starringpamela

My Itch to Write

Hi everyone! So if you don’t know, I have dabbled into writing in the past and turns out, I quite like it! On top of writing for fun, I’m also employed full time, blog (which feels full time), and go to school part time for my MBA (which also feels full time). And now the landscaping season is starting up so I’m going to be helping my dad work over the weekend.

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All of this has meant that writing for fun has taken a back seat (as have many other things) but lately this is the one that’s gnawed at me the most.

It seems that in the past few months I’ll get an amazing idea (well in my opinion it’s amazing) that I just want to write down and work out right away. It’s an idea for a story that is something that I would love to grab off the library shelf and take home and not put down until I’ve finished reading the story but yet the most I can really do is write down the plot that I have in my head in a quick Google Doc on my phone or jot it down in the notebook that lives in my handbag rapidly.

I don’t get the time to actually write it into a story. In the past I’ve been able to do a lot of writing done doing NaNoWriMo (I’ve done it maybe three or four times in the past along with one Script Frenzy and one Camp NaNo) and that’s mostly it. Even lately I haven’t had time to do NaNo as I’ve been in school and therefore I just haven’t made time for it.

The last time I got some quality writing time was a few weeks ago as I headed downtown on the train. About half an hour into the train ride I got an idea that I really wanted to write down and keep so I got out my notebook and started writing. My intention was just to write down the idea of the story and a bit of what inspired the plot but the next hour became the first chapter.

For me, the stories can seem to come out of nowhere but I think they actually just sort of form themselves in the back of my mind and then pop out when they’re good and ready, because once I start working on the story I immediately seem to know where the story is going and where it’s been. That’s not to say that things don’t change, they do, but it’s usually because there are a few possibilities I can immediately spot in the story and so I will try one and if I decide I don’t like it then i can go back and pick another option for the story.

And of course, there’s always the research that needs to happen to make the story real. Such as the setting. I’ve had a few ideas set in either Barcelona or Chicago, both of which I know well as I studied abroad in Barcelona and have lived near Chicago my entire life. Even so, I usually need to look up random things in each. For example, in Barcelona the building I’ve dreamed up is in a very particular location in the city and I’ve needed to pull up Google Maps to see it to make sure it fits in that location. For Chicago I’ve needed to look up what buildings are in a certain place such as hospitals or government buildings as they’re necessary to the story but not places I’ve ever needed to go to.

Others have taken place in cities like Seattle or New Orleans and those are cities that I’ve never visited before. So I had the characters in one story who lived outside of Chicago but needed to get to Seattle. In that world (very dystopian) they couldn’t just drive so they had to take the train, and I had to double check that there was a train (I could have made it up I suppose but I wanted to see how long it would take too) and then I had to research the city to see where they would stay, where they would need to go, etc.

So all in all, writing is a time consuming hobby that I wish I could make more time for. Hopefully that’s something I can do in the summer after my spring classes end and before/after my summer class. Depending on the class I pick I may try to write in the fall but I’m guessing I’m probably going to freak out about how badly my Goodreads goal is going around that time and I will try to read a lot more than I’ll try to write.

So let me know if you’ve come up with a story lately and if you’ve been able to work on it. If so, I’d love to know!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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27 comments

  1. I feel the same way! I’m always coming up with story ideas, or even just scenes of a story, and I get this “itch” to write, but time and responsibilities remind me that I can’t. I hope someday you can finish one of your stories, because that dystopian future/Chicago to Seattle story already sounds interesting to me!

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  4. That’s great.. well, I still learn to write properly hahaha.. I love photography too, I think I have so many hobbies (reading, singing, drawing, etc) but less time to do hahhaha.. anyway, through my blog I try to combine both hobbies of photography and writing 😁

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  7. I definitely think that you should carve out some time to write, Pamela, if it’s gnawing at you. We shouldn’t take inspiration for granted and life will always find a way to keep filling up our time with other things. Research does become its own project, for sure. Edgar Allen Poe wrote with the belief that stories should never be too specific in setting because the reader is taken out of the story when they see things they’re familiar with. Maybe you can work on developing other aspects of the story like character development, etc., in the meantime. You’re reading is for you more than anyone, so if you feel like letting writing take the front seat for a while, there will be no harm done. It might lead to some good actually. Engaging more in writing may help you recognize and more fully appreciate what it takes to write good literature. They can go hand in hand. Btw, I freaking love a good dystopian story.

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  8. I have the exact same issue with writing, Pamela! I’ll occasionally come up with a REALLY good idea, write the basic ideas, points, characters, etc. down, but then I never actually form it into a story. Research, I think, is a huge problem for me because I feel overwhelmed by the fact that I’ll know too little, and maybe even too much! By writing so much historical fiction these past couple of years, I’ve been slowly learning about the right amount of research to do and base a story upon. 🙂 That aside, I’m actually really excited right now because I have a beautiful idea for a new historical fiction novel! I have the basic prologue and first chapter typed out, and I can’t wait to actually begin writing it. I don’t want to say too much, because that always jinxes me lol, but it is going to be SO good! Wishing you and myself the best of luck on our writing ventures! 😀

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  9. The BF likes to write but same roadblocks for him, he has a journal that he is good about jotting his amazing ideas down in 🙂 He’s trying to strike a balance between intentionally scheduling time for writing but not getting stressed about not being able to stick to the scheduled time. It’s tough to not be able to find the time for something that you are passionate about, I hope that you can soon though!

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  11. Yeah I can really relate to this post because I’m constantly coming up with ideas for stories – it’s just hard to find the time to write it down and write it down with good, gripping language. Hope you find time to work on writing soon 😊 xx

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