Writing How to stop writing?

[BetterNickPending]

I had an idea to write a story. That was my first mistake.

I joined this site and then started to write.

In last few days I wrote 48.121 words.

Out of which just 13.526 are related to my story. There is First chapter (3.495), almost half of second (879), notes plans and world building stuff.

What is the remaining 34.595 words then?

15.717 are 9 stories created from ideas that I had for my original story but thought that they have no place in it for various reasons.
5.056 Is a series of 5 short one chapter stories, that are another effect of my distractions.
5.098 Another story that was made because I remembered an old idea and got distracted.
And lastly 8.724 is a completely new story that I started writing from new idea and got invested in and I think might be better than my original story idea.

Out of all of this only first chapter of the original story is ready to be published. Rest are just written down ideas, situations, sequences of events, dialogues, ...
Sometimes in form of long lists, sometimes just walls of text, sometimes solitary almost ready paragraphs.

Whenever I start to write I have too much ideas at once. I know that I can not stuff all of them in one story. If I make it both fantasy and si-fi I will end up with Star Wars knockoff. Many of those ideas are mutually exclusive.
As I write my main story it gradually devolves in something dark and too fetishistic for it. So I have to cut out those sections and place them somewhere else and gradually they merge into stories of their own. But I just have to finish that thought ...
... and I'm writing and researching stuff for another story.
Then after few hours I got distracted again and start writing something else again...


How to stop writing side stories and focus on the main one?
Do any better and/or more_experienced writers, have any advice?

I see on this site many stories that release 3 chapters a week. I do not think that a parson can indulge in so many distractions as I do and be able to write, proofread and format 3 chapters a week.

I planned to write about 5 chapters of my original story to have a buffer before publishing it but if I'll keep a constant rate of being distracted before i achieve it I will have. About 157.250 words worth of half written stories because of distractions!

I haven't written a single word to my first story for days!

How do I stop this?

 

[So_Indecisive]

I had an idea to write a story. That was my first mistake.

I joined this site and then started to write.

In last few days I wrote 48.121 words.

Out of which just 13.526 are related to my story. There is First chapter (3.495), almost half of second (879), notes plans and world building stuff.

What is the remaining 34.595 words then?

15.717 are 9 stories created from ideas that I had for my original story but thought that they have no place in it for various reasons.
5.056 Is a series of 5 short one chapter stories, that are another effect of my distractions.
5.098 Another story that was made because I remembered an old idea and got distracted.
And lastly 8.724 is a completely new story that I started writing from new idea and got invested in and I think might be better than my original story idea.

Out of all of this only first chapter of the original story is ready to be published. Rest are just written down ideas, situations, sequences of events, dialogues, ...
Sometimes in form of long lists, sometimes just walls of text, sometimes solitary almost ready paragraphs.

View attachment 28021

Whenever I start to write I have too much ideas at once. I know that I can not stuff all of them in one story. If I make it both fantasy and si-fi I will end up with Star Wars knockoff. Many of those ideas are mutually exclusive.
As I write my main story it gradually devolves in something dark and too fetishistic for it. So I have to cut out those sections and place them somewhere else and gradually they merge into stories of their own. But I just have to finish that thought ...
... and I'm writing and researching stuff for another story.
Then after few hours I got distracted again and start writing something else again...


How to stop writing side stories and focus on the main one?
Do any better and/or more_experienced writers, have any advice?

I see on this site many stories that release 3 chapters a week. I do not think that a parson can indulge in so many distractions as I do and be able to write, proofread and format 3 chapters a week.

I planned to write about 5 chapters of my original story to have a buffer before publishing it but if I'll keep a constant rate of being distracted before i achieve it I will have. About 157.250 words worth of half written stories because of distractions!

I haven't written a single word to my first story for days!

How do I stop this?

Wow the joy's and sorrows of different individuals are so different?

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Discipline.

 

[SRB]

Touch grass with both hands. Congratulations, you have stopped writing!

