I've long fantasized about being a writer of fiction. It's been a dream of mine that I always felt too intimidated to pursue and too embarrassed to talk about. I've tried to start the great American novel on a couple of different occasions. I have folders on my hard drive with sketches, notes, outlines, character studies and assorted chapters of a couple of fairly serious attempts. I just don't have the personal discipline or the passion or the drive to keep up with it. Until recently.
In the last six months or so, a new fire has been lit in my bones, the burning need to be creative. I still don't have anything anywhere near a finished product. But I do have a few really decent short stories in the hopper. And my magnum opus, a fantasy novel with five or six chapters written and another five or six conceptualized. The resident 12 year old boy has given me mediocre reviews. It was cool when he read an unfinished chapter and looked up at me and said, "Uh, what happens next?!"
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Writing is Good Therapy
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4 comments:
That's pretty cool. I am assuming your plots have a somewhat theological underpinning. I have thought about writing on and off, but haven't found the time. One of these days I will get around to it, just for the fun of the writing.
Have you heard of NaNoWriMo, or thought about doing it? (If you don't know, it's National Novel Writing Month. Anyone can participate, and participating writers are supposed to write 50,000 words in the month of November. Check out nanowrimo.org.)
I think about doing it every November, then decide there's no way I can keep up at that pace. But I think it's a great idea -- it would force you to get the words on paper, even if they're not great. The idea is that it's easier to edit 50,000 words after they're written than to agonize over them as they come out one at a time.
Go for it: creative writing is a wonderful therapy and who knows where it might lead you.
And the Nobel prize for literature goes to.....
D.P.
I encourage you in your efforts to write the Great Lutheran Novel.
Several years ago when I got my first PC, I sat down and wrote a Hardy Boys novel that had been in my head for years. I sent it to a fan fiction website, and when it was posted, I strutted around like I had won the Pulitzer Prize!
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