Hello!
I'm here because I'm writing.
I don't feel like a writer though. Many years ago I had published a little poetry and a few short stories, which did make me feel like a writer at that time.
I've done some journalism, and a whole lot of PR and advocacy writing, none of which I thought counted as the act of a writer. I've written a lot of song lyrics, which I also can't see as being what a writer writes. There is a blog I've had for years, but that doesn't seem to be what real writers write either. A proper writer, in my head, is someone who writes for the sake of writing. Almost all of my writing has been incidental to some other purpose, including the three books (one memoir, two self-help) I am writing or planning to write soon.
I "wrote" the memoir as a NaNoWriMo rebel last year, and I made my 50,000 words. What I wrote was trash. It isn't completely hopeless. I can mine it for scenes and fragmentary descriptions. But it lacked structure. It was anecdote glued together with lots of pedantic telling of how the stories were connected. The story arc in my head was scarcely discernable were it not for all the tedious explaining. So I've gone back, and I'm outlining everything. I'm adding events which show what was happening, so that I can cut the talk and still have a story arc. Infusing structure into a piece of writing is a new thing for me. Until now my idea of a long work was something longer than 750 words.
I don't know what I'm doing. Not with memoir as a form, not with structure in a long work, and certainly not with publishing as it exists today. That's why I'm here. I don't know, but some of you do. I can crib from you, and spare myself the pain of guessing wrong.
I'm here because I'm writing.
I don't feel like a writer though. Many years ago I had published a little poetry and a few short stories, which did make me feel like a writer at that time.
I've done some journalism, and a whole lot of PR and advocacy writing, none of which I thought counted as the act of a writer. I've written a lot of song lyrics, which I also can't see as being what a writer writes. There is a blog I've had for years, but that doesn't seem to be what real writers write either. A proper writer, in my head, is someone who writes for the sake of writing. Almost all of my writing has been incidental to some other purpose, including the three books (one memoir, two self-help) I am writing or planning to write soon.
I "wrote" the memoir as a NaNoWriMo rebel last year, and I made my 50,000 words. What I wrote was trash. It isn't completely hopeless. I can mine it for scenes and fragmentary descriptions. But it lacked structure. It was anecdote glued together with lots of pedantic telling of how the stories were connected. The story arc in my head was scarcely discernable were it not for all the tedious explaining. So I've gone back, and I'm outlining everything. I'm adding events which show what was happening, so that I can cut the talk and still have a story arc. Infusing structure into a piece of writing is a new thing for me. Until now my idea of a long work was something longer than 750 words.
I don't know what I'm doing. Not with memoir as a form, not with structure in a long work, and certainly not with publishing as it exists today. That's why I'm here. I don't know, but some of you do. I can crib from you, and spare myself the pain of guessing wrong.
welcome!
