_Boss_Giygas]

Too much Dialog, and having too many characters means each one needs enough time to develop which makes the tale longer than it needs to be, so I just cut down on characters, an not too much dialog, keep actions scenes shortened instead of listing all the details of what happens.

 

[FlamingRuby]

Writer's Block by far!

I get started and make great progress for a while, but then get stuck on how to write a certain part, which usually leads to just abandoning the work altogether

It helps if I have other people helping me out.

 

[SerenadeSP]

Writing the actual fic.

I can create a solid plot, its plotpoints, its twists, the characters, their quirks, and the world around them as easily as you can drink a glass of water, but when it comes to conveying what I see in my head into words, I hit writer's block like it's a brick wall. I'm terrible at description - I either feel like I'm telling too much or too little, never in between. So that's probably it.

That and like you said I feel like I'm giving too much away from foreshadowing, but so far no one has pointed it out in any story I've created so I think I'm safe. ^_^;

 

[matt0044]

My biggest challenge is reviewers. Nothing wrong with getting a negative but in-depth review as I can see what I need to improve on but sometimes it gets me down. But I always try to get back on my feet and try again.

 

[Mrs. Lovett]

Articulation.


Give me a day or two, I can craft the beginnings of a good character. Give me a strong first inspiration, and I'll build you a world. (Not immediately of course, but it will get done eventually.) Give me a plain, boring plot and I can twist it into a good one. Tell me that I have the worst grammar in the world, and I will sit proofreading my chapter until it's error-free. You can even give me writer's block and I'll find a way to mentally kick myself and begin writing again. (I actually did that once, after half a year of pause.) But the one thing I have the most trouble with is description and the process of getting my thoughts down into words. I'm not sure why, either. Maybe my vocabulary isn't yet vast enough, or I haven't read enough stories to see other methods in action.

In most cases, I can see scenes pretty clearly. But every time I sit down to write them, I draw up a blank. Of course, I can force myself to describe things to at least fill up some pages, but the result if me repeating words and phrases. (Have you ever read books when an author uses the same words and phrases over and over again? That's me in my first and second drafts.) For the life of me, I can't find a way to express the movement of fabric other than to write 'it billows in the wind', or to describe an epic character appearance in more ways than 'it sprang from a bright flash of light'. Once, it actually took me two days to see that writing 'it flaps in the wind' was another and better way of saying 'it billows'! Also, what sometimes happens with me is that when I find a phrase that I like, I start using it over and over throughout the story. I swear, in some of my stories, my characters have 'nodded' and had their 'lips slowly spread into a smile' about a thousand times.

My first drafts are, literally, long blocks of text disguised by paragraphs and spacing. No body, no structure. (Either that, or they're bare and feel rushed when you read them.) The characters and story could be as lovely as they wanted to be; the structure would still be boxy and boring. A while ago, I thought that the soluition to this problem was to describe everything, but that didn't work out either. I started reading a bit more, and revising a lot more. That's the only thing that helps, and it can take days. During the revision process, I have to either trim them or beef the scenes up to make them perfect. The more time I spend on it, the better the scene gets.

I also have an issue with under-writing a dramatic scene and skipping over really emotional moments. This ties in with my mentioned problem, and I have to edit to get it right.

Yes, this is annoying, but I've learned to cope with it. (Partially.) It means I have to spend an extra hour (sometimes day) editing my chapter and making sure I get it right. It's worth it, though, since I love to see a scene of mine come alive.

 

[Giratina!]

Well, I think we've all answered a question like this once in a while, and I'm going to deliver the usual Giratina response: NOTHIIING HAHA.

...No, not really. I have two major problems, actually. The first one is writing Pokémon battles; people say that I write them just fine, but it's kind of hard for me to actually write them. I'm not even sure why. It's just difficult to keep everything happening a battle and everything happening in a high-action chapter in your mind at the same time, and not being repetitive even when somebody is spamming the same move over and over. You now know why almost the only official battles in my fics are Gym fights and the occasional "oh wait, this is a Pokémon story and there's no big dynamic super-epic battle" spurt.

