This article is for you, Debashish, and for you, Kuheli.
I, like you, am an aspiring author, still learning the ropes of a craft as challenging and as interesting as Writing, and taking my baby steps in the tough, cruel, schizophrenic world of publishing. I am no one to tell you 'how to be a good writer' or anything. In fact, anyone who tries to tell you the 'rules', even if they're a bestselling author- is a BIG fraud and presumptuous fool.
No one can tell you how to be a good writer. You know what your writer personality is- your instincts will tell you how to be a good writer.
But as someone in the same boat with you, I will share my experience with you, and perhaps discuss how not to lose hope. This article is not an attempt to dole out advice-I am no one to deliver sermons- but just a discussion.
Writing is a self-perpetuating craft. What I mean is, a writer, a real writer, keeps producing stuff- this is one thing I know about a true writer. They don't stop at one story, or one novel. They keep writing, they keep creating. Words beget words. Then comes a story. Story begets a story, and then come novels, novellas, short story collections, poetry collections and whatnot. Then come some of our masterpieces- works which carry a part of us within them, to the world. We create because we imagine worlds in our brain- and our imagination comes from the many books, newspapers and magazines we read, from movies and serials we watch, and most importantly, from the people we meet and the situations and happenings we observe around us.
Now both of you are working health professionals. So am I. The hospital has plenty of stories waiting to be absorbed and written in its corridors, in the people which inhabit it, and those that run it. Just an example. You guys also read voraciously- Debashish, like me, is an ardent admirer of literary fiction. Kuheli, I'm not really aware of your reading choices. But my point is, we three live and work and interact in environments highly fertile for breeding stories and conducive to writers, we're literate, motivated and well aware of the environment around us.
Believe me, there're stories waiting inside of you. Stories waiting, crying to be written. Stories which have formed from the experience and instinctive knowledge of years we have spent in our lives- the people, the feelings, the happenings, the ups and downs, the happiness, the sorrows, the love and the resentment, friends, relationships, loved ones, patients, colleagues, operations, exams etc.etc.etc. It's time these stories start knocking on the inside of your skull, badgering you to vomit them out, on paper or on your laptop.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Your story, waiting to be written.
From your own statements, I've been able to gather the gist of your problem- you're blocked, stuck. You have been working on your stories for months, then suddenly reached an impasse.
You seem to have lost all hope. You doubt if your work is readable enough. You doubt if you're ever write a story you're actually satisfied with. You wonder about all the hours you put in, if what you produced is worthy enough, whether your stories will ever see the light of day.
No problem.
Self-doubt is a part of EVERY writer's process/journey to literary success. Even the best of writers have been faced with and tackled self-doubt at some point. The good thing about a little self-doubt is, it can keep us grounded and prevent us from feeling too sure of ourselves, thereby helping us produce something good. The problem with self-doubt: extremes of it can lead to mental paralysis- it can leave us drained and depressed, it can make us think our stories are shit and we can never write again, that we're hopeless and we were deluding ourselves all this time.
NO. WRONG. SO WRONG.
Think about why you became writers in the first place. Why you became part of Wrimo India and NaNo, and why you interact with other writers. It is because, somewhere, inside that thinking, working brain of yours, you KNOW that you're a writer. That writing is an indispensable part of your life. That you have stories to tell the world. That writing is not an easy task. That it will take you months, or maybe several years, of writing daily, reading like crazy and getting your work critiqued, then edit and revise and polish and submit etc. etc. to become confident enough. That you will be assailed by self-doubt at times.
What is the solution?
In my view, I would say this: Writing begets Writing.
If you stay stuck on one manuscript, you may feel bored, or unmotivated, or depressed, or all three. Like I said at the beginning of this article, keep writing, keep producing stories. Read more books in your genre, and watch more serials in your area of authorly interest. A lot of your material comes from the magazines and newspapers you read, the news you watch, the colleagues you work with, the patients you interact with and treat, the conversations you have with your friends and family. Each of them contributes a little to building that world of knowledge inside you, the world which then spouts reams and reams of stories.
Keep reading. Keep writing. Write anything- essays, blogs, poems, FB posts. Scribble your random ideas in a diary or your journal. Your minds will, of its own accord, start connecting the dots and making up stories. Write an outline of a plot if you have one. Not necessary to bother with lengthy outlines and extensive plotting even BEFORE you begin plotting your story, like Sonia says.
As a pantser, I think, where's the fun in that?
Your story will work itself out in your head while you cook, see patients, talk to friends or family members or do whatever else you do in your daily routine. Write your story as it comes to you. Write everyday. And don't be stuck on the same story- keep one or two other ideas alongside to work on when you feel blocked on your pet project. Don't stop on one project. After you finish one book, start another. While you polish the first one, work on the second. By the time you will revise, edit, get critiques and then revise and re-edit till you're satisfied, you will have reached the crux of your second book. By then, your imaginations will have fired enough to get you started on your third novel by the time you wrap up your second one.