 

[Deleted member 84247]

The answer is you stop. Or you can continue. So people are releasing three chapters a week? You don't have to do that. The answer is what Sailus said.

 

[BetterNickPending]

The answer is you stop. Or you can continue. So people are releasing three chapters a week? You don't have to do that. The answer is what Sailus said.

That's the goal not the answer how to achieve it!

 

[Deleted member 84247]

That's the goal not the answer how to achieve it!

Take small steps to achieve that goal, then. If it is more fitting. Put restrictions on yourself that say you aren't allowed to write other stories on certain days.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

What envy said. You do not write anything other than main story. Another thing you can do is to stop writing new stories. You write an idea down, while using two or three sentences. You got another idea? Cool. Write it down while using two or three sentences. You do not write details.

Example. "A story about detective in a sci-fi setting. He suddenly encounters magic or evil spirits. It is digital spirits or something so he have to get to the bottom of it." And that's it. You wrote down an idea for new story, transcribed your stream of consciousness. After doing it you force yourself to return back to writing.

You can pinch yourself each time you are distracted by something. Not hard enough to bruise yourself, but just enough to remind yourself you have to actually write. Or put a sticker note right before your eyes.

 

[BetterNickPending]

Example. "A story about detective in a sci-fi setting. He suddenly encounters magic or evil spirits. It is digital spirits or something so he have to get to the bottom of it." And that's it. You wrote down an idea for new story, transcribed your stream of consciousness. After doing it you force yourself to return back to writing.

And that's how this happened.

I only wrote down an idea.
Well about 3/4 of It I still have few things stuck in my head.


I'm afraid that If i do not write down everything I will forget it, and what I will came later to replace what I forgot will be worse than my original idea.

 

[GlassRose]

Why do you have to focus on one thing at a time? Some peoples' writing style is more chaotic than that, and that's fine. If you try to go against the natural way you write, you're just going to majorly increase the risk of burnout.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

And that's how this happened. View attachment 28022
I only wrote down an idea.
Well about 3/4 of It I still have few things stuck in my head.


I'm afraid that If i do not write down everything I will forget it, and what I will came later to replace what I forgot will be worse than my original idea.

It won't be worse than the original idea. This is why concision is important. Write the idea shortly. 8.7k words for just an idea is a drag.
If you are writing 8.7k words for an idea, might as well make an outline.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

And that's how this happened. View attachment 28022

No. It happened because you failed step one.

You write an idea down, while using two or three sentences.

I'm afraid that If i do not write down everything I will forget it, and what I will came later to replace what I forgot will be worse than my original idea.

The point of writing down idea is precisely to get rid of all the useless garabge. If something you didn't write down stick with you for months, you should probably write it down. Other than that, let them go away. They are not as good as you think, and I'm not saying this to demean you. It is something that happens with a lot of writers\authors. Your first idea is not always the best one, and once this idea is old enough and you look back at it after a year or so, you will be dissapointed.

Don't let the short-term excitement blind you.

 

[BetterNickPending]

8.7k words for just an idea is a drag.

Most of chapter one. Some important dialogues without which the plot makes no sense.
Planning important events that should happen along the way. Some world building that makes the plot plausible.

It is impossible to contain, the whole story that popped to your head along with economics of the region and cultural nuances that make it possible to happen, in one sentence.

You write an idea down, while using two or three sentences.

I could just draw a doodle of the idea at this point if I'm to consciously discard 95% of what i have in head.
Or just writ a set of tags.

How can I contain in two sentences the relationship of MC with various people around him and their personal intentions and backgrounds that led to him abandoning his previous life and set on the road?

When I have an idea it is not "story about x doing y" slice of life; school.
It is that whole word that comes to life with its political structure, people with their problems, and exact weather that influenced MC to be in specific place. I know what date it is in the world and what MC will do next year and for next 10 years because his first decision hes certain consequences that will lead to certain outcome. And in two years as he will walk through the town he will meet the bankers daughter who is on her way to school run by nuns at local monastery. And this acquaintance will become handy while he will begin to work as a scribe for a local nobleman and would be able to get better terms of loan for said nobleman. And now I have to research how much wood could a medieval peasant chop in one day to know when exactly his parents would be done with their farm work to be able to look for him. Because if that's to early ...

