New ideas all over the place

I still rememeber, about 2 years ago (certainly before I started writing Ella) I read a threat over at the Forum where Diana once again wondered about people asking authors where they get their ideas from. And she added something to the affect "The problem for authors really is stopping the ideas from popping up all over the place."

Back then I thought "Well, you are not a real writer then. You may like to write, but you don't have even one idea for a whole book popping up." (You see, I put no pressure on myself. "A whole book" indeed *g*)

Two years later, the situation is exactly the opposite. I have- what, 10? - ideas on a list I keep, one story on the backburner, but simmering on in my mind and one story currently developing (or not at the moment - see my former post *g*).
And just yesterday another story popped up. Phew :)

I guess once you start to earnestly get busy with thinking about writing in general or maybe even a story in particular, everything just gets rolling.
You write and get an idea, but it doesn't fit the story. Make a new story out of it. You read a line in a book/magazine/..., see something on TV, hear something somewhere and think "Hey, that's great/interesting/whatever, but it doesn't fit your story. Make a new story out of it.
And quicker than you can blink, you have a whole bunch of story ideas.

Hey, that's great! Only, it doesn't help with writers block :) *

So for now, I'll be grateful that my brain is indeed able to produce story ideas at random and numerously and I will think about my current block later. :)


* I know that working at a new idea did and does help writers getting on with something they are stuck at. It just doesn't seem to work for me. I start working on something and some time later I am where I'm with Before and After now. I don't want to be one of those people who end up with a dozen half finished stories (nothing against those - I just don't want to be one of them).

Why is writing so hard?

I don't have the answer. I have just been asking myself this question for the last two hours.

I think I may know where the problem lies but I have absolutely no idea how to go about it.

Before and After is at a stage where I have a pretty good idea what's going on, who the characters are and what kind of person. I have written some mayor scenes (don't be deceived by the word count) and some "sketches", or skipts as I call them.
That's great, I hear you say. No problem.
Wrong! Now that I know what the story is, I don't seem to find the need to write it down. I know everything (I don't, but you know what I mean) there is to know, story finished.
But I want to get it on paper!

I could easily be the only one facing this strange problem (Really, it's stupid! What's causing this blockade?) but maybe some of you have experienced similar or have some good advise.
Meanwhile I will try to help myself with Holly Listle's course, that I haven't made as much progress at as I wish.

Yeah, I'm back...

And I would like to kick my own butt (if that was possible) for only writing about 1000 words in 14 days. But at least I got all the stuff typed that I had still in longhand...

But I have excuses. These made me spent most of my time outside:

The beach


Butterflies


Seals (at the Ecomare seal sanctuary)



Ships

Nature


The overall very nice weather :)

9/11

How much the world has changed since then...

Taking my leave

for the next two weeks.

I'll be on holiday and back on the 27th.

Goodbye till then! :) And happy writing!

My new bookcase

So, after I had books all over my living room, I decided to put some of them into cartons and place them in my cellar and bought an additional book case for the rest.

You will notice that some of my Outlander books are missing. I lent them to a colleague whom I converted ;)
And I have some free space left for all the new books that are surely to come. E.g. two new ones that I'm reading right now and four still in the living room. My TBR pile is much larger, but it's a virtual one (namely the Amazon wishlist) as I couldn't handle the actual piles anymore :)

The new one:

The "old" one:

Knitting

I've always wanted to learn knitting.

Well, now I have decided to teach myself. I've been practising the last 3 hours and I believe I'm getting better. :) It will still be a long run until I can try the Houdini Socks, but I'm getting there.

My godfather's wife can knit very well (she knitted me a "Scotland pullover") but we both don't have the time to get together for her to teach me...

Maybe my mom can show me a bit when where are on holiday from Friday on.