During the course of daily bullet journal entries, I had to confront my fatal inconsistency when it comes to writing in German. At the moment, I write in French on a daily basis, with increasing fluency. 

The key method I have used is to copy out vocabulary 5 times for memorisation, and then write as often as possible, using all the words learned. I should be doing this most days of the week, but waking up late and bad organisation have halted this progress on some days. 

I use these two methods throughout my working day: bullet journal, language journal, morning notebook, French study book, planning lessons, and anywhere else. From time to time, I will publish a link or a video in French with a little commentary (which should be longer). 

So, why haven’t I done the same in German? Fear. the thought of writing in German is drowned in cold water when I think of its perceived difficulty. I fret over mistakes I might make in a piece I haven’t written. Yet when a couple of weeks go by without my making any progress, I get frustrated and write (in French!) of how I want to make progress. 

Fact is, no magic formula exists for German. When I am concentrating and engaged with the subject material, I do not find German difficult. On the contrary: while studying adverbs that begin with „da-“, I was shocked to find them far clearer than the French translations (often «en» and «y»). My excuses about German being “difficult” fell to pieces. 

The same techniques which have improved my French writing will improve my German writing, particularly given that I do not often get the opportunity to practice speaking with natives. My lack of confidence has nothing to do with German, and everything to do with limiting thoughts and a lack of consistent study. 

As it happens, I have written entire pages in German, and would be able to do more, if I read widely and made notes on vocabulary. Thankfully, I did watch some videos in German which were mostly easy to understand, and make notes on useful vocabulary in German. So it can be done. 

When writing in a foreign language, don’t worry about mistakes until the rereading and rewriting phase. Just remove the thoughts. I found that non-native English speakers who make Youtube videos often use un-English turns of phrase, despite being fluent in the language. So don’t worry if you still have some Anglicisms in your writing. 

If unsure about something, then highlight it for later. Feel free to make corrections and annotations across the text, most of which will come to mind during the rereading phase. Take parts of previous writing and improve them later on, which should turn out better if you have been consistent with reading and vocabulary acquisition. 

What to write about? Anything. I write about my daily goals, language study, the history of German, feelings, and many other topics. I recently realised that I don’t actually want to blog about the language research material I am using. Other topics interest me, and I was keeping my areas of interest too narrow, thus preventing me from reading and writing widely. 

I aim to post more frequently in French and German, with longer commentaries in the language. My hope is that native French and German speakers will read these and provide feedback on the quality of my writing-- a lack of feedback is a drawback to self-study, if you don’t have the relevant resources. Social media is invaluable in this regard. 

Long story short: don’t bow to fear, or you will get nowhere. 

I’m currently reworking a story that I began in 2016, but never finished. Only today, while going for a walk, did I solidify the real plot problem and vehicles for character development therein. 

On Thursday, I read through the existing chapters and wrote 2 717 words by hand (almost 8 A4 pages) of analysis. Beforehand, I believed that while the story required work, I might be able to keep some of this existing work. In fact, I preferred to do so, as I was attached to the chapters (particularly chapters 1, 4, and 5). 

But on rereading, I found all kinds of problems. The main one was that despite having set up a protagonist in the first chapter, she did nothing. From my old plans (sadly, I deleted all the story notes and plot timeline!!), I had wanted her to act in Chapter 6. But that action only involved a conversation and observation. 

I have since learned that characters must act, not just think. But I think that this problem comes as a reflection of my own life, where I often struggle to act as opposed to overthinking a situation. Only by pushing myself to achieve goals in small time-frames (such as 15 minutes), as well as other methodologies, have I broken through this barrier. 

In addition to this, I had implausible situations. This came from the fact that I had an entirely different plan back in 2016, but one which clashed with the end of the television series episode I was shadowing. So, after having established the protagonist in Chapter 1, I switched to another POV which unleashed a chain of (coincidental events) that affected the protagonist. And for coincidental events, I needed coincidental characters. 

This meant that Chapters 2-5 were unusable, despite my presumptions. That basically leaves Chapter 1 stranded, though I can certainly recycle material from any one of these chapters. I am unhappy with Chapter 1, because the protagonist’s goals were clearly stated and then muddied (and even those goals didn’t involve much forward action). 

My story planning practices back in 2016 were shambolic. Had I not foolishly deleted all the notes I made, along with the timeline and original drafts, then I could have pieced something together from the ashes. The one benefit I can see from having burned all the bridges behind me (thankfully, I have fragments of handwritten notes) is that I can start afresh!

Because I had no clear end goal, and only a vague summary from the beginning, I was never going to finish this story. I was at least developing to the point where I could plot in advance (using a plot timeline, and then highlighting each completed event green) and write detailed character notes (which I now miss!). Since reading more on writing technique in the following years, I now know better than to plunge into the unknown without a clear plan. 

So I have prevented myself from writing anything on this story until I am sure about the goal (which was worked out this morning on a walk), and have done all the preliminary writing for it. This includes detailed character notes, some modest research on medieval warfare and medicine, as well as a completed Table of Contents. From then, I can complete the entire draft in advance, before rewriting, editing, and publishing chapters for review. 

When I do get around to the chapter stage, I will use the same method I have been using to review existing chapters and the relevant episode: numbered notes. That way, I can return to the pages I wrote and look up some particular issue. I am also relieved that these are written by hand, therefore the worst fate they can suffer is stagnating inside my bag, not being deleted online and lost forever!

I find that making notes on the chapter for developmental editing is an excellent way of thinking through and reacting to what I have written, as well as spotting problems in the draft. I wish that I had been more rigorous with my work back in 2016, as well as with my other unfinished (and nearly abandoned) work. Furthermore, I am more strict with counting the number of words written (a real pain when writing by hand) and the time spent on each piece of writing. That gives me an idea of how much time I typically spend writing in a day, which I then log into my spreadsheet. 

Beforehand, I used to envisage hours and hours of uninterrupted writing time. Reality didn’t cooperate with that vision. Often, I could spend hours and hours writing, but often at the expense of important tasks, which piled up. Eventually, I became so exhausted that I would crash and burn. 

Or, I would get busy and then put writing on the backburner. The longer I spend away from writing, the harder I find it to get back in. This applies particularly to fiction, where I become paranoid that my technique has slipped and so I need to read more craft books and fiction (which I do need to do, but that is a lifelong habit, not just one to be used while drafting). 

(And I have to read craft books on nonfiction, as well!).

So I have a better methodology and technique to finish this story, as well as being more consistent with writing by hand (one of my favourite things to do, minus counting words by hand and the pain afterwards). I love making notes, as I feel it better engages my mind with what I am reading and watching. 

This time around, I also will be illustrating my stories. I have longed to do this for years, but stopped short of putting a proper plan into place so that I could achieve this goal. My Art Progress posts now chart my forays into sketching, something which definitely will accompany my fiction and nonfiction works. I love the concentration required for sketching, and the requirement to slow down and think about what I am doing. 

I have often lived in distraction and rushed to get things done. Now I have to do the exact opposite: concentrate on a task, which makes it easier (and quicker!) to get things done. 

While I berate myself daily for having thrown away a good chunk of notes and the plot timeline, I am grateful that I have handwritten fragments. I like the technique of using a numbered timeline, and I will also be using an excellent note-taking method I learned today to keep track of miscellaneous (and in this case, intentional) thoughts. I also find writing on plain paper incredibly liberating, because I don’t have to write in a linear fashion (although I mostly do). 

Very good to see people on Tumblr enjoy writing by hand. Some things never go out of fashion.