On Writing
I've always been something of a writer, I suppose. I always loved short story projects (I can remember being excited in grade 9 when I could write a short story in Geography class), I absolutely adored fiction-writing assignments in any class in high school - especially English, which I otherwise despised due to my teachers and my perfectionism. I took Writer's Craft, and loved it. I've been roleplaying since grade 9 as well, and the same core group of people has survived since - and it was for that forum that I started writing longer works of fiction, including the first real attempt at a novel four years ago. (Holy shit, I was 16 - and still wrote 45000 words, a lot of which I'm very proud of). And, of course, NaNoWriMo's one of the biggest parts of my year and life right now. Not only looking forward to it, but now I'm part of that anticipation process since I'm an ML.
It's recently struck me that I'm starting to make the transition from someone who writes in his spare time to someone who is serious about being a writer. The biggest piece of evidence is probably Shades of Gray, which was my NaNovel from 2010; it's the first thing that I've finished - and then immediately became the first thing that I've edited and done large-scale cuts to. Stripped some of my favourite lines, too! And, what's more, I actually submitted it to a publisher. I don't know if it'll actually make it - they've gotten thousands of submissions, and even with the 15% that're being immediately tossed, that's still a lot of novels to read through.
One of my NaNo friends has made a goal to submit one thing to something - a magazine, a competition, a contest - each month. I think I'm going to do the same thing, especially since I've discovered I can write short stories if I really try.
But the most poignant thing, to me - the thing that tells me I'm a Writer and not just a writer - is that my day revolves around writing. While I'm at work, I'm thinking about writing, about what I need to edit, what I need to add, what should be cut, what would work for the sequel. I dream about my characters, and when I don't, that new idea becomes a short story idea on a sticky note for my desktop. When I'm on the bus listening to music, I wonder if the main characters I'm working with right now would like this band. When I hear an interesting line, I throw it on my desktop, too - either as a title, as a story idea, or as a quote to maybe-eventually-sometime-potentially use. I'm doing Script Frenzy this year - not because I think I'm going to be any good at writing a script, and not because I needed the extra work, but because I always worry about stilted dialogue in my prose.
A friend was telling me about how she's in Las Vegas right now, and she went to a gun range with her husband. My first thought: Oh, cool! I want to do that some time - I'm sure that it'd make good research, I'll write about guns eventually!
I feel I should apologize to all my non-writing friends, 'cause I'm sure that you're getting annoyed at how often I can't do something because of a writing session, or how often our conversations are interrupted by 'brb, wordwar'.
... Ah, well! TIME TO WRITE I AM SO FAR BEHIND IN SCRENZY
It's recently struck me that I'm starting to make the transition from someone who writes in his spare time to someone who is serious about being a writer. The biggest piece of evidence is probably Shades of Gray, which was my NaNovel from 2010; it's the first thing that I've finished - and then immediately became the first thing that I've edited and done large-scale cuts to. Stripped some of my favourite lines, too! And, what's more, I actually submitted it to a publisher. I don't know if it'll actually make it - they've gotten thousands of submissions, and even with the 15% that're being immediately tossed, that's still a lot of novels to read through.
One of my NaNo friends has made a goal to submit one thing to something - a magazine, a competition, a contest - each month. I think I'm going to do the same thing, especially since I've discovered I can write short stories if I really try.
But the most poignant thing, to me - the thing that tells me I'm a Writer and not just a writer - is that my day revolves around writing. While I'm at work, I'm thinking about writing, about what I need to edit, what I need to add, what should be cut, what would work for the sequel. I dream about my characters, and when I don't, that new idea becomes a short story idea on a sticky note for my desktop. When I'm on the bus listening to music, I wonder if the main characters I'm working with right now would like this band. When I hear an interesting line, I throw it on my desktop, too - either as a title, as a story idea, or as a quote to maybe-eventually-sometime-potentially use. I'm doing Script Frenzy this year - not because I think I'm going to be any good at writing a script, and not because I needed the extra work, but because I always worry about stilted dialogue in my prose.
A friend was telling me about how she's in Las Vegas right now, and she went to a gun range with her husband. My first thought: Oh, cool! I want to do that some time - I'm sure that it'd make good research, I'll write about guns eventually!
I feel I should apologize to all my non-writing friends, 'cause I'm sure that you're getting annoyed at how often I can't do something because of a writing session, or how often our conversations are interrupted by 'brb, wordwar'.
... Ah, well! TIME TO WRITE I AM SO FAR BEHIND IN SCRENZY