suggestions for advancement of story telling

The only real tip I can give is to just walk away. I usually will be working and just have something hit me. I then type it out on my phone so I don't forget it.

OR

You could take a slight break, maybe watch some TV. Then come back and pick up where you left off. Sorry, I can't be more of a help then that.

 

It sounds to me as if you need to get your flow back. For now, at least, just continuously read through what you've got so far, so you become familiar with the patterns and direction of your writing. Once you do it enough, you should get a basic idea of where it should be going. At that point, it's just a case of filling out that idea.

 

I usually visualize entire scenes. From how I want the characters to enter and interact to how they leave and where they go. I usually don't have issues writing something, but rather how to expand upon it. It's easier for me to imagine something than it is for me to convey that imagination.

You could always read a book to try and inspire you or give you ideas.

 

It happens sometimes no matter what, and taking a break to collect yourself usually helps (for me anyway).

However if you lay out the story beforehand, and know where you wanna start and where you wanna finish, then you set up plot points, like checkpoints, to guide the the characters toward the climax. All your achetypes, arcs, themes, etc should at least be hashed out by now. Then the rest is just filling in the blanks. Kind of a bad explanation but that's the gist of it. So if you're just stuck on the filling out part, then take a short breather, collect your thoughts, then come back to it later.


Although I usually just end up winging it cuz I'm too lazy to do it properly, which makes my writing rather unorganized. =p

 

When it all comes down to it, creativity is "making *squee!* up" in the end. It's how well you weave everything together, visualize, and tell the story. None of my fics started out a storyboard. I had the general ideas in my head. For later parts, I started writing things down to write later. I'd post the document where it's all at because it's quite comical, but it contains too many spoilers. ;D

 

I think you'll find that if you look deep within yourself, you'll realise the reason you don't want to continue (Yes, don't want. There is no such thing as can't in this situation!) is because you're not satisfied with what you've wrote so far, that is the only reason I ever struggle to continue with something, if I don't like what I'm writing or have written, I won't continue - In all the pieces I've ever finished I've not once stopped for a long period of time fretting over what to write next... It just.. Works. It clicks. It's wonderful or it's subpar, there should be no doubt about it, you as an author will know if you're honest with yourself whether your piece is truly up to scratch.

The only other reason is that while you like it, you might feel as though others may not, in this case get someone else to read what you have so far and give you feedback which will hopefully eliminate any fears you may secretly harbour.

I know I've not written any fan-fictions so if for some reason you doubt the authenticity of my advice click on the link in my signature. I promise you its all in the head, you just need to knuckle down and start over (or overcome the confidence issues).

 

Usually, what I do is just write. Write anything. Write whatever comes to your mind. You can always delete it later. And, in the process, you might find out where you're going with it, or even a new, more interesting direction.

As for reading, personally, I don't read related things to what I'm writing. Especially if it's something along the same lines of your story. Elements can creep in without your knowledge. Of course, sometimes, you get good ideas, too. Just for me, it works better if I don't.

 

Find inspiration, from anything. My uncle usually sends me to the gas station in the AM to get him cigarettes and a soda. I usually look at the moon (my vision is too awful to see the stars without my glasses) and all the shadows. The eerie atmosphere can be inspiring, even for the most random story ideas. All of it can be used somewhere though. Even video games, other stories/books/lore. Anything at all to inspire you. Then right down those thoughts, and when you feel a jolt of creativity, start writing!

I must say, song lyrics can also be quite inspiring. In my case, it takes a strong message or strong wording to inspire me from them.

Example: We Came As Romans - Beliefs

First verse: "What is this whispered thief? Is it a lie, is it a lie? Does fabrication begin at beliefs?"

Example: Dream Theater - The Glass Prison

A song about overcoming alcohol addiction. Amazing track, both musically and lyrically.

Anyway, I find music to be a powerful and inspiring tool for creativity. It is an art, and all forms of art can inspire us.

 

There are two basic strategies you can follow for overcoming writer's block.

1. Vomit your ideas on paper; come back later to clean up the mess. According to this method, the story doesn't come from you but from your subconcious--so it will never arrive until you discover it by the act of writing. Then you make it presentable by editing the *squee!* out, because your subconcious is not, it would seem, a stylist. The point here is to have faith in "the magic," as Stephen King puts it, to come on its own as far as story goes. This probably explains why Stephen King's stories almost never seem coherent.

Good books that discuss this method of writing include On Writing by Stephen King and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.

2. On the other hand, you have the people who like to plot. They tell you to diagram your story like it's an anatomical diagram of frog guts. First, study story structure in books like Beginnings, Middles, and Ends. Then, write out a story arc. Cut that arc into scenes, which are themselves miniature story arcs. Plan everything about them ahead of time--characters, motivations, point of view, and the like. This will kill 90% of writer block type problems. The problems that remain you can address by fiddling with the components of the offending scene on your diagram. In my opinion, this also kills spontaneity and constricts characters until they start to choke.

I've tried both of these methods to extreme and soft degrees. I've learned a lot from doing so; neither of them are a sufficient answer to "how to write stories," and I remain a pretty crappy author. I say that because I want to highlight the important point: there is no "suggestion for advancement" that will make you "good," and even when practice does make you good, you will continue to have this problem. Writing is hard. Therefore, if you want to write, get used to slogging through devastating, depressing, hopeless expanses of uninspired drivel in the hope that eventually you'll get back to that inspiration that got you writing in the first place.

Discipline is a far more valuable asset than both skill and method.

 

If 3 decent sized paragraphs are really a tl;dr deal here, I'll summarize.

You can write and delete and rewrite a lot like Stephen King; alternatively, you can plan everything and then "fill it all in" like Nancy Kress. While you can "take bits and pieces," the two schools of thought are actually pretty incompatible. Both methods are also more complex than anyone can explain here, so get a book on them, like the ones I linked.

But no matter which school of writing you belong to, writing hurts. The only answer is to keep writing even though it hurts, and no other suggestion will ever soften how much that sucks.