Hi all, a new aspiring writer joining your ranks!
This will be a rather lengthy introductory post, so I hope not to bore you all to death.
TL;DR: I have decided to actively pursue writing.
I’ve been writing since childhood, never published, writing mostly for myself, to fulfill the need and feed my soul. Needless to mention, I’m also an avid reader. However, my writing process consisted of having sudden outbursts of creativity, writing frenetically, sporadically, and above all – rarely. My main themes were everyday events with a touch of horror, fantasy, until finally sliding into complete absurdity (I have a short story which is one sentence 1 page long, telling nothing and talking about everything; and another, being a single sentence telling a story in footnotes; the third having three genres in a same story where a victim wakes up being murdered by the reader...).
In one of my stories I killed my muse, so it seems that she really took offense and left me, for I have not written in some time now, and even though I talk about taking up writing as my dream job, somewhere along the road, I settled.
I work in managerial accounting, an interesting job that challenges me every day and fulfills my need to grow and learn. Currently, we’re on financial planning and budgeting, and in the past two weeks, producing spreadsheets, analyzing, arguing, debating, listening to “cut the expenses”, “growth”, “profit” etc got me wondering: is this who I am now? Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life? We all know what kind of expenses get cut, we know there’s no growth without investment, so basically I’m just punching in numbers in Excel tables which have no base in reality, looking at all those people walking around in suits, having meetings that should have been e-mails and this is not who I am – this is not who I want to be.
So, I’ve read somewhere that the dream you write down becomes a goal and a goal broken down to steps becomes a plan. Here’s my plan:
• I have given myself 6 months to try to actively (every day) do something related to writing – the first step is joining an on-line community – that’s why I’m here.
• Next, I need to read tips and tricks of the trade, blogs, pod-casts, anything – currently on Reedsy, because the “sudden outbursts of creativity” is not viable in the long run.
• I need to step out of my comfort zone (writing for myself) and do something totally opposite because this is the only way I can “force” myself into developing habits (creating characters, thinking of the plot, writing, writing, writing every day) – for this reason I have chosen romance because I – haven’t a romantic bone in my body and despise reading romance novels (this works well with my need for growth and challenge).
What do I hope to accomplish in these six months?
• Develop a daily writing routine
• Scribble, have up to 5 abandoned but somewhat developed drafts (ideas, notes, characters, anything...)
• Write something longer than my usual short story format, no matter how bad and forced
After those six months have passed, I will revisit my (potential) accomplishments and decid my next steps. I am not completely insane, I will not quit my day job (for now), I will not dream about getting published with my first novel, but I must do – something - .
Luckily, I have a great husband who supports me completely, who told me: “If you ever feel discouraged, think about the job you have now and ask yourself – do you want to be a corporate drone for the rest of your life?”, so perhaps, one day – who knows…
Thank you all for reading! I hope I will talk to you all on this forum!
This will be a rather lengthy introductory post, so I hope not to bore you all to death.
TL;DR: I have decided to actively pursue writing.
I’ve been writing since childhood, never published, writing mostly for myself, to fulfill the need and feed my soul. Needless to mention, I’m also an avid reader. However, my writing process consisted of having sudden outbursts of creativity, writing frenetically, sporadically, and above all – rarely. My main themes were everyday events with a touch of horror, fantasy, until finally sliding into complete absurdity (I have a short story which is one sentence 1 page long, telling nothing and talking about everything; and another, being a single sentence telling a story in footnotes; the third having three genres in a same story where a victim wakes up being murdered by the reader...).
In one of my stories I killed my muse, so it seems that she really took offense and left me, for I have not written in some time now, and even though I talk about taking up writing as my dream job, somewhere along the road, I settled.
I work in managerial accounting, an interesting job that challenges me every day and fulfills my need to grow and learn. Currently, we’re on financial planning and budgeting, and in the past two weeks, producing spreadsheets, analyzing, arguing, debating, listening to “cut the expenses”, “growth”, “profit” etc got me wondering: is this who I am now? Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life? We all know what kind of expenses get cut, we know there’s no growth without investment, so basically I’m just punching in numbers in Excel tables which have no base in reality, looking at all those people walking around in suits, having meetings that should have been e-mails and this is not who I am – this is not who I want to be.
So, I’ve read somewhere that the dream you write down becomes a goal and a goal broken down to steps becomes a plan. Here’s my plan:
• I have given myself 6 months to try to actively (every day) do something related to writing – the first step is joining an on-line community – that’s why I’m here.
• Next, I need to read tips and tricks of the trade, blogs, pod-casts, anything – currently on Reedsy, because the “sudden outbursts of creativity” is not viable in the long run.
• I need to step out of my comfort zone (writing for myself) and do something totally opposite because this is the only way I can “force” myself into developing habits (creating characters, thinking of the plot, writing, writing, writing every day) – for this reason I have chosen romance because I – haven’t a romantic bone in my body and despise reading romance novels (this works well with my need for growth and challenge).
What do I hope to accomplish in these six months?
• Develop a daily writing routine
• Scribble, have up to 5 abandoned but somewhat developed drafts (ideas, notes, characters, anything...)
• Write something longer than my usual short story format, no matter how bad and forced
After those six months have passed, I will revisit my (potential) accomplishments and decid my next steps. I am not completely insane, I will not quit my day job (for now), I will not dream about getting published with my first novel, but I must do – something - .
Luckily, I have a great husband who supports me completely, who told me: “If you ever feel discouraged, think about the job you have now and ask yourself – do you want to be a corporate drone for the rest of your life?”, so perhaps, one day – who knows…
Thank you all for reading! I hope I will talk to you all on this forum!
