Writers struggle to translate imagined scenes into writing

“I'm envious of screenwriting technique that favors the visual, especially as a procession of images, without resorting to literal camera direction. I don't have these chops myself. I tend to write everything that's going on in the scene and you, the reader, can put the camera wherever you want in your mind's eye. The following passage is from NEAR DARK by Eric Red and Kathryn Bigelow. It's got mood, tension, character detail, and just enough modifiers and similes to enrich th”

“Does anyone else hate writing them? Like, I dread getting to those parts in my stories, and it leads to procrastination and overthinking a lot. submitted by /u/Cool_Reflection5859 [link] [comments]”

“Just a fun question. I've been binging movies more often and comparing some of the story telling tactics I use in my own writing. If you could, what's a movie that you think YOU could personally adapt into a novel if put up to the task? For me, I think it would be fun to adapt The witch or hereditary. submitted by /u/Capable_Hyena7705 [link] [comments]”

“There are times when I can picture an entire novel in my mind from character development to plot twists, as if I already finished writing something great. Then I try writing and suddenly I no longer have a clue how to even begin the first sentence😩 I wonder, do you guys find yourselves struggling more in creating ideas or writing them down by starting your story off ? submitted by /u/Arch_Studios_Hq [link] [comments]”

“Looking for a few playwrights, not Shakespeare, whose dialogue I can studying to solve this problem. Thanks. submitted by /u/Erramonael [link] [comments]”

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“My dream is to write atmospheric stories and scenes. But this specific problem is causing me much stress. When I brainstorm, it is much more easier when there's something visually in my imagination, a scene, a place. But this leads to a problem - whenever I tried to think for story plots, the moment I get a slightly-better-than-average idea for a plot/location, my brain locks that scene in my mind. It is difficult to brainstorm for another scene as I already got an average scene in my mind,”

“I’m currently just getting into a first screenplay but it has slowly turned into me writing the story as a full on book. I’m no longer just writing dialogue with some indications on scenes and vibes for how it should look but I’m actively telling more of the inner dialogue and feelings that my characters are having. I find this to be a lot of fun and can see myself turning it into a more actualized screenplay after finishing it in a book format. Is it more or less difficult going about it in thi”

“Because I have been trying but I have so many ideas that I intend on using but it won’t come together AT ALL. submitted by /u/National-Tax5854 [link] [comments]”

“Hi. So I have been writing for a while. The other time I have spent in planning (as I am a plotter), but my brain just won’t click things, won’t work in my favor in terms of connecting things, etc. I wondered when is the point where I realize that writing is not for me truly? I do enjoy it, but I get overwhelmed quickly. If anyone has gone though the same, what did you do? submitted by /u/AwayDiver3886 [link] [comments]”

“Hey everyone, After years of doomscrolling and brainrot, I am trying to better my writing ability. One thing I struggle with weirdly is the tense. For example when writing fiction in past tense I would switch up to present tense - since that is how we write in social media. And overall just very awkward phrasing. I literally had to google independent clauses and how to use semicolons haha. Any tips on how to get better? submitted by /u/Inevitable_Concept [link] [comments]”

“I honestly.. have no clue what im doing.. lol I've read tons of books and have a badass book in my head but no earthly idea how the hell to write it.. like I didnt even know about prose or 1st 3rd or all the other prospectives or how to write dialog or anything! I know theres probably other posts on this exact question but any advice on how to learn how to construct a story would be awesome. Like the story is there... I just need to get it out... Any advice is very welcome! submitted b”

“So, I'm working on a few different ideas. Some work for live action, one is definitely animated. I feel like...I need at least sketches. At least something . Something that shows the tone, the vibe, the essence. I'm good at prose. I'm good at dialogue. Or at least I know that I can make people intrigued on the words. But...something about it always feels like "this is wrong. I need the timing. I need to be able to show where and when people are. I need to have the broad sketch o”

“how do i do em? i cant come up with a single good way to put -transition from guy explaining memory to readers in memory (like a normal scene)- into words. so uh. yeah. HELP submitted by /u/guy_against_ai [link] [comments]”

“Im writing a book called collision, it is a slow burn romance novel. That follows the story of Vivian and Eric. Its a first person book that switches between the two points of view. When Vivian, the girl everyone believes has the perfect life, is assigned to work alongside Eric-a boy whose life is anything but perfect-she's convinced the project is destined to fail. As they have to plan and host the school's biggest charity event of the year. At first, their clashing personalities, diffe”

“spent years making everything clear and fair and process-driven. now I'm trying to write scenes that feel messy and human, but I keep defaulting to making the characters reasonable. they explain themselves too much. they pause to consider impact. they want closure before the scene ends. i tried freewriting without any structure at all but it just turned into rambling notes about feelings. the middle ground feels impossible. like the part of my brain that used to run performance reviews now w”

