Are you a writer? Do you love to write? Is it something you have been doing all your life? Is it something you would like to try? Maybe you would like to try the thousand words a day challenge? I have begun to call myself a writer recently, not because I have published anything nor am I about to. I am an amateur. I don’t even have any kind of creative writing education. I would like to, but I’m pretty sure that will not happen. I still call myself a writer because I need to write.
I write because I need to write, just as much as I need to breathe. To stay alive. That’s why I call myself a writer. It is a hobby, I don’t live off of my writing, but I do it every day no matter what.
Writing is an essential part of my life and I have always been writing. Both creative and academic writing. Even when I haven’t had a deadline I had to make, even when I have just been writing for me, I have sometimes found it difficult to start. It’s as if the white, clean paper, or word document, is challenging me. Will the paper win and keep it’s untouched whiteness or will I finally find some words to make that first sentence. The first method I used to win that challenge, to beat writer's block, if such a thing exist. some say no… the first method I tried was to take ten minutes just to type, or write. Nonsense, random letters, random words, but creating words was not necessary. The idea was that for ten minutes you just keep hitting the keys of your keyboard or using your pen/pencil. You set a timer and after ten minutes you stop. The paper isn’t white anymore. Then you just keep writing.
The thousand words a day challenge was the next step. If you are an inspired writer, if you write when you feel the inspiration flowing, you’re just like me. Then this challenge can help you get past that. Inspiration is fine, but you need to write every day. Just a few days of no inspiration can mean that you just never finish what you started. That’s how most of my projects have ended anyway. Writing is not just inspiration it’s also work. Sometimes you just have to push yourself through that lack of inspiration, win the challenge of the white paper. To begin with I often used both methods, ten minutes to get started and then move on to counting words. The things I wrote in the beginning didn’t always have a structure or any real substance. The important thing was to get the thousand words down on that paper.
Eventually I began using the thousand words to sort through thoughts. I had written discussions with myself about writing, why I write, what I want to write. I was trying different ideas, different techniques to find out what I wanted to use the challenge for. Did I want to write a novel? Well, who doesn’t, but I wasn’t sure that’s possible with my style. Do I even have a style? I have been blogging before, I was blogging about how to or how not to blog more or less. Learning how to blog and blogging about that. I knew I liked blogging, but I have had a hard time finding a topic. Realizing that blogging might suit my style and since I like to blog I decided to begin publishing my thousand words a day challenge as a blog. Another challenge added when I felt more safe with my writing.
Writing and blogging being two very special challenges the biggest challenges has been on a completely different level. I didn’t call myself a writer, when I started. I wasn’t sure I could write a thousand words and make that work as a blog. I was definitely not sure I was good enough. It was just that I felt kind of done with only writing for myself. I needed that extra challenge of sharing. To begin with I felt very unsure about what I was doing. Worrying about views and readers, and of course you should care about them, do your best and keep improving. But I wasn’t even sure anyone would be interested. Why would anyone want to read what I write? Except maybe my closest friends, but honestly, I don’t expect them to read it either. I am surprised when they say something I know I wrote about.
For a long time I was debating my right to take up this space on the web for my texts. For taking up people's time with my random ramblings. I mentioned my style of writing before. Even now that feel so weird, as if I had a style, as if I even know enough to have a style. But. Then there’s those moments when the words just flow and for some reason I think that is probably when “my style” happens. I am just letting the words flow and I, more or less, follow them where they go.
There was an incident a while ago that forced me to stop writing, stop blogging for a while. Before that involuntary break I had begun to work on the blog part of my challenges. To get more structure, to plan my writing instead of just editing the worst parts out. I have not yet completely arrived back with those old routines, but it is my goal.
My biggest challenge has been my self confidence. My feelings that nothing I do is ever good enough. To keep these challenges going I decided to keep writing and publishing. That the reason I do this is to heal myself. I am not focusing on views or readers but on me. Even if no one cares about my blog I will still do it. For me. And maybe some day someone might find it helpful, inspiring, comforting. At least they can see that they aren’t alone struggling with life’s journey.
I do this for myself and that one person out there, somewhere…
Thank you for viewing, reading, commenting. It means more than you can ever imagine.
Thank you!!!
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