Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Leveling up

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Writing Excuses retreat in the Western Caribbean. Lovely, lovely time--wonderful people, fantastic instruction. I loved all of it.

Now I'm trying to write again. It's hard. I've been surrounded by other writers, many of whom are better than I am in one way or another. Some of them are better at characterization or plotting; many are better at finishing things.

We were warned that after an experience like this we'd find it hard to write because our tastes have improved but our skills haven't yet. We were encouraged to keep writing through that with the expectation that our skills will catch up eventually. So, even though I'm not writing fiction I'm writing this to remind myself that I need to keep writing, even if it's going to sound like crap to my own ears for a while.

I often feel like what I write doesn't sound good when I first write it, but like many people I've talked to if I put it away and come back to it later I find that there's something electric about it, even if I can see how I want to change things. I love that experience of digging through my writing looking for the lines that just light up on the page for me, or the scenes that make me shiver because I feel them.

Of course, all of this will be easier when I'm caught up on sleep! Staying up until two or three in the morning playing games and then getting up before 8 for breakfast left me just a tad sleep deprived (though might also jump start my returning to Adelaide time).