Whew. WHEW. Children, it has been a long time.
Meaning, of course, I haven't written an entry in like...four days. Terrible. I can feel the lack draining me mentally! I can also feel my abilities of sarcasm slipping away as we SPEAK.
Today I'm going to talk about improving. Ooh, scary, I know. Tres scary. Scarier than the first time you watched The Shining and didn't know what happened at all until it happened and you went OH GOD IS THAT AN AXE.
Writing a whole new book definetly helps me improve as a writer, personally, but its sometimes hard to try new things or throw in a new curve in an prolonged work like an entire book. You generally start out with an idea and style in mind and then run with it to keep consistent. By the end of the book you might've improved a bit, and that's great!
For me, real improvement comes during writing short stories. I write articles for a living and stories for pleasure (right now, anyway, but one day-!!) and sometimes I just get burned out on writing in general, which is where short stories come in.
It's important that you write what you love. If you wanna write that goddamn Buffy fanfiction, you write it. If you wanna write a haiku about your love for smoked gouda (I LOVE SMOKED GOUDA!!!!!!) then write it! The pace and tone might surprise you. I've been making little drabbles and liking them a lot. There's no pressure to make a great book that will grab agent attention, live up to expectation, and then sell like hotcakes. There's no angsting of 'is this the right genre', or if the character is 'believable' or 'unique' enough.
It's hard to remember why we love writing in the first place, and it can get lost in the little details and the desire to publish. I'm reminded of why I first started writing when I take a breather and write little blurbs free of restrictions or worry.
Sometimes I think of writers like conducters of orchestras - meting out what tone should be louder and which should be softer, and keeping the beat overall, and the feel of the piece is communicated through every tiny movement of your hands. It's our job to weave the sounds together in a way that transmits many different feelings.
Which explains why I stand up and motion wildly in the air when writing sometimes, right?
Kidding.
(not really.)
"It's hard to remember why we love writing in the first place, and it can get lost in the little details and the desire to publish."--
ReplyDeleteAhh this is amazing and incredibly true.
And, the progress I've made is insane! There is such a big difference between my very first book and the book i'm writing now.
I do take writing breaks to ponder new ideas, edit my completed works, volunteer or beta read others stuff. Breaks are good sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI love your advice... if you want to write Buffy fan fiction, write it. It's up to you and what you write. Write what you love.
ReplyDeleteI love writing all sorts of genres and when people tell me I can't do it, I want to show them I can because I'm the only one that needs faith in myself!!
I love your blog! It's so cute!
Amna - Yes! It's AMAZING how much progress you can make between two books. I hope I'll get to read that book soon. ;) Thank you.
ReplyDeleteLM - Definetly. Breaks are neccessary for certain sanity. Breaks are a writer's best friend.
Jen - I'm with you on the write a ton of different genres, and I HATE naysayers. I use naysayer's heads as my cereal bowls. :D Thanks again!