This one is to all you readers who are also writers. I need help. (This is the part where you all get to learn my bad side... *sigh*) I am really bad at sticking to one task for longer than a few days. I've only managed to stick to something long enough to finish it once, and I'm still working on it now, after an entire year has gone by. I bounce around between genres depending on my mood and what movies/TV I have been watching, and most of the time I get to between 9k-20k and quit, either because I'm bored, or I want to write something else, or I don't like where the plot is going and I can't stick with it long enough to fix it.
There, now you all know what a bad writer I am. I know that'll shatter at least one person's view of me, and you can think less of me, but it's the truth.
Now, here's the question to all you writers. How do you stick to a novel long enough to see it finished? I would like to know your secret, so that I can do the same, and finish something.
I have a friend who says that he doesn't worry about me and my writing career because he 'knows' that I finish things, but I really don't, and I don't know where he got the idea. I've only ever finished one thing, and it's still not novel length. Sure, I've written two short stories and they both went on to win at least second place in contests at my local library, but that's not the same as a novel. And I really want to be able to finish things, so that I can have them move out of the way for my millions of other projects I have lined up in my head.
Okay, I'm done with my ranting and complaining.
Thank you for any help anyone is willing to give.
2 comments:
Ha! Noble, don't beat yourself up! You are NOT a bad writer! It sounds like you have so many good ideas you are trying to get them all going! Relax! You just need a bit of discipline. Just stick to one novel and no matter how much you hate the plot or the characters, just keep going. I think Neil Gaimen said he had the same problem. In all of his novels he hated the books while he was writing them, but he stuck it out and by the end he loved them again (and sold millions of copies). So maybe it's just your writing style. Just stick it out!
Also, Since November, I haven't written at all. Maybe we could help each other? We could have write-ins together and maybe set goals together and make sure the other person makes that goal. What do you think?
I kind of like that idea. It would be great to have a writing group up here, one that I could reach without the four hour trip both ways.
I'm thinking maybe twice a month, that way it's not too overwhelming, starting in January. What do you say? I don't know what to do about goals, because I usually shoot too high and never make it, or shoot too low and always surpass it.
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