I share thought process

[sparklebutch]

I'm writing the prompts, I'm writing.

I do have a problem though. Some of the ones I got from the meme, plus some of the ones I get from my usual prompts community, they all lead me in one direction. Keep picking at the same wound.

With that, I have two problems. A, just how many times can I write the same basic story obsessively before everyone is sick and tired of it, and B, well, some of the things would be perfect for happy smut, and all I get is torture and torment and lack of joy. Which would probably bring... sharper reactions in readers, maybe, but, I don't *want* to write misery.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

just how many times can I write the same basic story obsessively before everyone is sick and tired of it

Infinitely?

No, really, you as writer may get tired of a theme which we as readers never do. Putting this in another context, look at the way people will read novels by authors who never, ever vary their formula or their content. They read them because they like the subject, the approach, the style,whatever.

And I've never seen you write exactly the same thing twice. There's always a new twist or insight or viewpoint.

some of the things would be perfect for happy smut, and all I get is torture and torment and lack of joy. Which would probably bring... sharper reactions in readers, maybe, but, I don't *want* to write misery.

All you get - from your own imagination, you mean? I'm not sure how to answer that, but I think (speaking for my own approach to writing) that what I want to write consciously and what I do write are different things because the muse lives in the subconscious and doesn't give a damn what I want: writing what I want to write would not only be the easy way out, it would probably be impossible because it would never be good. It would never be where my passions or compulsions lie - whether I'm aware of that or not.

These are probably not the answers you want to hear, assuming that you want to hear replies and weren't just asking rhetorically.

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. If you feel like you're retreading the same ground, you could challenge yourself to look at it from a new direction, try a different angle. Sometimes very artificial limitations can get my creative juices flowing: all dialog, no tags, no names, having a character do something completely out of character and figuring out why it's in character for them. Exercises for the brain, creativity, and communicative facility.

I generally find the only writing of mine that I truly dislike are the times when I've tried to force a story to go a direction contrary to its nature. If what I've got are torture and torment, that's what I dish out. Doesn't mean I have to write it, but trying to sculpt that piece of mental wood into something that's not in there just gets me one ugly-ass piece of scrap wood.

Maybe it's different for you. *shrugs*

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

While you tend to write characters who lean toward angst, all characters have happy points in their lives, maybe try writing from that time in their lives?