I've Lost my Way (Notes of a depressed author/cleaning house) · 2:44am Jun 23rd, 2013
I've become a zombie. Yep, you heard me. I'm a zombie who does nothing but write stories these days without taking pride in them. Now, a lot of you may have noticed I don't finish a lot of stories. This is for a variety of reasons, to be honest. Sometimes I get too cocky and end up churning out poorly made chapters with no emotional connection to them (Scootaloo and the School of Ghouls, Howl to the Future) without much editing or thought, dig a hole too deep, and decide it's too late for revising. Other times I simply start with a concept that sucks and don't realize it until it's too late (Vacation All I Ever Wanted, No Rest for the Wicked). Keep in mind, I have very high standards when it comes to my writing (at least I do on some days, I wish it could be always), and it's very easy for me to get discouraged even if the story is being praised by people.
How to solve the problem?
Whelp, really, I think I'm going to go back to writing only when I feel an emotional connection to whatever chapter I'm writing, or am looking forward to it. Basically: writing for myself equal to or more than others. Writing for myself means actually taking the time to revise a chapter three times and making it damned sexy. That being said, I've gone and deleted a bunch of the stories I have no plans on continuing (basically all of them minus Wings and Pinkie Pie's Ponyville Proof Providers)
Another thing I feel kind of guilty about is not providing a decent sequel to The Nightmare Before Nightmare Night. Scootaloo and the School of Ghouls started alright, but I've never been much into having Jack Harkness in it (he just doesn't fit) and regretted it a few chapters in, and I believe the story lost its way when I just wrote it to appease my followers. This story didn't have the 'feel' I wanted to in the end. This was a similar story with Nightmare Before Hearth's Warming Eve, which started out right, but had a rushed premise and still didn't have the 'feel' how I wanted. I want to make it something I like, as I do have a major attachment to TNBNN. Writing it sort of helped me through a bad time, and having it be so successful made me feel very proud of myself when I had nothing else.
Therefore, before Nightmare Night Halloween, I plan on writing a true sequel to it. The Hearth's Warming Eve realm will be involved in a major way, though I'm not sure how yet. I do have a few ideas involving parodying one or two Christmas works, as well as The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Naturally, expect more songs ;D.
Anyway, whoever's left from the beginning: thanks for sticking with me and my piles of crap, cliches, and memes also called stories.
This is unfortunately a big problem that I see around here, but it is good to see that you at least noticed the problem, and then did something about it. Writing for others only becomes a drive if you first can write for yourself.
Dear lord, this is like the fifth or sixth i've seen in a month or two. Why is everyone burning out at the same time?! It's like, connected or something. . .
Anyway, same advice, take some time away, and you'll be back to play. . . Sometime.
I know how you feel. On Fanfiction, I haven't updated any story in 7 months just because I lost my spark for it.
are your stories somewhere archived?
btw what happened to The Meaning of Chrysalis?
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Everyone burns out at the same time because now, it is summer. People have more time to realize that they may have only been writing because they could, but not because they want to. It seems that recently, people jump into fan fiction thinking they can become a giant, but then soon find out that giants are made, not born.
Of course, that doesn't apply to him, but still. A rather terrible problem indeed.
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Indeed. . . -Sighs-
Sad about Scootaloo and the School for Ghouls, but your story, your choice. Still wish what was done was still up because I thought it was good and would read it more times(already read it at least once after the initial reading).
Aww damn. I just got around reading Scootaloo and the School for Ghouls (expecting some Rosario+Vampire and/or Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School esque shenaigans) and it turns out that you took it down. Isnt that just my luck? Anyway, enough about me, here's some advice. Admittedly, I've only ever finished one story to completion, but I've been down this path multiple times. I'll give you some advice (which you admittedly seem to already have a good handle on) from an author who is much older and wiser than I, if not for you, then perhaps for aspiring authors reading this. "Write from your heart, and you'll love it always. Even if some don't like it, many will realize your love for the work and will love it in turn." Now for my own two bits. Writing isn't science. It isnt a sport. You can't just sit down and decided to do it. Writing is an art, and like all arts, you must be in the right emotional and mental setting do it. You can't force yourself to write, and when you do, it ends up being a horrible mess that you really don't love. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I don't blame you for taking some time off, and I hope your muse strikes again.
While I'm sorry to hear of the death of 'No Rest For the Wicked', I can understand the motivation behind deleting it and the other stories you don't feel attached to. Having a single chapter you're not happy with staring at you from your profile is harrowing, let alone an entire story. In a lot of ways I actually respect your deleting the... let's say less than perfect stories in you list. On a site like this, you should be writing for nobody other than yourself, and this is how you do it.
I hope this block passes soon dude, it'll surely pass.
Just got to hang in there