Writing on Writing

So a couple of weeks ago I was talking my friend Amber about how I have been feeling lost lately when it comes to my writing. I had to admit to her that as much as I want to write, I am having trouble getting started on anything. This is mostly because I do not know what I want to write about (this is especially true of this damn blog)! But after talking about it for while we both agreed that I need to just keep pushing myself to write, so in the interest of getting a blog done this week, since I haven’t done one in like a month, and with a lack of a better topic at the moment, I am going to write about writing! 

I decided a few years ago that I wanted to write for a living. I have always loved literature and storytelling and I have devoured book after book since I learned to read.  English classes have often been my favorites, and writing and reading have always been my strong points in school. Granted I have my fair share of grammar problems, but for the most part I have always felt really good about my writing, and that is what made me decide that I wanted to pursue writing and what made me think that it was the right choice. 


I still believe that becoming a writer is the right path for me, but lately I am having trouble getting on that path.  I think that my biggest problem is that I really only have decent amounts of experience in academic writing. I have always excelled at academic writing but I do not want to spend the rest of my life writing essays. My real passion is fiction. I love stories, and I really love developing strong characters. But because I have less experience and less practice with fiction, I am also less confident in my ability to write it.  That lack of confidence mixed with extreme writers block has left me with very little of my own fiction. I often feel like my ideas are too cliché, boring or incomplete and almost none of them have ever made it past the outline stage. In fact I think that the last time I actually finished a piece of my own fiction was about four years ago and it was weak at best. So in my pursuit of a writing career I have an awful long way to go.

So right now I am trying very hard to improve my writing and to gain experience in fiction. I have not been able to take any writing classes in college yet but things on that front are looking up. Next semester I will be taking one class on scriptwriting and another on writing for publication so I am really hoping that those will not only help me improve my writing, but will get my creative juices flowing again too! Until then there are several ways that I have been trying to help myself that have been working to an extent. I’d like to share some of the things that do help me so that any of my fellow writers that are reading this can try them out for themselves, and maybe they can gain from them too.

           
First for the inexperienced fiction writer I really think fanfiction can be a good start. It has some great advantages. Writing fanfiction has allowed me to gain experience with story telling, character development, and my writing style. Also, posting my fanfiction on a website like Fanfiction.net allows me to gain feedback from fellow fans that leave me comments. The problem with fanfiction is that you are using characters, settings and plots from established series and just expanding on them. It is a good way to start but you do not get as much experience with creating your own elements. So I suggest that fanfiction is a starter or side project in your writing if you are trying to be a legitimate writer. However you can’t make a career out of writing fanfiction so do not over devote yourself to JUST fanfiction.   

As far as looking for good writing tips I have found a few really good sources for those. My boyfriend Daniel turned me onto a podcast called Writing Excuses. This podcast is made up of several professional writers (including Daniel’s favorite author Brandon Sanderson) who address different aspects of writing and different steps in the writing process every week. The podcasts each have a different topic, but they are not too long and they are very helpful. Basically what I do it listen to the ones that address my biggest problems in writing. I really recommend them. Also one of my favorite authors, John Green, has a vlog on YouTube with his brother (they are called the vlogbrothers). John often talks about his writing in his vlogs but not nearly as often as the writing excuses podcast, so unless you want to devote time to watching a lot of their videos you might not be able to find what you want. Or you could just watch all their vlogs like I did if you have the time since they are all good no matter the topic. Anyway back to writing tips!

           
My last and newest writing trick is a writing playlist. I have started going through my iPod while I am working on a writing piece to then add all the songs that remind me of that piece to a playlist. It really helps the creative juices flow and if you are a person who needs noise to work like I do, it is just the right amount of noise to work with. I also really like to make a playlist of random songs that just make me want to create or that get my imagination going. Music really helps me get creativite and it is the best way I have found to fight the writer’s block.

            
Even with these tricks though I think the most important thing to do when you want to write is make time to do so. Set aside an hour every day or a couple every week or weekend to just write. Something like a blog that you are making yourself post once a week or once every two weeks will help you push yourself to actually make the effort. That is what I am discovering. That is going to be my biggest goal to work towards, making my time to write and making myself write. I need to do that because if I can’t do at least that then I doubt that I can handle the pressures of a writing career. So wish me luck I guess.

            
Thank you all for reading this week! I hope that some of my fellow writers will take some of my suggestions, and please leave me your suggestions as well. I am always open to new ideas as to how I can improve my writing. In the interest of keeping up my writing I am really going to try to update this blog every week, but sometimes I have trouble coming up with topics, so if you have any ideas as to what I can write about please do not hesitate to share. So that is all for now, thanks again for reading!