Method behind our madness (or so we hope)

Ever been told your imagination is too wild?

Are you constantly falling victim to daydreaming?

Have you ever held a ten minute conversation with yourself?

If yes, DO NOT panic! Our minds are weird and wonderful tools, engineered to do some truly fascinating things and you, my friend, are not crazy. You are simply a writer (whether you know it yet or not).

Congratulations and welcome to the club!

Ok...so there is no club, not really but you are most certainly not alone and I’d like to talk you through one thing I think is vital to every aspiring author, either currently writing or thinking about writing. Of course, there is no right or wrong way to go about creating your story and you can take what I say with a pinch of salt. After all, I am not a professional and have yet to take the book industry by storm. Key word being “yet”. Your time will come and so will mine, which brings me nicely on to today's topic.

SELF BELIEF. 

If you don’t believe in your work, no one will and it’s as simple as that. Now, no one likes a show off but that’s not to say you can’t be proud of your creativity and promote your work at every given opportunity (more to come on effective self promotion). Admitting you think you are a good writer is not lame, arrogant, nor presumptuous. It takes a lot of guts to be loud and proud about something you do and if this post does just one thing today, I hope it gives you the confidence to at least attempt that. 

Don’t get me wrong, confidence is not something you can just switch on. It is something that needs worked on and believe me when I say even the most self assured among us have their moments. And while I wish there was an easy fix, I’m afraid to inform there isn’t. Hating yourself and everyone around you is one of the many things you will experience as a writer and can more often than not lead to the feeling of ‘not being good enough’. 

Say for instance your words are not flowing right, your character is being a massive arse for no reason or you’ve simply just had the mother of all crappy days at work and all you want to do is complete the chapter that has been bugging you for days now. You want, more than anything, to write but your brain is not complying and this leads to frustration. Frustration then turns into to self-loathe and eventually you want to give up, crawl into bed and never look at another book again.

Dramatic? Yes, but I can guarantee every writer has/ will experience this at least once.

My advice...

Power on through. 

Whenever I write a chapter for the first time, I do so knowing it is my first draft. Below, I have included an extract from my current project, a romance novel which I upload to Wattpad biweekly. The first paragraph is from draft one, written on Monday morning last week on my commute to work:

“My mind refuses to acknowledge his observation and instead, focuses on the inked shape he has tattooed on his right bicep. It appears, tribal and although I’m clueless about these things, I find myself drawn to it. It’s thick around the outside, turning more delicate the closer into the centre it gets, creating a much more refined shape overall. Shading gives the design more depth and though slightly unnoticeable, shows six numbers in what I assume is to be a date.”

Now read the same paragraph after I made some much needed edits:


“My calming brain refuses to acknowledge his mention of my exhaustion and instead, I find myself focusing in on the tattoo he has on his right bicep; it's shaping really rather unique. Its tribal of some sort and although I've no idea what it means, I'm hopelessly drawn to it. Its thick outline creates a strong structure to the smaller, slightly more delicate detailing and adds strength to the otherwise soft image. Grey shading offers the overall design more depth and though extremely subtle, I notice the inclusion of six numbers, proudly stating what appears to be a date.”

There is a clear differentiation between the two, the second one being more descriptive and engaging for the reader. Now, when writing the first draft, I knew I wasn't happy with it but had confidence in myself that I would improve it at a later date. Not everyone writes this way. Some have the ability to write amazingly their first go but others (like myself) take a little longer. How we get there is not important. What is important is having the confidence that you will. Whether it takes you twenty minutes or a year to make your edits, be rest assured that it’ll happen one way or another and when it does, you’ll feel amazing! 

Simply put, trust that you’ve got this and you can’t go wrong. 

It’s a true saying; you are your own worst enemy, but who’s to say we can’t be our own best friend?

So I'll end the blog post with this...

Here's to being friends! (With yourself)...again, not crazy, just a writer! 

See ya all next time!

(P.S, big shoutout to LauraGirl for guessing the musical in my last post. You ROCK, girl!)