I plan, you write? Maybe?

O

Oldor

Virgin
So, I have an issue. I love writing. I love thinking of ideas and I enjoy fleshing out basic plot summaries of each chapters. I can craft basic to intermediate world background, character background, etc. I can outline each chapter's plot. I can fantasize about the world for hours--with or without the use of a hand.

But I cannot, for the life of me, write an actual chapter. I have like 2 published stories where I kept promising to update it with new chapters. I have a ton of hidden chapters on both of those stories with images, plans, paragraphs of plot, etc. that never got finished. I have 2 more stories that are completely unpublished; one of them is essentially blank, even the Introduction is untouched. I have 1 more story that's sitting in windows Notepad--it didn't even make it into my browser! But every single one of the stories has a basic plot, often more than basic, and they're great ideas (in my unbiased opinion).

I'm currently planning one heck of a story, and right now I'm fleshing out character backstories. I already have basic plots for the first 6 days and nights in-story (with multiple chapters for most days), as well as a geographic background setup. The problem is: I can plan it, but I can't do it. Besides the fact my writing isn't very good due to lack of experience, I can't motivate myself to write anything. But I can plan all day.

Would anyone be interested in writing a story based off of what I plan? As much as I wish I could push myself to write this story, I'll have in-real-life commitments soon that will limit the amount of time I have to stare at a blank screen all day (but I'll still be able to plan!). I don't know how it would work exactly but I have story ideas, an ability to plan stories, and a thick-enough skin to let you have large amounts of creative control!

Edit: this addition suggested by @MidbossMan



Setting: near future in Alaska. Plot device: you're having a small party before going backpacking for two weeks when a new virus is discovered. Extremely deadly and fast spreading, there is a five week mandatory lockdown with almost universal voluntary compliance (and the rest are forced to). Your friends return home to their families, leaving you in the woods with three weeks of food and three horny classmates. Themes/Kinks: my plan is pretty much vanilla and harem, but other stuff can be added in. Example: simple tweaks and it can be incest.
 
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Heya! I think the most important question before anybody commits would probably be what kind of content you're talking about, in terms of setting, themes, kinks, etc.

After you get somebody interested in helping out, I could see a scenario where you either give them your ideas by messages or maybe write some bulletpoints as a chapter, save draft,, and have them turn it into something as a co-author.

Of course, if nobody is super intrigued by your ideas or just very benevolent, you may end up needing to commission some help and pay them. :p

Happy hunting!
 
Wow. I can't believe I just completely forgot to mention what the story is. RIP.

Setting: near future in Alaska. Plot device: you're having a small party before going backpacking for two weeks when a new virus is discovered. Extremely deadly and fast spreading, there is a five week mandatory lockdown with almost universal voluntary compliance (and the rest are forced to). Your friends return home to their families, leaving you in the woods with three weeks of food and three horny classmates. Themes/Kinks: my plan is pretty much vanilla and harem, but other stuff can be added in.

Example: simple tweaks and it can be incest.
 
MidbossMan said:
Of course, if nobody is super intrigued by your ideas or just very benevolent, you may end up needing to commission some help and pay them. :p
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I was thinking the same thing. Initially, your post reads to the same effect of, "Hey, I have this great idea for an app! I tell you what to make, and you code it, and we'll split the profits fifty-fifty!" You generally need to pay someone to fulfil a request like yours, even if you give them plenty of creative control. "You plan, I write," is basically what a commission is by definition.

Unfortunately, coming up with ideas and worlds is most of the fun of writing for the majority of authors. Asking someone to write a story without these elements is a bit like licking all of the flavouring off a potato chip and giving the bland, soggy remains to someone as a treat. The only reason a person would ever eat a chip is because they want to taste the flavouring. Even if you offer to leave them a bit of flavouring, it's inherently less enjoyable than just taking another, fully-flavoured chip from the bag.

However, you're being respectful about it, which is nice. I suppose it is possible that someone might actually just want to compose words without really thinking about the story or world - like someone who's just hungry and doesn't care about flavouring. It's also possible that someone might want a plan ready to go but not actually enjoy making one - I guess someone who prefers the taste of your saliva to the regular chip-flavouring.

So, before this metaphor gets any less appropriate, I will say that it is really unlikely you'll get much interest, especially from a half-decent and committed writer who won't ghost you a week into the project. It's not impossible, though, as long as you're good about it.
 
Oldor said:
So, I have an issue. I love writing. I love thinking of ideas and I enjoy fleshing out basic plot summaries of each chapters. I can craft basic to intermediate world background, character background, etc. I can outline each chapter's plot. I can fantasize about the world for hours--with or without the use of a hand.

But I cannot, for the life of me, write an actual chapter. I have like 2 published stories where I kept promising to update it with new chapters. I have a ton of hidden chapters on both of those stories with images, plans, paragraphs of plot, etc. that never got finished. I have 2 more stories that are completely unpublished; one of them is essentially blank, even the Introduction is untouched. I have 1 more story that's sitting in windows Notepad--it didn't even make it into my browser! But every single one of the stories has a basic plot, often more than basic, and they're great ideas (in my unbiased opinion).
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Ah yes, sounds like a classic world-building obsession. I feel your pain, it seems like a thousand concepts race through my brain (usually at around two in the morning) and the temptation to put my current projects on the back burner and plough ahead with this shiny new concept.
 
"Unfortunately, coming up with ideas and worlds is most of the fun of writing for the majority of authors...It's also possible that someone might want a plan ready to go but not actually enjoy making one - I guess someone who prefers the taste of your saliva to the regular chip-flavouring."

