- Joined
- Nov 12, 2020
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 0
...you no longer have any of your Stuff. None of the notebooks you scribbled in, none of your old computer discs or drives, none of the clippings you proudly kept after you were published in a hobby magazine. And none of your books: none of the novels — the paperbacks, the hardcovers, the ones you had signed by a favourite author — none of the role-playing game rulebooks, none of the uplifting self-help books. None of the writing advice books, either.
Now, with a secure and stable roof over my head, I've been daring to begin again. Not necessarily to acquire Stuff; that is transitory. I had to ask myself my worth as a person, as a person in society, as an artist. Well, I thought: I am a Writer, and therefore I shall Write.
Only I didn't write. With fewer distractions available, it was glaringly obvious. My avoidance and procrastination was — I want to call it "pathological," but that might be extreme. Then a friend linked on Facebook to a Dean Wesley Smith article about writers "invested in not writing." It explained a lot of what I'd been doing with a "writing to market" novella that has been an albatross around my neck (or is it a millstone? Hm... an albastone? A millbatross?). I started it four years ago, in the months before my wife passed away.
At 16,000 words, I could build it up to 20k, I figured (as NaNoites sped around me). That'd be a minimal product to test the waters. Would it be acceptable to readers, I wondered?
I showed the opening to an editor, and my delusions of adequacy came crashing down.
So after thirty years of writing/not writing, I am starting again as a beginner to learn how to create stories. I wonder if I have any stories to tell. (I want to write science fiction and fantasy, but some of my strongest work is nonfiction; I feel like a rally car driver envying the guys on the motorcycle racing course.)
I am going to ask for, and intend to take, advice meant for someone learning to write again.
Now, with a secure and stable roof over my head, I've been daring to begin again. Not necessarily to acquire Stuff; that is transitory. I had to ask myself my worth as a person, as a person in society, as an artist. Well, I thought: I am a Writer, and therefore I shall Write.
Only I didn't write. With fewer distractions available, it was glaringly obvious. My avoidance and procrastination was — I want to call it "pathological," but that might be extreme. Then a friend linked on Facebook to a Dean Wesley Smith article about writers "invested in not writing." It explained a lot of what I'd been doing with a "writing to market" novella that has been an albatross around my neck (or is it a millstone? Hm... an albastone? A millbatross?). I started it four years ago, in the months before my wife passed away.
At 16,000 words, I could build it up to 20k, I figured (as NaNoites sped around me). That'd be a minimal product to test the waters. Would it be acceptable to readers, I wondered?
I showed the opening to an editor, and my delusions of adequacy came crashing down.
So after thirty years of writing/not writing, I am starting again as a beginner to learn how to create stories. I wonder if I have any stories to tell. (I want to write science fiction and fantasy, but some of my strongest work is nonfiction; I feel like a rally car driver envying the guys on the motorcycle racing course.)
I am going to ask for, and intend to take, advice meant for someone learning to write again.