Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Back to Basics

Today marked the official day of rest after thirty days of unfiltered and (hopefully) uninhibited writing. Today is the day that most writers, whether they finished their objective or not, take a breath and ask what the hell just happened?

As you're re-assimilating back into the "real world", let me extend out a congratulatory round of applause for those of you who made their goal target of 50,000 words or more! Woohoo! I too know that thrill of finally sitting down and writing out that damned illusive novel. There's nothing like that high of accomplishment that makes you feel like you can take on a grizzly bear Wyatt Earp style and win. So whether it's a complete novel or a good chunk of something larger, bravo my fellow writers! Bravo!

While I sported my participation badges on my facebook accounts, I alas could not jump on the novel writing bandwagon. My original zombie apocalypse story idea that I've been sitting on for a while just wasn't ready to hatch yet. While I did get a good portion of the world and the characters fleshed out, mostly it felt like I was beating my head against a cement wall. I finally walked away when all of my writer's block symptoms matched my "put it back in the oven" checklist.

I was sort of bummed and depressed by the whole situation. I thought writing my [Zombies!] story would be a great way to sort of test out self-publishing and make an extra dollar or two. I now realize I was pushing myself to write it for all the wrong reasons. That and every time I sat down to think, plot, and create for my nano project my science fiction story would some how emerge into my thought patterns. Which was ironic considering I had told myself that it wasn't ready, that I wasn't ready, and that we needed more time to sit on it.

Instead of fighting with it, I let it flow. For weeks I felt blocked and stunted with my [Zombies!] story. Almost to the point where I started even questioning my own ability to write. Had I lost it to episodes of "My Little Ponies" and little girl giggles? Maybe I should go back to work and sink back into the world of technical writing... These self-defeating thoughts plagued me until I finally stopped and just went with these little nudges from my [Space!] story.

I'm so glad I did! Instead of running, I'm addressing the reasons why I thought the story was too big for my writing capabilities. I've researched story structure and dissected I don't know how many books, movies, and television shows. I'm going back through the snowflake outline I did for my story and editing it. I finally found my spark again and my reason for writing. :-)

Got to love those crises of faith. ;-)

1 comment:

  1. Feeling blocked like that is never fun. Glad you were able to find your spark again!

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