Ahem, so, I gather you all here today, fellow forum followers, to debate and decide what it is I should, would, or could write. You see, I'm in a little bit of a pickle. I want to write, I truly do, but I can't seem to agree on an idea. I've had multiple ones, but none of them have felt concrete or substantial enough. If this were the earlier me, I wouldn't quibble about the task so much, I would pick a word out of any and write a compelling page out of it, but now I feel I cannot. For I have written something that could be called good. And that goodness has left an impression on me, especially when compared to my past attempts at the great art of writing. Recently, whenever I've tried to write, it hasn't been enough. The main character feels too bland or voiceless, the main character feels too much like me, or something I would like to be. The plot feels motionless or without urgency or without direction. Or to put it in simpler terms: it doesn't feel relatable or cool or real or fantastical or like anything really. My first try was with a golem MC who has amnesia and is a weapon of mass destruction but tries to solve things peacefully and mediate between the warring factions. But because the golem had amnesia, I didn't really give it a character, and perhaps because it was a golem too. But that was also sort of the point of the character. But that's not a very interesting read. And premise is far too boring too. My second try was with a party of three: a druid, cleric, and rogue. But the entire thing was too fast paced, you didn't get a feel for any individual character, only snippets. And the plot of escaping a dungeon may sound exciting, but in practice, it would be boring and tactical. The premise just didn't interest me at all. Compared to my work that was good, these attempts are complete failures. My good work had urgency and emotion, and realistic characters that didn't resemble me in the least. The premise/plot and characters were interesting is my point. So how do I decide on or find another premise that's interesting?
Starting from easier challenges could be good. Like writing prompts from Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/ I wrote there for a year before moving on to write my first fanfiction. Which is easier to write as you already have the characters and the worldbuilding done for you. The higher you climb, the harder you will fall. Starting directly with a novel can be tough.
If you ask me, put this in reddit or other blogs and forum where a lot of writers hangout. This seems to be a case of not knowing how to get the perfect flow in plot. Best thing to do would be to start writing the plot draft from backwards. Fix a climax you are comfortable with, and then work your way down on, this way it will be easier to get the pacing right.
Well I do not write for public and there are always other methods how to start a story. I first make, characters that I have written down with keywords example: old men, proud, veteran, typical loner, but have old comrades from army etc. Now I use mostly one of books with old Greeks, Latin sayings to get a topic and write to this topic as an own story or part of bigger one. Sometime I take notes if I hear a new or for me unknown phrase. There is also timeline where it takes place like writing about this old men as veteran of Rome legion or IRA etc... If I feel that it can get longer I read books in that direction to get the facts and better feeling... Also, long do not mean better Franz Kafkas The Judgment is ~6 site long, and a well known piece of literature.
You can try to plan ahead to avoid messing with the pace although that does not work for everybody. If you feel the characters are bland you can try to give them hidden fears and motivations (which not even the characters know about i.e. Char 1 is greedy but think of him/er self as generous etc.) and work around that. You will find that many times it will force you to change how the story moves to keep it consistent. I read these and play around with them sometimes, they are not an ultimate recipe for succes or anything close but I really fin them interesting. You can check them and see if you find something you like. This one has a lot of literal rants about common tropes and common mistakes that come with them: https://curiosityquills.com/limyaael/ This one focuses on how to make your writing something easier to read and more atractive (in theory because obviously not every reader likes the same style) by imitating hemingway's style: https://writingmanual.pressbooks.com/chapter/so-you-want-to-be-a-better-writer/ Good luck and have fun Hope to see what you write in the future (^ ^)
I always like to start by looking at a base idea to build the world around. Strip Mahouka down of everything and you have the concept of mixing magic & technology, which alone takes the potential for world building to high levels. As far as I'm concerned, a plot's only as good as its setting. Alone it's like icing without the cake and, to me at least, makes it easier to see how to fit in everything else.