How to get motivated?

[Majora]

How would I go about making a story/VN? I know this a really random post.

I want to put everything into my head into a story and I don't even have the faintest idea of how I would go about doing this. I think I'm good at putting music to a scene and creating really good plot devices but yep I have no experience in anything and I'm a perfectionist to a fault so I never accomplish anything. Yep, sorry for the message!

I'm not really experienced with VNs but I really like the medium and I think it could work for whatever I want to create. I just have this insane urge that grows bigger every day to make a story and I never do anything about it. I really want to change that about myself and make a really interesting story. Advice?

I'm not even really sure what I'm expecting from this post.. =0

[Anarchy]

Participate in NaNoWriMo! We're only six days in, you can still do it! It's a great way to just get started on writing stuff, and there are quite a few people doing VNs for it too.

[junna]

What Anarchy said. LOL. I'm trying my damnedest to write my VN alongside NaNo (although I'm not exactly participating NaNo) and this thing might work too. lol

EDIT: I find myself writing more when I have a focus music (but then I am an audio+visual person). ^^;; for some odd reason I focus better with when I have old game music playing when I write.

eg:

[Greeny]

If you're anything like me, however, NaNoWriMo might not be for you. The first time you go at it, you want to go at it knowing you have no deadline yet: All that's there to do is write. So here's what you do.

Pick a time of day. Me, I choose evenings because they're quiet and I can take my laptop in bed with me.
Next, open Ren'Py. And write. On hard days, it may take some time before you feel like you know what to write.
Once you put down a few lines, you'll find it sometimes comes very easily.
Repeat every day.

It helps, of course, to have some outline of the plot. But thinking of the plot and writing down the stuff are two entirely different things.

[nyaatrap]

Kill your perfectionism first. Do and done a short work then got criticizes, but don't excuse.
After you got this severe experience, you can start your work practically at the next time.

[TrickWithAKnife]

Make the worst possible VN you can imagine in a single day. Don't show it to anyone though.
Trust me, actually finishing something without having to care about getting it perfect can be liberating, if you only do it once.

I guess that is similar to what nyaatrap said.

[Majora]

It's so easy to say "Kill your inner perfectionist" from an outside perspective. It's nearly impossible for me to want to write something that wouldn't be perfect in my mind. I'm open to criticism in every sense. I'm just not sure what story I want to tell and how to tell it. I don't make excuses if I feel someone KNOWS and understand story devices as well as me or better than me. I'm just not familiar with writing pacing. I think I'm a much more visual person but since my artistic ability is practically non existent this is where I would start. It's seriously an indescribable affliction.

[Faze]

It's so easy to say "Kill your inner perfectionist" from an outside perspective.

No, it's not easy at all. What you are dealing with isn't something unique to you; nearly everybody feels like they have to be perfect on their first try. Getting over that feeling is something everybody has to deal with. Is doing that rather difficult? Well, yes. It's a very hard thing to do. But it's something everybody has to get over in order to write. If you want to write, you have to kill it--or at least stuff it in a basement until you are done with your first draft. It's a pre-requisite. It being hard or not doesn't factor into it.

You've said you got no experience, so the first step is fixing that. Get experience by writing. If writing feels hard, well, that's how nearly everything in life feels until you get the hang of it.

Again, in order to write, you need to stop worrying about your first draft being perfect.

I'm just not sure what story I want to tell and how to tell it.

I think you need to take a step back for a moment. Why do you want to write?

[Majora]

It's so easy to say "Kill your inner perfectionist" from an outside perspective.

No, it's not easy at all. What you are dealing with isn't something unique to you; nearly everybody feels like they have to be perfect on their first try. Getting over that feeling is something everybody has to deal with. Is doing that rather difficult? Well, yes. It's a very hard thing to do. But it's something everybody has to get over in order to write. If you want to write, you have to kill it--or at least stuff it in a basement until you are done with your first draft. It's a pre-requisite. It being hard or not doesn't factor into it.

