About a month ago, I finally started to write a book. Not just a story line, a plot, an idea or a beginning of a story, but an actual book, probably for the first time in my life. Oh, I’ve started to write a book a million times before, but I don’t think I ever really believed that I could finish it. Maybe I had a plot, but I just couldn’t put any meat around that skeleton, or then I just wrote, but couldn’t figure out a plausible plot. I had a lot of fun coming up with different worlds and characters, thinking what they would say and how they would act, but when it came time to actually sit down and write, I just couldn’t do it.
Then, a month ago, I made a decision. I would write a thousand words every day, save the occasional free day to vent my mind. My boyfriend gave me an idea for a story, and I just started to write. Even though the idea originally was to write something every day just to get used to the practice and hone my writing, I think that somewhere in the back of my head I knew from the beginning that this time I would do it for real. I would start to write a book, and I wouldn’t stop before I’d finished it.
Now that I’m past my first 25 000 words, I’m really starting to feel the pressure. Even though I feel my writing is complete shit, and no amount of editing could make that right, I can’t just drop the project and walk away. I have to finish it. No matter how crappy the story turns out to be, I need to finish it. Finish it, just finish it! (as someone once said).
The problem is, I have no idea how. From the start, I’ve been following the advice of my favorite author, Stephen King, and I’ve been writing without a plot. I had an idea, a scenario, and I started to develop it, wondering what would happen, how it would turn out, so even I haven’t been able to tell what’s going to happen in the next two pages (around 1000 words). I’ve been figuring things out while I go along. But now I’ve really hit a road block. In the beginning there was a sub plot that was easy to develop, but now I’ve come to the point where I actually have to start deciding the big lines, and that scares me.
So, I started to write a blog. Partly to share my worries and problems and ideas with my fellow writers, partly in anticipation of the future. If I ever really do finish my book (and I’ll be damned if I won’t!) and decide to publish it (a big gulp!), I’m going to need a marketing channel. And even though this blog might not get a million readers, or any at all, it’s as good a start as any.
Hello, fellow writer :) you made the right decision in starting this blog. I find that any problem, when written down, becomes smaller. ;)
VastaaPoistaWrite if you want to write. Don't consider your work shit. It probably isn't. :) Consider your motivations (aka: why do I want to write this book? who will it benefit? does it have a message?) and toil on!