Let me just say up front that I am an aspiring writer. I say this despite having blogged and kept a personal journal for many years. Although those are examples of writing, they are not the type of structured writing that one would do for a novel.
So, I suppose that when I say that I am an aspiring writer, it would be more precise to say that I am aspiring novel writer.
Having said that, here is what I am doing to make this whole novel writing thing work for me. First, I am approaching this as a business. Until recently, it has been a creative desire. Writing a novel was something that I wanted to ooze out of my fingers onto the keyboard because of some creative mumbo jumbo. That has not worked thus far. I never got past a couple of pages on any story.
What has changed is that I have come to realize that I need a process and I need focus. There is also a book, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, in which the author points out that you should approach important things in your life as if you were a professional.
So, I started thinking. If I were a professional writer, how would I approach things differently? Obviously, not being a professional writer, I would not know the first thing to do. Fortunately, there are tons of professional writers who write about being professional writers. And they make Youtube videos too! Or, at the very least, they blog.
After much research, I stumbled across many things that I could do to become more professional in my writing. Particularly, I stumbled upon the Snowflake method of writing by Randy Ingermanson. I looked at his website and decided to buy the book. I like the way Ingermanson details a process for writing a novel. It speaks to me and gives me the clarity I needed to see the project through. Granted, I have not started writing yet. It took me a while to read through the book. I have a habit of reading multiple books, which slows down my progress, especially with educational stuff. I have finished reading.
Where do I go from here? I am at the point where I just need to get started. The first part of the Snowflake method is to spend an hour writing a one-sentence description of my story. I think I will do that tonight.
And then there are other common things that writers tend to do, which will assist me in becoming one. One of these common traits is to just sit down and write. To quote Yoda, "Do or do not. There is no try." It is important to just get to work writing rather than think about writing.
Another common trait is that writers focus on writing. Many of them are not checking their Twitter or Facebook while they are in production. Their focus is on writing for as long as they can maintain that focus. That is what I must emulate. I have a separate blog post on this coming up.
In the end, I have a process to follow, I have the tools, and I have the mindset to make this work. I am optimistic about my chances in churning out this novel. Thinking about writing as a business rather than only as a means of expression is making all the difference. I am not leaving anything to chance.
So, I suppose that when I say that I am an aspiring writer, it would be more precise to say that I am aspiring novel writer.
Having said that, here is what I am doing to make this whole novel writing thing work for me. First, I am approaching this as a business. Until recently, it has been a creative desire. Writing a novel was something that I wanted to ooze out of my fingers onto the keyboard because of some creative mumbo jumbo. That has not worked thus far. I never got past a couple of pages on any story.
What has changed is that I have come to realize that I need a process and I need focus. There is also a book, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, in which the author points out that you should approach important things in your life as if you were a professional.
So, I started thinking. If I were a professional writer, how would I approach things differently? Obviously, not being a professional writer, I would not know the first thing to do. Fortunately, there are tons of professional writers who write about being professional writers. And they make Youtube videos too! Or, at the very least, they blog.
After much research, I stumbled across many things that I could do to become more professional in my writing. Particularly, I stumbled upon the Snowflake method of writing by Randy Ingermanson. I looked at his website and decided to buy the book. I like the way Ingermanson details a process for writing a novel. It speaks to me and gives me the clarity I needed to see the project through. Granted, I have not started writing yet. It took me a while to read through the book. I have a habit of reading multiple books, which slows down my progress, especially with educational stuff. I have finished reading.
Where do I go from here? I am at the point where I just need to get started. The first part of the Snowflake method is to spend an hour writing a one-sentence description of my story. I think I will do that tonight.
And then there are other common things that writers tend to do, which will assist me in becoming one. One of these common traits is to just sit down and write. To quote Yoda, "Do or do not. There is no try." It is important to just get to work writing rather than think about writing.
Another common trait is that writers focus on writing. Many of them are not checking their Twitter or Facebook while they are in production. Their focus is on writing for as long as they can maintain that focus. That is what I must emulate. I have a separate blog post on this coming up.
In the end, I have a process to follow, I have the tools, and I have the mindset to make this work. I am optimistic about my chances in churning out this novel. Thinking about writing as a business rather than only as a means of expression is making all the difference. I am not leaving anything to chance.