You've said you got no experience, so the first step is fixing that. Get experience by writing. If writing feels hard, well, that's how nearly everything in life feels until you get the hang of it.

Again, in order to write, you need to stop worrying about your first draft being perfect.

I'm just not sure what story I want to tell and how to tell it.

I think you need to take a step back for a moment. Why do you want to write?

Hah, yeah! you're right about perfectionist traits not being exclusive to me! I've written assignments but in a long drawn out format I have zero experience.

I want to write to impress myself and prove that I can create a nice story and to make my friends and maybe even strangers have a good time.

[PrivateEyes]

What I recommend is doing bit by bit, and attempting to get the bare skeletons of the story laid out. Then start fleshing it out and thinking of the unique details to make the story like what you envisioned.

I know the feeling of wanting to quit, especially when there really is nothing in it for you. Just have fun and never get yourself into the mindset of "I HAVE TO FINISH IT BY :so and so date:" It will result in unnecessary stress.

[dramspringfeald]

Well Try what M.I.T does when it's students get stuck on a project.

Grab yourself an Audio recorder (Mot laptops come with a mic)
Gram yourself a Friend or Teddy Bear
Start the Recorder
Just ramble off to your friend the Teddy Bear.
After a few minuets when you get past the awkwardness of talking to Teddy you should be rattling off new and expanding ideas.

No really I think that's either the Programming or Robotics but yeah they do it.

[TrickWithAKnife]

Well Try what M.I.T does when it's students get stuck on a project.

Grab yourself an Audio recorder (Mot laptops come with a mic)
Gram yourself a Friend or Teddy Bear
Start the Recorder
Just ramble off to your friend the Teddy Bear.
After a few minuets when you get past the awkwardness of talking to Teddy you should be rattling off new and expanding ideas.

No really I think that's either the Programming or Robotics but yeah they do it.

That's an interesting idea, but you could just as easily do it with another person, while still recording.

[dramspringfeald]

That's an interesting idea, but you could just as easily do it with another person, while still recording.

You would think. Yet the whole "I'm talking to a friggin' teddy" does some really strange to the psyche and tends to help people work the idea out for themselves. Also Talking to others tends to cause people to respond with "well you know I'd..." which is NOT good for weeding through your own Ideas. Sure if you get REALLY stuck you've got forums, Skype or any number chat programs but figuring it out yourself without the distractions people tends to work more effectively.

Which means it helps you build your games to the same mind frame.

I tend to use a Dragon Statue.

[Majora]

The mind is an insanely confusing thing. It's just hard to identify what I'm looking for in terms of story creation. Maybe I'll try some of these techniques! I'm still just trying to gather my thoughts into a coherent story. I think I'm one of those execution and style people more over content and context itself and I'm just reading that it completely just doesn't work in text medium and I understand why. Anyone wanna review some short text I've written a few years ago as a courtesy? I think the general theme is interesting and I'm open to all sorts of criticism. It's actually insane how you can see me learning from mistakes really quickly, or at least I can see it in myself.

If you want to read: (WALL OF TEXT) Prologue

When I was younger, I met a man. Unlike any other, he claimed he could show me the way. The man was dressed in a mystic's garb. He reached into a sack onto his back. The undeniable material, cross hatched fabrics that made up each fiber and being of this worn, tired sack that craved and begged for a retirement.

Whenever you see a sack, you don't say to yourself "That's a fucking sack!" but you make a mental note that it's of importance and chances are if you're someone like me and you see someone reach into a sack there's a moment in time when you consider every variable and possibility that this could be the end of your life. The mood was electric, and I could feel the tension this caused to me, the shaking in my mentality, I was no longer consistent. I felt a fear in my heart, that throbbing feeling in my throat. My eyes began to water, and my vision narrowed into his dark, crimson eyes and I felt him peer into my tainted soul. It was only then when I realized I knew this man. I recognized his aura, but he had no name that I knew of.