Put the first way, I see your point and I'm abandoning all but a sliver of hope.
Put the second way, I wanna barf.

I just figured "I like planning but not writing so there has to be someone who's the opposite, right?" I still maintain the idea that such a person exists, but realize now that they probably do not frequent writing forums due to a lack of positive encounters with their own writing. I myself have only begun frequenting writing forums and communities in recent years because I discovered that poetry is the perfect medium for me to write. I just don't like erotic poetry as much as I like erotic stories (like, at all).

Edit: I had an actual quote formatting at the beginning but couldn't figure out how to end it.
 
Oldor said:
Put the first way, I see your point and I'm abandoning all but a sliver of hope.
Put the second way, I wanna barf.
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I was watching a Matthew Colville video on YouTube about being a dungeon master, and one of the points of advice was to just start a dungeon with just six rooms, because that's all that you'll need to run a session of D&D. So maybe what you need to do is just write a couple of stories about people in an elevator or a snowed-in cabin or something, just to exercise those muscles. Then, once you've gotten used to writing about the characters, you might become accustomed to it without becoming adrift in the sea of world building.

Just an idea, I hope it helps.
 
Oldor said:
I just figured "I like planning but not writing so there has to be someone who's the opposite, right?" I still maintain the idea that such a person exists, but realize now that they probably do not frequent writing forums due to a lack of positive encounters with their own writing.
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Well, there might be such a person... but it might not go well anyway.
I once had someone who said "I'm always so bored at work! Throw content at me and I'm going to edit it."
That lasted for about 5 days...


Maybe you could try to find someone who has the same issue as you and try to write the chapters together.
 
Oldor said:
I just figured "I like planning but not writing so there has to be someone who's the opposite, right?" I still maintain the idea that such a person exists, but realize now that they probably do not frequent writing forums due to a lack of positive encounters with their own writing. I myself have only begun frequenting writing forums and communities in recent years because I discovered that poetry is the perfect medium for me to write. I just don't like erotic poetry as much as I like erotic stories (like, at all).
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Maybe there is something else you could offer, like being an editor for somebody that wants to improve their writing, or doing a chapter exchange.
 
I've been in those shoes before, and it can seem like there's no way to combat it, but here is what has worked for me in the past. The short answer is that if you create a story, the world around it will build itself.

Constrain yourself: I know it's called "world building", but you don't have to go out and create a whole new world. You only need to create what the reader will see, and what they will need in order to understand the events that occur. You don't need to explain the secret underground laboratory that created this virus if it doesn't serve the story at all, even if that might be more fun than establishing how difficult it would be for your character(s) to get help should they need it.

Pace yourself: don't go into the intricacies of the world you've built before anything even happens. Show your readers the world through your characters. Two of the really great examples of world building, in my opinion, is Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. Both HP, and the Hobbits of the Shire, are generally aloof to the world around them, just as the reader is. The reader doesn't discover what Hogwarts is until Harry does. There's no mention of the Ents in The Two Towers, until Merry and Pippin are interacting with them.
In the case of your story, the character(s) don't really learn what the symptoms of this virus is until someone begins to experience it, or something as simple as the story beginning in the dead of night, where you literally can't see anything outside until morning, when the character(s) go out in it.

Have it serve a purpose: I have any number of P&P RPG characters filed away that I think are "fun", but have never used as either a player or a GM because although they seem cool, they don't contribute anything to what I'm doing with the narrative. This is really just me rephrasing the narrative principle of Chekov's Gun, which states that if you write about a gun on the mantle in the first chapter, it must be fired by the third.
 
Darth_Halford said:
You don't need to explain the secret underground laboratory that created this virus if it doesn't serve the story at all, even if that might be more fun than establishing how difficult it would be for your character(s) to get help should they need it.
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Well, you should still check that you don't destroy all possibilities of having a logical explanation of all the things. (even though you don't explicitely need that explanation at that point.)
 
gene.sis said:
Well, you should still check that you don't destroy all possibilities of having a logical explanation of all the things. (even though you don't explicitely need that explanation at that point.)
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Depends on the story and what you're trying to do with it, but I would think in most cases, the origins of the virus is largely unnecessary.

Even in a story like I am Legend (at least the film adaptation) they don't express the origins of the virus beyond "we thought we had cured cancer, and we actually just created a much bigger problem".

Or, alternatively, the Matrix (another great case in world building, I think). Morpheus says "we don't know who struck first, us or them" and that satisfied the moment. How "a single consciousness gave birth to an entire race of machines" is never explained, and it doesn't need to be. Enough is explained for you to understand the moment and not get pulled out of the immersion.

I recognize that both of these examples are film, rather than books, and as such have inherent time constraints. By their nature, they can't get as deep into details as a book can (which is why, in my humble opinion, there will never be a good adaptation of Dune, no matter how many times they try). That said, the same rules apply, it's just a matter of severity.
 
Darth_Halford said:
(which is why, in my humble opinion, there will never be a good adaptation of Dune, no matter how many times they try). That said, the same rules apply, it's just a matter of severity.
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Series! Series! Series! I read a great article on The Expanse that explained why TV Shows/Series make the best Paper to TV transition: they both feature many hours of content, and a longer centralized story arc (book vs season) with smaller dividable chunks (chapter vs episode). Dune could make an absolutely stunning adaptation if they make it a series! Just the first book could be a season or two (took me a looooooong time to read). Muad'Dib!
 
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