NaNoWriMo is only two weeks away! Hopefully by now you have the bones of your story figured out and are ready to let your ideas burst onto the page. But before the 1st of November hits, you'll want to make sure that you won't cramp up when it's time to begin writing. Because every minute of that month counts!
NaNoWriMo is a marathon of a writing experience. And I don't know about you, but I am not the marathon runner type. If I would get up tomorrow morning, put on my tennis shoes, and join in on a marathon around the city (having never run more than a mile in one session) then I would be in some sort of painful, trip to the emergency room, oh crap oh crap oh crap, kind of trouble. Don't make the same mistake when it comes to your novel! Though you can't begin writing your novel quite yet, free writing is a great way to brainstorm and get ready for those intense word count sprints. (If you're not familiar with free writing, it's writing continuously for a certain amount of time, even if what you write ends up going nowhere. Your pen is not allowed to stop, no going back to fix errors, just write until your timer goes off and see what happens!) If you've been like me and life has caused you to take a forced hiatus from your writing, then a free writing warm-up is not a bad way to get back in the groove. Start off easy and free write for five minutes. Then maybe the next day up your time to seven minutes. And the day after that maybe try going for ten. You get the idea. The point is to put yourself in the best position to start off strong out of the gates when November hits. And nothing does that better than actually doing some writing. And most importantly, doing it every day. I believe that it is important to keep your free writing time relaxed and not to stress over it. Even if what you end up writing has nothing to do with your novel, it is still getting you in shape and who knows, maybe something else will come out of it. I once had a cool poem come out of a free write. You just never know what gems you will uncover when you let your mind and your pen wander. If what you end up writing does have to do with your novel, then great! You have more material to draw from when November comes. Need some prompts to get started? Check out the list below. Remember, these are loose prompts. Adjust them as needed and let yourself explore.
Music has inspired some interesting and fruitful free writes for me in the past. Try out different kinds of music (I've included some below) and see what you come up with. If you want a lot more options, check out my blog: Inspirational Writing Music)
And of course, just a quiet moment alone with your pen or your computer is another great way to focus on free writing. Happy training!
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So here we are, almost mid-October, and NaNoWriMo is looming ever closer. I have been lucky enough to have stumbled upon an awesome story idea in the last couple of weeks, which I think I am going to save for November. If you don't have a novel idea yet don't fret, there is still time! But if you are like me and do know what you are going to write about, then this post is for you. When I get to this point where I have an awesome, fully realized plot line in my head, it is very tempting to start writing now. And I must confess, I have jumped the gun in past NaNoWriMo years. But this year I am going to force myself to wait. Why? Mostly because it is a writing technique I have never tried before. Usually when I get a good idea, I'll plop down in my chair, write a few of the beginning chapters, and then that's it. My story fizzles out or it takes a ton of work to motivate myself to write more on it. This year I'm going to let things marinate in my brain juices before trying to spill out all my ideas on paper. If your writing process usually looks like mine, then I challenge you to join me and wait until the first of November to get started. Let's see what happens! My theory is this, letting a story marinate in your head for a while gives you time to work out all the wrinkles and fully prepare to write it in the short amount of time that NaNoWriMo challenges you to. 50,000 words is a lot to write in one month, and if you work full time like I do, then you need to give yourself all the time that you can get. But let me make something extremely clear first, letting a story marinate does not mean "do nothing with it." In fact, it means the exact opposite. Do everything with your story - except write it. Here's how: Step #1: Laying the Groundwork I love discovery writing and seeing where things go as I type on the page. But I have found that I don't do as well writing that way when it comes to NaNoWriMo. By letting my idea sit for a while, I am able to think out the entire plot line and know exactly where I am going. My first step then is to write a quick synopsis