I have been approaching writing my blog like a meditation. First, I sit and breath deeply for a while. I quiet my mind and see where it wanders. If it doesn’t settle upon an interesting topic in a few minutes, I take the opportunity to read a few of the items that I haven’t had time to read throughout the day.
That usually yields a topic. But if it doesn’t I have another trick up my sleeve. I browse a list of writing prompts and write some short fiction. I have modified my view of fiction lately. I have come to the conclusion that all writing is fiction to some degree or another, just as all writing is fact. If you are telling a story you have to be careful to tell the emotional truth. If you are writing non-fiction, on the other hand, you have to capture the readers attention by framing your instruction with an engaging story.
Either way, if the reader isn’t enjoying reading what you have written, they are going to have to struggle to keep reading and in all likelihood are going to give up before they finish.
Writing should be fun. Otherwise, why would anyone put themselves through the pain of doing it. Yes, writers are notorious masochists but most of us get something other than pain out of it. If you’re not enjoying writing it, the reader is probably not going to enjoy reading it.
I am experimenting with writing my story in pieces. That is to say, I started at the beginning and wrote until I was getting near the end. When I discovered I had left whole pieces of the story out. I started going back and writing pieces that filled in some of the missing details. I’m probably going to finish up the twenty thousand words that I have to write to “win” NaNoWriMo that way.
I think the story is going to end up being a lot longer than fifty thousand words when I finish telling it. I also think that I haven’t even begun to research it as deeply as I need to in order to tell the story that I want it to be.
I wanted to take a minute to thank the people that take time to read my blog and comment on it. When I established the goal to blog daily back in June, I was wanting to move on from writing for myself every day in my journal to writing for other people to read. Knowing that people are reading what I write and thinking enough of it to comment is edifying.
Sweet dreams, don’t forget to tell the ones you love that you love them, and most important of all, be kind.