Second problem: indecisiveness on the amount of fics I write. When I'm working on one story, I feel like I want to get two done, and when I'm working on two stories, I feel like I should be focusing on one. I know when I'm stuck on one I should work on the other, but most of the time that concept doesn't even work. I can't write one secretly and post the other publicly, because I then feel like I should post the secret one. And when I actually do try and write two stories publicly at once... well... there's already two fics who have been shoved back to the drawing board, and frankly I've been eyeing Abecedarian uneasily for a while now. (Even though its idea was made up ages before Wings Have We's was...) And every time I ditch a fic, I feel terrible about it.

Yeah, I know, I dig my own graves. I'm stupid like that.

 

[Phantom Kat]

For me, it's probably fleshing out an idea into a full-fledged outline of the story. I can have the most original or awesome idea, but when it comes to elaborating on it, it's just hard to do sometimes. For example, there's one PMD idea I have that I really like, but what I have outlined so far... I just don't like it. I know that once I have the idea fleshed out, coming up with a chapter-by-chapter outline won't be hard; I did it once, I can do it again, right? I also have this short story I wanted to flesh out into a full-fledged fic, but I can't seem flesh it out like I want. Even when I have a rough draft I can't seem to flesh it out right. *facepalms*

- Kat

 

[NimhShambler]

I have trouble starting things out, and I also have trouble with dialogue. It just never feels natural to me.

That's what's stalling me on some of the things I've been working on, I just can't figure out how to start it.

~Nemmeh

 

[Umbreon Ruler]

I'll admit that I'm getting better (which makes me feel like an arrogant butt XD) but I still have many, many problems.

For one, I rely heavily on dialog (or is it "dialogue?") rather than description. To be honest, I don't know why I'd prefer to say "'Can you hold my shoes, Julie?' Ronald asked" over "Ronald asked Julie to hold his shoes and..." To me, the second one looks better and reads smoother, but it feels foreign to actually choose it. Realizing I do this has resulted (for better or worse) in a lot more description, which makes me feel better because I see more beefy paragraphs and less stacked single lines. There are still several back-and-forths between characters, though.

Another thing is stopping during the middle of describing a scene/battle/whatever and coming back a day later and picking up right where I left off. Unfortunately, repeated words during the space of two or three sentences is common in this situation. I usually notice when I get stuck and read over what I've just written, but occasionally it does slip by and I only realize it when I'm skimming over it after it's been posted. Which is another problem:

I DON'T PROOFREAD. At least not in one big swoop after the chapter's completed. Like I said previously, I end up reading each section of my fic at least once when I'm stuck on something and need a distraction. However, one time rarely catches everything. I'm usually too excited to update (and most of the time it's been so long since the last one) that the moment I type the last period the new post box has already been loaded.

Oh, and writer's block. I think that one goes without explaining.

 

[Dawn_Hero]

Well, trust me, I have lots of challenges when it comes to writing. xD But I'll try and narrow it down.

I guess the first and most annoying thing I do is I always over-describe, cover every single base I can possibly think of, etc. This normally leads to a decent chapter of a story getting filled with certain parts that are nothing more than boring dialogue and descriptions that halt the action and really close up what doesn't necessarily need to be closed. If I just kind of let readers fill in some blanks more perhaps things would be easier, but I always feel like I'd be doing a worse job then. >_<

Another big problem is description for me. I tend to describe things the same way, especially if I like something. When I was going through the third chapter of my latest fic, I realized I had used the word 'quickly' to describe something about 100 times. Or more, I don't remember. xD Either way, it was bad. On top of that, I normally create blocks of text just to describe characters when it really isn't necessary or could be spread out through the story. I'm trying to work on this one especially since I think detail is important and it really helps improve a fic, but I dunno. Here's hoping I can get it done better.

Other than that, I dunno. I get really lazy and just stop writing, then kick myself back into gear. I always proof-read my story about 5-10 times once I've finished writing it (and normally it seems like a story is about 10 pages long for me, so it takes a while), but if I force myself to write I can always kick out a story. I guess I've just got to work on it being less... boring.

