For you, what is the most difficult part of writing?

That is most certainly true. I've always be Ueber-tough on myself when I look over my work. We just have to keep trying, and make sure to use grammar check often (just in case we're right!). :)

Correction: I've always /been/ tough on myself. Argh, I can type properly at 1 A.M., I promise.

That's a good attitude - to keep at despite what the critical voice in your head says! I have experienced this before myself - everyone who reviews it calls it good, but to me it's NOT good. You are so certain that this sentence interrupts the flow and this word choice is horrendous and unclear...on and on it goes. You are your own worst critic. :)

Thank you very much! I hope that by practicing all the time, i will be more at ease writing articles. And more important is that, the readers will like them. Good luck, too!

Thanks! You are on the right path - to not practice all the time is to let the progress you have made become rusty. :)

Ha - I've done that to! I will look at what I have written and then run crying to Thesaurus.com. It's my second home. ;) Good luck with your writing - may you learn to finish in fabulous ways!

I think you mean "technical" writer (documentation, user guides, etc.) - and yes, it pays well if you're good at it. VERY well.

Crud. Well, thank you for catching my error! That's kind of a crucial adjective...

Well, every writing book I read says everything has been done. The key is to add your own twist, to make it fresh or different. I don't think it's possible anymore to come up with something out of the blue that has never been seen or written of before. Your "dry writing" might be of benefit to you. Have you ever considered being a technique writer? From what I have read, technique writers make the most money out of all the types of writers. Or there is the other side of the coin - your writing has probably matured and changed since high school. :)

Sometimes I'm able to treat writing like a "real" job and actually set up a schedule. If I'm up at 5am, for example (like I am now lol), I'll give myself an hour to fiddle around, check emails, shoot some inter-pool, and then I'll start writing at 6. The carrot is the break after two hours, which will usually last for two hours. The stick is the fact that I don't get paid if I don't write. Other times, well, it just comes when I least expect it. I'm sure this is something that has happened to everyone - just when your mind is on other things, your brain screams, "Hey, bozo, it's time to write!" But that seems to happen mostly when I'm offline. As soon as I'm online and see the envelope in my Gmail tab, the fuzzy little demons are back nippin' at my ankles. As far as "mood," I find I feel like writing more if I shut myself off from music and television for a while. Even the most extroverted writer does not know that deep down he or she is really an introverted thinker. So when the brain has time to mull over itself, at least in my case, things have to be released.

What you just described is also my biggest problem. The internet is as expansive a world as Earth and is quite easy to get distracted. Is there any methods you use to get into a writing mood or does it just strike you at a random moment on a random day? :)

You just gave some ideas - like setting up a schedule. The way you "trick" yourself is brilliant. I also like the carrot and stick analogy - I might just be able to use that on myself with some success. Thanks! :D

Ouch! I won't even touch anything as complicated as time travel. But since it is time travel, no harm in starting at the end, picking up in the middle and finishing at the start. Kinda like retracing steps you never took maybe.

Nice try, but people will still spot the paradox, sub-plots that aren't tied up and easy ways out (deus ex machina and all that). And you can't even get away with a "can only travel back in time" because the future self can still do it. Oh, why do I do this to myself...?

@kaypow. That used to happen to me all the time! I remember I would always be getting my history papers returned to me. I always overpasses the word limit. One time I did so by 900 words. If nothing else it impresses the teachers. :)

I have that problem to! I look back at some of my answers here at myLot and realize a paragraph could have been a sentence. I believe you have something there - I once read that the best way to write is in a simple and direct fashion.

I hear you! I like to go for descriptive writing, since I write a lot of fiction and I find it important to offer the reader details about the location of the story, what characters are doing or wearing, and things of that nature, so that the reader can visualize scenes more easily. However, this comes back to bite me in the butt when I am trying to complete a school assignment on which there is a word limit and I am 500 words over the limit before I start in on my second argument.

That's a great skill - drawing new ideas from the sources you listed. :) Do you suffer from writer's block often?

They do say you are your worst critic. :) Seriously though, dialogue is hard. Something that is natural like dialogue can not be forced. The character must develop their speech themselves or it just doesn't work. How have you been coping with your dialogue difficulties? Have you found any techniques that help you through it?

Oh that's another area that can be quite stubborn! It seems to especially become a problem when the writing is a required report you're not to interested in doing. :)

Writing classes can be good for improving your form, but writing is an art. Art does not have a right and a wrong. There is no Ten Commandments of Art to guide us. The art of writing is like feeling around in the dark. You don't have a map or a clear direction of where you are going. You can take a class on getting around in the dark but it will still be dark and you will still have to find your own way. You just have to hope you come upon something that works. :)

That's quite selfless to put the baby first. :) So do you consider passion to the most important aspect of writing?