of my story, including as many details as I can. Next, I make an outline of my novel which can be as loose or as detailed as you are comfortable with. If you want to go above and beyond, I sometimes find it helpful to tell a friend or family member the whole story summary as it exists in my head. These conversations that turn into fun, hour-long sessions with my dad and husband have helped me work out gaps in the plot and brainstorm ways to deepen my story. Step #2: Build your World Though your setting may not be the most interesting part of your story to you, it is certainly important to have a fully realized story world in order to engage your reader. Part of the reason the Harry Potter series is so popular is because of how immersive the story world is. The amount of detail makes it realistic. Whether you are creating your own world or bringing to life our world as it was in the past, you need to know it backwards and forwards. And the best part about having your story idea so soon before NaNoWriMo is that you have time to do this! Some details you create or discover may not even be included in your novel. In fact, I would say that a good majority probably won't show up. But if a situation arises where you need to know a Zubuflax's favorite food, then at least you have thought about it and your writing flow will go uninterrupted. A fun thing to do, and maybe helpful if you are horrible at visualizing like I am, is to go the Tolkien route and draw a map of your world. Not only is it a nice creative break from writing, but it may spur some new ideas and places you had never thought about for your novel. Step #3: Befriend your Characters Much like your world building, do a thorough character profile for as many characters in your story as you can - even the side characters and villains. Become their best friend, know everything about them from their hobbies to their greatest fear. Like before, you may not use every detail you write down in your novel, but just having their background filled out makes for deeper characters and provides more interest for your readers. Step #4: Do your Research This is something, that if I follow my normal process, I tackle during my writing as things come up. But it always disrupts my writing flow because of my darn curiosity. I start off looking up Victorian tea customs and end up browsing Amazon for those cute little teabags with book quotes on them. What the heck? And where did all my writing time go? That's right, down the black hole of the Internet, never to be seen again. With this forced wait time before you start actually writing, try to think of all the topics you will need to know for your novel. Try to stay focused of course, but if you slip a little then at least your writing time doesn't suffer. My characters for my story live in the Age of Sail, so I better darn well do some research on 18th century sailing ships. Your main character is a chicken farmer? Then learn all you can about chickens until you could tell anyone what they eat, what kind of chickens your character owns, and how many eggs they lay in a week. You get the idea. Step #5: Take Care of the Random Stuff Finally, one of my favorite things to do is to create those random materials that my characters will need access to in my story. For example, with my current story idea, my main character remembers a song from her childhood. So I spent some time writing out the complete song lyrics with four to five verses and a chorus. It may not show up at all in the story, but it's there if I need it, and I won't have to take an hour out of my writing time to create it. If your characters will need to interpret some ancient runes, then by all means create now what those ancient runes say about the "Prophecy of the Chosen One" instead of later when you need to focus on cranking out your story. As a last word, remember to have fun and use all of these things to get excited about your story! The more excited you are, the more likely you are to write like crazy when the time comes. Like all my posts, these are just suggestions that I have found useful for myself. There are many writers out there, all with different writing styles, so don't get bogged down in the details. Create what you think will be useful and pertinent for your story. Happy planning! You finish a novel. The characters are likeable, plot exciting, and story world intriguing. Not to mention that you've written the best cliffhanger ending in existence! People are going to eat up your story and what's even better is they are going to want more. More of your beautifully crafted prose and brilliant plot twists! "No problem," you say as you sit down to write. "I'll just crank out the sequel and hey, maybe even a third book. Got to give the people what they want." And then...nothing. You have nothing. Well, that's not entirely true. You've written a