It's taken me all day to post this

Hi, everyone. Thought I’d join AW as this looks like a bustling, fun place to be!

Whilst I enjoyed English at school, I came out with much lower grades than expected. This put me off quite a bit, and convinced me that writing wasn’t my thing for many years. However, I’ve felt felt compelled to write for the last two years or so, and last autumn I actually stopped thinking about it and tried doing it. I didn’t get very far, but It felt great!

I’ve been writing in dribs and drabs since, though recently I’ve gotten right back into it. I try to stick to a 1000-words-a-day quota, though most of the time, the quota is met by my incoherent ramblings about my frustrations of not writing anything good, and my dreams of maybe writing something good.

I know I’m a real beginner, still very much learning the craft. It’s really sunk in that I’m not going to just sit down and churn out a novel, so I’m studying books on writing as well as trying to read as much fiction as possible to see how others do it well and not so well.

Following the advice from several writing books, I decided to get out there and meet other writers. I attended a local writers’ meet-up, but ran screaming (not literally). I really felt like I didn’t fit in. I’ve been in hiding ever since. So, I thought it was time to try again, though this time through a forum.

My biggest obstacle at the moment is that I’m feeling quite overwhelmed at the scope of possibility with fiction writing, and as such I’m having trouble settling on one idea and really working at it.

I’m looking forward to getting involved in discussions with other writers, gaining some insight, maybe support, and having some laughs along the way - as well as having an excellent place for procrastination when I should probably be writing.

See you in there. Cheers!

Wow, thanks for all the welcomes. They've certainly given me a boost!

Maryn, thanks for the short story angle, it's a good idea. That might be a good way to go, just some basic short stories to get me going. Writing 1000 words of fiction a day would be a real step forward and would build my 'strength' up before moving on to more complex things.

StoryofWoe said:

Welcome! I'm new to AW, too.

Maryn's advice is spot-on. I wrote a ton of, "This is what I want, but can I actually do it?" posts when I first started out. It's as though you have to convince yourself that you have the courage to show up on the page before you can start putting anything "of value" down. However, in my experience, the only thing that will fully convince you that you can do it, is to sit down, push through the anxiety, and simply do it. Start with short stories or flash fiction. You'll get there!

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Thanks. I think I will try and concentrate on something a little shorter. I think flash fiction feels a little too short for me, so I reckon the short stories route is a good way to go.

Thanks, people.

Hit a bit of a milestone last night. I came up with an idea for a short story and spent a little time 'vomiting' it out onto the page. It was all over the place... but. It was 1070 words of 'all over the place', on top of what I'd already written that day. I figure I need a little thinking time to flesh it out a bit more in my head, but it seems like a step in the right direction.

Thanks for the support and advice.