AFTER WEEKEND

This past weekend was fairly productive, though I find myself wishing for more time.

It makes me realize how much time I've wasted in the past.

With work and personal responsibility, I have found it is very hard to find time. As I'm writing part of this, I'm sitting in my car in a parking lot waiting for my glasses to be repaired. (Dropped them, concrete, sad story--luckily I had insurance on them).

The point is, I'm not giving up. About two months ago, I got up (figuratively) and said, I'm not going to procrastinate any longer; and ever since then I've just been going for it. Every chance I get I write, whether it be an idea, or a scene, or something that comes to me while at work. And when I am in a spot where I can't create, or need to concentrate in order to get into a character, or scene, i'll simply edit what I have.

Another thing I've found--which I sort of always knew but was always sort of afraid to do--was simply the act of writing down a complete scene.

You can always go back to it and fix it, or delete it, or run with the whole session. The thing is if you wait for that "perfect moment," then writing will never get done.  

I now write down anything and everything, just getting it out, even if it's a crappy dialog between two of the characters, then later on when I review it I find I'll have a "did I write this?" moment, and even if 80 percent is deleted, that 20 percent of mined gold is something I would have never had if I had never just started the flow from my mind.

Don't be afraid to delete, because there will be a lot of it happening, trust me.  

As I write on this blog, i'll figure out more of the direction I want it to go. I want it to be a learning experience for myself, as well as anyone I can manage to snag with my boring ranting. I want to help writers if I can. When I started all this I had no one to help guide, or even come along for the ride. Some were not really into it, others were phony, and I was inexperienced and afraid to go out and try to find others like myself.

I'll try to get some helpful links on here. Some will be informative, others may simply be for motivation--and some might be to see what NOT to do, i'll leave that for you to decide. I'll give some of my tips and tricks that I'm currently using.

I'm not published, and make no expert claims, but do a lot of research and wish it had been in one place rather than me looking all over for it.

I work full time, am a father, and really only have maybe a couple hours a day--sometimes mostly just one--with which to write. So i will talk about making time with all those responsibilities, as well.

It can be done. I'm doing it.

I'm not giving up. You can do it, too. If you really want this, that is.

Until next time. 

WCM