couple of chapters but you feel like they are crap, and then think that it's even worse to have crap than to have nothing. So what happened? You had this killer story and now everything you write after it just turns out sounding like you're writing a sub-par fan fiction based off of your own book. Where did the creativity go? Some writers can crank out books like crazy, but that may not be you. I definitely know that's not me. As hopeless as it may seem, I do want to encourage you if you find yourself struggling to write that second book. You are not alone. Countless movies, books, and TV shows fall prey to what I call "the curse of the sequel." Some of us authors start off strong, then when it comes times to continue the story we freeze up. I'm going to be very honest with you. I suffer greatly from the curse of the sequel. And with this blog post, I hope to help others break the curse as I attempt to find ways to help my own faltering second stories. I first realized the curse was upon me after I finished my first novel. It was fantastic, my friends loved it and begged me for more. But when I got down to it I felt like I didn't have any more to give. Twice I tried writing the sequel and twice I stopped halfway through. My attempts were always so boring!!! My characters revealed nothing new and the plot was loose at best, all within a story world that had lost its luster. After all these attempts, I am now forced to analyze my writing. It's time to break free before the curse takes away a novel that has a lot going for it and deserves a second book. Stakes When I wrote my first novel, all of my characters had stakes in the story. There was no turning back for them once the plot got going and the motivation was high for them to continue on. In my second novel, I noticed that though the stakes had stayed the same, the plot might need some spicing up. What makes your characters committed to this particular leg of the story? If the stakes are the same as in the previous novel, how can you give your story a sense of urgency or deepen your characters' commitment? What makes this second book even more climatic than the first? Character Development In the first book, it was easy to keep my characters interesting. My readers were still being introduced to them and even within the story my characters were getting to know one another. Connections and relationships were being made and secrets were being revealed. Then when writing my second book, I felt like my characters had lost their pizzazz. I think part of that is because the reader knows the characters by the second book and all of the major secrets had been revealed. I'm hoping that for my next step, I can make my characters exciting again. That may mean going back to the drawing board and filling them out more. That may also mean that I need them to hold some secrets back in the first book to save for the second. I still need to find ways to make my characters grow and learn new things about themselves and each other. Same Old Plot Another reason I think my sequel attempts fell short is that they were merely a continuation of the first book's plot and had nothing new to add. While that first plot thread was good and can still hold over to the second book, there should be some new elements added, like more things unveiling, surprising events, and twists. The second novel should still be its own book. The reader shouldn't feel like they are just rereading the first novel with a change of scenery. Along with making the stakes higher and plot more interesting comes the idea of the three act story (if that is the way you write). In my first novel, the three big incidents that propelled my story forward were exciting and made the characters even more committed to the plot. But in my second novel, I found that the incidents were not as motivating or were on the same level of intensity as those in the first book. I believe that to make the second book just as exciting as the first, the three major incidents need to be even more intense than the ones in the first book. As the characters get closer to the end, things need to become even more climatic. So there you have it. I am hoping to give my sequel another try and I hope that if you have a sequel floating out there, that you give it another try too. Don't be afraid to analyze your own writing and tear things apart. Sometimes it takes a complete overhaul to get to a great sequel. I am fully aware that it is the month of September. Soon the leaves will start to turn, the air will get chilly, and I will crawl into my sweaters in the morning instead of putting on my t-shirts and shorts. Not only am I painfully aware that winter is on its way, but I am also reminded that NaNoWriMo is coming soon in November. That leaves me only two months to come up with a novel idea! (And yes, two months is close enough to start panicking.)