“I was reading a script of mine, and I noticed how some dialogues are trash (thankfully it’s the comic draft) and my set ups and pay offs are okey at best. So, I wanted to get inspired and learn about actual good examples of the things I’m asking about. Thanks! submitted by /u/MarcPerez-PM-AM [link] [comments]”

“I'm currently receiving feedback on a scene where a character reflects on his life, and these reflections are prompted by real plots of episodes from Adventure Time. My people tell me this could create copyright issues for the novel upon publishing, but I want to be certain. Does anybody have any insight or know of real cases similar to mine that turned out one way or the other? submitted by /u/rugrmon [link] [comments]”

“Hey y’all! I’m currently working on a novel, a literary fiction to the tune of 80k words, and I had a question. This is probably me putting the cart before the horse, as it’s not finished yet, but I like to title my works to make them feel a little more official as I write them/propels me towards maintaining theme/consistency. My current working title is something that’s mentioned once in the book, at the beginning (first chapter) and I’m wondering if that’s something ill-advised? On a thematic”

“I was working on my novel yesterday and everything was going smoothly until I reached a scene that might be tricky to write. Maybe I'm just overthinking it, but I'd like some input. Little bit of background, I'm a new writer, stumbled into writing a novel in late August. I'm now close to 15k words in and I realise I still have a lot to learn. The scene: Max, the MC is going to join the college's E-Sports team. He promised his friend Alice he's stop by at practice to check”

“I feel like I always add tension by making bad things happen to characters. How do you write happiness in a compelling way? submitted by /u/MeiaKirumi [link] [comments]”

“I want to write a novel but I face difficulty in writing. The main problem i face is how to tell everyone what I want in words, I can make a good story like world building, characters, story but the problem I face is in writing it, I have tried many times to get my stories written by Àî but I did not find that thing in them, after reading them it feels like something is missing as if there is no soul in a body. I cannot write my story even if I want to, I am a student and my English is not that”

“i’m having a hard time incorporating this mini flashback into a scene i’m writing. is it not detailed enough, or is there another issue that i’m not seeing? please forgive my repost, i noticed a few glaring mistakes and i couldn’t leave it up :) submitted by /u/almatomaterpc [link] [comments]”

“I'm relatively new to screenwriting and would like to get some thoughts on this. In the script I'm working on, I have a quick visual gag. I wrote it out and it came off sounding really convoluted and would probably confuse anyone reading. I have a quick sticky-note doodle of the gag that clearly and immediately demonstrates what it is. It seems to me that the most logical thing to do is include the sketch, as that concisely explains what I'm envisioning. I was curious about how peopl”

“I’ve been thinking about writing a sci-fi/fantasy novel series for awhile now but something that always stumps me is how you craft good, quality action sequences that displays the characters magical powers and clashing without it being just a bland back and forth of attacks submitted by /u/Ronin0843 [link] [comments]”

“Where do you guys stand on dialogue heavy books? I'm writing my first book. I'm only partway through Chapter 4, but I don't know if it's starting to look more like a movie screenplay than a novel. I know I have to finish it and then do countless edits. At this stage, is it usually better to just keep going as I am, or should I try to understand the changes I need to make this early? On one hand, I feel like dialogue is my strength. A friend called it "dialogue forward"”

“I never did dictation, and the idea does seem a bit scary and tedious. Don't know why, but I suppose it's because I'm talking out the story in a way. I have to come up with the words on the fly and figure out what to say. That is a bit troublesome, just not impossible. I was just wondering how I would tackle this. Due to my severe carpal tunnel syndrome and terrible insomnia, I need to take it easy and try a new method of writing. This is why I want to do dictation or speech to text”

“I don’t if it’s a common issue for you, but it is for me. Recently, I’ve been writing a fight scene, but when I reread it, I realised I forgot half of the injuries the protagonist received. There was a moment when she was trapped under a pile of rubble, but a few paragraphs later, she jumps back up, as if that never happened at all. I guess I’m so focused on getting to some plot points that I completely forgot about details like that. Regarding the injury issue, I resorted to marking them on a d”

“I'm curious- do you prefer books that set the scene in opening sensory descriptions? Or do you hate that? Do you prefer or dislike opening lines that start with dialogue? Ive seen mixed opinions on both. Ive seen successful books starting with either types of openings, and people who say either are their "pet peeve". I ask because I just got told my opening was awful because it starts with the inciting incident that motivates my plot- that happens to be an electrical blackout that”

“Does anyone else feel like there is such an influx of very boring, all tell writing these days? Even in very prominent and highly recommended books, I'm finding myself so bored and detached from the story because the writing is just.... bland. For instance, I recently tried to read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow after it was recommended to me a few times, and wow I dropped it so quickly. It felt like yet another story that theoretically I should have liked-- drama, grief, friendship, c”

