Finish Something...

As I was going through my screenplays and short stories, I noticed they all had one thing in common: they were unfinished.  I find that it is easy for me to begin a story or screenplay; setting up the scene, introducing the characters and slowly pacing to the plot.  However, once I get to the plot, I stop.

How do writers keep going with their stories?  How do they finish?  I realized that a major reason I cannot finish is because I don’t lay out my story before writing it.  I am so quick to just begin writing that when I get to a certain point, I don’t know where to go.  My ideas for the story cease, I get angry and I move to another one.

I believe that if high school taught me anything about how to write well, it taught me how to organize my thoughts.  I think that my problem when writing fiction is that I don’t organize my thoughts ahead of time, so when I do get to the plot, I am stumped; not sure of where to go.  I wonder how many writers have had this problem, and how many of them have had to overcome it. 

I find that as I get older, the desire to be a writer and get published grows, along with the frustration that I cannot finish one story.  I once was told that to be a successful writer, one must write every day.  Whether one writes for a few minutes or a few hours, writing consistently will help greatly; and who knows, it could lead to something great.  But as I busy myself with school and work, it is difficult to dedicate a good amount of time to writing freely. 

I read David Lynch’s book, Catching the Big Fish, in which he compared ideas like catching fish and sometimes in order to have a big idea, you need to catch a small fish first to let it grow into a bigger idea.  Trying to think of this while figuring out a story to write frustrates me because although I don’t usually disagree with what David Lynch has to say, this idea is so simple yet the process is way more complex.  Ideas are like catching a fish, but I don’t always catch them and when I do, they never really grow into anything that I consider worthwhile.  It is so easy for me to get frustrated with my unfinished work that I easily dismiss it and move on to another.

I guess my main goal is to finish a piece.  Don’t dismiss it early on.  And for the sake of having a clear, focused story: organize!