I’m a law student and I work, and with what little time I have I love to write. I have written several short stories (I have tons of note books filled and a couple GBs on my pc filled), but I always get off track. I start off intending on writing a book, but any where from 10 to 50 pages I get off track. I get bored with what I’m writing or something else catches my attention and I start following that idea. I come back to the stories I started, but never can decide on which to continue. Has this or does this happen to any one out there? What do you do to stay on track?
Thanks
Fizz
I would recommend participating in the National Novel Writing Month. www.nanowrimo.org
Several people I know from these boards (Ashavan, Medesha) have participated and I was fascinated by what I learned from them and intend to participate next year.
As an artist, I've started out hundreds of ideas for comics, paintings, stories, etc. that have just petered out with time. Others that I keep intending to work on that just never come to fruition. It's just part of the creative process. The important thing is to look back at what you've done with a critical eye and ask yourself: what worked in this? What doesn't work? Where will the reader/viewer get bored? If I were to do this again, how would I tackle it?
Part of the trouble with my own work is preparation; there are things you should do before you ever start work on a rough draft, let alone a finish, that a lot of folks skip out on. In my opinion, that's the difference between a professional and an amateur. Research, reference, preparation and planning just about always help.