“I'm a new to this writing thing but I have a problem. I can't draw and I can't describe fight scenes. Oh and also I write not with a laptop but with a pen and a an old notebook(my hand writing is horrid) submitted by /u/Axe_Cat10 [link] [comments]”

“I'm curious because everyone seems to have that one part of writing they could do forever and another part they have to force themselves through. Some people love dialogue but hate description. Others can world build for hours but procrastinate actually writing the chapter. Editing, outlining, beginnings, endings, action scenes…etc What’s the part you genuinely look forward to, and what’s the part that makes you suddenly decide it’s a great time to clean your entire apartment? lol subm”

“HI, wanted to see if there are any other new fiction writers hanging out here. I am on chapter 14 of my book, and while I dont want to be a word counter, I feel like I have 70,000 words as the lenght an adutl fiction book should be. I also know I dont want to add or make it longer if it doesnt get there. its been a slower process then I thought, due to running my main business, paralyzed doggie ( we rescued her 6 years ago and almost 2 years ago- her back legs went bad they say due to a mass on”

“Many times i feel i can't write a description. Specially if is an action. I feel like i have to write many details of it, but i always feel it ends up more like a movie/show script rather than a book description, and blant. What are good writting excercises or books i can try to familiarize with natural descriptions that have some grade of mistery, like a character that sees someone making a suspicious quick manuver but didn't pay atention, and later is revealed it was plot relevant? &#3”

“How do you write a scene that you can clearly see in your head? Sometimes I can clearly imagine a scene in my head — the characters, their movements, the location, and even how the scene should feel. But when I try to write it down, I struggle to make the reader see the same thing that I’m seeing in my head. So I wanted to ask other writers: How do you turn the scene in your head into writing? How do you describe the scene, characters, actions, and emotions so that the reader can visualize it wi”

“I’ve always written with the assumption that changing POV inside a chapter is verboten. Perhaps you can make an exception between clearly demarcated scenes but you shouldn’t just change POVs between paragraphs. The thing is, I’ve seen very good, well-respected authors change POVs between paragraphs. For instance, I’m reading Lonesome Dove right now and McMurtry does it no fewer than three times in the first chapter. Is this a rule that exists because it’s nearly impossible to pull it off unless”

“Lately I've been going for the 'Bob Ross' approach. He uses minimal strokes to convey a bigger picture. So, I've been practicing trying to 'paint' a more vivid scene with as less strokes as possible. submitted by /u/TensionBudget9426 [link] [comments]”

“This is my dialogue. “This feels so weird…” She snorts the purple muck lightly spraying from where she is laying in the mud. *Really rough dialogue I'm working on improving it after my first draft is done. I wanna change the "This feels so weird..." into more of a you can sorta understand what she's saying but not really because the mud on this planet is really thick. If you have any suggestions let me know? submitted by /u/Necessary-Sector-248 [link] [comment”

“https://preview.redd.it/b5xo0rsditrh1.png?width=2732&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f7bad836c9cc6023745fb6b48b7b2faf8a4f2c9 My favorite part of writing is brainstorming, and I like visualizing who is in the story to imagine a consistent character with more depth than I can normally see in my mind. Even though I can't draw, it's like my favorite part of the writing process because it immerses myself in the story world. Does anyone else feel obligated to draw what their writing is abo”

“30f, currently in the very early rough draft stages of an adult contemporary romance novel. I feel incredibly passionate about these concepts and characters I've created in my mind for book development ideas. I love the idea of self publishing some day, as many do I'm sure. It also feels like an incredibly whimsy far off dream. I don't personally believe that I'm a strong story teller, but perhaps that is something I could improve on? I wear many hats in my personal life, and con”

“Hey everyone! I’m new to this community and honestly pretty new to sharing my writing with other people too. I’ve always had a lot of ideas floating around in my head ... random scenes, characters, little pieces of stories ... and I’m trying to actually start putting some of them into words instead of just keeping them in my head... I joined this community because I’d love to read what other people are writing, learn from everyone here, and hopefully share some of my own work eventually. So… hel”

“My book is Mythic Literature so I already expect the genre to be longer than other genres. And I realize that there’s no set “rule”. But is there a zone? submitted by /u/ChristopherDKanas [link] [comments]”

“Hi, I have written a couple of novels in my free time, but I'm trying to work on shorter stories. Every idea I come up with I overthink until it's too complicated and involved to be a short story. How do you keep your brainstorming for just short stories? Any help would be greatly appreciated. If it helps, I mostly write fantasy. submitted by /u/OkAppearance9593 [link] [comments]”

