Summer Reprise Series #7: It doesn’t matter what
you write… My Position
First published March 24, 2015
This is the third of three blogs on what
you should be writing. What follows the ellipsis
in the title is “…as long as you’re writing something.” PRO and CON
arguments in support of that statement were presented in previous blogs. This
week I’ll present the “what I believe” position.
Keep in mind as you read this that the purpose of a blog for
a writer is to extend your brand, communicate with your readers, and
offer insight into the writer of the blog as a person. Hopefully, each of my
blog entries does a bit of each.
Since writing is a process that spans genres in both fiction and
non-fiction, writing something, then editing it, and revising it, and editing
it, and having the writing critiqued, and editing, and revising it, is valuable
practice.
If you are writing something to avoid writing something else . . . well,
that could be a problem. I am not advocating writing as an avoidance strategy
in any sense. Sometimes, you just get stuck—perhaps your protagonist has landed
in a situation from which there seems to be no escape. Sending your mind on a
trip down another pathway—by spending time writing on another project—might be
just the trick to unleash the idea that’s holding your character prisoner.
However, intentionally avoiding one project for a prolonged period of
time just because you don’t want to work on it might indicate that the
project you’re avoiding should be removed from your radar screen entirely.
I just scanned the area around my computer and I see no dead horses.
But, I suspect an equine corpse is lurking close by, so let me cut to the
chase.
If you are a writer, you should be writing.
Period.
Writing
isn’t just pounding keys and watching words appear on the screen in front of
you. The process varies a bit by author, but the a good overview is provided in
my booklet, “Idea Farming – Volume #1 – A Science Guy’s Read on Writing.”
This
blog was written while I was working on production of a new book, editing an
existing manuscript, and finalizing the formatting of Book
Creation – Volume #2 – A Science
Guy’s Exploration of Publishing Resources; and adding ideas to the outlines
of two other book ideas.
Once
again,
if you are a writer, you
should be writing.
Next
blog: Proofreading Epiphany Revealed
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