Day 12

Stats:
16 pages, double-spaced
4562 words
Plot Summary completed

I am not a very good writer.  I'm not very dedicated and I tend to write in spurts.

Also, I have been embarking on this novel mission like it were a short story, and I am beginning to quickly find that the battle is very different.   You have to do your prep work before you start off, something I did not do.  A short story you can just walk around in the dark for awhile, flip on a dimmer switch, and you've got a story.  A novel is quite different because you have to decode all of the circuitry in the room.


I have not been super productive, which I guess is understandable.  I feel like I'm still waiting to go back into school mode.  Its an odd feeling, especially since the new quarter was today and I checked my last quarter's grades for the last time.

Tomorrow is my third to last day to write fully, and I am disappointed in my progress.  Although, I guess that these empty days have more been days to catch up on things, which I have done as well.  I'm just trying to figure out how to make writing something that holds the same or higher priority.

When it all comes down to it, writing is just a juggle of priorities, I think.

Day 5

I am day five into the writing of my first novel since middle school, and I am starting this blog as a way of motivating myself.  I came into writing this novel with the understanding that it was going to be work, but I still did not know exactly what to expect. 


Having written for my writing professors for so long, it feels sinful to write genre fiction.  Not just genre fiction, young adult genre fiction.  Its even worse.  I read the words I type and know there is no character development, there is no depth, and the writing sounds so much like what I typed in middle school.  Did I learn nothing and just take steps backward?  Reverting to what I loved to do when I was little? 


This is all going through my head when I write, and it makes it difficult to write without confidence.  Confidence in what you are writing makes a big difference.  Also, feeling like you are writing something worthwhile makes a big difference too.  And approximately 9 pages into it, I feel neither.  I'm pushing myself along because I promised I would, but its been tough going so far.  Tomorrow is my second fully open day to write, so we'll see how that goes. 


For now, I am putting myself here for the purpose of keeping to my guns.  A sort of Julia & Julia moment, but without the second Julia.  I'm just writing for the purpose of writing.  Here's to perseverance.

Soli Deo Gloria.