The Making of a Writer

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I read somewhere recently that there are about 50 million blogs extant on the web, but only about half of those are active–i.e., showing activity within the last 30 or so days. Well, I’m not going to be in the bottom half of that class, nosirree!

Just need to make sure my posts are interesting and show my real growth as a writer.

I’m pretty sure this one doesn’t do that. But it’s here!

Bet you’re glad you subscribed now, aren’t you?

Okay. I better stop.

It’s a common question for writers: “Where do you get your ideas?” I don’t get it. I think getting ideas for things to write about is easy. So far I’ve got ideas for a themed collection of short stories, a few short story standalones, a series of novels (yes, a series!), a few magazine articles, and 2 or 3 nonfiction books (one of which I got while doing some prelimenary research for another). And I keep coming up with more.

I came up with a couple yesterday while I was mowing the grass.

And what do I do with these ideas? I dutifully jot them down in my notebook until I can sketch out a rough outline or synopsis, and then…and then…

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But I suppose everything worth doing is, hm? My two big challenges right now are finding time and finding heart.

Finding time

I knew this would be a tough one, and it is. What with the work, the kids, and all that, finding time to just write is tough. But not impossible, and others have done it.

It’s meaning making some choices, adjusting sleep times, and other changes. But it’s important, so I’ll do it. Having a supportive wife helps!

Finding heart

Sitting down to that screen and filling it up with characters is tough. Especially when the characters are coming together to make crap. See, that’s that internal editor all the writing self-help books I’ve distracted myself with over the years tell me I need to ignore. So I try that, and keep plugging along. I hope the just-write-edit-later part gets easier. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist anyway, so it’s really tough to put something down and, knowing it needs fixing, not try to fix it right away.

Just gotta remember that train: I think I can! I think I can!

It may not seem like much, but for me it’s a big step. It means something’s made the leap from “Story Idea” to “Story.”

It’s not reading a how-to book.
It’s not reading how-to articles on the web.
It’s not reading a writing magazine.
It’s not dinking around with writing software demos.
It’s not grasping at thin excuses for work in an effort to avoid real work.

It’s not “planning.” It’s doing.

Trust me, this is a big deal.

Of course, when you start a blog, you tell all your friends, “Hey, I started a blog! Check it out!” Then they roll their eyes, check it out, and say, “Yes, very nice.” Which is what my friends did. Except one, who added, “Um, it’s kind of ugly.”

Whaddya mean it’s ugly? It’s beautiful!

To make a long story short, on his machine it is ugly. On mine it is beautiful. Why? Well, it turns out…

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