Things I Must Remember

If you are reading this, you probably know that I dream of becoming a writer. And not an advice columnist in a newspaper, or someone who types out instruction manuals (although there is nothing wrong with either). Quite honestly, I dream of becoming a successful, accomplished novelist- someone who can tell important stories, and make perfect strangers see the things I see, and know what I know, just using the right words. I realize it's... ambitious, to say the least. Maybe it's not practical. But it's what I want, what I dream about.

And lately, I've been making a lot of progress! I've gotten a good chunk written of what could well be my first book. It's incredible, and exciting.. a little daunting.

And in order to force myself into making more and more progress, I've come up with a short list of rules that I MUST follow... and I thought I'd share them with you! I think some of them transcend the rules of "writing" and might be applied to other projects as well. If that is the case, I hope they might help you!

YOU MUST WRITE (AT LEAST A LITTLE BIT) EVERY DAY

Progress of any sort is your friend! Even if you just write a page, that's a page more than you had written this morning. Even if you end up deleting it or changing it later! At the very least, you will have written something out that you know does not work for the book or the character in question- something to avoid, or build on. But it is more likely that once you start writing, you will keep going! You will pull yourself more and more deeply into the story, and more and more good ideas will come.


YOU ARE NEVER ALLOWED TO COMPLETELY DOUBT YOURSELF

This is a bit of a tricky balance, because some doubt is okay at times- it can make you want to change what you wrote, to make it better. But when you get into the "Oh, I SUCK at writing," or, "I'm NEVER going to get this published," you know what? Shut your yap. You certainly won't get published with that attitude! And if you truly doubt your writing ability, you might not write. And if you don't write at all, well you CERTAINLY won't become a success then, will you? More than a little tweaking, DON'T DOUBT YOURSELF! It's poison.


YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHER WRITERS

This one might be the hardest of all for me... I read constantly, and if I hadn't been an avid reader all my life, I probably wouldn't have wanted to become a writer in the first place. But you have to try and force yourself to enjoy other writer's stories, and admire their "voice," how they write and the different styles they use, but NOT COMPARE these styles to yours. You're not gonna write like them, are you? No! You're gonna write like you. And that is not a bad thing. Read other writers' work for enjoyment and for inspiration, not something to copy.


YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO GIVE UP

We all have off days! When you're writing and you get stuck, don't give up.. take a little break and try again! Or skip ahead. You've put this much work into the project so far- don't even think about giving it up!


Like I said, I hope these guidelines might apply to other things in life- or maybe even life itself! When it comes to life, move forward, make progress! Don't doubt yourself- you'll do okay! Don't expect to live someone else's life- yours is gonna be unique. And don't ever, ever give up!

Sorry if I got a little corny there!

:)

Happy Wordsday Thursday!

Sarah