For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is an awesome event that writers everywhere should attempt at least once. Like the name suggests, the goal is to write a complete first draft of a novel (50,000 target word count) in only a month. Impossible you say? Yes, sometimes it is. And then again, sometimes not. My first experience with NaNoWriMo was back during my sophomore year of college. Tons of people in my creative writing classes were talking about it and freaking out about how their word counts were not on track to finish by the end of the month. Once I found out about the challenge, I thought it was definitely something I wanted to try. So I cluelessly jumped into the chaos already a week behind everyone else. And not only that, I also changed my novel idea two weeks into the challenge. I had completely set myself up to fail at this, and yet the strangest thing happened, by the end of the month I had a complete 50,000 word novel! How did that happen? Well, it had a lot to do with having no friends. But in all seriousness, the thing that helped the most was the word counter that the NaNoWriMo website provides. Every day you enter in your word count on the NaNoWriMo website. It keeps track of your pace and how many words you need to write per day in order to finish. Needless to say, it was quite the motivator, especially once it got down to the wire and I could see how many words short I was. It gave me that extra push to catch up and finish my novel. Because of the rushed timing, you shouldn't expect your novel to be very good once you are done with it. It is a first draft after all, and those always need work. But the point is to get something completely finished down. Too many times, and I am so very guilty of this, writers start off strong with a story and then slowly lose motivation and inspiration. Then there is an unfinished first draft which is never going to mature into a novel. NaNoWriMo helps you get that first draft done so that you can move forward and shape up your writing into the awesome story you first imagined it to be. I wills say, this challenge is not for the weak of heart. It is a mad rush during that month and you give up on basically everything else but your novel. For college students, Thanksgiving Break suddenly becomes a whole bunch of free time for writing, forget the turkey! But with all that said, it has been one of the most rewarding experiences, and I'm sure even better if you can find a writing group to get plugged into and go through it with together. I have done NaNoWriMo for three years now. The first year was an unbelievable success and that last two, well, have been flops. My novels still sit unfinished despite my harried attempts to put words down and finally giving up halfway through the month. Yet, I have not been deterred. This year I will try once again to finish the challenge and I hope that you will join me and try to do the same. Want to give yourself a head start two months out? Here's how: 1. Sign up and make a profile at nanowrimo.org. It takes hardly any time at all and gives you time to explore all of the resources you will have for the month of November. 2. Start connecting with other writers who are going to do the challenge. I have a friend who I have known for four years that I met in my first college creative writing class. Throughout the years we have met in coffee shops and encouraged one another in our writing. She does NaNoWriMo as well and it is so helpful to be able to talk to her about my frustrations and encourage one another to push through to that next word count. 3. If you're a planner like I am, start an outline. Some writers work well with outlines, others don't. But if you find that outlines help keep your writing on track then use these months to thoroughly think out your story world, develop your characters, and pay special attention to your plot. Then when the craziness begins, you're better equipped to avoid writer's block and work towards completing the challenge. 4. Get pumped! Get excited about NaNoWriMo and especially get excited about your story. Tell people about it who will be your cheerleaders and help you through that month. It's a great time so don't take things too seriously. Even if you don't finish, you've still written a large amount of your story and have connected with other writers. I will be keeping you posted about my experience during this year's NaNoWriMo. Whether I succeed or fail, I'm hoping that it will be a fruitful month of writing. Good luck and let the prep begin! So it has been a long while since I have last posted. It has certainly been the most eventful summer of my entire life. If I wasn't an adult before, I sure am now, and I've got a wedding ring and diploma to prove it. But now that I have finally found routine again, I am excited to get back to talking about my favorite subject: writing!
After experiencing the most wild emotional roller coaster of my life (the bittersweet feeling of graduation, the homesickness of moving, the absolute lightheaded joy of marrying the love of my life, and the deep grief of losing my best doggie friend of eleven years) I couldn't help but notice how this emotional turmoil has influenced my writing. Obviously we shouldn't shy away from writing about hard subjects, but when those subjects are personal to us with very raw emotions attached, your writing can go one of two ways. The intense emotion can either fuel your writing and make it extremely potent and real for your reader, or it can turn your writing into a personal rant or cliche, neither of which will connect with your reader. Because I believe emotion is important (and actually very useful) for writing, I'm going to share with you some tips and tricks with how I have learned to channel my emotion into my writing without compromising my stories. Many people say that time is the best healer, and while I find that emotional hurts never completely go away, the heart does find ways to recover. I usually use writing as a kind of therapy after painful experiences, but I would never put this writing out for a reader. Why? Usually