One of the things I've noticed over the last couple of days is that finding the time to commit to writing can be difficult.
I don't have any excuses any more. I'm finished with my exams, I don't have any more projects to work on for school, hell, Uni is officially out for the summer. I mean, I have work, but it doesn't feel as time/life consuming as school did.
So why is it that finding time to write still feels so difficult?
I absolutely love writing. I mean, I must, right? I've been writing for years. I'm pretty sure my mom still has notebooks from when I was five filled with my Robert Munch rip offs. I have entire binders filled with fan fiction and short stories from high school. I have two fully written first-draft manuscripts, one second draft manuscript and I'm about a quarter of the way through writing my third draft manuscript. I have dedicated years to writing purely because I love the act of putting words on paper. Or on a screen in the case of my manuscripts.
I think the problem is that I'm not writing something new right now. I'm revising the same project that I have been working on (on and off) for almost two years. I still love the story, but I've always hated reading my own writing and finding the problems with it. Plus it takes so much more time to sit and find the exact right words to use while revising.
I've had ten page papers due for school that I have literally written in an hour, but I've had a chapter in this manuscript that was ten pages long and took me over five hours to revise. This stage of writing takes up so much time and becomes such a commitment that it becomes harder and harder for force myself to sit down and do it, even though I want to. I will look at my binder filled with the draft of my manuscript that has all of my notes for what to fix and I'll think "yes, okay. I can totally do this. Let's get into it and finish revising this chapter today!" But then I start, and it takes me over an hour to move past a single page, and its frustrating.
Both of the first drafts for my two manuscripts were written during NaNoWriMo, so I had to write them ridiculously quickly. Usually I would end up writing entire chapters in about an hour, so having that time quintupled is slightly infuriating. I thought making the time to write enough words down during NaNo was difficult, let alone being able to set aside entire days to work on a single chapter of my novel.
Long story short, yes, finding time to write is difficult, but if you want to be successful as a writer then it is something that you have to do. It may be frustrating to have to spend as much time on a section as you need to, but it will make your novel that much better in the long run. You have to prioritize your writing, which is something that I am still learning to do, but is definitely a skill that I am working towards perfecting.
Saturday, 23 April 2016
Saturday, 16 April 2016
The Joys of University
Hey all,
How are you all doing? I hope you are doing better than me to be completely honest.
As I've mentioned in the past posts (at least I'm fairly certain that I have), I'm in University right now and this week is exam week. All of the finals happening all at once. Gotta love it, right? Wrong. Not only is this time of year incredibly stressful, but I need to get ready to work a lot more if I'm going to be able to afford to go to school again in the fall.
Today, which is a Saturday, just in case you were wondering, I was supposed to have an exam at 9:00 in the morning. First of all, I'm pretty sure this is some form of unique torture that is tailored to me seeing as one of the only days of the week that I actually get to sleep in on is Saturdays. Second of all, I check the exam schedule, find the room and sit. And wait. And wait. And wait.
No one shows up. Absolutely no one. Not even my professor.
At the time that my exam is supposed to be starting, the entire room is empty except for me. I check my student email, but I find nothing. So I sent an email to my prof asking if there was an announcement of some sort that I missed because I don't want to miss my exam over an email that didn't make it to my inbox.
I basically tweeted out the meltdown that I was having (@The_Book_Tree) before deciding that having a panic attack in public at my Uni wasn't the right thing to do. I got on the next bus home, got inside and picked up a book to read and try to calm down. I'm still waiting to hear from my prof as I type right now, and its been nearly four hours since I sent the message. Obviously something must have happened, but why does this kind of stuff always happen to me?!
Well, enough of the pity party. Let's talk about happier things...
Like The Amazing Book is Not on Fire! I've been a fan of Dan and Phil for a long time now, but recently my love for them hit me again like a brick, so I went out and bought their book. I'm almost half way through it, and its definitely a fun book to read. If you're a fan of their videos then I would highly recommend it.
I think this is all I can really manage to type right now, so I'm going to go. I hope that any of you who are reading this who happen to be in Uni and are getting ready to take exams this month don't have to face any of the same troubles that I've had to go through today. I really, really don't recommend them. Its not good for my poor anxiety-ridden heart.
Ta-ta for now,
Helen.
How are you all doing? I hope you are doing better than me to be completely honest.
As I've mentioned in the past posts (at least I'm fairly certain that I have), I'm in University right now and this week is exam week. All of the finals happening all at once. Gotta love it, right? Wrong. Not only is this time of year incredibly stressful, but I need to get ready to work a lot more if I'm going to be able to afford to go to school again in the fall.
Today, which is a Saturday, just in case you were wondering, I was supposed to have an exam at 9:00 in the morning. First of all, I'm pretty sure this is some form of unique torture that is tailored to me seeing as one of the only days of the week that I actually get to sleep in on is Saturdays. Second of all, I check the exam schedule, find the room and sit. And wait. And wait. And wait.
No one shows up. Absolutely no one. Not even my professor.
