sholio | Is this what they call "ennui"?

Feh. Slow day at work (really unusual for us, on a Friday), but I still have to stay until the Classified department is done, which means a 12-14 hour workday for me. I've also had a headache all day -- not bad enough to take anything for it, but still a low-level annoyance. And since I work in a room with a bunch of other people, it's difficult to whip out a word processing document and start writing.

(Apparently I have no problem updating LJ in a fishbowl, though.)

My creative impulses have been in a weird tailspin lately. It's not that I don't have ideas -- it's just that I've really been having trouble sticking to a project, fanfic or original. My hard drive is full of languishing WIPs, some of them consisting of no more than a page. And I don't even want to sit down and figure out how much time per day I've been spending online compared to how much time I've been spending actually writing/drawing. (Actually, maybe I should; maybe it would kick me out of this highly counterproductive "spending 6 hours answering message board posts" mode.)

It's not that I don't want to write. It's not even that I'm finding writing particularly difficult. It's more just a matter of ... motivation? All I know is that I get partway into a story and just don't have the oomph to keep plowing forward.

Random motivational things: Ten Epic Fantasy Themes We Don't See Enough by N.K. Jemison. These are just the sorts of fantasy that I like to read and write. If I could write. ::headdesk::

On the fanfic front, maybe I need a challenge. What challenges are going on right now, guys? There's the kidfic challenge over at

sga_flashfic (which I started a story for, but, duh, can't seem to finish), and

galpalficathon. Hmm, maybe I'll go browse their prompts for a while.

::bored::

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You've just described my exact problem. 10 word docs on my desktop are filled with the beginnings of stories that i just can't seem to finish or i've put aside because another shiny plot bunny got in the way.....it's beyond frustrating

It's frustrating because, while dropping WIPs is sort of par for the course with me, usually it happens because there's something else I'd rather work on. In this case, I'm just flailing. Unless I'm forgetting something, I think the only stories I've finished since this spring are the Big Bang one and the McKay/Keller one. And, while it's true that those were long stories, it's been over two months (almost three) since the Big Bang got done. I really feel like I'm spinning my wheels.

*hugs* I hope your headache eases.

I'm actually feeling a lot better now! Maybe my body just finally got the memo that, no, we are NOT going back to bed today. *g*

I'm thinking the motivation thing has become an epidemic. A lot of people seem to be having motivational problems. The SGA story I've been wanting to write forver I'm finally writing... except I want to write something else, and another something else in a totally different fandom *slams face into keyboard*.

Heh, I love those little memes encouraging people to break away from fantasy norms. A few things I can't personally agree with because they're what I love to write (ex. I like guy protaganists and magic, and not even my desire to do what's different will change that). But to the majority it's a big yes, yes, yes and thank you for finally pointing it out!

It's a problem that's endemic to writers, I'm sure. It's just hitting me a lot worse right now than it normally does.

And the fantasy cliches ... yeah, I think any list of cliches usually includes one or two that I personally happen to like. But it's also quite useful to know what everyone else is doing, what the general trends are, and this list pointed out a few that I'd never even thought about.

Oh, yeah. I have wips from a paragraph to tens of thousands of words. I have supposedly completed novellas in my wip file, and I just haven't gotten around to doing the re-writes.

In part it's because things have been crazy busy, so when I get downtime all I want to do is read. But in part? I just can't get momentum going, and I'm not sure why. Maybe because I know I'll just get into it and a work time crunch will happen that's beyond my control, and I'll have to let it go again just as I've fallen back in love. It's hugely frustrating.

I was thinking I might try doing a communal story in google docs, to see if having other people playing with it would make a difference to my motivation. But then I get bogged down thinking, "but how would we pick the story" and "who would I ask" etc etc.

In short: I have no cunning plan.

You know what sometimes helps me though? The meme I'm doing on my LJ right now. It has just the right amount of detail to get me going, and flexibility so I can take it in any direction. And it's not important enough for me to agonise over how good the writing is (the first one I did was clearly the warm-up and it's pretty crap). Sometimes doing a finger exercise like that can help. It's odd, but I never seem to get too old for finger exercises to still have occasional use.

I'm having the same problem. I have two stories in particular that I was very excited to start, had them all plotted out, then the muse just left me RL is especially crazy right now, so perhaps that is part of the reason. In a week, my free time will increase a lot. Maybe I'll get the concentration to write.

I hope you break through your block. I miss not having Shilo fic to read

Whenever I'm in that specific mood it usually helps me to write several short stories instead of work on my longer WIPs. In my case, a prompt or challenge is usually the perfect thing to spark a bunny for a short story. But that's me. ;-)

Ugh, I know exactly where you're coming from with regard to motivation. I have several WIPs sitting on my hard drive that'll probably never see the light of day, and just now I had a plot bunny bite me on the ass after reading that post you linked to.

I can totally see a fantasy AU with John, Ronon, & Teyla searching for a scholar-in-hiding who is rumored to have the ability to fix/operate the machine from the Times Before that will remove the Evil Queen from her throne and destroy the Evil Hordes. I wish I had the ability to write epic fantasy. sigh

Is this what they call "ennui"?

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