Thursday, October 18, 2012

21 Lies Writers Tell Themselves

I don't know about you, but sometimes it's a whole lot easier talking about writing than actually doing it sometimes. But as we've all discovered a time or two, good intentions alone don't get that manuscript done. Hard work does.

It's funny what little lies we tell ourselves as writers, and as much as I hate to admit it, this author of this article hit proverbial the nail on the head with so many of these. Well, except #1. I'm a freelance writer and while I may sport some flannel pajama bottoms from time to time, I've never mistaken undies for actual pants. Thank goodness for that, right?

Happy writing this week and here's to no more excuses!

:) Christa


5 comments:

  1. Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to improve my writing craft by reading blogs and books on the subject that I kind of forget to practice what I've learned. Thanks for this reminder!

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  2. Well, I applaud myself for wearing pants daily. I'm glad I don't live that lie.

    I'm guilty of reading blogs & books when I could be writing. Another thing is thinking about writing, I'm in the middle. There are times I'm focused in my thinking of characters and plot and the other times where I'm thinking "if I wanna be a writer. I should be writing. I don't know what to write about but I really want to be a writer."

    A problem I have is my stories not developing the way I envisioned. I get frustrated and stuck I end up spending my time reading about writing or reading book descriptions wondering how I could write a story like that. I am in that moment right now. I trying to decide if I need to start a different story. The one I have now is a good premise, 5 k in I realize that's all there is, I don't have a plot and I'm not sure what to do. It's a good premise, one I don't think will leave me alone, I just dont know if I'm ready to write it. Does that make sense? I'm torn between just write a really crappy first draft or find a different story. Then I look for a different story and realize ideas aren't the problem- decveloping them and writing them all the way through is the problem. It takes me back to the same question, when do I throw in the towel on a story. *faca palm*

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    Replies
    1. I can definitely relate, Tonya. I've been told by a couple of people and several books that the best way to write a story is to just write the first draft. I doesn't have to be good, it just has to be there. I can't make myself do that with my story, though, because I'm not comfortable with the idea, yet.
      SO, I've decided to give National Novel Writing Month a shot in November. I'm not going to use my main story for it because I'm not comfortable with that process yet. If it's a new story, it won't be as personal. At least not at first -starting is the hard part. Hopefully this will just be a practice run for "getting the story down" and nothing else. Maybe you should try that. I'm doing it with my writing buddy so we can encourage each other.

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    2. Thanks Ashley! Good luck with nano :)

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  3. That rocks, Ashley! I'm going to NANO with my current WIP just to get my word count moving forward to!!! Love the discussion here, girls. :)

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