Tag: Writing

Hitting the wall at 30,000 words…

~ Meg ~ 58 Comments

Two full days. That’s what a weekend should give a writer participating in National Novel Writing Month. (Still hating the acronym). Going into this challenge, I knew I would be losing the first weekend to my excursion to New York City, (Hamilton was off the chart good. All that hype? Absolutely true!) but after that I figured on using the weekends to make up for any writing time I lost during the week due to my practice and my other responsibilities. The weekends ended up being the least productive days that I had… And this particular weekend, I spent three agonizing hours trying to work out a single scene to bring a plot point to conclusion. Three hours = 287 words. Horrendous. And for what? Only to find that I’ve hit a wall… I’m not sure how to write myself to my next point of interest. I may need a break…..

Passion, Purpose, Profession

~ Meg ~ 45 Comments

“No one forces you to ply the trade you follow. But if you do choose it, then acquit yourself to the best of your ability. And above all, you should not think of writing as a way of earning your living. If you do, your work will smell of poverty. It will be colored by your weakness and be as thin as your hunger. There are other trades which you can take up… Our opinion of you will not be any poorer, and since you will be sparing us acres of boredom, we may even think the better of you.” – Essay on Novels; The Marquis de Sade

I’ve been pondering this subject as I scribble (not literally) furiously during this National Novel Writing Month of November. Why on earth does one choose to pursue this challenge? Or for that matter, why choose the whole pursuit of writing and story telling? Surely, its not for the money…

There has to be that voice in your head whispering or shouting at you: ‘tell my story, it needs to be heard and you are the only one who can tell it.’ The voice has to be louder than the voices telling you you can’t do this, that you shouldn’t do this. And when you write, you must tell that story in just the way you want to, not pandering to what is popular or what you think will sell. That is not to say that your writing loses artistic integrity if it becomes commercially successful. We all want to sell books. It loses artistic integrity if your primary goal is to become commercially successful, because then you will write as a salesman not as an author.

So… write well, write from your heart and this month, if you’re participating in the insanity, write A LOT!

On a personal note

~ Meg ~ 35 Comments

I’ve completed ten days of National Novel Writing Month, having written almost 17,000 words so far. A pretty decent showing. I’ve had days where I get completely immersed in the writing and it flows like a river. And there are times where my mind wanders, I come up with a great idea for a short story or a scene from Here Lies a Soldier and I have to stop and make notes. But beyond that…

Writers understand writers the way no one else does, so this is my rant to you who know how it feels…  I’m struggling. I’m struggling  and not because of the pressure of sticking to the writing pace. Because I write a lot anyway. This month has had it’s share of other distractions – a weekend away –which was mostly good, the election coverage… And it seems like every single person in my life needs something from me right this very moment. The truth is I’m not receiving very much support for this endeavor. Its importance has been minimized. – mocked, even. I’ve been made to feel guilty for writing in the evenings. Anyway, the joy and whatever excitement there was for it is slowly seeping away. One month apparently, is too much to ask.

I haven’t given up yet. I am going to see if an adjustment in schedule will help. But I’m not optimistic. Writers how do your family and friends feel about your writing?