Monday, November 17, 2014

T-12 Months

Now Playing: HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE by Nicolas Hooper
Just Read: THE CLOCKWORK DAGGER by Beth Cato--Great! A very fun adventure with lots of unique magic, and all the things that make steampunk great. Awesome book by a fellow W1S1 writer!
Reading Now: THE MAGICIAN'S LAND by Lev Grossman

So about my last post. I know, it was a little melodramatic. A little woe is me, a bit of a cry for some undeserved pity. I have owned up to it.

One thing I think successful writers will agree on is that pity doesn't fly here. Who am I accountable to as a writer? Only myself. Being melodramatic may be a common trait among writers, but I'd hazard a guess that it's rare among the successful ones.

I've done a lot of research on what it takes to be a good writer, and on what the difference is between people who write amazing fiction and sell lots of stories and win lots of awards, and people who call themselves writers but don't have the words to back up their claim. In general, hard work and persistence are the difference. Most writers go through the same stages of rejection and self-doubt, and some choose to cry "Woe is me!" while others pin the rejection notices to their wall and sit beneath it and write another story. This latter breed of writers are the ones who go on to be winners.

Thus, in the interest of taking an observation and applying it in a positive way to myself, I have spent the first half of this month reading my NaNoWriMo from last year, the one I never finished. My goal is to jump back into the sprinting mindset I had so locked onto last November and finish the damn thing.

The thing is, as I was rereading it, I couldn't help but think that I really enjoyed it! I mean, it was a fun story, and there were some parts I think were really good. So hopefully I can continue that vein until I reach the ultimate destination to a young fiction writer: THE END.