At the time that my exam is supposed to be starting, the entire room is empty except for me. I check my student email, but I find nothing. So I sent an email to my prof asking if there was an announcement of some sort that I missed because I don't want to miss my exam over an email that didn't make it to my inbox.
I basically tweeted out the meltdown that I was having (@The_Book_Tree) before deciding that having a panic attack in public at my Uni wasn't the right thing to do. I got on the next bus home, got inside and picked up a book to read and try to calm down. I'm still waiting to hear from my prof as I type right now, and its been nearly four hours since I sent the message. Obviously something must have happened, but why does this kind of stuff always happen to me?!
Well, enough of the pity party. Let's talk about happier things...
Like The Amazing Book is Not on Fire! I've been a fan of Dan and Phil for a long time now, but recently my love for them hit me again like a brick, so I went out and bought their book. I'm almost half way through it, and its definitely a fun book to read. If you're a fan of their videos then I would highly recommend it.
I think this is all I can really manage to type right now, so I'm going to go. I hope that any of you who are reading this who happen to be in Uni and are getting ready to take exams this month don't have to face any of the same troubles that I've had to go through today. I really, really don't recommend them. Its not good for my poor anxiety-ridden heart.
Ta-ta for now,
Helen.
Wednesday, 13 April 2016
Why are Revisions so Hard?
Hello everybody,
So as I mentioned in my previous post, I have been trying to get revisions done on my current project. I absolutely hate doing revisions because they take so much time and effort, and I always feel like all of my writing sucks while I'm doing it, which really isn't a good feeling.
All of that being said, I've been doing fairly well with them lately. I managed to actually read through my entire manuscript without absolutely hating myself by the end of it, and managed to find all of the major problems that I need to fix as soon as humanly possible. Seeing as, before this particular project, I've always given up on revisions after the first two or three chapters, I feel like I'm making quite a bit of progress.
As of yesterday, I've managed to edit five chapters of my novel. I realize that this doesn't sound like much, but its already got me at approximately 11,000 words for this version of the manuscript. My first draft is always really bare bones, which kind of sucks. When I've taken part in NaNoWriMo each time over the last three years, I always just barely pass the 50k mark, and usually there is a lot of story that I intended to tell, but it didn't make it onto the page. I've been trying to add some of that plot while also removing things from the original manuscript that I really don't need, and so far its been working (or at least, I think it is). The manuscript is longer than it initially was, but I'm much happier with its contents than I was before.
My problem is that after revising the last chapter, which almost quadrupled in size and became the longest chapter in the book so far, I've hit a bit of a road block. I'm normally pretty good at powering through some writers block and still getting some words on the page, but that becomes significantly harder to do when you're trying to edit and revise. I can't just spit out words onto the page anymore. I have to actually think really carefully about them and make sure that I'm making the right choices. This is incredibly difficult to do when I can barely concentrate on two or three sentences of the chapter.
In all honesty, it's most likely because this is a chapter that I have to make a lot of changes in. I had some characterization issues with one of the main characters, and this is where they started, so I have to fix the root of the problem here and then continue to fix all of the problems that stemmed from it throughout the rest of the book. There is also a lot of character interaction within this chapter which always makes me nervous. I feel like dialogue is something that I can never get quite right, and when at least a quarter of a chapter is interactions between characters that I'm supposed to fix and make better it is always terrifying.
Basically, what i'm saying is that I really, really wish that revisions were easier to do. Really, I wish that first drafts just happened perfectly and revisions would never legitimately have to happen, but I know that is never going to be the case. I'm going to try and get at least half way through this chapter today since my exams officially start tomorrow.
Wish me luck!
Helen.
So as I mentioned in my previous post, I have been trying to get revisions done on my current project. I absolutely hate doing revisions because they take so much time and effort, and I always feel like all of my writing sucks while I'm doing it, which really isn't a good feeling.
All of that being said, I've been doing fairly well with them lately. I managed to actually read through my entire manuscript without absolutely hating myself by the end of it, and managed to find all of the major problems that I need to fix as soon as humanly possible. Seeing as, before this particular project, I've always given up on revisions after the first two or three chapters, I feel like I'm making quite a bit of progress.
As of yesterday, I've managed to edit five chapters of my novel. I realize that this doesn't sound like much, but its already got me at approximately 11,000 words for this version of the manuscript. My first draft is always really bare bones, which kind of sucks. When I've taken part in NaNoWriMo each time over the last three years, I always just barely pass the 50k mark, and usually there is a lot of story that I intended to tell, but it didn't make it onto the page. I've been trying to add some of that plot while also removing things from the original manuscript that I really don't need, and so far its been working (or at least, I think it is). The manuscript is longer than it initially was, but I'm much happier with its contents than I was before.
My problem is that after revising the last chapter, which almost quadrupled in size and became the longest chapter in the book so far, I've hit a bit of a road block. I'm normally pretty good at powering through some writers block and still getting some words on the page, but that becomes significantly harder to do when you're trying to edit and revise. I can't just spit out words onto the page anymore. I have to actually think really carefully about them and make sure that I'm making the right choices. This is incredibly difficult to do when I can barely concentrate on two or three sentences of the chapter.
