I wrote a story today.
Expansion isn't much of a story - after all it was "inspired" by a random sentence generated by this website and went on for about 1,000 words from there. It was an interesting exercise and I realize it has been far too long since I had truly worked creatively.
1,000 words breezes by a lot faster than you think - and I'm glad that this was the case. But I'll admit it took me a while to get around to things.
Interestingly enough I've also been reading Eat That Frog!
- a book with tips on how to deal with procrastination. While the book isn't all that novel nor does it seem to present anything particularly new, at the very least it does present good tips that we should all be reminded of. The analogy at work involves the need to deal with your most difficult task first instead of working on the smaller items - thus the challenge to eat the biggest, ugliest frog first so eating the rest won't be quite as bad.
I didn't quite follow that advise this morning, I'll admit. I went as far as washing the dishes, cleaning the aquarium, scrubbing the bathroom walls and sink and even stepping out to buy dog food before actually getting started. Boo me.
But when I finally got past my distractions, which I bet were really just masking my fears to some extent, the writing eventually came back to me. True, the starting sentence was horrible and badly formed since it was created by an algorithm, but it served as a good start. In ways is it the anything close to being a good story, but it's still story and one that holds its ground.
I still didn't try drafting our outlining though - something that I need to consider for my novel-writing in the future. But I think I need to spend more time writing short stories first - to sort of get my groove back. But integrating more creative writing into my routine (and hopefully a LOT more writing eventually) is definitely going to be a good thing. I just need to figure out what my optimal writing conditions are going to be to make things flow better. At least that's the plan.
Expansion isn't much of a story - after all it was "inspired" by a random sentence generated by this website and went on for about 1,000 words from there. It was an interesting exercise and I realize it has been far too long since I had truly worked creatively.
1,000 words breezes by a lot faster than you think - and I'm glad that this was the case. But I'll admit it took me a while to get around to things.
- a book with tips on how to deal with procrastination. While the book isn't all that novel nor does it seem to present anything particularly new, at the very least it does present good tips that we should all be reminded of. The analogy at work involves the need to deal with your most difficult task first instead of working on the smaller items - thus the challenge to eat the biggest, ugliest frog first so eating the rest won't be quite as bad.I didn't quite follow that advise this morning, I'll admit. I went as far as washing the dishes, cleaning the aquarium, scrubbing the bathroom walls and sink and even stepping out to buy dog food before actually getting started. Boo me.
But when I finally got past my distractions, which I bet were really just masking my fears to some extent, the writing eventually came back to me. True, the starting sentence was horrible and badly formed since it was created by an algorithm, but it served as a good start. In ways is it the anything close to being a good story, but it's still story and one that holds its ground.
I still didn't try drafting our outlining though - something that I need to consider for my novel-writing in the future. But I think I need to spend more time writing short stories first - to sort of get my groove back. But integrating more creative writing into my routine (and hopefully a LOT more writing eventually) is definitely going to be a good thing. I just need to figure out what my optimal writing conditions are going to be to make things flow better. At least that's the plan.
I miss reading books. It's been ages since I read one :(
ReplyDeleteThen pick one up and enjoy! =D
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