I didn't want to admit it to myself when I was introduced into the world of literature and writing, but it's a very intimidating world at times. Every single day, every minute, hour, second, somebody somewhere is coming up with a new story. A brand new plot, an original story-line, fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, poems, song, short stories, novels, screen-plays, and everything in between. The list of creative outlets via writing goes on forever.
When I was younger, I wrote consecutively. For my English class in sixth grade, we had an assignment where we could write anything that we wanted to. Each day, we would sit in a quiet classroom and use that time to write to our heart's content. I wrote a story about a girl and her family, and that's honestly the only thing I recall of it. I do know, however, that I worked very hard on it and it was probably about forty pages -- that's a lot to a twelve-year-old. It was my "baby" at the time. I would lay on the floor of my bathroom (because that's where I was most inspired, apparently) and I would write for hours on end.
Throughout the rest of middle school, I wrote songs, poetry and a few attempted stories that I wanted to potentially become novels one day. When I was in high school, I was in high level English classes, and AP and Honors English classes, and in a way that didn't help. Because I was surrounded by the ever so talented works of Hemingway and Salinger, I was under the impression that I had to write a novel in a week. I felt as though I had to do everything great and perfect and outstanding right at that moment. Little did I know that I was being way too hard on myself, giving myself unrealistic expectations.
The world of writing was intimidating, and I knew that I had competition around me. There were days where I would have writers block, I'd lack in inspiration, and just nothing would come out onto the paper or the computer. I would get frustrated time and time again, and I would get low on myself. There were times where I would have so much to say, but it was at the wrong time or I would lose that idea. I had so much going on in my mind, but I couldn't always seem to get it down on paper.
I felt guilty and ashamed to call myself a "writer" when I was seemingly slacking. I had to remember that I was young, and dealing with school, and was busy and it wasn't expected of me to complete an award-winning, best-selling novel in a couple of weeks. I didn't have to do that. Just because I wasn't writing that much as I used to didn't mean that I had less talent than before; it just meant that I was at a complicated, busy time in my life. It wasn't an excuse.
Chaos in life made writing difficult, which is funny considering that obstacles and crazy situations would cause me to write even more. Either way, I had all these incredible ideas floating around in my brain and I was bothered and angry at myself because I was "lazy" or a "poser" because I wasn't really REALLY writing. I would doodle down notes, write a poem here and there, but nothing like I had used to do earlier high school. I had storylines and plots that were (in my opinion) unique and good ideas, but they didn't get far. I would start them, leave them for awhile, get frustrated, and come back to them - just to forget them again ... or in reality, avoid them.
I would only crave the special, specific moments where I would let the worlds seemingly flow out of me naturally, never-ending, never stopping. I hadn't felt that extraordinary moment in awhile, and I wanted it back.
Today, I still write. Of course, I write for The Odyssey and that has brought me a lot of joy, and has restored a lot of inspiration, motivation and confidence in myself. I write the occasional poem if I can, but I haven't truly gotten back to the "novel" aspect. I told myself and a few other people that I would resort to short stories instead of novels, because they were more my style. But what was I kidding myself? Maybe that was an excuse NOT to write novels. That's what I thought anyway. I guess what I'm trying to get at is, there isn't really a right way to write. You have to do what feels best for you, and just because you may experience dry patches or writers block, that doesn't mean you're not a writing or a slacker. I'm really hard on myself, so I feel like I have to be the best sometimes. But then I think "even if I just write a little bit here and there each day, that's something great". And even if it's bad writing (whatever that might be), but you personally think it is bad, that's still wonderful - because you wrote at all.
If you're an aspiring author, writer, poet, what have you - don't let life intimidate you. You're completely capable to do what anyone else does, things just take time and perhaps your time has yet to arrive. Either way, don't give up, because something amazing will happen and it will surprise you. Don't let other writers make you quit. Instead, let them inspire you. Who knows? - maybe one day you'll wake up and bam. You'll have the greatest idea, you'll have something incredible to say. I still struggle with these concepts. I'll be in a writers rut, and I'll hear that other people have been writing, working on a novel, etc., and I'll feel like an incompetent loser who wants so badly to write, but can't seem to do so. But I can't think like that. If you're going through a writers dry spell, you can do these things:
1. Get a journal. Write at least one thing each day. (It's okay if it's bad)
2. Don't be hard no yourself. You're not Shakespeare.
3. Give yourself realistic expectations for NOW. Make other ones later.
4. Read. A lot. Even for at least 10 minutes.
5. Remind yourself why you love writing.
6. Write down your strong traits when writing.
7. Help critique other writers.
8. Go on walks.
9. Listen to music.
10. Think about stuff.
11. Drink tea.
12. Stay up late.
13. Get good sleep.
14. Repeat.
Just live your life, and occasionally slip one of these things (or all of them) into your schedule.
The important thing is to be proud of yourself, if only two sentences of something, or three pages. You wrote, and that is such an accomplishment. If you haven't written anything in awhile, that's okay too. You'll have your shining moment, and you might not even be able to stop writing - maybe that's all you'll be able to do. You might not be able to eat, sleep, shower (okay, please shower), just write.
And won't that be such a spectacular feeling?
