Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Best seller list please!....PRONTO!!

Back in January I decided that I would seriously begin my "writing career" and get something published. My mom got me that big ol' Writers Market book for Christmas that came with a year membership to Writersmarket.com. I have done nothing and I'm feeling very (nickle word) very ($.05) very($.05) inadequate.

I figured that since my imagination is sooo out of control and I've got a dreamed up scenario for every possible life event, that writing it all down could get me at least published. But as I look at my blank screen I realize I'm good at writing epic moments. I actually have a bunch saved on my hard drive. It's the beginnings that scare me.

I seriously don't know how to start a story. I know how to write the BIG stuff. But what are all the things that led up to the big stuff? I dunno. Maybe I don't care. Maybe that's my problem. I want all big stuff and no back story.

Maybe I'm impatient. I want the book written...now. The stories of writers working on the great american novel for a decade. Screw that...I want the Robert James Waller book. Bridges of Madison County was written in like 2 weeks. Now that's what I'm talkin' about. Even though Stephen King suggests (in so many words) that Bridges was less than quality writing, it was a NYTimes bestseller, was it not?

I'm really only half serious. I want to write well. But I am impatient. I am a procrastinator. I spent hours writing and rewriting lists of contests I want to submit my writing to. But I didn't write a damn thing.

I guess I have to work on myself. Self evaluation...reflection...correction. Ugh! To be unaware! Ignorance is bliss, no?

This is fun...

"The hardest thing about writing is always having to clean the refridgerator first."

Not sure about the above quote...I was told it was Hemmingway. I love it regardless.
The following is Hemmingway for sure.

"The first draft of anything is shit."

This I relate to!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dude. Hemingway rules. Except for The Old Man and the Sea. I don't know why they make kids read that shit. Millions of high schoolers have been unjustifiably turned off to Hemingway because of that book.

And yeah, I hear you on the trials and tribulations of being a writer/wanting to be a writer. *sigh*