Post by Siana Blackwood on Sept 8, 2013 16:52:00 GMT 10
Pep Talk #1
I have no idea when (if?) more of these will be coming, but I've been feeling down and I've been told somewhere out there is at least one other writer who feels exactly the way I do. Therefore, the following message will be of great help and comfort to someone:
That book you're working on? It's worth the effort.
Writing isn't always easy. For every day of awesome, there might be 29 days of gloom. Sometimes we question the entire process. Sometimes it seems like a new process or new software is the only possible way to keep getting words on paper. There are even days when a new hobby seems like the best option. Why write at all when the entire thing is such crap?
...and this is why pep talks are hard to write. I type all this and think "Yeah, but what if I'm the only one? Maybe everyone else is bursting with optimism and literary fire, pumping out dozens of first drafts that are only a spell-check away from being ready to publish and..."
*slams on the brakes*
Nothing good comes from that line of thought, kids, so back to the theme of this pep talk. Let's have a little list of things to remember.
1. Your book is worth the effort
2. You are not alone
3. 'Crap' is 1,000,000% better than 'Not written'
It gets a bit weird and tl;dr after this, so feel free to go on with whatever you were doing before you visited this thread.
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Your book is worth the effort
First, ask yourself a question: is your current project a book you want to read?
If you just answered 'no', drop the damn thing like a hot rock and go write something you do like. That's strange, contrary-to-the-wrimo-philosophy advice, but it's a really big thing I've had to figure out for myself and I think everyone else should learn it the easy way. 'Because it would be publishable' or some variant is NEVER a reason to write a book. Write about characters and scenarios you love. Then, when things are looking bad and you wonder why you're writing, it's going to be easy as pie to write out a list of things you still love about this book.
'Easy as pie'? First of all - terrible cliché. Second - since when was pie easy? You have to make the pastry, roll it out just right, get it into the dish without destroying all your careful rolling efforts... Then there's blind-baking, preparing fillings, coming up with exactly the right custard/ice-cream/gravy/sauce. PIE IS NOT EASY! CLICHÉ INVALID.
*ahem*
*shrug*
Everyone stopped reading at the 'scene break' anyway. Pie-related rants can safely be ignored. Where was I?
Oh, right - write a book you love. Because you love the concept and the characters, you'll always be able to find reasons to keep going with the writing/rewriting/editing that's going to turn the book into something other people will love. Therefore, what you're doing right now is totally worth the effort.
You are not alone
Look around you. What do you see?
Bedroom? Office? Corner of the living room? Dog kennel?
Writing is a solitary occupation... in a way. You're physically isolated, but as you write you also share mental space with all the personalities and conflicts of your characters. Get to know them, whether in their own universe or in weird AU fiction that I totally encourage you to post in your PPTs. The more you know your characters, the more they know what they want from life. Ask then questions. Make them find their way out of their own plot holes. Like writing in general, getting to know your characters is a thing worth doing.
You should also have seen something else when you looked around, or at least you're seeing it now. SeptNoWriMo is a lot more than just a challenge - it's a support group, a circle of like-minded friends and a place to get into the 'writer' frame of mind. Whatever problems you might have with writing this month, talk it over with the other SeptNo writers. You might be surprised by some of their suggestions.
I'm pretty sure it will be a pleasant surprise...
'Crap' is 1,000,000% better than 'Not written'
Pretty self-explanatory, really, but I'd like to make a weird suggestion.
Go and find an old draft, complete or otherwise. Read enough of it that you can reasonably say you've covered a few days of writing. Now, could you tell where one day ended and the next began? I know I can't. As for telling if I was going great one day and felt terrible the next? Well, if I can't tell days apart how am I going to tell my mood?
So, the coherent version of it is this: six months from now, you won't know the difference between days when it was easy and days when it was hard. Therefore, it's worth writing a little bit no matter how you feel, because a few words is ALWAYS better than nothing at all.
Also, you can fix anything. Even blank pages - just write something on them and that little problem disappears.
So, go and do it. Fix something, whether it's the next blank page or the next thing to edit. It's worth the effort.