 

[Llama_Guy]

Perfectionism. Definitely. I'm NEVER happy with what I've don. The fic I'm on now, it's been planned and worked on for like a year. Every time I work on it, I end up changing or amending something, adding something, and whenever I get to writing I rewrite everything so many times I just get tired of it.

And like the OP I also have a tendency to need total framework before I can start. I need to know where I'm going, so that I know how I should write early on. Which also ties into my perfectionism. If there's even the slightest hole in whatever I'm doing, I'm unhappy.

It's frustrating, annoying and disruptive like nothing else. But I'm trying to work my way around it. Slowly I'm getting better at it, so maybe I'll actually post a fic within the next decade -.-

And I'm working in too many elements. There's like 6 main characters with a lot of back story and side-plots going on. I don't want to narrow it down, but I don't want it to be too epic-large either.

Maybe I should just write an extensive disposition and get to it soon :/

 

[Timas]

Writing the actual fic.

I can create a solid plot, its plotpoints, its twists, the characters, their quirks, and the world around them as easily as you can drink a glass of water, but when it comes to conveying what I see in my head into words, I hit writer's block like it's a brick wall. I'm terrible at description - I either feel like I'm telling too much or too little, never in between. So that's probably it.

This. I've had so many ideas for fics or even one-shots and they're good ideas. They've got in-depth characters; a good plot and everything else. I just can't motivate myself to write anything. When I do finally manage to open up Microsoft Word, I either get distracted by the internet/MSN or I'm just not happy with what I write.

 

[Swampert_trainer]

My problem is similar to yours. I plan out everything ahead of time. All the major plot points and all the encounters with certain characters. When I have to write the chapters that aren't all that exciting to me I tend to put it off. I'll end up opening Microsoft Word and writing a few lines before I get bored and exit out.

I also have some problems with punctuations at times. Mostly when it comes to commas and periods in quotes.

 

[Super_Nerd]

The first one is writing Pokémon battles; people say that I write them just fine, but it's kind of hard for me to actually write them.

Like you, I haven't had anyone actually COMPLAIN, but man do I feel you. I never feel like I've made it interesting enough or described what's in my head. It's epic in my head. But this is what takes me the longest to do, by far, and the part I'm usually least satisfied with. I skip them whenever I can, really.

 

[sweet_piplup123]

My sentence structures, plus description.

I've realised it ages ago, bascially the reason I spend so long to write a chapter is because most of them sounded to 'run-on' (as one of the posters puts it) and I had to change them about 3--4 times. With description it's the fact I don't know when I'm describing too much, when I'm not being descriptive and when I'm repeating the same adjectives again. >.>

 

[RoflLuxRay]

Grammar. I have problems findings synonyms or keeping a good structure on my sentences, at least they keep their sense.

Other than that, describing battles is pretty difficult to me. I can't find the balance between the battlers or excitement in it. Nice question by the way.

 

[Aladar]

Short attention span.

No, really.

In the begining I had trouble with run-on sentences but I think I'm getting around that. And now that I'm writing a Digimon fic I've decided to finally put all the framework- plot points, meetings etc- on paper. But my real nightmare is actually finishing anything. Pokemon LX is on an indefinite hiatus due to this bad habit of mine. I start working on something and then wham- I get some elaborate idea from another show, the writer's block suddenly hits me full force, I'm stuck on the current fic I'm writing and then I jump on another one from another franchise. I may be writing Digimon today but who knows- maybe against my will my ideas about a Naruto, Shaman King, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Avatar and Danny Phantom of all things, would riot or something, forcing me to start one of them and abandon the current one. As I said, really bad habit.

Oh, and I have trouble attracting reviewers. How to fics fix that, I've no idea.

 

[matt0044]

Another thing is that I'm impatient when writing the outline for my fanfic chapters and sometimes decide to jump straight into making the final version. I just wish that I could work out the whole story before I write.

Another problem I have with reviewers is that they tend to focus on the bad parts of my fanfic. They say its good but they never be specific like when the address the flaws.