#writingsucks

“One writer I know tells me that he sits down every morning and says to himself nicely, "It's not like you don't have a choice, because you do -- you can either type, or kill yourself."

                                                                         -Anne Lamott 

My first impression of “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott was obviously the title. I thought to myself, “What a perfect explanation of every rough draft I have ever written”. The title drew in my attention kind of how salt sucks out water. As I continued to read the excerpt I couldn’t help but agree to the fact of the matter that everyone, even the best of professional writers, have shitty rough drafts. As a college student, I know my peers and I all dread the idea of sharing the mental compilation of topics we could care less about on a piece of paper for a grade. The idea of it makes me gag just a bit, but as most things that we are uncomfortable with, writing is necessary for mental growth. Being able to critically think and then put those thoughts into words is a useful skill in our society.

Anne then continues to discuss the less glamorous side of being a writer, for example she says “Very few writers really know what they are doing until they've done it. Nor do they go about their business feeling dewy and thrilled.” As I continue to read how Anne herself has the unshakable fate of writing terrible first drafts, it made me realize that the uncertainty of knowing just how your writing will turn out is inevitable no matter who you are. It goes to show that thoughts are just that; thoughts. Critiquing your thoughts is what makes for a great writer in my opinion. Being able to put them down no matter how bad they seem to be and sifting through the rocks until you find a gemstone is what I feel is key to writing something meaningful and worth reading.

                                                                                            -Sincerely Ki

     So here I am, with the sudden determination to hit it back at the whole ‘caffeinated writer’ dealio. I’ve started this tumbler blog, and decided to stray away from YouTube for a while. (I don’t enjoy looking at moving images of myself and guessing on the amount of views, neither do you.) 

    Anyway, I didn’t just have inspiration about the media representation of my writer self but also finally, finally in my actual writing. Of course it’s not like I’ve been not (revising) because I’ve never been in the spirit to write. Lies. (Obviously I’m not Candor)

     Recently, or perhaps always (as long as I’ve been writing this book?) I’ve felt the need to plan everything. Yes, outlining is necessary to gain control over that newborn idea floating around in your Alice In Wonderland Head. However, there is a point when planning takes over your writing. 

     Instead of writing, or if I got “writers block” I decided I would conquer it with a little planning. But this quickly came too much of an obsession rather than a need. In the end, I’d never use the detailed plans I had carefully planned out for many hours wasted before. 

     The truth is, you don’t need to plan out your whole entire novel whenever you don’t know what move to make next or if you have nothing else to do. As the golden rule goes, just write. It’s hard, it sucks, I hate it, you hate it, all authors and writers hate it, but if you ever want to finish that novel, you must keep on going.

      Besides that little pep talk, I also wanted to say that for me at least when inspiration hits you after many days (for me a couple months) you can end up looking like this:

It feels great to have an old enemy (inspiration) back on your good side.