Don't stay stuck on novels. Work on short stories too- keep abreast of writing competitions for short stories and work on them too. Follow authors like Chuck Wending who do a flash fiction competition every week, on their blog. Think of contributing to literary magazines in your area of interest.
Writing short stories is the BEST practice to hone your craft and make you skilled at writing bigger stories. They are like lubricants, which will smooth out your writing process, such that you become better at writing long ones. This is my personal experience.
Write so much and produce like crazy, so that you don't have time to mope on a single story on which you're stuck- and to keep your writing machinery- the imagination- in great shape, read, read book after book after book to keep your neural network alive and working full time.
So, in a gist, here. what I do to overcome self-doubt, and maybe you can too:
I READ LIKE A CRAZY PERSON- NOWADAYS I DO BOOK AFTER BOOK AFTER BOOK.
I OBSERVE STUFF GOING ON AROUND ME AND THEY TURN TO STORIES.
WRITE DAILY- TARGET SETTING IS NOT IMPORTANT. WRITE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN MANAGE.
WRITE A LOT.BE PROLIFIC. KEEP PRODUCING WORK AFTER WORK TO KEEP YOURSELF BUSY, EDITING CAN HAPPEN LATER. MAY PUBLISHED WRITERS HAVE SAID THAT THEY STILL HAVEN'T PUBLISHED THEIR FIRST NOVEL; OR THAT THEIR FIRST NOVEL GOT PUBLISHED MUCH LATER! THEIR THIRD AND FOURTH NOVELS GOT PUBLISHED FIRST!
POLISH YOUR WORK WITH CRITIQUES AND REVISION AND EDITING, AND KEEP SUBMITTING. SOME WILL GET ACCEPTED, SOME REJECTED, AND THAT'S THE WAY YOUR JOURNEY STARTS.
DON'T LOSE HOPE.
I will wrap up my essay here. I'd meant to write a blog post but it inadvertently became an essay. Hopefully this will enable a discussion on our forum and help us grow as writers.
PS: If your CSF isn't already leaking from your skulls after my lengthy essay, you can refer to these articles by an author friend of mine, and one by author Chuck Wendig. They may also help.
1. http://www.kseniaanske.com/search?q=self-doubt
2.http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2011/09/27/writers-must-kill-self-doubt-before-self-doubt-kills-them/
Happy writing, and take care! :-)
I, like you, am an aspiring author, still learning the ropes of a craft as challenging and as interesting as Writing, and taking my baby steps in the tough, cruel, schizophrenic world of publishing. I am no one to tell you 'how to be a good writer' or anything. In fact, anyone who tries to tell you the 'rules', even if they're a bestselling author- is a BIG fraud and presumptuous fool.
No one can tell you how to be a good writer. You know what your writer personality is- your instincts will tell you how to be a good writer.
But as someone in the same boat with you, I will share my experience with you, and perhaps discuss how not to lose hope. This article is not an attempt to dole out advice-I am no one to deliver sermons- but just a discussion.
Writing is a self-perpetuating craft. What I mean is, a writer, a real writer, keeps producing stuff- this is one thing I know about a true writer. They don't stop at one story, or one novel. They keep writing, they keep creating. Words beget words. Then comes a story. Story begets a story, and then come novels, novellas, short story collections, poetry collections and whatnot. Then come some of our masterpieces- works which carry a part of us within them, to the world. We create because we imagine worlds in our brain- and our imagination comes from the many books, newspapers and magazines we read, from movies and serials we watch, and most importantly, from the people we meet and the situations and happenings we observe around us.
Now both of you are working health professionals. So am I. The hospital has plenty of stories waiting to be absorbed and written in its corridors, in the people which inhabit it, and those that run it. Just an example. You guys also read voraciously- Debashish, like me, is an ardent admirer of literary fiction. Kuheli, I'm not really aware of your reading choices. But my point is, we three live and work and interact in environments highly fertile for breeding stories and conducive to writers, we're literate, motivated and well aware of the environment around us.
Believe me, there're stories waiting inside of you. Stories waiting, crying to be written. Stories which have formed from the experience and instinctive knowledge of years we have spent in our lives- the people, the feelings, the happenings, the ups and downs, the happiness, the sorrows, the love and the resentment, friends, relationships, loved ones, patients, colleagues, operations, exams etc.etc.etc. It's time these stories start knocking on the inside of your skull, badgering you to vomit them out, on paper or on your laptop.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Your story, waiting to be written.
From your own statements, I've been able to gather the gist of your problem- you're blocked, stuck. You have been working on your stories for months, then suddenly reached an impasse.
You seem to have lost all hope. You doubt if your work is readable enough. You doubt if you're ever write a story you're actually satisfied with. You wonder about all the hours you put in, if what you produced is worthy enough, whether your stories will ever see the light of day.
