I'm Now One of Those "Thinking About" People

"I'm thinking about writing a novel. I already have all the characters mapped out and everything."

I really need to stop browsing Reddit posts. I'm not its desired demographic anyway, but out of boredom I read through the self-publishing subreddit every day. Once in a while someone posts an interesting question, but the vast majority of posts involve the best publishing platform or someone's KDP account being closed; or most frequently, someone "thinking about" writing.

Here's what I know: A would-be author's picture of how their novel will turn out is far, far better than the actual product will be. Take my now abandoned novel (at least abandoned for now). I imagine if I ever finish it, it'll be great! I can picture it now! Sure, I have no idea where the story might lead, but that's a minor concern. All I know is, everyone will love it and it'll be adapted into a movie. 

The weird and disappointing thing is, when I actually sit down to write, the story doesn't turn out the way I imagined it. I don't know why that is. I have to write a lot of words? And they need to have cohesiveness and intrigue? That's kind of hard, man. Can't readers just see what's inside my head?

Even for someone like me who's already written three-fourths of their novel, writing is unduly difficult. If I was still in the "thinking about" phase, I'd really be screwed. That's why most of those "thinkers" never get around to actually writing. Or they'll write a paragraph or two and give up. When I was writing my first novel, I found writing much easier. It's gotten progressively difficult since then. The reason that first one wasn't as taxing is because I knew nothing about writing. I had a germ of an idea and I took off from there. Pacing? Inciting incidents? Sorry, what are those things? 

For those people who "imagine" a story, putting those thoughts to paper would look like, "First, he did this. Then he did something else. Then someone said something to him. Then he got angry at what the person said. Then the two of them got into a big fight." What do you mean I need to expand on that? That's how the story goes! Wow, I imagined writing an epic, and it's only come out to one page!

Coming up with a plot is the easy part ~ not for me, but for most would-be writers. The slog is the hard part. That's why most people only think about writing. Frustrating for me is the fact that I've slogged so far through my manuscript and I still have no idea how to complete it, even if I did have the time to do so. So my imaginary story remains a mystery. All I know is, it's really good.