In all honesty, it's most likely because this is a chapter that I have to make a lot of changes in. I had some characterization issues with one of the main characters, and this is where they started, so I have to fix the root of the problem here and then continue to fix all of the problems that stemmed from it throughout the rest of the book. There is also a lot of character interaction within this chapter which always makes me nervous. I feel like dialogue is something that I can never get quite right, and when at least a quarter of a chapter is interactions between characters that I'm supposed to fix and make better it is always terrifying.
Basically, what i'm saying is that I really, really wish that revisions were easier to do. Really, I wish that first drafts just happened perfectly and revisions would never legitimately have to happen, but I know that is never going to be the case. I'm going to try and get at least half way through this chapter today since my exams officially start tomorrow.
Wish me luck!
Helen.
Tuesday, 12 April 2016
This is the Beginning
Hi everyone,
My name is Helen and this is my writing blog. I'm 20 years old, live in Canada and am currently working towards an English degree with a concentration on creative writing. Right now, I'm working on my project: "Scarlett," which I am really excited about.
This is it. This is the beginning. This blog is going to be my way of documenting my journey as a writer. I used to have a blog that was dedicated to the books I was reading, but I found that I lost passion for updating it. I don't know why, but it happened. However, I still found myself wanting to write down a lot of things that I was doing, they just weren't about the books that I was reading. Instead, they seemed to be heavily focused on the books that I'm writing.
If I know myself the way that I like to think I do, then this blog won't strictly be about my writing. It will be a main focus of it, but it won't be the only thing that I talk about. The title of this blog is That Nerdy Writer for a reason, and I intend to explain it to everyone who reads this, but at a slower pace so that I don't overload you with information.
Right now, if you don't know already, Camp NaNoWriMo is going on! Every April and July the lovely people who host NaNoWriMo in November host the camp version of it, which is basically the same thing but much more laid back as you get to decide your own word goal for the month. At the last minute, I decided that I was going to join in the fun. Of course, this is a terrible month to do so, as I just finished my last two weeks of classes for the semester which means that I had a whole bunch of papers due, and now I have an entire week of exams with very little time to study for them. This is why I personally set my goal at only 20,000 words for the month.
I didn't really get to start writing until yesterday, but I managed to have a pretty good writing day. I wrote just over 3500 words! I'm just about to try and get some writing done for tonight, and I'm hoping to bring my total up by about 2000 more words by the end of this session. I'm working on revisions for this Camp, so I find that it takes me a lot longer to write than it did for my last three NaNo's where I was writing first drafts and could just type everything out really quickly without needing to worry about if it was all good or all made sense. Now I have to fix those mistakes and it literally takes FOREVER.
There is a reason that revisions are my absolute least favorite part of writing, but they are necessary so here I am.
Let me know if any of you are taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo this year! If not, have you ever taken part in it, or the regular one hosted in November? I'm so excited to start having conversations with you, so please don't be shy about leaving comments.
I shall update again soon,
Helen.
My name is Helen and this is my writing blog. I'm 20 years old, live in Canada and am currently working towards an English degree with a concentration on creative writing. Right now, I'm working on my project: "Scarlett," which I am really excited about.
This is it. This is the beginning. This blog is going to be my way of documenting my journey as a writer. I used to have a blog that was dedicated to the books I was reading, but I found that I lost passion for updating it. I don't know why, but it happened. However, I still found myself wanting to write down a lot of things that I was doing, they just weren't about the books that I was reading. Instead, they seemed to be heavily focused on the books that I'm writing.
If I know myself the way that I like to think I do, then this blog won't strictly be about my writing. It will be a main focus of it, but it won't be the only thing that I talk about. The title of this blog is That Nerdy Writer for a reason, and I intend to explain it to everyone who reads this, but at a slower pace so that I don't overload you with information.
Right now, if you don't know already, Camp NaNoWriMo is going on! Every April and July the lovely people who host NaNoWriMo in November host the camp version of it, which is basically the same thing but much more laid back as you get to decide your own word goal for the month. At the last minute, I decided that I was going to join in the fun. Of course, this is a terrible month to do so, as I just finished my last two weeks of classes for the semester which means that I had a whole bunch of papers due, and now I have an entire week of exams with very little time to study for them. This is why I personally set my goal at only 20,000 words for the month.
I didn't really get to start writing until yesterday, but I managed to have a pretty good writing day. I wrote just over 3500 words! I'm just about to try and get some writing done for tonight, and I'm hoping to bring my total up by about 2000 more words by the end of this session. I'm working on revisions for this Camp, so I find that it takes me a lot longer to write than it did for my last three NaNo's where I was writing first drafts and could just type everything out really quickly without needing to worry about if it was all good or all made sense. Now I have to fix those mistakes and it literally takes FOREVER.
There is a reason that revisions are my absolute least favorite part of writing, but they are necessary so here I am.
Let me know if any of you are taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo this year! If not, have you ever taken part in it, or the regular one hosted in November? I'm so excited to start having conversations with you, so please don't be shy about leaving comments.
I shall update again soon,
Helen.
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