I just discovered this forum

[elepet]

It's 3:12 a.m. here and I can't sleep. I doubt if anyone is awake now, but maybe later someone can answer my questions.
I've been writing off and on for many years (day job is writing copy for our family business, which i do easily on demand)I start something, keep going for awhile and then stop. During the summer I started again and really thought this time I would keep going. Did for a couple of months and then stopped dead.
Question #1: Has anyone had a similar experience?
Question #2: I have no particular writers group or class or anything like that. Is it possible to post here what i started lasted summer here and get some feedback?
Thanks for listening.

[SheilaT]

1. I've had much the same experience.

Writing for a while, then stopping, then starting again. Currently I'm not writing.

To be a successful, that is published, writer, you have to have the drive to write day after day, month after month, year after year, and continue to submit your stories and novels, even when they are rejected over and over again.

Not sure if this would be a good place to post anything, but you can certainly try it. Perhaps you could find a group where you are. Could you take a creative writing class at a local university? Advertise on a community bulletin board?

[SteppingRazor]

2. You must write every day. Period.

Take a half hour out of every day and write. That's all there is to it. Eventually, it becomes a habit. The first thing I do when I get home is turn on the computer, and it's not to play video games or visit DU ;)

[wryter2000]

12. That isn't how I do it

I don't write every day, but I produce at least one book and a novella every year. I have a quota of pages I do every week (usually 10, sometimes more). I schedule when I'm going to do them -- usually 5 on Sunday and 5 on Monday -- and I get them done, hell or high water. But even if I fail one week, I figure a way to catch up later by taking a day off work or something. I also schedule wiggle room into my goals so that one or two failures doesn't set me back too much.

I think telling someone "you must" is setting them up for failure.

[BigMcLargehuge]

3. welcome elepet

welcome. As for starting and stopping, I think all of us have had stories that "died on the vine", but we went on to other stories. I don't know what length your work is, but maybe something in the 5000 word range would be a good start, that way you can write it to an end, then do another.

I started writing, almost full time, when I was 25 and haven't stopped yet though my desk holds its share of corpses (stories that didn't get an ending because they sucked).

Just write.

[elepet]

4. Thank you all for the nudge

Last night I started writing again. finally got it...what I've been hearing and reading for years. DON'T STOP.

[elepet]

11. Took everybody's ad vice

and just wrote. every day. Have completed the 1st draft of a children's story about 4400 words long. anybody want to read it? It's not political...and i think fun for grownups too.

[Technowitch]

5. Similar experiences -- and welcome, Elepet

For what it's worth, I only discovered this forum a few days ago, too.

Me, I was a technical writer for twenty years. My experiences have been exactly the same as yours. I'd write for a while... and then lose enthusiasm and stop. Or some life crisis would intervene and I'd lose my muse. Sometimes years would go by between my creative spurts, during which time I'd feel guilty and awful for not pursuing my dream, berating my lack of courage, and so on.

I was blocked, stuck, whatever you want to call it.

Last year, I took my writing business about as far as I could. I was working 2 1/2 full-time gigs, literally. Racking in the dough. And I was destroying myself. It took a constellation of repetitive strain injuries to my arms and hands to get my attention.

I knew I needed to do something different... but what, I couldn't say. Through last winter, my physical health continued to suffer.

Then, I happened upon this book called "The Artist's Way", by Julia Cameron. It's a kind of self-help 12-step program for creative people, but it's especially useful for those who want to be creative through words -- novelists, screenwriters, playwrights, and so on.

I followed that book for the full twelve weeks, doing the exercises. One of the most important of which was to get up 30-60 minutes early and write in a journal EVERY DAY. No rules, just to write whatever came into my sleep-addled mind, for a total of 3 pages.

In the ensuing weeks, I began to get unstuck. Not long after that, I realized it was time for a far more serious life-change.

My spouse and I spent the summer planning and setting things up... but the result was that at the end of my last contractural obligation, instead of renewing (as was the option for me), I chose instead to leave. As of October 29th, I've been writing full-time, working on a manuscript I first started some ten years ago. I'd previously gotten it to completion, tried to sell it, failed, and gave up on it. Now, I realize the idea is still perfectly viable -- it just needs more work.

