writerfangirl: ([writing with warm beverage])
writerfangirl ([personal profile] writerfangirl) wrote2006-09-06 09:14 am

A Need to NaNo

Since before D*Con, I have felt a need to write. I haven't answered the call, but now the sensation is simply overwhelming. NaNoWriMo is coming and I want to be pumped for it. I want to be writing from now until then. In previous years, I had difficulty with going into NaNo because I wasn't prepared. I wasn't used to writing the breath necessary, in addition to the work I was already doing for classes. Last year, I finally actually did participate and I made the 50,000 word mark. What helped immensely was having character cards for every char. On these cards I had the following: history, personality, appearance, what does this character want. These questions, more than others, are important to have a grasp of (especially what does a character want) before jumping headlong into writing. If you don't know what your character's main motiviation is, you may have diffiulties with finding your story.

I have a good twenty stories that I want to tell and have tried to tell before, but something about them have held me back. It's my own insecurities. I have this feeling that what I'm writing is crap and nobody wants to read it. :( The feeling totally goes against everything I stand for and believe, and yet, I let it get me down. Well no longer. I flew on a plane despite having terrible anxiety about it, despite having a difficult time with putting my security in somebody else's hands. I can do this. Writing is a bigger bullet to bite, though, because it's about self-expression. I don't think I feel, even now, like I know what I'm doing. I know the elements that go into a story, how the plot functions, but to write it is something else entirely. Writing is something that I must do. Can't talk about it, or think about it, but throw myself into it. When I was exercising the writing muscle during last year's NaNo, I was getting new ideas, and was feeling a thrill I hadn't felt since I was working on my senior thesis. Working toward a completion of something in writing makes me feel good.

Between now and NaNo, I'm going to work on completing the 99 prompts which still remain for [livejournal.com profile] stargatefic100. Time to dig up the prompts I've started on and finish them.

Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting