In my previous posts, I’ve concentrated on the personal side of the writing journey, dealing with the writer versus the paper or blank computer screen. Much of the journey will definitely travel a path with these factors at the front of your goals and ambitions. For some, this could come as a wonderful, escapist trap.
If this is the lone reason you write, my next few posts won’t make much difference for you. However, if you aspire to more than just a scribbler, if you’d like to be published, you’ll need to break away from the writing space.
Let me come at this from a different angle.
Your day should consist of more than get up, eat, go to writing space, breaks for sustenance and disposal, then return to bed. The writing will suffer with a lack of stimulation. Not to mention, with the lack of personal contact, you’ll start going a little insane.
I see the tic starting in those eyes already.
How can you not remain trapped in your own mind?
A lot of writing deals with the "What If" type thought process. It becomes increasingly difficult to create those scenarios if you have no basis for them. Step away from the writing space, stretch your mind and body, and experience LIFE! Walk though the park, drive to the local mall and people watch, find a local museum. Heck, even hang out at the library. I’m not suggesting that you need to spend oh my god amounts of money. But you do need to see the world in order to offer the insights that your writing will grow from and be made believable.
Another thing I’d encourage a writer to do is READ. I understand the fear of writing like the author that you’re reading. Imitation is okay when you first get started on a draft. The more you write, the more you develop your own style, your own "voice" as the experts call it. It’s possible to write in your own voice even as you read others.
As a different way to look at it, how can you claim to have written a literary masterpiece if you haven’t read anything to compare it to?
For those of us who hate crowds, me being one, I know this is a difficult task to accomplish. But I can also offer a different tact that will get human contact. Find a local writing group. They can be small groups that gather to share wisdom of the writing journey, as well as helping each other find errors that one might miss in their own editing passes.
There are those out there that state what I’m writing here are just clichés of the writing world and to ignore everything I’ve offered.
Even the anarchist will sound like a cliché after a while.
Consider I only offer my opinion on all these posts. My opinion comes from research and personal experience. Mine is but one person’s journey along this crazy planet. Others will experience different issues, different life-changing events. That’s not to say any offered view is wrong. It’s what makes we humans unique.
1 comment:
I struggle with breaking out of the cave all the time. Definitely, I've had periods where my writing became stagnant, and those were often periods of isolation. Going outside and doing something real-- feeling the breeze on your skin, smelling the roses-- is a good way to experience something new.
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