And on top of this, there are so many other ideas percolating in my brain, I can't believe I put off being creative for so long.

It's a risk, giving up that old career, but I tried everything else. But I've also come to the conclusion that FOR ME, being a tech writer is antithetical to being a novelist. And so for the next couple of years, at least, I am going to do everything I can to make that my career.

I'll echo what others here have said. You want to write creatively? You have to do it every day, for at least half an hour. I would add though that you should not limit yourself to any one task. It's like, if your inner child wants to play in the mud, you shouldn't force him/her to fingerpaint all the time, know what I mean?

Secondly, I highly recommend The Artist's Way. That book saved me, and the author is definitely going to be getting an autographed copy of my 1st novel, when it's published.

Good luck,
-Technowitch

[elepet]

6. Thank you

for your thoughtful reply. I read The Artist's Way many years ago and enthusiastically did the exercises. The problem I encountered was that those pages of free form writing became the be all and end all of my writing...joining the hundreds of illegibly written (often in pencil,) undated journals accumulated through the years.
What I'm wrestling with now is "form" and discipline. When I write for someone else it's simple...I have an assignment,a fixed amount of space to fill, a deadline, and an assured readership. (I literally have a "readership" of millions...if you want to see examples of my "deathless prose" go to your local Natural Food store and look in the freezer case for Amy's Kitchen. I write the little stories on the boxes and occasionally people actually tell me that they read and enjoy them).
Writing on my own, I'm not sure WTF I'm doing, or what the point of it is, and who in the world will ever read what I write.
And nobody bugging me to do it.
For me, classes and workshops simply don't work. Not sure why.
So I've started again....working on a "children's book" and my "memoirs" which may turn into a novel of sorts. A couple of years ago my teen age grand daughter told me "You've led a very interesting life...you should write your memoirs". At the beginning of summer I started,and then election furor took over and I stopped. Now starting again, but the children's story seems to be happening instead. It's fun to do...i never know exactly what will happen next.
Well, this is long enough and it is 2:11 a.m. and I should go back to sleep.
Sounds like you are on a good track. The advantage of the tech writing experience is that it trains you to clarity of expression which you definately have.
By the way, I just looked at your Bio here and noticed that we are practically neighbors. Northern California.

[Technowitch]

8. I hear ya...

Focus is sometimes difficult for me as well. I get distracted, and this election season didn't help.

I think that one of the things that happens is that a certain... 'addiction' to the emotional jolts of reading news and following what's going on come to replace the healthier impulses.

Mostly I try to be mindful of my choices at any given time... or rather, more so than I've been in the past.

And with that, I'm gonna do what I ought to do, which is get back to the manuscript, rather than continuing to browse these groups. ;)

Good luck to you, Elepet. Cool beans, that we live in the same region. I try to remind myself that regardless what's happening over there on the other coast, at least we're living in a progressive/liberal area.

cheers,
-Technowitch

[patdem]

9. You are to Natural Food what Elane was to Natural Clothes (Seinfeld)

That is too great...to be creative outside of the box (not the freezer box)...is very creative...you must have a muse in there somewhere!!!! I am not being NASTY...REALLY...I am being JEALOUS!!! :hi:

[elepet]

10. I don't have a t.v.

Who was Elane? Enjoyed your post. I'm also in charge of writing letters to customers.
but my vocabulary has become quite limited. delicious, great tasting, organic etc.
would like to try for the great american novel..or something like that.

[skygazer]

7. I'm the same way

I seem to have no discipline when it comes to writing. I'll frantically work for hours every day for a month on something then for whatever reason, I will stop and not pick it up again for another month or so. But I'm like that with everything - quilting (I have one quilt I started almost six years ago that's not done yet and it's only a baby quilt!), crafts, projects....

What I need is a deadline - I work much better with a sword hanging over my head. And manufacturing one myself doesn't seem to work.