write creatively, regularly

My first goal with this is to start doing writing practice, just 10 minutes every day. After a month, I’d like to add another 10 minutes and so on.

I can’t quite get out of the NNWM mindset so added a word count plug-in to the blog. I seem to naturally write in 1600ish-word blocks—bad? And I am definitely writing some kind of smutfic. Hahaha, oh dear, but still writing, so that’s something?

Well, although it’s a rather silly thing and only a work of fan fiction, I’ve seized on an idea & written a bit for two days running. :) I don’t mean to put myself down—writing is writing after all, and it’s more than I was doing three days ago. Anyway it’s at least as good and as fun to write as my NaNo, which is about all I expect from myself at this point. And yeah, it’s fun! It threatens to cross over into smut but I’m hoping I can do something interesting with it instead. ;)

To do this, and hopefully other writing projects of all kinds in the future, I’ve created a ‘secret blog’—I like the format because it takes some of the pressure off where a Word document or nice notebook intimidate. I will probably keep it secret until I’m sure I’m in the habit of using it for one thing or another regularly, and for a long time thereafter I may only show it to one person (she knows who she is ;). At some point I’ll learn not to be so self-conscious about my writing, hopefully, but this is a real start. I’m going to get back to my story, then. :)

I have valued this goal my entire life, but for a very long time it has always been something I’ve projected into the future. Something stops me from even beginning when I am not confident that the final result will be perfect. I have to reclaim enjoyment in the simple process, in learning and growing as a writer, in trying new things.

I signed up for NaNoWriMo this year and at nearly 20K words… I don’t want to finish that sentence, because “gave up” is not right. I accomplished the goals I set out to: a) I WROTE; b) I wrote without particularly caring that it was not great; c) I gained a lot of affection for my characters and my work. I simply released myself from the pressure of it, when I was sure that I had learned these lessons and when other more important things came up. But I think I will continue with this project. And I will try some other things, too—short stories, sketches, little observations seems like a more natural place for me right now. The point is to do something, and regularly, and to enjoy it.