Ever since I can remember I have wanted to be an author. I remember writing stories at school, that were complete nonsense, but thinking how much I loved getting lost in the process of character building, plots and fantasy worlds where I was the ruler of all and no one could tell me I was wrong.
Fast forward to me now, age 31, with probably about twenty, two-page long beginnings of stories. Some are longer, I have a couple of 15,000+ word docs going, but I never seem to be able to get any further. I wrote a book once, a couple of years ago, I sent it to a bunch of agents, but received no interest. I was prepared for this, it happens to the best, right? (Apparently, some agents even turned down Harry Potter, bet they're out of a job now...) But I wasn't prepared for the mental block it seems to have planted in the area of my brain entitled "Plots". Every time I start to write, I get a certain way in and then I think "What a load of crap, there's no point in me carrying on with this". Yet I'm loathe to delete any of them, and so I drift from document to document, curling my lip at some, writing another sentence in another. I'm half tempted to delete the lot, but that's the kind of thing that ends in me going "WHY did I DO that?!" so I don't.
HOW do I stop doing this? And HOW do I STOP WRITING IN CAPITALS?? But seriously, I just can't think of an idea and stick to it. I've seen the same tip a million times over, "Write something every day, even if it's only a sentence", does this mean write something in the same piece of work? If not, no problem, I can open 15 documents and write things like "I have nothing to write".
I should probably plan, I know this, and I have planned, believe me - I have a whole file dedicated to character profiles, plots, sub-plots, settings etc etc etc, but when it comes down to actually getting going, I stall - like an old Metro on a January morning... I have no idea why this has started happening, but I have to get round it. This is part of the reason why I've started a blog.
Right, I'm off to open another document and write sweet F A.
Fast forward to me now, age 31, with probably about twenty, two-page long beginnings of stories. Some are longer, I have a couple of 15,000+ word docs going, but I never seem to be able to get any further. I wrote a book once, a couple of years ago, I sent it to a bunch of agents, but received no interest. I was prepared for this, it happens to the best, right? (Apparently, some agents even turned down Harry Potter, bet they're out of a job now...) But I wasn't prepared for the mental block it seems to have planted in the area of my brain entitled "Plots". Every time I start to write, I get a certain way in and then I think "What a load of crap, there's no point in me carrying on with this". Yet I'm loathe to delete any of them, and so I drift from document to document, curling my lip at some, writing another sentence in another. I'm half tempted to delete the lot, but that's the kind of thing that ends in me going "WHY did I DO that?!" so I don't.
HOW do I stop doing this? And HOW do I STOP WRITING IN CAPITALS?? But seriously, I just can't think of an idea and stick to it. I've seen the same tip a million times over, "Write something every day, even if it's only a sentence", does this mean write something in the same piece of work? If not, no problem, I can open 15 documents and write things like "I have nothing to write".
I should probably plan, I know this, and I have planned, believe me - I have a whole file dedicated to character profiles, plots, sub-plots, settings etc etc etc, but when it comes down to actually getting going, I stall - like an old Metro on a January morning... I have no idea why this has started happening, but I have to get round it. This is part of the reason why I've started a blog.
Right, I'm off to open another document and write sweet F A.
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