Query
Query:
Does being a lazy writer make one not really a writer at all?
I have the unseasonable urge to make something book-tastic, but all my ideas are kind of a blur right now and I keep getting hung up on stories I wanted to tell like three years ago that never properly saw daylight. I can't decide if I should excise my darlings in book form or liquor form; if I should just buck up and write some stuff that I've been meaning to write in terms of my older ideas or start fresh.
Ideas I've had in the past:
+ The story of a 13 year old girl who hooks up with a vampire and goes on a killing spree in a rural Everytown U.S.
+ The story of concepts that visit Earth in an attempt to get people to pay more attention to them.
+ A similar story about a man who is currently confronted with the ability to see Gods and Ideas that have been extinct for generations but who are still alive, well, and working day jobs.
+ In the future, a city stripped of technology and electricity reverts to neo-feudalism in the ruins of a post-apocalyptic metropolis. This was probably my most ambitious idea, with a whole city government and political intrigue and stuff. And swords. My biggest problem is that most of my ideas are still based on stuff that's like 10 years old and I can't escape the feeling that it was the brainchild of a 14 year old.
I swear, I am not channeling the late Douglas Adams.
One big road block I keep hitting is that every time I sit down to write something, I feel like I'm just sort of vomiting all over my keyboard and then trying to salvage the one paragraph that doesn't read like some words got into an accident on my monitor. Another is that I feel like I'm continuously borrowing from other writers - yeah, yeah, I know nothing is original, but I want to feel like I've found my voice before I start trying to improve on other people's ideas. I always feel like I'm in a hurry to get to some kind of milestone, and I feel like I have a hard time writing for its own sake. Maybe I'm trying to make up for lost time or something, and I end up being self-destructive in the process.
I'm not having a crisis of faith or anything. Far from it, I want to start a project. I'm just cleaning out my "attic" first, and some advice would be appreciated.
Does being a lazy writer make one not really a writer at all?
I have the unseasonable urge to make something book-tastic, but all my ideas are kind of a blur right now and I keep getting hung up on stories I wanted to tell like three years ago that never properly saw daylight. I can't decide if I should excise my darlings in book form or liquor form; if I should just buck up and write some stuff that I've been meaning to write in terms of my older ideas or start fresh.
Ideas I've had in the past:
+ The story of a 13 year old girl who hooks up with a vampire and goes on a killing spree in a rural Everytown U.S.
+ The story of concepts that visit Earth in an attempt to get people to pay more attention to them.
+ A similar story about a man who is currently confronted with the ability to see Gods and Ideas that have been extinct for generations but who are still alive, well, and working day jobs.
+ In the future, a city stripped of technology and electricity reverts to neo-feudalism in the ruins of a post-apocalyptic metropolis. This was probably my most ambitious idea, with a whole city government and political intrigue and stuff. And swords. My biggest problem is that most of my ideas are still based on stuff that's like 10 years old and I can't escape the feeling that it was the brainchild of a 14 year old.
I swear, I am not channeling the late Douglas Adams.
One big road block I keep hitting is that every time I sit down to write something, I feel like I'm just sort of vomiting all over my keyboard and then trying to salvage the one paragraph that doesn't read like some words got into an accident on my monitor. Another is that I feel like I'm continuously borrowing from other writers - yeah, yeah, I know nothing is original, but I want to feel like I've found my voice before I start trying to improve on other people's ideas. I always feel like I'm in a hurry to get to some kind of milestone, and I feel like I have a hard time writing for its own sake. Maybe I'm trying to make up for lost time or something, and I end up being self-destructive in the process.
I'm not having a crisis of faith or anything. Far from it, I want to start a project. I'm just cleaning out my "attic" first, and some advice would be appreciated.