The "I Haven't Started Yet" Thread

I still haven't decided whether or not to do NaNo. :-) I'm revising a novel that I want to submit first. That may take me until the end of this week at least. And then, well, haven't thought about the next novel at all. And my three NaNo novels were rubbish, whereas my not-NaNo novel has a chance. BUT...well...I love NaNoing. I love the intensity and the camaraderie. I love having one of my characters turn to another and say, "Any idea why we keep driving around town? I don't think our author has the least idea what she's doing."

I haven't started yet either... I was really motivated for NaNo this year. Totally excited. I have a free month this November and was psyched to win.

...

But now I haven't even started. I can't start. I keep trying and keep failing. Everything I start irritates me to the point of deletion or bores me so much I forget what I'm doing. I don't have any characters; I don't have any stories.

Does anyone have any advice for someone who has no tale to tell?

Ok I sat there at my computer, well in fact I am still sitting here at my computer, it is my day off, and I was psyched about writing, something, anything, just writing. And what have I done? Well I have browsed several forums, played a few games on line, started to wash dishes (which I hate doing) and pretty much trying anyway I can to not write.

So what can I offer anyone who is having difficulty writing? Well not sure, as I am in that same boat and wondering myself just how exactly am I going to get on my duff and write something. I guess it boils down to needing to write something, I need to sit down and write this story, but I just don't wanna, well, I do wanna, but I don't wanna, and I am not sure how to fix an apathetic indecision backed by a burning urge to be adamant about my direction and story line.

Now if that did not truly make you ponder anything, realize that I have just typed more on this post complaining about not being able to write my story then I have actually written about my story and I am not sure if I should consider this time well spent or kick my own butt-ox for adding yet another means to distract myself from writing. I think I should punish myself, but that would only serve to distract me further from my goal of writing, unless I made writing/working on my story my punishment. like "Home Work", where I need to finish a chapter before I can post again. That might just work.. Sorry, I need to pout now about needing to write a chapter before I can get back here and whine that I have nothing written or maybe I'll come back and toot my own horn that I got a chapter written... Hummmmmm.

Write Fearlessly!

I had this problem. I ranted about this problem to my friend. I started my novel last weekend and didn't touch it after that because it was so boring and nothing was coming out right and I didn't have any muse. On Friday I came up with a new plot, but I didn't have time to write it Friday or Saturday and today when I sat down to write it my muse disappeared. d when I started plotting for the future of my story I saw it turning out like every adventure novel before me, and it was irritating.

I hopped on over to the Adopt-A-Plot forum, and I am currently writing one of the ideas posted there. It's going wonderfully. I'm at 552 and even after a break I still have muse. I highly suggest that thread, because even if you don't take an idea from there, something that somebody says might just trigger some inspiration.

Good luck! And believe me, I feel your pain. <3

Woo. I just started (and by that I mean I started 4.5 hours ago). It feels good. I'm just going to ignore the fact that I calculated the number of free hours I'm going to have for writing this month and I have to average 650 more words per hour than I've been writing, every hour, to hit 50000. Meh. It's better to write something than not, right?

I wrote about 1700 words the first couple of days of November and then work got in the way...
I've procrastinated my weekend away and now I'm trying to cowboy up and get back to wrestling with the writing! I think I'm going to have to do some writing on my lunch hours this week since I'll be working late again... sigh.

I've written a few short chunks, but I honestly have no idea how to write this story. I came up with it over the summer, I wrote out character descriptions, and I was absolutely in love with the plot at the time. The characters are still brilliant (for me), but I just...I just don't think I can do it...

I was having a similiar problem. But then I found that writting the story in chunks out of order worked better. I get inspiration to write certian scenes but get bogged down writting the scenes that lead up to it. I am finding now that if I write the scenes as they feel inspiring it is easier to fill in the scenes that lead up or between them. Don't get bogged down by your outline- that is also part of the inspiration process but it doesn't mean you have to follow it. It will still help you along the way by reminding your of your past brainstorming.

cheers!

Yep... i haven't started at all, either.

At least I'm not the only one!! I think we can do it!

I started late last year and got about halfway there -- further than I've ever made it before. :)

it's so good to see i'm not exactly the only one who started, wrote some of it, got bored, walked away and picked something else up. i'm hoping, hoping, hoping that changing what i am writing will make the words fly onto the screen faster than they did before.

RIGHT GUYS? THAT SHOULD WORK?

oh, help us all.

<3

This is exactly how I feel.

....And I don't like it. :/

God bless catastrophe...

JUST THINK:

Do you really want to write this novel?

Why are you writing it?

What circumstances do you write best in?

Then go wherever you want, to a park, a cafe......ANYWHERE

and if you really want to write this......you will get it written down no matter what

If you end up not writing anything....maybe it just isn't the right time for you to write, and write once the time comes around to you

I was actually convinced to quit when I was still around 2k-3k words.....but then I thought.....I just put my whole heart and soul into it until now.....I am not going to have that time be wasted....and here I am with 24k words in one week.....something I myself wasn't even sure of at first

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places

When the world says "Give up"
Hope whispers "Try it one more time"

I did great on the first day. Then life started interfering. (Unexpected visitors, suddenly-suicidal best friends, and nearly everything inbetween). I'm just started to build momentum up again. I have no idea if I'll finish, but I'm still going...

Keep at it everyone :)

I hadn't started writing my novel until nov 3. What I did was wait, literally wait, for inspiration and not waste my time writing and plotting useless stories. Then, finally, on nov 3, I was inspired.
I know I'm not very far - only, what? 7,000 words? But you know what helped me was writing when I felt like it. I felt like I was actually writing for something, and I think that's what problem you guys are having. You are in serious writer's block and need inspiration! Whatever you write you hate, and rightly so. And dont' go out looking for inspiration, because that isn't how it's done. My inspiration was eating a pomegranate for the first time and it has gotten me well into 7000. So don't think, just listen to the world, and the world will tell you your story.
:)
Hope I didn't sound too zen or anything, lol . Hope this helped.

AGGHH....

What am I going to write about?!?!

I have ideas, but no setting and no main character... I have an idea of what I want to write about in general, or some scenes floating in my brain...

But I don't really want to write a cyberpunk novel, and that is all that is appearing to me! Curse you, muse in my brain. Maybe I will just put a pen to paper and see what my head vomits out...

I had 3593 words, but I was not getting into the story. I might start over now with fanfiction, but I'm torn. I want to write a 50k original story, not just a bunch of ideas that I can't call "all my own."

I've set my wordcount at 0 words, and tonight I'm going to take a good hard look at my story, and my fanfiction plotbunnies, and see what to do.

And another thing - I got 50k all three past years. (2007 I cheated and finished via Hawaii time and used 1k of pre-writ, so I couldn't be REALLY honest about winning.) I almost want to stop this year because I'm so far behind and I don't know what to do. But I have stubborn streak, which can be annoying sometimes, but right now it's making me mule-headed about finishing no matter what. I want to beat Nano until I win, even if all my writing is terrible.

And something in me goes RAR when I see that I'm about 16,700 words behind. Instead of terribly depressing me, it's giving me an adrenaline rush. Like, Oh yeah, let's DO this thing!

*sigh* But - eh. I might rewrite my original story and run it again and see what happens.

For everyone who is still in desperate need of a plot (or characters, or a title, or an opening line), I highly recommend taking a look at the "Adoptable Stuff" threads (http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3263716) in the Plot Doctoring Forum. There are some fabulous ideas to be had there, and honestly, I think any of those threads could spark a novel idea. :-)

Best of luck to you all!