Creativity Bursts
 

I guess this would be the exact opposite of writers block. It happens to me constantly. Everytime I start writing a story I'll get a great idea for another story. Or I'll think of a certain part I want in my story but it can't happen until later and then I have to lead up to it somehow. I end up writing sometimes 3 or 4 stories at one time. I can't concentrate on each individual story or part of a story enough to finish and eventually lose interest. I've been trying to finish my one story for about 4 years now! Now I've found techniques to help me concentrate on some of my writings and different things will help me to finish them. And they usually work and I get some done. But the longer ones it's really hard to finish them without me trying to write something else. Anyone else ever have this problem?

I generally get writer's block.

But when I do get ideas, I end up giving them to other people to feed off of. Although, my writing skills have improved as of late with a few Fan Fics I have wrote for other sites.

Moving to Arts and Crafts.

It's called ADD.

They have drugs for that, you know.

Just make a seperate Word file and write down whatever ideas you get, then open it up later to expand on them. Like a more awake version of writing something on a notepad next to your bed in the middle of the night when creativity strikes.

What I do is write down all the awesome parts of a story in a separate document as they hit me, kind of like what BMH is suggesting. That way, I'm not having to try to recall how I wanted a certain scene to play out. Then it's just a matter of playing connect-the-dots.

I also have these crativity bursts. As a result, I have only one finished novel, and fifteen or so unfinished ones, including fanfictions. The fanfiction linked below is a result of such a creativity outburst. However, since it's published, I'm very obligated to finishing it.

I've found that doing a rough outline of the story/play I'm working on helps with keeping my mind focused on what I'm doing. That, and I have a little notebook I keep on me so when a random idea pops in my head, I transfer it to that to get it out of the way so I can come back to it when I'm finished.

Also, it almost sounds like you have a decieving Watcher At The Gates. The best way to deal with them is to study your Watcher and find out what leads to their little "bursts" of distraction. That way, you can learn their moves and head them off before they take your attention away from what you're doing. Don't stifle them completely though, they can be helpful little bastards when you know how they work. I've used mine to help me with dialogue issues and to keep the plot moving instead of running off on a tangent. Try the notebook idea and see how that works for you.

Watcher At The Gates?

This sounds interesting. Could you please elaborate?

The Watcher at the Gates is your own inner critic. Watchers are the pencil sharpeners, the car washers, the errand runners, compulsive looker-uppers, and superstitious scaredy-cats that would rather die than risk making a fool of themselves. They are the ones that tell you to stop writing in the middle of a good sentence so that you don't mess it up. Sometimes they get out of control and impede the creative process entirely. The best way to deal with them, as I've said, is to study them and learn how they move. Once you know how they work, you can get around them and catch them off guard. But don't forget, your Watcher can be a helpful little bugger, so don't cut them off entirely.

Heh, interesting metaphore. Yeah, I've had problems with my watcher in the past. My biggest problem is I finish a reasonably good story, and then I look back and see something I don't like, or something not quite up to par, and say "crap this means I have to edit the entire thing. Oh well, if I'm going to have to rewrite it, I might as well do something new." Also, "oh that idea's too cliche, not good enough to write" which I really need to watch out for, since sometimes its right and sometime its wrong. Thats the main one that's kept me from writing something all fricken year long. Its not that I haven't had any ideas, its just that they aren't good enough for my inner voice of cynicism.