I'm curious about what others writing difficulties are?
I have to many to count, though the most common one seems to always be the dichotomy of the concrete versus the abstract. For me I find the feeling of sadness, and the aspect of crying more interesting than simply a painting of someplace where I see a picture if someone crying.
And thus I find myself drawn to feel the scene, not just scene it. But I've found this seems to make it kind of difficult to really translate to prose format real well.
For example: describing a person crying indirectly by going into every aspect about how they feel, rather than just saying "she is crying." I'm drawn to the abstract description of the real, rather than a realistic discription of the abstract.
I think my difficulty is opposite to yours: I often write things as is.
Another problem I have that greatly affects the quality and frequency of my writing: my foolish pursuit of money.
I hate all my characters.
i think the best you can do is bringing the reader along with the reasons the character is crying. if the character's kid died (easy example), let us know the kid as early as possible, at least that he/she exists and is important to the character, then off the kid. if we care about the character, we'll go along with whatever the character does in sadness.
if you can't do that, it's the little things. classic show vs. tell. "she is crying" sucks, yes, so you delve a little deeper, she looks at that picture she can't delete from her phone of the kid, smile through tears, watch a video over and over... any of that kind of thing will generate a load of sympathy. the idea you're getting across is abstract, but the actions are still concrete.
I'm going to think about it more, as I work on Simply Bailee. Thanks!^^
Starting a writing session itself. There are times when I'm like, "I should write, I have the time right now," and most of the time I want to write, but I still don't for some reason. That's why I only write 2 - 4 days a week instead of 5 - 7. I guess it's just my natural inclincation (and perhaps bad habit) to get a little creatively blocked up then spill it all out in a few sessions. I tend to hit a good streak of writing multiple days in a row, then don't for a week. Also, even though I feel great afterward, it takes a lot out of me, so one of my thoughts is, "I should write, but do I want to be exhausted later on?" Which seems sort of stupid to me, but, hey, we all have our ways.
Yea I notice I'm the same way. I could binge write for four weeks, then have my sleep schedule so disrupted I have to take a step back. Then binge write another four weeks.
Chuck's egg timer method---so effective for combating that.
I tend to add in a character or little subplot and do nothing with it. I usually realize it later and try to bring it back up or just get rid of it. But it's a thing.
Also I have an obsession with eyes. I like to describe my characters eyes in situations. Like I try to show emotions by means of their eyes (they're dark with sadness, or stuck a spot of the wall as they try to avoid looking at someone). It's very strange but I just have this idea that so much can be said by looking into someone's eyes and I tend to over do it.
But eyes are the window to the soul right? Or I generally use that justification anyway.:P
I'm big on eyes, too. Narrowing, widening, hanging. There's so much conveyed without taking up a whole paragraph.
Good call on the egg timer, Scriv. I reread that article a couple days ago, but didn't even relate it to myself at all. I'll do that next time!
Since I'm pre editing my stories before I send to my uncle for advice, my difficulties consist of going to the point. I want to keep my stories under 1,000 words, which is difficult to do that and to keep it whimsical.