it is too personal to share (I envy those who are braver than I am), and also the hurt is so fresh that I can't aptly put it down on paper. To understand great pain, cliches are wonderful. But they won't do if you are looking to send a piece of writing out into the world. Again, this is just what I have discovered personally so if you feel prepared to write about a hard subject, I say go for it! But for myself, I find that pieces done soon after a tough time tend to be either "rants of revenge" or "pity me" pieces. To keep the integrity of my writing, I try to wait until time has given me the healing that I need to look at the situation with a more distanced viewpoint. It makes it easier to put words down when I can step back and actually focus on my subject, using my emotions and experience as a way to connect to my reader instead of overpower them. In addition, if you are going to send something out, it is best to prepare yourself for rejection. It's hard to get things published and if something is near and dear to your heart, it is even harder to have it sent back. Another thing I want to address is emotional endings. Though sadness and anger are popular short story endings, joy is still a very powerful emotion and shouldn't be ignored. During a writing workshop, it was suggested to me by a couple of classmates that though they really liked my story, they thought that the ending should be sad instead of happy. As a freshman writer in my first workshop, I quickly voiced my agreement, not so much because I actually did agree (I loved that ending) but because I was embarrassed that I was the only writer who had ended my story on a happy note. I couldn't help but think that my story was in some way less mature or not as powerful as my classmates' stories with their bittersweet or sad endings. Thank goodness my professor stepped in, "I like the ending the way it is. Happy endings are hard to write and are just as good as a sad ending." This surprised me as well as restored my confidence in my writing skills. She went on to explain how hard it is to write a satisfying happy ending rather than a sad one. A good ending should satisfy the reader no matter what. A common problem I have seen with sad endings in workshops is that writers can rely on a poorly constructed sad ending to produce the same emotion in their reader instead of letting the writing do it. Dissatisfaction is not the same as feeling sad, but it can be passed off as such. Happy endings, on the other hand, don't have the crutch of dissatisfaction to turn to if the ending doesn't work out. Instead, it is laid out plain and bare and the obstacle to overcome now is cliches.The reader can feel the same dissatisfaction with a bad happy ending as with a bad sad ending if the "happily ever after" hasn't been earned or led up to in the right way. But a well written happy ending can produce a powerful sense of satisfaction for the reader. Don't underestimate the gift of joy that a piece of writing can give someone. In short, whatever ending you choose, it should be always be satisfying despite whether the emotion expressed is happy or sad. Before I wrap things up, I want to quickly advocate for the form of poetry as a way to express deep emotion. Because the words have to be so carefully chosen in poetry, it is a great way to explore the deep emotions of your heart and can be a jumping off point for those who write longer pieces. It forces you to get at the root of your feelings and try to express them in concise and creative ways. I have also found poetry to be my go-to whenever I need to sort through my feelings and unload my heart. Whatever your emotions are right now, I hope that you can use them for good in your writing. You know how you write best, so take what I say with a grain of salt and use what you can. I hope this has been helpful. The wonderful thing about writing is the power it has to connect to people. You are not alone in this world, and with your writing you can reach out and show others that they aren't either. If you are going through a rough time, I have found that aside from writing, the person who brings me the greatest comfort is God. Psalm 147:3, Romans 8:38-39, Romans 5:8, and John 16:33. You are loved. My freshmen year of high school, my grandma gave me a journal. She had started journaling her freshmen year and still does every single day. I had tried, and failed, to keep a diary before but I thought I would give it another whirl now that I was older. Now I'm about ready to graduate college and have since filled up at least seven journals. I'm not going to lie, I have become an obsessive archivist, and while most people loathe the idea of daily journaling, I can't picture my day without it. Here's why: Reason #1: I'm an anxious person. I don't understand how regular people can fall asleep thirty minutes after getting into bed. I'm up at least an hour or two every night just lying awake, begging my brain to turn off and let me get some sleep! I worry about everything from homework due the next day to that stupid thing I said in class in the third grade that earned me a time out. It's ridiculous, but journaling has helped. I give myself an hour to wind down at night and part of my routine includes getting out my notebook and writing down my day. It may read as one of the most mundane things ever composed, my life isn't too glamorous, but it helps me to get my worries out. Reason #2: I'm a busy person. Some days, I regret to say it, I don't make enough time to just sit down and write. Even though I end up recording yawn-worthy stuff like what I ate for lunch and how long it took me to do my homework, it is still keeping my writing skills sharp. Being creative with the ordinary stuff of life is a great exercise for any writer's brain. Reason #3: Crazy stuff happens! There are days, glorious days, when something extremely noteworthy does occur and I have a place ready where I can record every single detail. The summer after graduating high school, for example, has a lot of entries about reading on the back porch and watching my dad barbecue. But then one