do you ever have trouble getting motivated

what do you find yourself doing when you get stumped on a story idea? how many times do you usually find yourself rewriting huge sections?
I just got my next chapter up, but i've had more than just a few times now where the ideas I planned to roll with, take on their own life when putting them to paper. does anyone else experience this?

Comments

[Feech]

You seem to have two separate questions here, but the answer to both is "Yes, and it's common for writers to do this."

For getting stumped on a story idea, I make a list of ideas for how to resolve it, and I do not use the first three or so at least. I make myself keep coming up with ideas, at least ten, more often a dozen or fifteen, because (as I read somewhere once) you have to get stranger the longer you come up with ideas. The first, most obvious ones might not be the best, so when you dig deep to keep coming up with ideas, you get to the good / funny / weird / exciting stuff.

As for rewriting huge swathes and chunks, and going in different directions than you had originally thought you would go, this is normal. Even if you outline, which is a good idea, you will make changes, because at some level writing is discovery. This is why you can save yourself a lot of time and trouble if you don't edit until you're sure you're on the path you're going to keep. Only clean up the prose that's actually going into the final story.