Writing Short Fiction is HARD!
Especially when you haven't written ANYTHING in a year!
Dear Reader,
It’s been two months (?) since my last email. I missed/skipped October 1st because life has just been VERY busy and honestly I’ve felt a bit embarrassed to share another month of non-writing news. I can’t beat myself up too much about it because having a child under the age of like…college…means my time is greatly limited and I need to make the time or find it wherever I can. I still have yet to find the time I need to find the time I need (make sense?) to write.
WRITERS BLOCK
Turns out this does exist. Not that I’ve been in the camp of it not being a thing. I just never experienced it myself and so I never really thought about it. However, after finding the time to spend on writing I discovered very quickly that just sitting down to write wouldn’t be as simple as it sounds. My desire to write hasn’t gone, nor have my ideas…in a way…
I have ideas they just aren’t firing in my brain like they used to. There was a time when I had too many ideas and it was becoming difficult to write them all down let alone see them through to completion. I’ve tried going back to the well since my brain isn’t quite ready to have new story ideas but something just isn’t right. I can’t force it. Or I should say I don’t want to force it. The whole point of writing, for me anyway, is that it’s a passion I never had to really work hard at trying or making things happen. It just always happened. Whether I was ready for the spark of inspiration or not.
A CONTEST
I may have mentioned this a few months ago, but Writer’s Digest has a short short story contest coming up. The early deadline is November 15th. The rules are to write something that is under 1.5k words. This is right around my wheelhouse. And ever since I entered the LeVar Burton Reads writing contest last year I made a promise to myself to enter at least ONE writing contest a year. I hope this one will be my one for 2022. This gives me two weeks from the time of writing this to get something written, edited, and submitted. My goal is not to win or anything. I just want the experience of entering contests and getting rejected.
I really hope to get that started and done in time. Follow me on Twitter to find out if I make the deadline!
NANOWRIMO
It has been about 7 years (?), perhaps longer, since I’ve truly participated and been dedicated to NaNoWriMo in terms of its purpose. Since then I’ve just been a writing machine who has not felt the need to rely on this concept of writing every day for 30 days. However, coming off a year of not writing anything I can see its benefits. Can I stick to the core principles of writing daily in November? Probably not. But the point is to have written something and I would love to writing something that isn’t for my blog or newsletter but a piece of fiction. That is my goal. To end the year returning to that which I love to write; fiction.
HOW AM I RETURNING TO FICTION WRITING
One thing I’m doing that I haven’t really done with any sort of intention is seeking out inspiration in various forms. That includes reading fiction and watching the kinds of tv shows and movies that get my brain sparked in that direction. It’s crazy to think I’ve been too busy to do that, but I have. Lately, all I’ve had time for is the occasional YouTube video but that content, while helpful in some ways, doesn’t exactly provide me with the inspiration I need for writing fiction. I need to stop watching YouTube and start immersing myself in other media.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
I’d love to hear how you are ending your year. What would you like to accomplish as 2022 comes to a close? Knowing I’m not alone when it comes to navigating life always helps.
Just a reminder, reply to THIS email. As this is SUBSCRIBER ONLY it means you can’t leave a comment for me to read later. The only way to communicate back is to HIT REPLY.
I’d love to stick around and write some more but my son is screaming his head off and while my wife was gracious enough to give me this time to write this email to you, I’m going to go back downstairs early and see if I can lighten the load.
Till next time, where I hope to have good news by way of having written a short story!
E.