day a guy I know calls me up, asks me out to a dance, and a few short years later he has become my fiancé. Reading my journals, I can see our relationship grow from first date to engagement and it is pretty fun to be able to see that larger picture. Reason #4: My family suffers from "caught up in the details" syndrome. Sometimes someone will be telling a family story and before we even get to the good part, we're stuck arguing about who sat in the back seat of the car and who sat in the front, or what town we made a pit stop at. Since I am the family archivist, I can usually whip out my journal, set the record straight (cause my word is law ya know) and we can move on to the funny anecdote. Reason #5: I'm kind of self-absorbed in that I fancy my writing will matter to future generations. Maybe my grandkids will care, maybe they won't, but I do think there is some value in capturing daily life the way it is right now. Reading the short snippets of writing I did when I was in grade school is hilarious. You forget what is important to a seven year old and what events are worth writing down. I'm sure the things I write about while I am going through college will hold just as much humor when I read my current journals years down the road. Besides, even if posterity doesn't give a hoot, I still do and there are some things I want to remember exactly how they are. I want to remember the names of my high school and college friends, I want to be able to recall the park where my boyfriend proposed and the type of day, I want to bring back the jokes and family stories that go around the dinner table during Christmas. Those small things are important and they make us who we are. I understand people's aversion to journaling and it definitely isn't for everyone. Still, I feel like it kind of gets a bad rap. There are a lot of benefits to keeping a journal and I hope the idea won't be totally dismissed. It's a built in time for practicing and it helps you to become a more disciplined writer. If you're not a daily journaler, just keep a travel log whenever you go somewhere or write down only the major events that happen in your life. It's worth a try! Workshops are great when you are wanting an overall idea of how your readers interpret your stories. But what do you do when you want deeper insight into a piece? Hiring an editor is definitely an option, and is probably something that you should do anyways if you are going to self-publish. But finding a writing buddy who will give you that initial feedback is so valuable. Especially if it becomes a relationship that lasts long term and sees projects through to the end.
I have several writing friends that I go to depending on the type of piece that I am working on. From years of knowing one another and writing together, I have learned that their criticisms and tips are things that have fostered my writing along to a publishable state. Writing friends should be people that you trust, but who are not afraid to tell you when something doesn't feel right in your story. If you want encouragement instead of critique, then grandparents and relatives are a great resource. My writing friends and I usually like to meet one-on-one with each other over coffee or tea and talk out impressions of my story and things that can make it better. We start with the big picture stuff, which is making sure that the plot and characters make sense and resonate with the reader. Later on, when I'm getting closer to sending it out into the world, it's nice to have them check for errors or awkward sentences. Writing friends are great for the brainstorming stages too or when that writer's block hits. I've spent countless hours at coffee shops with my notebook out scribbling away as my friends give me ideas and I bounce mine off of them. My first novel was actually planned in this way during a fantastic three hour brainstorming stint at one of my favorite burger places. One thing to keep a healthy writing relationship going is to realize that it is not one sided. You can send your friends your stories as much as you want, but eventually they are going to get tired of always giving you feedback when they never get any in return. Offer to return the favor and then, here's the kicker, actually do it! Read their work closely and give detailed feedback, the kind that you want them to give you. Finding that writing buddy can be easier for some folks than others. I was lucky in that I connected with a lot of people in my college English program and we have stayed in contact over the years. I know that others find their writing friends through Facebook groups or community writing clubs. You have the Internet at your fingertips, don't be afraid to reach out and see if you can find some people to exchange ideas and stories with. Most likely, they will be happy that you asked. When I was at writing camp in junior high (cause that's the kind of cool kid that I was) one of the instructors told us to never throw away a piece of our writing. As my mom can attest, I took her advice very seriously. While this has resulted in piles and boxes of notebooks and scraps of paper, I can honestly say that my instructor's advice was dead on. The more I write, the more ideas I need, and the more I resort to looking through my old stuff. But thanks to my freshman college creative writing professor, I now have a more organized way of doing that. It's a writer's notebook!!! And here is why you should have one:
Here is one of my many writer's notebooks. It's a little beat up, as you can see, but I like that it reflects its usage. I don't know about you, but I love writing to music. It helps prompt my ideas and get me into scene. I have to be careful about what I'm listening to because my writing is bound to take on some of those elements. I never listen to songs with lyrics (I'll just start writing out the song) but maybe you're better at concentrating than me. Of course, nothing beats silence when you really need to focus, but sometimes music can do wonders. If you're stuck or just want some fresh tunes, here's list of songs that I like to listen to when I write.