He pulled a short cigar from his sack and pressed his lips tightly against the brown leaf, as if it had a will to escape.
Eye contact remained.
He said to me,

"Pelkäätkö minua?"
("Do you fear me?")

No hesitation, no pause or stumbling in his deep voice.
He was so sure in what he had said to me. It was as if he planned that moment for the longest of time. It was unfair that I couldn't respond with such accuracy and precision, for that I felt a genuine sort of spite towards myself. Why was I so afraid of this man?

I made it through my entire life without fear. I ran through every trial and tribulation without looking back. The only thing that made me afraid was to stop and look.

A moment passed as I felt a single small pinch on my nerves. I didn't realize what this was, I felt this sensation again.

It started to rain.

My head rose to smell the lovely scent of moisture. I was finally relieved to feel this sensation, the constant flow, and satisfaction of feeling alive. A thousand sharp needles pierced my skin.

I quickly realized where I was and that I lost myself in the moment of pleasure. The rain betrayed my senses; she lied to me, she gave me the physical bliss and happiness I desired, but caused my mental pain and discontent when she created the atmosphere of a true dystopia.

I understood him.

I don't know how I understood him, but I knew his voice only too well and I responded with cold fear pouring through my veins.

"W-who?" I tried to sound fearless.

He could taste the fear I just vomit. He enjoyed the taste of my despair, fresh on his tongue, hot with passion, yet tangy and bitter sweet. I could see his enjoyment, through the mirror in his eyes.

“Kumpi voittaa taiston ketun ja jäniksen kesken?”
("Who will win between the fox and the rabbit?")

He asked me, tauntingly and mockingly, almost condescendingly but not quite at that threshold quite yet. He didn't think I understood what he was asking, but I was well aware of the situation, granted I was motivated by fear. There was a slight pause that transpired at this time, but the silence could only be acknowledged by the two willing participants of the conversation, to an outsider this may have been a few seconds, but to us it was a pause that created a firm contemplative thought or a contemplative thought of pure cowardice.

"The fox runs for the nourishment of his stomach, but a simple meal. The rabbit runs for the sanctity and preservation of his own ass. You're not going to catch me." I replied back with that accuracy I yearned, I felt I finally hit my target.

“Noh, noh, älähän kiirehdi. Nurkaan ahdistettu kettu on vaarallisempi kuin shakaali.”
"Now, now, let us not be hasty. A cornered fox is more dangerous than a jackal." The grin he wore on his face was disgusting. I thought I could end his stupid ego.

END of what I wrote

Yeah, really incoherent and pretentious but I've never really got critiqued by anyone other than friends, so I want strangers to destroy me.

Notice how I spent way too long on the sack? Hahaha! Well, thanks

[dramspringfeald]

You are now a few years older. You need to step back and maybe have it read back to you.

Maybe you should start by Fleshing out that scene. Try asking yourself

Why that man is talking to you?

Is his thing about the Rabbit and the Fox a warning or a threat?

Is it both?

Why is he speaking in Finnish?

Why does your character also know Finnish?

Is the sack Magic or is it coming from the old man?

Who is the character the man is talking to?

What does he do?

What is his past?

Why is he so hostile to the old man right out of the gate?

Why is it raining? (Finland's like the European Oregon. Full of drunks, rain and enough firepower to start and END a world war)

What time of day is it?

Dose the cigar have a smell to it? Is it a good smell or a bad smell?

Does your character Like the smell?

What does this symbolize in the story?

How will this push my story along?


Simply answering these question (and many more like them) will help establish these 2 characters, the world they are in and the worlds they are from. which SHOULD open more questions and answers that will flesh out your world and your story. Hell WE don't even need to know the answers to these questions but YOU will.

Character creation Resource
Free Text to Speech program << Every writer must use something like this. What sounds good in our own heads and read well on paper may sound REALLY off when read out loud by someone else.