Oh yes, Rule #1. Don't let ANYONE critique your stuff until you've finished it to your own satisfaction. No one's opinion really matters except yours...and the editor's, of course.
It's very simple. Write the first sentence:
"Call me Ishmael."
Then, if you get stuck for further ideas, just skip to the end and write the last sentence:
"It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan."
Now all you have to do is fill in the middle!
Sit down and write. Don't write perfect prose, don't write Steinbeck (its been done); just write.
Get a rhythm going. Do it every day. Repeat as needed. (Write, don't edit.)
For some insight, read Steinbeck's Journal of a Novel.
In the meantime, write!
[Writers write; editors edit.]
What is it that catches you (stops you)? Is it where to take the plot?
Do you believe you have a thorough understanding of the character, nature, and thought processes of your characters? Are your people well developed enough to solve the problem/s before them?
Can you take the main characters, set them on a "stage" with their problem, and "see" them interacting with each other the way real people would, to solve their problem/s?
If not, then I suggest going back and fleshing out the characters more fully, assigning them more depth of thought, action, and interaction, giving them more and varying qualities of personhood, so that you can see what they would do in a given situation.
Then beef up your plot to create a situation or beef up the situation you have already put them in, a situation where they HAVE to solve a problem to "survive," set them on that stage, and watch what they do. Then just write it down (and edit, etc.).
Start the chapter: It was a dark and stormy night...
Quit rewriting the same chapters over and over. Push forward, if the next chapter isn't what you want, write a bridge chapter to get past the part that's giving you a problem.
This will also sound kind of strange, but don't fall too much in love with one piece of work, or keep reworking the same things over and over. I don't know if you're into sports, but I've thought about this story a lot. Roger Staubach won two Super Bowls with the Cowboys, and played in two others. On a Thanksgiving day game, he was knocked out, and his backup, Clint Longley came in. Longley threw two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to win a game against the Redskins. He never had another significant NFL moment. Staubach commented in his autobiography that after that game, Longley would sit around looking at the game film over and over. Staubach said he quit working, and was happy just to relive that one moment of glory, over and over.
Keep pushing yourself, and your work will continually improve, but only if you keep working. When you are successful, move on. When you fail, move on. But keep writing.
In my experience, writing with right-handed pencils significantly increases one's odds of developing severe writer's block.
Forgive me, Petronski! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
Did you answer your own question?
Why is this in News/Activism and not back in General/Chat?
Have you included an earth-shattering kaboom? There's always an earth-shattering kaboom!
Write the ending and then backtrack.
Lets ping 2 of them
juat plow through never once looking back. Writing is rewriting... It is never what it starts out to be, but before you can get it there, you need to get it out... every last bit of it... then and only then go back and make changes...
just my two cents...
"I constantly re-read and edit, and re-read and edit more. "
===
You just found your problem.
Since you have the book "worked out in your mind" -- I would suggest to start writing, ANYTHING, that is even vaguely related, then keep writing, don't look back, don't correct typos, don't correct grammar, style, inconisitency, anything, just focus and keep writing each chapter to "THE END".
THEN you can go back and edit and rewrite.
Create a really lousy first draft -- then you can improve it and perfect it. But if don't write anything down, until you think it's perfect, you'll never get done.
Just do it right now -- write a page, anything.
Then tomorrow, keep it going. Without even noticing, once you stop worrying about making it perfect, the words will flow and you'll do better than you thought.
It's always easier to re-write, so just get the first draft down, the quality of the first draft is no indication of the qualify of the final product.
Get started -- NOW and good luck!
nuconvert - your very first response NAILED IT!
right now you are being to critical of yourself- and not "feeeling" it....
it will come....at the risk of sending some minds into the gutter- I get my best ideas in the shower.....LOL
take lots of showers....
sing in there- etc...
you will get it!
don't let anyone else finish this for you
"you can duit"
Nothing like a good moose hunting trip to clear your mind. Or at least, help me gut one. That'll cure your sinuses AND your writer's block. ;)
oh yeah- one other tip..
when I write- I turn the monitor OFF...
thos wzy i can jist erote from the gtu witout worrying about spelling and tupos....
it shows too.....
ok now let me tun my monitor back on...
smoke some weed it helps unlock your brain then listen to pink floyd and tori amos records for the rest of the night. Do that for about a month and you might rember what yuo were planning on doing before you you smoked all that weed and you might actually write the words down on paper instead of just thinknig you did. It works for me anyhow. well i ve never got to the point where i write anything donw on paper but still its pretty awesome :-)
Some I have known put it away 24 hours to several weeks or so.
Some write XXX words/day regardless until it begins to flow again--and whether or not they write on the blocked task.
Those who do the latter seem to be the most productive overall, IIRC.