mystraschosen said:
Excuse me Gary ,hate to bother you about something you have obviously answered many times over,but I am in a bit of a bind.
That's part of the reason why I am here, so no problem
I love to write.....about anything really,but sometimes it becomes very hard for me.I feel overwhelmed by my ideas and don't quite know where to start or how to structure the grand ideas I evision into a proper manuscript. This very well may have to do with the fact that I have no professional writing experience,and also never having taken a class or been taught per say could be a big part.
I humbly ask for ideas on how to go about this.How do you lay everything out?What do you do when you get bogged down or overwhelmed by the sheer flood of ideas that come faster than you can articulate them onto paper?Is there a certain way you have found easier to structure your outlines?
When i get an idea a write it down on scratch paper if I am not at the computer. Then I give it a title as close as possiible to what the idea pertains to--a name if it's a book or module concept, and put it into a file.
When i heve time I read the notes, expand them usually, and create an outline of the work to be done. Using that outline I develop separate files for the parts indicated, and write material for them as the ideas come.
When the body of the material is completed I go back and write the introductory portion based on what has developed. that introductory work might well necessitate the revision of some of the following work--it's a good way to check that you've done what you aimed at and said was done.
Just finding the time and energy to get the material into form can be a problem. As for lack of inspiration/ideas, if the work is divided into sections, skip to the section that appeals to you the most at the time. If that doesn't work, watch or read something that pertains to the subject, and that might trigger your creative muse
I have begun toying with a microrecorder to preserve my ideas before they flit out of my head and it has improved things considerably.However I still get overwhelmed pretty frequently and am at my wits end on how to get around this.
Thanks for your help.
Good day to you swammy.
The recorder is a great idea, and it will prove very useful, I am sure., Ideas come swiftly at times, and they leave just as rapidly, forgotten in the flood of others surfacing.
Hope what i noted above will be of some help to you.
Cheers,
Gary