Category Archives: On Writing

Nothing to Write About…

I have now plagiarized someone for the first time in my life. That heading was on an aspiring writer’s post in a writing forum I occasionally frequent (occasionally frequent – now that’s an interesting combination). The heading caught my attention as it is a thought I often have when sitting down to write.

I would think that at 69 years plus I would be bursting with ideas for a story, a novel, a memoir, essay, anecdote, anything! But it doesn’t work that way. Sometimes I think I’ve written these stories so many times in my head that they’re old and boring and I can’t see them being anything but the same to a reader. Common sense tells me that ain’t so but in reality, it is a problem.

I’m going to make an attempt to get past this, probably using some of the advice given by the people on the writing forum where this appeared and it would only be fair if I shared it here in case some of you suffer the same malady. Here goes:

  • just write
  • write about nothing and try to make it interesting
  • look around for things to write about
  • write a description of the room you’re sitting in
  • write a rebuttal to a political speech
  • turn off the tv, the phone, and the computer. Then write.

Now to turn off my computer and start with my journal. I think I’ll begin by describing my room but I can’t post it on here because if I’m honest about it and the producers of The Hoarders see it, they’ll be sending social services my way.

Did It Again

This morning, in a little over an hour and a half, I have written from creation to completion, the first draft of another story. This time 1,300 words. Again, this one is not for publication. Just for my education. The next one will be to show for critique.

I am looking forward to seeing what I am able to do or see if this is just another one of those fool notions I seem to get more and more of as I get older.

 

A Short Story

Yesterday, May 6th, 2016, I wrote the first short story I have written to completion (of the first draft) in over 12 years. Took two and a half hours and was right at twenty five hundred words. Conception, creation, and completion are all included in that time period. I’ll probably need another four to six hours to rewrite it and clean it up but it isn’t too far off now.

It’s been a dream of mine for a long time to be a published writer but while I wrote a lot, I either didn’t complete the job or quit after the first draft. I hope I can break those habits and finish something now, if only to prove to myself that I can. The story I just finished is probably not going to be publishable because I wrote it and will rewrite it just to see if I could do it. The next one I start will be for real and I will publish it right here whether it goes anywhere else or not.