The process

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Ernest Hemingway

I've never been the type of person to outline or even plan things out too much in my creative writing. When I first started writing the novella, I frankly had no idea how it was going to end; one of its major plot lines did not even occur to me until I had been working on it for about a month. When I plan my writing too much, it sounds trite. To me, the best raw, emotional content comes from writing on the fly. This is virtually the only area of my life where I like to be spontaneous, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Deep down, I think once I have the time to really sit down with this and start formulating sentences, I'll be fine. It's the planning that's psyching me out.

Until I wrote the novella in my capstone and was required to spend a solid month editing it, I always likened my writing style to a flash flood, or a tornado, or something of that ilk. My inspiration would come full force out of nowhere, and I would frantically create page after page without so much as a break. Before I knew it, I would be done, and that would be that. Now I have a better handle at going back and seeing what realistically works and what doesn't, although the major chunk of my writing is still created in a few long, frenetic sittings. After any of these sessions, I tend to feel as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders; in this respect, Hemingway is dead on in his comparison of writing to bleeding, especially since I consider my words to be such a part of me.

This is a lesson in procrastination...

Hi! And thanks to Brand New for my subject line.

So...today is May 20. Which means we're nearly at the halfway point for 2012. Which means I should be nearly halfway done with this endeavor, eh?

I'm almost embarrassed to admit how little I've worked on this since I last posted. It's not that I don't want to. Trust me, nothing would make me happier than having a solid, dependable chunk of time to write each week. Unfortunately, my life doesn't work like that. During my semester break from school (which lasted all of two and a half weeks, but yeah), I worked a lot of extra hours. I also went away for a few days. Now my summer semester is starting, and that extra time has been replaced by learning about designing databases and the like. I barely have time to see my friends or go to the gym, much less write.

A large part of my problem is that I'm still lacking inspiration. That's the one thing I hate about creativity: when you have it, you have it. And when it runs dry...well, this is what happens. Thing is, I know that if I try hard enough, I can break out of my slump. I have before. It just requires a lot of time, like most things worth doing. This is why I think I'm going to seek out some writing prompts and start posting them in here. Sure, they probably won't be related to my story, but they should at least get me back into the habit of writing.

When it comes down to it, there's really no rush to finish this. I would rather take longer and be happier with the end result than half-ass it quickly. My only (somewhat irrational) fear is that if I don't do it now, I won't get to do it at all. This is why I need to at least start doing something. Starting small is better than nothing.

The way I see it is that if I can schedule things like working out, catching up on my TV shows, and occasionally going out, I can schedule writing too. So, with that in mind, my new goal is to post something in here at least once a week. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as its related to getting this thing going. It's a start, right?

Wish me luck!