A Step To The Side Of The Road

I think my writing has reached an impasse. I am having difficulty with several aspects of the writing process. Planning is easy enough, I can write an entire outline in my head in seconds. Characters? I can create a dozen, and name all of the attributes, in the amount of time it would take me to write and complete this blog post. Worlds? I can envision a million of them.

The problem is in the mechanics. In my head, my stories flow smoothly, I can see everything as it happens, how it starts, all of the little insights into each character, the resolutions to each story thread, but when I try to convert it to type, it gets caught somewhere in-between my brain and my fingers. I can't seem to properly flesh out how I want to describe it.

For example, when Applejack's chewing on a stalk of hay, adjusting her hat while telling Rainbow to get the hay out of her apple tree, how do I accurately portray it without interrupting the flow of the dialogue? Seems simple enough, but I struggle with issues such as that, and as a result, I think it comes out stilted, unnatural. I think I do dialogue fairly well, but showing instead of telling is quite the obstacle for me.

I read stories by authors I greatly admire: Admiral Biscuit, Tchernobog, Tystarr, Pen Stroke, Goldfur, Eakin, Little Big Pony, bookplayer, and so many more. I observe how they write, but when I try to apply it to my own stories, it breaks down. I think this is because each writer has their own style, and attempting to graft it onto your own work ultimately fails in the end. It's this love/hate thing, where I love what I do, but I am also deeply unsatisfied with my work.

The story I published the other day, "Bringing The News To Applejack" was fun, and I banged that one out in an hour, because I just wanted to do something a little fun and silly, something to share with everyone. I'm in the midst of my longer story, "A Tempest Tossed," and was hitting a bit of a wall, so I figured poking at a few boulders might get things rolling again, or even just keep the creative juices flowing. The more you exercise a muscle, the lighter the burden becomes as you gain the ability to shoulder heavier loads. Well, I poked, and out came a story.

I liked it, but still feel unsatisfied. To put it another way, in my head is Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, but it's coming out as "hot cross buns."

Maybe I'm missing something? Some outside perspective would be appreciated, if anyone feels like commenting.