crafting the great american novel is almost impossible, and i'm good at setting myself up for failure.
i've always been fairly good at writing. for years i was the woman who came off the bench to save my family's and friend's letters, and essays, and poems. putting words together never took much of a thought, but i was never really sure if they were any good.
although i consider myself the master of procrastination, i've decided to try to master something else entirely: actually writing. in the last post i mentioned that i carried a line in my head for a month, and just decided (or willed myself) to write it down.
on monday i began writing with little more than a rough sketch of my character, and a rickety plot idea. i'm a sucker for love stories, and happy endings, but i know that life isn't always so forgiving and kind. the story i'm writing is...both full of me, and not about me at all. it's complicated, and painful, and exceedingly optimistic.
i am only 3 pages deep, and i'm finding it hard to harness my thoughts into anything i can stand. i'm overly critical of my writing. i always hate it and think it's the worst thing since Eddie Murphy tried to sing. but i'm hopeful and trying REALLY hard not to psych myself out and lose focus. i've decided that in order to stay on track, i will write at least one page per day. at worst, i will have a lot of horribly written prose, and at best, i will have 365 pages of genius (ha!). either way, i'm going to keep plugging and putting fingers to keys.
[sidenote: to my fellow blogger authors (Geoffery? Torrance? Bless?)...know of any good sites and books that help when writing fiction? i'm in desperate need. holla.]
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i normally read an old favorite, now im reading the great gatbsy and of course Voltaire - he's my idol
Dear Prisoner's Wife,
Greetings!
Throw out your internal critic. Don't listen to him/her. Work on one page per day.
Before you start writing, ask youself, "what does my main character want?'
Once you know what she wants, begin to put obstacles and people in her way of getting that one thing that she wants. We will be interested in seeing how she changes, what strategies she employs in order to get what she wants.
Continue writing until she is either victorious or loses.
Either way, we will have witnesses the birth of something glorious.
Bless,
Geoffrey
I continue to read everything I can get my hands on. Otherwise, stay true to you and do like Biko and write what you like. Peace~
write anything. don't matter. get it on paper. something will happen. you like it. you discard it. something will happen in the process. know that you will hate it at first. i don't know how directors can watch their own movies. i would see all the mistakes, all the choices i didn't make. but they needed material to decide on. get the material on page. it ain't perfect. never will be... i'm looking forward to it though, whatever it will be. we're all looking forward. 'cause it will be something. look forward and write... right now.
A book that I found inspired ME greatly = Stephen King's On Writing. I'm not a fan of his fiction - but THAT book was ... well, inspirational:-). Best of luck to ya! My challenge - forcing myself to sit still OFF the internet long enough to churn it out;-).