Telling Someone to Stop Writing

[purplecat41877]

I believe that telling someone to stop writing is one of the worst things anyone can do. If the author stops writing, there's no way they can improve if they choose. However, if the author makes the decision to stop writing because it doesn't interest them anymore, that's a different story. I believe that someone should write because they want to and they shouldn't let others stop them.

[Kara_CS]

My ex's constant insistence for me to stop writing during our marriage was because, first of all, it's not like I'd ever be successful enough to support my family on writing alone, and there was a crazy parallel notion along that line that I'd quit working to write full time. The other argument was that it would be okay if I wanted to write something "wholesome and good," but all I wanted to write was trash (I never once showed any of my writing project to my ex, so this was based on what was assumed about my writing).

I finally gave up, and even after our divorce I was crippled with writer's block. But I am happy to say that I'm finally writing again after over 7 years. It's slow-going, only 10 pages so far, but that's 10 more pages than I've been able to write in a long time.

[Teysa]

I enjoy writing. I'm not sure anyone would pay money to read what I write, but that's not the important thing. The important thing is that I have fun. If someone told me to stop, I would just ignore them and keep on writing.

[Bloodsoul]

George Lucas and Akira Toriyama both came to mind upon reading the first post, due to some questionable writing they've both done.

I can certainly agree for the most part, though. I haven't written (or even drawn) anything substantial in ages, with my biggest problem being an inability to properly start a story, or at least adequately introduce/establish the characters and settings. Once that's done, I've quite a few ideas I can flesh out fairly well — I'm just stuck at "Point A" with nothing but a map leading from "Point B" to "Point C" and beyond.

[Teysa]

So, why not start at point B? If you know what your characters are doing at that time, there's nothing that says you can't go back and fill in what happens at point A later.

[Bloodsoul]

I'm trying to piece it all in my head, and one of the primary reasons is because the main character is very much a loner who finds trusting people next-to-impossible, so the "Point A" to "Point B" establishment was going to start with her meeting a character that will put her on the path to overcoming that, so I don't want to start with them having already met.

I just need to make it interesting!

[Kheldarson]

Time skippery is your friend maybe.

The novella I'm working on has 6 progressive scenes, but they're not all immediately following one another. I use a framing technique to provide continuity and show the time lapse.

Maybe you can do similar?

[MrsEclipse]

You don't necessarily have to write the first scene first. Writing what you're more comfortable with might give you ideas or inspiration for writing something that you end up putting before. Seeing how they interact after your main character learns to trust this person might help you figure out how that trust came to grow. Put it together in the next draft and start smoothing out all the edges. Or just write scenes from wherever.

I wrote my own crappy self-published novel similar to this- I started with the main story, and then went back and wrote all the segments from fifteen years ago when I already knew exactly how I dealt with all the situations they were meant to introduce, and then stitched them together.

[Bloodsoul]

Well, I have been meaning to draw out the scenes I have figured out already, just for practice, and the way the character had found herself in that situation is already a planned flashback. The little Moleskine notebook I have helps.

You've also just reminded me that I meant to transition from story-to-story in a Monty Python style, such as a television broadcasting a particular news story to end one chapter, and the next chapter beginning with that news story as it was happening.

[DGoddess]

I enjoy writing. I'm not sure anyone would pay money to read what I write, but that's not the important thing. The important thing is that I have fun. If someone told me to stop, I would just ignore them and keep on writing.

I have been through this over the years. I've had people put me down for enjoying my fanfic scribblings - including family members. When I was a teenager and just starting to get into it, I had to put up with my stepmother sticking her nose in and actually trying to claim that I was mentally unstable. Even worse: she even tried to have one of my teachers contact HER instead of my mom (who had physical custody BTW) if I had any problems in class. That got nipped in the bud really quick by my Mom, BTW.

They can go jump in a lake for all I care. I've taken breaks from it due to not having the time or energy (and sometimes I've had a case of prologned writer's block as well.) But I've gotten back into it recently and have several pages on a couple of stories written already (and most of that was the other weekend when I started my vacation from work.)

I hardly discuss my writing IRL for that reason - I don't care to hear the flack or somebody flat out tell me "You can't do that."

Actually I can do that and have been since before YOU were probably even being considered for conception. Or when I've not been actively writing, I've at least had the ideas in my head (with a few breaks of the voices not hanging around but in recent months they've been back nonstop almost.)

So if anyone tells you not to do something, smile and go on and do it anyways and ignore them. It's not for them to judge.

[EricKei]

It's been years since I did anything resembling real "writing" aside from the occasional article for the local paper...But, if someone told me to "stop writing," I can guarantee you they'd have a *ahem* featured role in one of my next few works...

I don't care to hear the flack or somebody flat out tell me "You can't do that."

Happened to me, once. I was hanging out with a group of (mostly) friends, including one who happened to be my ex...We avoided each other within the group (yeah, passive-agressive, I know), aside from that; oddly enough, I was on good terms with her then-BF. Was an RPG-playing group, and I was willing to tolerate her for the sake of the others -- I'm sure the feeling was mutual. Anyhoo, that evening, I was chatting with one of the guys in the group, talking about how I had just finished my English degree, and that I was gonna stay on and pursue a CIS degree, as well. We got into, it, discussing ideas, etc.

Well, apparently, the ex had been nearby, listening, but not including herself in the conversation -- until she realized that i had been talking about the mixed, and admittedly odd, path I had embarked upon. She decided to put in her two cents with a rather snide expression and tone: "You're an English major, Erickei -- you don't have the right to ever be anything but a teacher."

o_O I honestly do not know, to this day, whether it was more insulting to me, or to teachers (due to the insinuation -- which I'm sure she intended -- that being a teacher is somehow not a good thing). I quietly dumped my dice back into my dice bag, grabbed my books, and left; I suppose I went home and played something appropriately violent to blow off some steam at that point, I don't quite recall. Never went back to that group. The sad thing is, I never got so much as a call from any of my supposed actual "friends" in the group, wondering why I stopped coming.

Looking back on it -- perhaps it was for the best. I had no interest in being around that person, and I ended up running with a new crew soon enough. I graduated with that CIS (associates') degree a couple of years later, with honors ^_^ Ended up doing tech support for 6 years, and now...? I am the resident computer guy/walking dictionary/occasional copy-editor at a newspaper. Funny how things work out, sometimes.

[s_stabeler]

teachers don't necessarily have a good reputation because in a disturbingly large number of cases, their primary motivation seems to be to get through the day- or at least, that's what my teachers always seemed to be like. Bullies running rampant- in one case, I suspect actively assisted by the teacher- and the only time any of the bullies were punished is the most extreme case- and even then, he was only given a three-day suspension on the last three days of his last year. one particular teacher didn't veen turn up to half the lessons- literally, i kept track, and delibrately mismarked my coursework ( my mother took it to antoher teacher some time later- too ate for me to do anything about it- who said it deserved a B. He marked it a U ( Ungraded- aka, a fail), resulting in me not getting into the uni I wanted to- had he not done it, I would probably have been in my dream job- computer programmer, and it looks like I might actually be good at it- for 2 years now, rather than looking at 3-4 years until I can become a programmer.

but aside from that, there's a more basic reason why an English major could have a different career than a teacher- off the top of my head, it would be useful for either a newspaper or book editor- either that, or possibly journalist, though I'm not so sure on that one.

[SongsOfDragons]

My degree's in English...I now work in cartography. *shrug* I like to say I use my degree every day because I proofread the maps while I'm editing and use it at home...