Rohvannyn Shaw's Blog: The Pencil and Quill - Posts Tagged "writing"

Ever have that feeling where you really want to write, but can't find the time - then when you do find the time, you can't decide what to write? That's about where I am right now. I have three works in progress at the moment and a short story that's thinking about emerging.

The short story is based on this drawing. I made it last night, for Inktober, and I think there's a story in it somewhere. It's an illustration waiting for a narrative...

image:

I have written since I was fairly young. Before I learned to type, it was something of a chore yet I had the urge to do it. My mother writes poetry and short stories, my father writes short stories, novels, non fiction and the occasional very good poem. I definitely take after them.

Though I liked to write when I was in college, for instance, I wasn't very good at finishing things. I'd get bored too easily or I'd lose the urge to write for long periods of time. I've found that blogging has made me more accustomed to working on something every day. In fact, I hope that my Inktober practice will make me used to drawing every day as well.

Blogging started really interesting me when I joined a site that paid for views, comments, and likes on short posts. You could do up to ten a day. It taught me to write better headlines, write tighter prose, and caused me to really appreciate the five paragraph essay. That site is defunct or I'd name it here.

When the site went down, I'd saved most of my entries so I decided to use it as a start to a blog. By then I'd learned that the secret to finishing a longer piece is just to keep working on it, and not stop to edit until I had the main content of the work on paper. Editing before you are done with the rough draft is a recipe for never finishing.

So, if you have trouble finishing things, it's good to practice with shorter works, and not stop to edit!

“Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.”

- Winston Churchill

I love this quote because that's about where I am. I have one novel in final edit and another in rough edit. It seems like I'll never be done!

Yet, I know that in a few months I will be done. I'm trying to give these books the benefit of the experience I gained writing my first novel. Some of that is coming through in my page layout and design, which I'm rather happy about.

I continue to read "Writer's Companion" by Richard Marius, the original edition. It's an incredible resource. It's designed for essayists so it's perfect for me as a blogger, and it's really helped my style as a novelist too. I highly recommend it to everyone.