![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
if you write, you're a writer
Oct. 13th, 2007 04:20 pmEarlier this week, I went to the library and checked out seven or eight books on writing: things like “20 Master Plots and How To Write Them” and “Elements of Fiction Writing: Plot” and “The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing” and so on and damn, but all of them scare the ever-loving crap out of me.
I like to write; really, I do. it’s just the thought of writing a novel is so. Damned. Overwhelming, I can hardly stand it.
I think I’m an okay writer; my stories definitely improve with the help of a beta, but I know very few people for which that isn’t the case. It’s just, with one exception, everything I’ve written has been short – and the sole long piece was a co-write.
Not that there’s anything wrong with short fiction, a lesson I finally learned and internalized not too long ago, thank you Rhi. But the whole point of this nano thing is writing something that's, well, novel-length, isn’t it?
And then I read from the final book in my Large and Intimidating Stack of Books That Tell Me How To Write. It’s called “the pocket muse/endless inspiration/new ideas for writing.” I think this is the book that might end up being most useful to me, because in it, the author basically says “if you’re supposed to be a novelist, great. But if you’re supposed to be a poet, or a short story writer, or a songwriter, then those things are what you ought to write – don’t try to force yourself to write a novel because you think you 'should.' Do it because you want to.”
Well. With that being said, I don’t think I want to write a novel. I still love the idea of NaNo – committing to writing a certain number of words each day sounds like a great idea, and it’s exactly the kind of challenge I thrive on – but nothing says the words I write have to all go together as a part of one great big cohesive story. There aren’t hard and fast rules; I want to write, I like to write, so as of November 1st, that’s what I’m going to do: write.
I may end up with thirty short stories. I might end up with one long novel. I might end up with ten medium-length stories, or one longish story and several shorter ones, or five hundred drabbles. Hell, I might end up with a month’s worth of embarrassing crap.
But I’ll have written something - and that, I think, is the goal I need to shoot for.
I like to write; really, I do. it’s just the thought of writing a novel is so. Damned. Overwhelming, I can hardly stand it.
I think I’m an okay writer; my stories definitely improve with the help of a beta, but I know very few people for which that isn’t the case. It’s just, with one exception, everything I’ve written has been short – and the sole long piece was a co-write.
Not that there’s anything wrong with short fiction, a lesson I finally learned and internalized not too long ago, thank you Rhi. But the whole point of this nano thing is writing something that's, well, novel-length, isn’t it?
And then I read from the final book in my Large and Intimidating Stack of Books That Tell Me How To Write. It’s called “the pocket muse/endless inspiration/new ideas for writing.” I think this is the book that might end up being most useful to me, because in it, the author basically says “if you’re supposed to be a novelist, great. But if you’re supposed to be a poet, or a short story writer, or a songwriter, then those things are what you ought to write – don’t try to force yourself to write a novel because you think you 'should.' Do it because you want to.”
Well. With that being said, I don’t think I want to write a novel. I still love the idea of NaNo – committing to writing a certain number of words each day sounds like a great idea, and it’s exactly the kind of challenge I thrive on – but nothing says the words I write have to all go together as a part of one great big cohesive story. There aren’t hard and fast rules; I want to write, I like to write, so as of November 1st, that’s what I’m going to do: write.
I may end up with thirty short stories. I might end up with one long novel. I might end up with ten medium-length stories, or one longish story and several shorter ones, or five hundred drabbles. Hell, I might end up with a month’s worth of embarrassing crap.
But I’ll have written something - and that, I think, is the goal I need to shoot for.
