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A few words of inspiration
I've been lurking on these forums for a while now, salivating at the mouth at the chance to ingest beneficial information on the craft that's so close to all our hearts, writing.
As a new writer, I'm more than eager to soak up whatever tips and advice I come across like a sponge. Among the most notorious concerns, I've noticed writers who find a difficult time expressing themselves, shrouded with overwhelming self-doubt, fear, and above all else, inexperience.
Most have been writing since they were able to pick up a crayon, like myself. To be perfectly frank, I've only just become serious about the craft less than a year ago. Sure, I've been writing since before I could remember, but did I really understand the craft at all? No, I was like most kids, full to the brim with unrelenting imagination, eagerly awaiting to explode from the brain and bleed out of the fingertips. I loved storytelling. I loved writing. But I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.
Recently, I waded through the muck of past stories, and I have to admit that I shuddered when first reading them. Sure, these were in no means bad stories, but they were definitely written by a guy who didn't know how to tell them. Thus, the learning process began.
From that point I began to pick up whatever literature I could find on the subject. The Writing and Publishing section of Barnes and Noble became my vacation home, and the words of Stephen King, Ernest Hemmingway, Card and others became my hymns.
I started writing again, with newfound techniques and knowledge. At least, I tried. Most of my time was spent staring at a blinking cursor on my monitor, wasting my time on frequent sessions of Minesweeper and telling myself that no one was going to publish my garbage anyway.
At the time, I may have been right. What little I did write, I spent my time critiquing and editing. I couldn't get through a single paragraph without dwelling on it for an hour or more, then finally giving up out of exasperation. After a bitter struggle, I wrote. I submitted. I was rejected. Countless times. But that's the nature of the game, isn't it?
I see shadows of my former self in the writers I've met here. Guys just like me, infected with the bug but no sense on how to use it. It's in these guys that I realize the most redundant advice may in fact be the most useful: Read a lot, Write a lot.
Just looking at work from a month ago and comparing it to now, I'm speechless. My quality of writing has improved dramatically since I've subjected myself to a strict schedule of reading and writing. I often wonder, if work from a month ago is crap compared to the work I'm writing now, what's my work going to look like a year from now?
This is where I offer my insight: Your self-doubt will eventually falter. The more you write, the more confident you will become, and the easier it will be to get your point across. Eventually, you'll care very little about the way your rough draft looks. (And believe me, mine aren't in any better shape than my cluttered desk.) You'll just let the words flow from you like you were a machine, programmed to endure 24 hour sessions until you've produced a magnum opus in a single sitting.
I suggest finding yourself a schedule that works for you. I understand that I am utterly incapable of writing anything worth merit in the late hours of the night. My brain is only fresh in the morning, and the time I spend in school or work all day fries my brain to such a degree that it's utterly exhausted by the time I set it into creative mode. I can practically see my brain pleading with me, hands crossed, saying, "Please sir, have mercy."
Once you've been writing regularly, you'll be able to tell what works and what doesn't. You'll bury those feelings of despair in the bottom of your brain where they belongs, right next to the night of Jr. Prom you'd like to forget. You know, when Jimmy Smith pants-ed you in the middle of the dance floor?
Though I'm still working at this eluding craft myself, feel free to ignore me if you wish. However, forgive me for imposing this bit of insight from a guy who's been in your place before, and is often times in your place right now: Don't give up. You will improve, I guarantee it.
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"The writer you envy today will probably have reason to envy you tomorrow." - Orson Scott Card
Last edited by Mr Sci Fi : 11-28-2007 at 03:19 PM.
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