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Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Perseverance 03/18/2014

03/18/2014

2771 words written today.

And so begins the first part of the climax of book 2! I’m now 80,000 words in and the villain’s evil plan is finally coming into place. Now begins the desperate struggle to stop him, even with our heroes in a weakened position.

I’ve been reading a little about worried writers who are depressed or upset about some aspect of writing. I worry for these writers, and feel their pain, but I think there’s only one way to get past this sort of feeling of inadequacy or inaction that comes from any creative task: create.  I’ve said before, that what makes a writer is not this or that, it’s writing. If you write, and write constantly, you’re a writer. If you paint and paint constantly you’re a painter. If you carpent and carpent constantly, you’re a carpenter. (Though, that might be wrong, I know nothing of carpentering.) In any case, if you’re bogged down by your own personal feelings of failure, be them correct or not, the only way to relieve yourself from it is to persevere past it.

I am not the best writer. I know that. I’m probably not even a great writer. I’m definitely a competent writer. But there are times I’m embarrassed by what I’ve written. Sometimes it’s the poor quality of the prose, or just the inability to keep things straight in my head, but either way the only way I can fix it and continue is to do just that. Continue. Editing makes things right again, and there’ll always be time for it. So, writer… write on. Type away your worries and your blues, and just get the story down. Once it’s there, then you can worry about if it’s good or not. Only if it’s down in its entire completion, and only after you’ve had a chance to edit it properly. Even then, don’t judge yourself too harshly, though I know I often do.

Bishop 

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