Question for fellow writers

[Flourish]

Hello there everyone. I have a question for writers of all experience levels (and to some extent just artists in general). Lately I've been struggling in my writing. The issue is my focus. I've found that it's hard to me to stick to one idea. I wind up going back on what I wrote multiple times. I tend to like one idea, then I just get so distracted by another idea. Some of it could be due to worrying about how others may view it afterwards, and other times it's just my focus feeling a bit shoddy.

My question for all of you is this: Any advice on what do you do if you find yourself getting distracted by another idea, or even to just sticking to one idea?

 

[TheDarkMaster]

I don't really have trouble focusing on individual ideas or scenes, but tend to get distracted from one large project to another. The main why I solve that is to try and keep the scope of projects relatively small and contained, so I can finish them before I lose interest or move onto something else. That said, while I come up with all sorts of new ideas all the time, that's mostly something I do for fun and don't do it during my work time.

 

[ScarletteKnight]

I'm not quite a writer, but my problem is always that I have all these different scenes and ideas that I can't figure out how to piece together.

 

[Stemwinder]

For every six ideas you have five will end up as nothing more than brainfarts and The One needs a lot of work before it's ready.

Remember your main workhorse parts when it comes to writing: the mindset behind the writing (which will inform everything from the word choice to the subtext to the messaging), the goal of the writing (not only what you want to accomplish with it as a complete work but what the goals are for the story and characters to follow; if these are too narrow you'll quickly start fumbling visibly for ideas and if they're too broad you will visibly pad things out and clutter the story as you distract yourself following up on any and all minor details regardless of whether they advance the goals or not), and the heart of the writing (this is not only what the reader is meant to connect with most strongly but what produces the energy of the story itself; it's the primary motive of the author to write; this will shine through in every aspect of the work itself and will likely determine whether the story even gets finished or can maintain its momentum during phases you aren't particularly excited for).

If you're struggling over which ideas to give time to ask yourself what your goal would be with the idea and frankly assess whether the heart of this story has the oomph to carry you or the reader all the way through it. If it's weak keep it short or toss it, if you think your story has a strong heart to support it then start narrowing (and broadening) your goals for the story and characters, begin connecting those abstract ideas to concrete plans and then the words themselves.

 

[Flourish]

For every six ideas you have five will end up as nothing more than brainfarts and The One needs a lot of work before it's ready.

Remember your main workhorse parts when it comes to writing: the mindset behind the writing (which will inform everything from the word choice to the subtext to the messaging), the goal of the writing (not only what you want to accomplish with it as a complete work but what the goals are for the story and characters to follow; if these are too narrow you'll quickly start fumbling visibly for ideas and if they're too broad you will visibly pad things out and clutter the story as you distract yourself following up on any and all minor details regardless of whether they advance the goals or not), and the heart of the writing (this is not only what the reader is meant to connect with most strongly but what produces the energy of the story itself; it's the primary motive of the author to write; this will shine through in every aspect of the work itself and will likely determine whether the story even gets finished or can maintain its momentum during phases you aren't particularly excited for).

If you're struggling over which ideas to give time to ask yourself what your goal would be with the idea and frankly assess whether the heart of this story has the oomph to carry you or the reader all the way through it. If it's weak keep it short or toss it, if you think your story has a strong heart to support it then start narrowing (and broadening) your goals for the story and characters, begin connecting those abstract ideas to concrete plans and then the words themselves.

Sorry for taking a while to reply. Thank you for the help. I honestly do suffer with the issue of adding in too many minor details (I tend to be over-descriptive at times, which distracts me as well), so this advice is really good to hear. I'll think about this more as I write as well, and try to work on finding the right balance between narrowing and broadening my goals. Thanks a lot for the comment.

 

[Stemwinder]

Being over-descriptive is definitely one of those easy traps to fall into when you don't have a lot of experience. Often it was a dark and stormy night works just fine! When it comes to description you should ask yourself what you want the reader to be paying attention to - that's what you want to flesh out the most. If for instance you spend two paragraphs describing the room a character is in they'll naturally start wondering "am I supposed to notice something here?". In that way too much detail given to things that don't matter can actually be confusing. You don't have to be terse about absolutely everything but learning not to pause and take in every little detail along the way will improve your pacing and make the focal points of each chapter, paragraph, sentence clearer.