For those who like to get in the zone:
My recommended artists and a link to one of their songs: Calm Music
Do you have any favorite artists or songs that you listen to when you write? Leave a comment below! So it's that time in the semester. The long haul after the holidays. My inability to do anything productive has only been compounded by the fact that I'm graduating in May. I'm not usually a procrastinator but boy, this semester has been rough. And it's not even close to done yet! I think the thing that's taken the biggest hit is my own writing. Maybe others have had phases like this in their writing lives, but I feel as if something has sucked out my creativity and left me with the dregs of ideas and no way to bring them to life. This is more than just writer's block, this is a dry spell. What happened to the days of old when the words came easily? I have no idea if this is the right approach, but with this particular phase of stress and lack of motivation in my life, I've had to come up with some ways to keep my writing alive even when I'm not writing. First of all, I had to stop beating myself up about not being able to write like I usually could. Don't get me wrong, writing is hard work and there are days where you really have to power through and concentrate on what you're saying. But I never want my writing to come out of stress or frustration. Maybe it's just me, but my writing has always been a refuge for my busy mind and I'd like to keep it that way. So instead of forcing myself to write and making myself miserable when it doesn't work out, I've learned to be okay with just writing down my ideas as they come and fleshing them out later. I've also had to get past feeling ashamed about moving onto a different writing project when my inspiration is lacking. Now, I have two to three different stories going on at a time. Whenever I burn out on one I can usually pick up with the next project until I can cycle back around to what I was previous working on. Leaving a story and coming back to it later is not abandoning it. I see it as allowing myself the time I need to give it my all later on when the ideas are flowing again. Another thing that I've been doing when my creativity feels spent is to read. I get so caught up in my own writing that sometimes that I forget what made me want to become a writer in the first place: great books! Whether it's reading poetry, short stories, or full-fledged novels, I've been able to further my writing skills even when I can't seem to put down anything on paper. It's been like an oasis in the desert and I have realized that I should have never gone as long as I have without coming back to the wonderful authors and books that I love to replenish my writer's mind. Just the other day I was able to talk with my dad about my favorite book, "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. (If you haven't already, you Must. Read. This. Book.) It was fun to talk about all of the masterful things Dickens does with his plot and characters and it really re-energized my own passion for writing. And if you need something to refill your creativity tank, Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" will do it. His attention to detail will inspire you like nothing else. What do you do when you're going through a dry spell in your writing? How do you keep the creative spark alive? Which books refresh your writer's mind? Feel free to comment below! |
AuthorHi, I'm Jessica! I'm on a mission to make my writing better in hopes of becoming a published novelist. It's been a crazy journey so far as I learn the twists and turns of the publishing world, but it's been worth it. Though I'm still learning how to be the best writer I can be, I'm excited to share what I learn with you. Happy writing! Archives
August 2023
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