Thread: How do you push yourself to write during the parts that do not excite you as much?

When I am writing I always want to get to the exciting parts and I fear that I will never be able to finish my story. Do any of you fellow writers suffer with this same issue? If so, do you have any advice for me?

Yes, but I just make a cup of tea to calm me so I'm not to eagar to get to the exciting part.

Here is something that may be helpful to you. If you think that you will get too bored out of your story that you will not write because of the part it's at, you can write an exciting part and then fill in the extra space later.
I'm actually suffering through that right now. Usually if you think of an upcoming event that excites you, you get compelled to writing at least some filler space just so you can reach a suspenseful part.
Hope that helped! Good luck!

My advice would be to eliminate all the dull parts. If you don't enjoy writing those parts, why would your readers want to read them?

Every sentence should either move the story forward or reveal something about your characters. Given that everything should be exciting, if not, then consider rewriting until it is.

Maybe the solution is to always write what excites you. Just think - if parts of your story doesn't excite you as a writer, you're running the risk of boring your readers.

My suggestion is to make every single word fun - both to read and to write.

Good luck!
Hafwen x

Wow, this is exactly the same for me! One of my greatest fears in writing is not being able to finish my book, same as you! I finished one short story and moved onto something else much longer. However, my computer crashed while I was writing the second one and I lost everything. Thankfully, a copy of a draft of the first twenty or so chapters was safe with my friend who sent it to me. I wrote a few more chapters, but then stopped and I still feel terribly regretful for not finishing it. It's like I'm letting my characters down or something.

I am now writing something else, and I swear to myself I WILL finish it.

When I wrote my short story, I wrote in order, scene by scene, chapter by chapter, and I wanted SO badly to get to the exciting scenes so I rushed and made the rest of my writing stink. It sounds like you're doing about the same thing, maybe minus the stinking part. THE BIGGEST TIP EVER FOR THIS: Write the exciting scenes FIRST! Most likely, the exciting scenes are the scenes most clear in your head and you should be able to get them down. So go back to writing and write the exciting or your favorite scenes first and fit them in later.

For the finishing part, remember, you owe it to your characters to finish.

Good luck! (Sorry this was so long)

My friend, Susie, has the same problem, so she overcomes it by making the first 1/3 part of the story about what's causing the main problem, the next 1/3 about the main problem (exciting) and the last 1/3 about how it is overcome.

When I write a story, I try to have as much background knowledge about EVERYTHING before I start.
This means,
- Knowing your characters (physically, emotionally, and also try to think up a bit of history (just a small life story) for each character ...yes, even the sub-characters and, to some extent, the sub-sub-characters.
This will help you add depth to your characters so they don't just seem like randomly inserted people. It also helps with the plot because you can use their personalities and life stories to "add fuel to your fire". Having a little personal info for each character will help you figure out how the characters interact...what their motives are...why they do what they do. (It also adds a little spice to the more boring parts).

After that, I try to look at each character individually and see how the plot line and the story will affect them personally. (Even if they are a sub-character).

I know it's a lot of work, but it really helps to keep you focused and keep you on track so you don't take the story too far (you need to have some boundaries, or the reader will get lost and lose interest).
When you have everything planned out before you start, it is easy to see where the loose ends are that need to be tied up, so your conclusion will be more complete. People don't like a lot of unanswered questions.

If I try to write a story blindly without having these things planned out, I quickly run out of steam and get bored with it. But when I have little tidbits of info about each character, I know how they can use that info to add to the plot of the story and that makes the story more believable. It also gives the story more dimension.

Then I take all those notes and plot out each chapter by writing a few lines about what will happen in each one. (This way I can see how the story plays out and make sure it will run smoothly. I also do this to make sure there are no inconsistencies in my story.)

With the chapters all plotted out, it is easy to write the rest of the story because I just think of each chapter as it's own short story, rather than look at it as writing a long novel. This makes the "boring" parts more exciting because I know that what I am writing now is important because it is leading to (or concluding) the more climatic parts.

Having all this information on hand will also decrease the likelihood of getting writer's block.

It's hard work, but so worth it in the long run!