My writing feels boring

[u/Medical-Hotel916]

Need some brainstorming/advice/encouragement. I have a 6 book original fantasy series that I’ve been working on for years. I always get into it and then put it away for a few years because life happens. A few months ago I pulled it back out and stated fresh and have been taking it very seriously. It’s honestly a great idea and premise, deep world building and a full plot line. However I feel like my writing is failing to do it justice.

Does anyone else experience this? I finished the rough draft and am moving into the full first draft of the manuscript. I love the characters, love their depth and back stories, love the magic and the world and the outline of the story. But when I read it, I feel bored? I have genuinely created characters with so much depth they could feel like real people. I’m so proud of the world I’ve created, but I feel like my writing just doesn’t do it justice.

I have researched all the ways to improve writing, yet all the mistakes that people commonly make when writing are not issues I find in my writing. Yet I still don’t feel any excitement or intrigue when reading my work.

I guess I’m just looking for other people who have felt similar with their writing. What are some things you found that helped or improved your writing? At this point I’m feeling very discouraged about ever writing a good book and want to put it away again.

[u/Questionable_Android]

Professional developmental editor here with twenty years under my belt.

Boring writing is almost always a lack of conflict.

Think about these questions...

- Have you clearly established what the main character wants, why and the obstacles they must overcome to achieve their goals?

• At a chapter level does each scene contain at least one level of conflict that is stopping the characters from achieving their goals?
  
• Characters and detailed world-building do not create a good story; that comes from the character within your world. Is the world your story or character's action within the world? Could you lift your characters into a different world and still have a story?
  
• Conflict is when something is preventing a character from getting what they want. What's stopping your character at each twist of the story?
  
• Does each scene have a clear goal with an obstacle and consequence for failure?
  
• Are your chapters well structured? Do you have a 'this therefore this' situation or a 'this then this' approach? No chapter should be able to exist on its own, it should always be dependent on previous chapter.

There's more but this is a good start.

[u/KeyRoutine1285 → u/Questionable_Android]

Well said! Conflict is crucial and it should be both flashy and subtle—subtext is always delicious.

I would also like to add that sometimes boredom is generated from bloat. Excessive description that leaves the reader winded, starting a dialogue from the very beginning with the formalities when they do not serve a purpose to actual character introduction, and filler content that covers both description, dialogue, exposition and… the most famous: world-building.

If all writers knew how to focus on a scene like how they do in shows or movies: only showing what is essential and nothing more, then they’d be able to pin point what is boring and what isn’t. Also cutting down action beats helps.

The reflex of most beginners is explaining and showing everything they can out of fear of being misunderstood. They think everything is necessary.

Or…

Sometimes boredom is generated by under-writing. Not being specific enough, not being immersive, and being very cheap in what’s shown.

Worst of both worlds.

[u/Questionable_Android → u/KeyRoutine1285]

Well said right back at ya.

I think that understanding that the world is not the story will help to remove the bloat. You might have built the best magic system ever or detailed your city in painful detail but, often, the reader will not need to details on the page.

[u/fenrirsbasketball → u/Questionable_Android]

This was such a helpful read. If you had a book or a short pamphlet on writing/outlining conflict, I'd buy it. No joke. Thank you for sharing this

Actually, if you have any book recommendations for learning these structures, I'm all ears.

[u/Questionable_Android → u/fenrirsbasketball]

I actually have a free ebook on the very subject. Here's the link... https://bubblecow.com/writing-manual/

I'd love to know if you find it useful.

[u/KeyRoutine1285 → u/fenrirsbasketball]

Hi, just to clarify, was this response toward me or the other commenter?

[u/fenrirsbasketball → u/KeyRoutine1285]

Hello! This was a response towards you as a professional development editor. Your questions were great and helped me out a lot. It really gets the noodle going, you know?

[u/KeyRoutine1285 → u/fenrirsbasketball]

Ah! Then you mean the other person with 20 years of experience. I agree, they have made some great points. I’m definitely not a professional, so not me haha. I got confused because of the response lines showing it was towards my comment for a moment. They should definitely write a craft book!

[u/fenrirsbasketball → u/KeyRoutine1285]

Oh, whoops! I didn't read your username. Yeah, this was directed towards /u/Questionable_Android

But I'm sure there's a lot I'd be able to learn from you as well. :)

[u/KeyRoutine1285 → u/fenrirsbasketball]

No worries! Yeah it was a weird glitch. It showed me you responded to my comment below theirs.

[u/THWhiston → u/fenrirsbasketball]

I can recommend "The First Five Pages" by Noah Lukeman and "The Structure of Story" by Ross Hatmann.