|
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is upon us again, dear writers. It’s a fantastic event that has permanently welded together my love of fall (warm coffee, muffins, and all things squash) to my love of intense creative output. NaNoWriMo challenges writers to write The challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. But even if you don’t have novel bursting forth from your… chest or whatnot—you can still participate in spirit. Last year I wrote an academic article in November instead of something fictional, but it was still intense and I used NaNoWriMo’s encouragement to get me through.
0 Comments
Some things about the early stages of writing are universal: the exhilaration of epiphany, the struggle to wrangle that amorphous epiphany into actual words, and rampant hair-pulling when the words won’t play fair.
But then again every writer’s process is different-- it’s this weird scaffold of habits and strategies lashed together that capitalizes on your strengths and fights against your weaknesses as you summit the WIP mountain. So this week I’m revealing my things that make my neurotic process uniquely mine and explaining why my habits are what they are. The hope is you then think about your process deeply and see what’s working for you, why, and what needs to be changed to get you to the summit. The online literary review Bookends published a flash fiction piece I wrote called "The First Time Once." I'm linking it here because it is a rumination on writing partnerships. Enjoy!
I worried and sweated over my dissertation the most while I was avoiding it. At dinner, at the movies, singing karaoke-- it loomed. I hefted this 200-page boulder around (literally and metaphorically) for years as it poisoned my life. I remember sitting down to a pleasant lunch with some old friends about six months into drafting. One friend bravely inquired about my writing. My (very mature) response was:
“I hate it. I just HATE IT!”  Andrew Price of Blender talking about the seven habits of highly effective artists. Andrew Price’s video listing the seven habits of highly effective artists has great insights you should start using immediately. He’s talking about practice, not craft, so any artist will find his tips useful. Since it’s also thirty minutes, I’ll summarize.
|
About Rachel
|
RSS Feed