“So I've been brainstorming a new idea for a story and I'm really intrigued by it thanks to some vivid scenes. I've only thought about this for a few days, so bear with me. (I'm just writing out what I have so far for my own benefit, you can probably skim or skip to the tldr if you don't care to provide feedback specifically on what I have so far and just want to recommend other books.) - Set in a low-fantasy world, the story is about two brothers who are basically demon hunte”

“Hey all! I'm working on back cover copy for a new book in a genre that I'm breaking into (used to write dark urban fantasy). I haven't written a copy description in a bit, but this feels lacking/weak to me, but that might just be me. Would love to hear your thoughts on the back copy and cover design! The Austrian Eagle was a challenge 😆 Thank you 😊 Update: The Austrian Seal (official government logo at the time the story changed from our history to alt-history) has a glitch effect”

submitted by /u/Ticket-Tight [link] [comments]

“mine was "write what you know." i was writing an epic fantasy and somehow convinced myself this meant no magic, no politics, none of the cool worldbuilding stuff, because i'd never actually lived through a siege or wielded a sword. so for like 3 months i wrote this very "grounded" story that was basically just... farming. with swords in the background that nobody used. queried three friends with it before anyone told me it was boring lol one of them said "where's”

“Im honestly struggling because i know i can write so much better, i do when writing analytical work, but when I'm writing creatively i just cannot find correct words, and it all seems so simple and boring. Any help would be great! I do read a lot too. Heres an excerpt from a draft - Fragment 1.3 The sky is blue, clean, and lacks the sight of clouds. The noon sun shines onto the wide field consisting of blades of grass lined with condensation, reflecting the golden beams. The sounds of men ma”

“Newbie question: Why is it considered bad when someone tells you " your screenplay reads like a novel "? I understand this is common criticism, but -- honestly -- I've never understood why. Can someone explain? I would have assumed " reads like a novel " to be a compliment. submitted by /u/redapplesonly [link] [comments]”

“Hey there! Im writing a book and I’ve just started my first draft. And i wanted opinions from other readers. I will most likely post this in a writers sub Reddit too but id love to have your guys opinions! I originally started the prologue in third person but I’ve seen multiple people say that they prefer first person books as it feels more immersive, so what are your thoughts on this? Thank you in advance! submitted by /u/Socialanxietyyay12 [link] [comments]”

“Hello! I'm an aspiring author, and I'd like some advice on how to space out diolague. I usually just space it out like this: "Hey!" She says, waving her hand towards the window as she waits for a response. But that gets repetitive and looks tacky sometimes, you know? I want something new, and hopefully, some good advice from others will do the trick! Thank you for your help! submitted by /u/Ok-Intern-2704 [link] [comments]”

“I don't know if that's a technique I don't know about or the author realized at the last minute they need to mention this thing so they need to mention this thing and hope the reader doesn't notice. So for those who did this before, care to explain what happened? submitted by /u/BAJ-JohnBen [link] [comments]”

“Were they divine inspiration or did you struggle? Right now I'm stuck at a scene and thinking how I can improve it and nothing comes to mind. submitted by /u/Complete-Cod-1997 [link] [comments]”

“Been working on this book for a while.. I for some reason decided to make unicorns almost scary, here's a snippet of that spot, I just wanna know what y'all think. My brow furrowed, but I noticed Jareck was getting a bit ahead of me. I began following him again and we entered the stables. It wasn't horses.. They were horse-like creatures with a single horn. "Humans call them unicorns, but in elven they are called niamoi.” Wow.. was the only thing I could think, the niamoi were h”

“Hey, so I'm writing my first ever book and I have been having a hard time writing the dialogues between characters. and anytime I try to do so it feels very forced. So I was wondering if any of you had tips for how to write okay dialogues for a newbie like myself ? submitted by /u/DarthCoruscant2002 [link] [comments]”

“I've been struggling trying to figure out a format for outlining a chapter of a book or section. And im curious how you guys handle it! submitted by /u/Autumnstoat [link] [comments]”

“That sounds interesting! Organizing thoughts can really make a difference when writing a novel.”

“I bought chess on Amazon and it's coming tomorrow. I did it to get into the head of one of my characters. I know enough about chess to think of the metaphor, which is ongoing, but not enough to understand it completely. I want to get to know him better so I can write better. I just wanted to know what you guys have done that helps with your characters and writing that's similar. submitted by /u/_GenderNotFound [link] [comments]”

“Hey all, this may be sort of a broad question—or, uh, worst case scenario, a rant—but I’m curious as to what you have to say. I sort of took a break from writing for the summer and haven’t gotten to writing my next feature (just due to being busy with life stuff and work), so I’ve kind of been percolating on how my scripts are sometimes seen as aimless or unsatisfying, which are the emotions they’re meant to instill. (Edit: No, I’m not talking about writing stuff “where nothing happens.” I’m tal”