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Most of chapter one. Some important dialogues without which the plot makes no sense.
Planning important events that should happen along the way. Some world building that makes the plot plausible.

It is impossible to contain, the whole story that popped to your head along with economics of the region and cultural nuances that make it possible to happen, in one sentence.

I could just draw a doodle of the idea at this point if I'm to consciously discard 95% of what i have in head.
Or just writ a set of tags.

How can I contain in two sentences the relationship of MC with various people around him and their personal intentions and backgrounds that led to him abandoning his previous life and set on the road?

When I have an idea it is not "story about x doing y" slice of life; school.
It is that whole word that comes to life with its political structure, people with their problems, and exact weather that influenced MC to be in specific place. I know what date it is in the world and what MC will do next year and for next 10 years because his first decision hes certain consequences that will lead to certain outcome. And in two years as he will walk through the town he will meet the bankers daughter who is on her way to school run by nuns at local monastery. And this acquaintance will become handy while he will begin to work as a scribe for a local nobleman and would be able to get better terms of loan for said nobleman. And now I have to research how much wood could a medieval peasant chop in one day to know when exactly his parents would be done with their farm work to be able to look for him. Because if that's to early ...

might as well make an outline.

 

[BetterNickPending]

might as well make an outline.

What is an outline than?
How do you define outline?
(sorry for a stupid question, I'm new to writing non technical things)

 

[Deleted member 84247]

What is an outline than?
How do you define outline?
(sorry for a stupid question, I'm new to writing non technical things)

It's not a stupid question. An outline is where you put the general layout of the story before actually writing it. Some people outline every chapter to the end. Where they put a summary of the goal of each chapter until the ending. Others make the whole outline a flow chart, diagram, or bullet points.

The point of the outline is getting your whole story down as an idea. A lot of the things you mentioned many readers won't care about anyway.

Characters > Story > world-building. Hell if your world-building is shit, but you have good characters and story, people will still read.

 

[BetterNickPending]

Others make the whole outline a flow chart,

Flow charts?
Do you have example of how that looks in story context?

Hell if your world-building is shit, but you have good characters and story, people will still read.

My problem might be that I feel as if I have reverse situation...

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Flow charts?
Do you have example of how that looks in story context?



My problem might be that I feel as if I have reverse situation...

I probably won't be able to help you then.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I could just draw a doodle of the idea at this point if I'm to consciously discard 95% of what i have in head.
Or just writ a set of tags.

How can I contain in two sentences the relationship of MC with various people around him and their personal intentions and backgrounds that led to him abandoning his previous life and set on the road?

Assuming that you want to actually write at least one novel till the end, you don't need it all. I will ask you a simple question. If all those ideas are sooo good, why do you abandon them? In my understanding, if the idea is soooo good, you are going to write a bit more than 8k words. If you can't keep your attention on one story, it means the story is not as good.

Again, not to demean you. Do you think you are the only person who is swarmed with ideas? Do you honestly think those authors who write long novels, and even finish them have a couple ideas at max? No. They simply want to actually write this particular idea real bad, more than random pieces that appear in their head all the time.

Obviously we all get distracted at times, we all have different mental health, but you can still mitigate it to a certain degree with discipline. Discipline is not a goal if you are healthy. Discipline is not a goal if you have minor problems either. If it's something serious, sorry, you will probably have a different way to deal with it.

I would also advice you to ask yourself what you really want to do, and act based on this. I really hate doing it, but I will use myself as an example. I also get distracted all the time, but based on a whim, based on one song, I managed to somehow write 200k words for a single novel. You have to find out what you want to do. Maybe you don't really want to write and want to worldbuild. No one will bash you for this.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

Metacarpal amputation