I'm curious as to what people may struggle with when it comes to writing. This could be a whole set of things:
The list is endless.
I'm also willing to give advice if anyone wants it.
I usually have trouble getting stuff OUT on to paper in a reasonable amount of time, while making it still sound like my own voice. If I want to write faster I aways end up sounding generic.
I have problems writing fights and dialogue. It's one of those things that I can write for a movie or video game, but sounds stupid in a book
I usually have trouble writing in general
Honestly I have the hardest time with getting my story started and getting a plot structure. Also character development. Which I know is really important but its also just really hard
Describing stuff. A lot of my stuff so far tends to be like 90% dialogue because I'm really bad at describing things in a way that feels natural and flows with the story if that makes sense.
@Masterkey - i think that's sort of inevitable; if you want to write fast, then you don't write good. if you want to write good, you don't write fast. things like nanowrimo are designed to mute your voice to make room for sheer word count. remember you can always go back with a fine toothed comb and edit things; something i usually suggest to just about everyone is to make a point form plan for anything you want to write, since it helps with chronology and helps you keep track with where you're at
@Lord_Dunconius - i feel that 100%. for dialogue, i usually say what a character is saying out loud so i can tell if it sounds authentic. and actions scenes like fights are always tricky, i try to avoid them for that reason; only thing i could think of suggesting would to try to describe it from an overall perspective rather than deeply? you generally want smaller word counts for things that are faster-paced, with more short sentences and short(er) words over longer sentences/words/word counts. action is sharp and fast-paced, and your word flow should reflect that
@ReiniDays - you can do it! writing is always a challenge, but it's the same as most other forms of creativity; practice makes… not exactly perfect, but you'll get there as you go. reading helps a lot, too; sometimes i find a way that someone describes something to be super perfect and i'll end up using that at some point in the future. making plans might help get you started.
@wwmoxie - ive suggested this to a couple others, but the best thing i think you can do is make an in-depth plan to set up your plot. it gives you both a direction and a destination, and helps you tie in actions/events in a chronological sequences that is logical when you glance over it so you don't lose yourself. as for character development, try focusing on introspective/descriptive writing, rather than narrative. limit dialogue and action, and focus entirely on instrospection and thought process. but limit your use of '(insert words here)', (name) thought. describing a thought process in a roundabout way is a really hard to learn skill but once you get it you'll find it's a breeze to slap in your writing at almost any time (i personally find introspective writing easier to create because it flows so much more nicely).
@Starfast - i generally make a rule for myself, when i find myself in a scenario heavily inundated with dialogue: 50 words of dialogue for every 250-300 words of description. it'll help you pace yourself out a bit more and forces you to focus on leading the narrative with description and action, rather than just words. it'll slow down your entire scene and will generally help with your flow. i also never leave dialogue alone without at least one sentence of description in there.
@indecisiveinvalid Yeah, I can't even write well at all if I don't have a plot. But getting lost in the story or having a generic story isn't what I'm having trouble with, but I'm having a hard time writing in a style that is actually interesting. I'm still an amateur so my voice takes awhile to find and stick to, so if I get into the mood of writing and finish like a whole chapter in an hour, when I go back it sounds like I'm just a crappy quality YA writer that just regurgitates cliches (not tropes, but cliches down to word choices). I'm starting to think that whether or not my book is great will not come down to the story itself, but to the quality of my writing. It'll just take practice, but it's annoying that I'll have to move slowly in the beginning. :/
@Masterkey - a voice comes from practice unfortunately, it's just one of those things :(. Also keep in mind that you are your own worst critic and you're rereading something yiure still familiar with so that'll alwyas make something sound generic, too
@indecisiveinvalid Yeah, that's true
I just get an idea for a story, create a few characters (without a whole lot of thought put into them), start writing, and just go with the flow from there.