Hit a wall as a writer.

[Hark Ye Weary]

Hello, I am requesting to be spoken to by a mentor. I am a fairly experienced player and feel that my writing has finally hit a wall, so to speak. I am looking for a mentor that can give me methods to increase vocabulary, variety in writing style ( diversifying phrasing and all of that sort. ) I also tend to struggle in getting proper immersion in my story ideas. I understand that there may not be very much to help me with but I believe it should be the goal of any writer to constantly improve. Looking forward to any feedback or comments about this whole mess.I am not asking for someone to simply come in and tell me to stop being lazy, but rather an alternative outlook on my situation, further details can be provided about the issues I am having. I tend to hit a wall with most story ideas, or I struggle to define plot events to actually lead up to the key moments within the story. I would like to talk to experienced writers that are comfortable with their grasp on progressing stories by whatever means or conveying the thoughts, emotions and actions of characters. :) ; Have a good day, night or afternoon depending upon your time zone and sleeping habits. ~ HYW

[Jag]

Here's a perspective from which you may have never approached the subject before...

What are you reading right now? Anything? I've often found that I stall when I get very much into my own writing and immerse myself in nothing but the projects on which I'm working. I'm used to my style, I know that it works for me, and that's really all that I focus on for a long period of time. That's when I find myself in a rut because I'm just breathing my own exhaust and I know that I'm not going to learn/try/experience anything new.

[Hark Ye Weary]

You know, I had thought about that, currently I'm reading R.A Salvatore's dark elf trilogy for about the sixth time. I'm not a huge fan of his actual writing, but rather his story development and character basis. I've been searching about in hopes of discovering another writer or two that interests me, but I tend to be unaware of substantial literature. Any particular works you could recommend ? I'm sure the local library would have most of anything. I think some of it has to do with simply bogging myself down with nothing but exposure to my own work, but then again I tend to analyze my work constantly when I'm like that. I've noticed my diction has suffered after a brief 'vacation' from play, which really irks me in all the wrong ways. I usually don't have much of an issue with expanding my methods, but I've just been absolutely overwhelmed with the thought. I have the tools, I just don't seem to be applying them as of late.

I think one of the biggest issues that I'm seeing now-a-days is that I don't exactly have my own style, at least that's how I feel. There's no flare, no nook, no really development in my writing that I can see and think to myself ' That's what defines me'. I think my youth ( as a writer) is an issue, I'm going through 'puberty' and starting to understand what it is I actually want in a story, but I'm struggling to actually find what it is exactly that interests me. I don't know if other writers have gone through anything similar, but there are a lot of times I'm just staring at something I wrote and asking myself why I'm even trying. Maybe I'm just being overly-analytical of my work, but I feel as if I'm severely lacking when compared to more talented writers.

[Hark Ye Weary]

Oh, and as a side note, you can read a bit of my work here. roleplay/death-of-the-dream/#posting ; The first post is probably the best example of my sudden drop in diction. I read through it and almost vomited, I used to be so fluent. I feel almost ashamed to present what I'm writing these days--a lot of my ideas, plot lines and various other work are suffering from my inability to express what I'm thinking..It's just demoralizing to see myself slip, I guess.

[xxRedefiningPanic]

I'm not sure I'm always the right cup of tea for someone, but I would love to help any way I can.
Personally, I find it easier to learn from someone when roleplaying. It's where I feel the best situated, to examine a writing style and what can be improved on, or used to examine a skill. Particularly, it helps when you can point out in a developing story what consistencies are in your writing, and whether or not they can be improved on.

Aside from my philosophy of teaching, something that I can suggest is to try using prompts. Personally, if I am forced to think about writing something in a different way, I come up with something I probably wouldn't have, had I written about the same thing without parameters. One specific thing to increase vocabulary, besides reading more, is to study stems of words, and google vocab lists as ways to suss out new words. (Also, I find that using thesaurus.com whenever I feel like I'm becoming so redundant it's almost painfully obvious, I find new words to use, besides just the ones associated with the word I was looking up.)

Sentence variety and phrase/fragment variety is somewhat of a challenge to most people, simply because it is heavily rooted in grammar. Though I'm not the most spectacularly diverse, I try to use my knowledge of the English language to my advantage. I sometimes like to think that the best sentences are often written as they would be spoken; though how things sound and are written for spoken word is much different and should never be interchangeable, it does lend a nuance to the writing. A specific tone and voice, if you will.

Uhm, I guess that's all I can say. If you'd like to spend some time doing a mock roleplay to test yourself, I would be more than glad to oblige. :) Hope you get out of your rut! <3