No problem.
Self-doubt is a part of EVERY writer's process/journey to literary success. Even the best of writers have been faced with and tackled self-doubt at some point. The good thing about a little self-doubt is, it can keep us grounded and prevent us from feeling too sure of ourselves, thereby helping us produce something good. The problem with self-doubt: extremes of it can lead to mental paralysis- it can leave us drained and depressed, it can make us think our stories are shit and we can never write again, that we're hopeless and we were deluding ourselves all this time.
NO. WRONG. SO WRONG.
Think about why you became writers in the first place. Why you became part of Wrimo India and NaNo, and why you interact with other writers. It is because, somewhere, inside that thinking, working brain of yours, you KNOW that you're a writer. That writing is an indispensable part of your life. That you have stories to tell the world. That writing is not an easy task. That it will take you months, or maybe several years, of writing daily, reading like crazy and getting your work critiqued, then edit and revise and polish and submit etc. etc. to become confident enough. That you will be assailed by self-doubt at times.
What is the solution?
In my view, I would say this: Writing begets Writing.
If you stay stuck on one manuscript, you may feel bored, or unmotivated, or depressed, or all three. Like I said at the beginning of this article, keep writing, keep producing stories. Read more books in your genre, and watch more serials in your area of authorly interest. A lot of your material comes from the magazines and newspapers you read, the news you watch, the colleagues you work with, the patients you interact with and treat, the conversations you have with your friends and family. Each of them contributes a little to building that world of knowledge inside you, the world which then spouts reams and reams of stories.
Keep reading. Keep writing. Write anything- essays, blogs, poems, FB posts. Scribble your random ideas in a diary or your journal. Your minds will, of its own accord, start connecting the dots and making up stories. Write an outline of a plot if you have one. Not necessary to bother with lengthy outlines and extensive plotting even BEFORE you begin plotting your story, like Sonia says.
As a pantser, I think, where's the fun in that?
Your story will work itself out in your head while you cook, see patients, talk to friends or family members or do whatever else you do in your daily routine. Write your story as it comes to you. Write everyday. And don't be stuck on the same story- keep one or two other ideas alongside to work on when you feel blocked on your pet project. Don't stop on one project. After you finish one book, start another. While you polish the first one, work on the second. By the time you will revise, edit, get critiques and then revise and re-edit till you're satisfied, you will have reached the crux of your second book. By then, your imaginations will have fired enough to get you started on your third novel by the time you wrap up your second one.
Don't stay stuck on novels. Work on short stories too- keep abreast of writing competitions for short stories and work on them too. Follow authors like Chuck Wending who do a flash fiction competition every week, on their blog. Think of contributing to literary magazines in your area of interest.
Writing short stories is the BEST practice to hone your craft and make you skilled at writing bigger stories. They are like lubricants, which will smooth out your writing process, such that you become better at writing long ones. This is my personal experience.
Write so much and produce like crazy, so that you don't have time to mope on a single story on which you're stuck- and to keep your writing machinery- the imagination- in great shape, read, read book after book after book to keep your neural network alive and working full time.
So, in a gist, here. what I do to overcome self-doubt, and maybe you can too:
I READ LIKE A CRAZY PERSON- NOWADAYS I DO BOOK AFTER BOOK AFTER BOOK.
I OBSERVE STUFF GOING ON AROUND ME AND THEY TURN TO STORIES.
WRITE DAILY- TARGET SETTING IS NOT IMPORTANT. WRITE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN MANAGE.
WRITE A LOT.BE PROLIFIC. KEEP PRODUCING WORK AFTER WORK TO KEEP YOURSELF BUSY, EDITING CAN HAPPEN LATER. MAY PUBLISHED WRITERS HAVE SAID THAT THEY STILL HAVEN'T PUBLISHED THEIR FIRST NOVEL; OR THAT THEIR FIRST NOVEL GOT PUBLISHED MUCH LATER! THEIR THIRD AND FOURTH NOVELS GOT PUBLISHED FIRST!
POLISH YOUR WORK WITH CRITIQUES AND REVISION AND EDITING, AND KEEP SUBMITTING. SOME WILL GET ACCEPTED, SOME REJECTED, AND THAT'S THE WAY YOUR JOURNEY STARTS.
DON'T LOSE HOPE.
I will wrap up my essay here. I'd meant to write a blog post but it inadvertently became an essay. Hopefully this will enable a discussion on our forum and help us grow as writers.
PS: If your CSF isn't already leaking from your skulls after my lengthy essay, you can refer to these articles by an author friend of mine, and one by author Chuck Wendig. They may also help.
1. http://www.kseniaanske.com/search?q=self-doubt
2.http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2011/09/27/writers-must-kill-self-doubt-before-self-doubt-kills-them/
Happy writing, and take care! :-)
Thank you for writing this! In times of self doubt, I'll surely have a read again! :) Bookmarked!
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
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