Xaysai
Inkling
Hello all,
Some of you might know me as the plucky, wide-eyed "new guy" around these forums from a few months ago who tried his hand at writing, jumped head-long into it, then promptly quit and disappeared for 3 months.
During my time as an aspiring writer I was working with a publisher as part of a (fantastic) mentoring program to expedite my learning of the art of writing, and upon quitting I sent her the following letter:
Has anyone ever felt this way? How do you overcome it?
The funny thing is that I WANT TO WRITE, and I don't think I suffer from "writer's block" (in the traditional sense, I suppose), but I just...can't.
Thanks for your feedback.
Dan
Some of you might know me as the plucky, wide-eyed "new guy" around these forums from a few months ago who tried his hand at writing, jumped head-long into it, then promptly quit and disappeared for 3 months.
During my time as an aspiring writer I was working with a publisher as part of a (fantastic) mentoring program to expedite my learning of the art of writing, and upon quitting I sent her the following letter:
Honestly, I got to a point last month where I really struggled to write, so I thought I would take a break for a week or so, and haven't been able to bring myself back to it.
I think all-in-all, I'm left feeling like I'm just not built to be a writer. I am a man of very few marketable talents, but the one that has proven most valuable in my career is my ability to accurately anticipate pitfalls and (for the most part) successfully avoid them.
As such, the problem I run into is that the more I learn about the "the rules of writing", the more clearly I start to see every misstep I make while attempting to write. Somewhere along the (albeit, very short) way, writing changed from being a hobby I enjoyed, to feeling like I was putting together a 10,000 piece puzzle where I was forced to take each piece out of the box and place it in the exact location on the table that it needed to be for the puzzle to be completed.
I know the answer is to "just write and not worry about it until the revision/edit phase", but for some reason I am absolutely, completely, 100% incapable of just pounding gobbeldy-gook out of my keyboard and onto the screen, even if my intention is to go back and "fix" it later.
Furthermore, when I look at many of the "aspiring authors" out there who are LIGHT YEARS ahead of me in terms of raw talent, skill and experience, who are trying to get their work published (and I mean this in the most sincere way it can possibly be meant) - their work (generally speaking) just isn't at the level I would pay to read, which means that I'm going to invest years learning to write only to have my work be even less so!
I'm guessing this is the part where you explain that I'm a little too neurotic, and I tell you that I can't really blame you for thinking so.
Maybe I just need to recommit myself to giving another honest go in the near future to see what I can turn out.
Has anyone ever felt this way? How do you overcome it?
The funny thing is that I WANT TO WRITE, and I don't think I suffer from "writer's block" (in the traditional sense, I suppose), but I just...can't.
Thanks for your feedback.
Dan