What most of us refer to as “creative writing” is something I’ve always done. Always. Like breathing. Remember the “breathing” metaphor, it’s gonna come back. (A lot.)
I asked for notebooks for Christmas and my birthday and filled them up with stories. With story ideas. With character ideas. With journals. With poems. Lyrics. Anything.
I was always writing.
Got it?
Okay.
Now.
Apparently “always writing” as a child is not a common thing. Because everyone was always asking me if I was going to be an author or writer when I grew up.
And I would always look back at them as if they were crazy.
Of course I wasn’t. I was going to be a doctor/firefighter/artist/veterinarian/scientist/astronaut/horse breeder/chemist/animator/whatever I wanted to be at the time.
Asking me if I was going to be a writer when I grew up was like asking me if I was going to breathe when I grew up. If I was going to be someone who sat in a room all day and specialized in breathing. What an incomprehensible idea. Why would I want to do that?
I wrote stories because I had to. Because if I didn’t, I might die. Same as if I stopped breathing.
Didn’t mean I wanted to do it for a living. How absolutely preposterous.
I think my attitude toward writing drove some people nuts. See, I wrote not one, not two, but THREE full-length novels before I turned eighteen. And yet I had no interest in “being a writer”. A lot of people could not comprehend this, and were always asking me when I was going to major in English. Even when I was in college and majoring in film/chemistry/Japanese Studies/film again, people were asking me when I was going to wake up and smell the roses and change my major to English. (It sort of got irritating, actually.)
I laughed those people off. Every time.
Majoring in English was silly. Like majoring in breathing. I took AP English in high school because it was easy 5’s on the AP tests and thus easy college credit. I had no interest in pursuing it further.
So lemme tell ya, this whole NaNo thing where all of a sudden I’ve been introduced to a world of editing and critiquing and advice and “do and do not” lists and blogs and feedback and publishing and agents and proofreading and all this STUFF, is really throwing me for a loop. I’ve never really had to deal with any of this before. I’ve never looked into any of this before. What an utterly bizarre little world to stumble into.
I’m still not quite sure how to digest this whole process. The whole thing feels so absurd, in a way. Not bad absurd. But, “Huh, I need to edit my breathing” absurd. It’s just never even crossed my mind before.
So if over the course of the next few days… or weeks… or months… you see me flailing around here or on Twitter or LJ, babbling nonsense about this mythical novel of mine, please bear with me. My mind is a flurry of strange thoughts and new experiences and impatience and these characters that have been living in my head for the past six months.
“I’m not crazy, I’m just a little unwell…”
*twitches*
It’s pretty crazy, ain’t it? I think it’s that sort of thing that you’re talking about that keeps people who write for fun (say, fanfiction) from actually trying to write and become successful from it.
It’s scary, but also fun in a way. Scaryfun?
@ krizzlybear – I agree, it is fun! I’m just still trying to figure out all the nuances. It’s like… NervewrackingFun. *nod*
@Krizzlybear
I’m going to go with “exhilarating.”
But about the whole breathing business, I’ve always loved stories too. My only problem is that I normally get bored halfway through, or cant find the time, or the ideas… or something. Writer’s block, I guess… I just wish I had that same mindset as you in terms of writing, it would be liberating I would think.
The best part is that even the “experts” agree there is no “wrong” way. At best, they can say “this is what works for me”.
=]
you’re too cute. YOUR BOOK IS AWESOME. get over it 😉
@ Phil – Truthfully, keeping on track with NaNo has been a big challenge for easily distracted lil’ me. I’m kind of shocked that I’ve kept up with it so far. If you asked me a year ago if I’d be at this point today, I would have laughed, and laughed, and laughed…
@ Tami – This is true! There is a lot of great advice out there. I’m not used to the whole picking and choosing the best-fitting advice part yet. o_o So sometimes, I feel kind of overwhelmed.
@ Mork – ILU
Speaking as someone who had to resort to cribbing my own dreams, of all things, for school creative story writing assignments, I have to admit to being totally in awe of your own capacity for breathing. /bow
Somehow, and it kind of ties into what Tami said, this reminds me of taking a linguistics class and discovering how despite the relative randomness of the written letters of our alphabet, an alphabet that is as ingrained and inherent to thinking and writing as breathing is to living, there was this underlying structure to the actual sounds they represent: relationships that you simply don’t see in the letters that represent them. It was a realisation that just made you pause for a moment and think, “Wow, that’s kinda cool!” But in the end, it’s just data points, a different way of looking at something and whether it’s worth taking along or not, is totally dependent on if it works for you.
Good luck with the writing! 😀
Well, keep right on breathing, then!
Also, when are you going to open your novel for beta readers? I’d be interested in the steampunk version of Watership Down, if that’s a good way to put it.
I’m a little bit like you – I’ve been writing all my life… but it’s never been stories. Or at least, not my own stories. I’ve had blogs since high school, plus infinite journals and diaries. Largely filled, if you can believe it, with poetry, teaching people/myself how to do things, and other explanatory type writing. (most of it BAD poetry, but there you go.) Also calligraphy.
So finding out that I can write stories – and that I don’t suck at it (as I’ve been told a few times by well-meaning educators) – is… mind bending. It’s fun, and awesome and crazy-making all at once. Because it’s a totally different kind of writing than I’ve ever done before.
I can’t wait to see where you go with your novel! (What bits of it I’ve seen are very interesting!)
I didn’t start writing for enjoyment really until I hit college (or whatever you call where you go before going to a university – I live in the UK)
All the way through school I was a doodler, I would sit and draw for hours and hours (when I wasn’t off climbing trees and such). But the combination of a really bad art teacher at school, and enjoyment of more academic subjects rising over my drawing kind of slowed that.
since starting some time ago, I find I only really have enough focus for short ‘snippet’ type stories. I love to write backstories for Roleplay characters (wow or otherwise, RP’ing has been a fun lil hobby for me since college)
I have been blogging (sporadically) for some time, but I get more pleasure these days out of the little stories I write, my blog posts now seem to be more raging ranty types, than the old thoughtful pondering I used to use it for. I don’t know if I could ever complete an actual Novel, god I’d love to – and I admire anyone who even tries. Nice thing though, I recently got a storytelling forum set up in my WoW guild’s forums, and the participation has been great – and the response to some of my stuff has been very encouraging too 🙂
Love your blog Pike, been a fan for a while now – and will keep reading as long as you keep writing (or breathing lol)
Barryhn
(apologies for the slightly rambling nature of this reply)
@ Awaane – it’s definitely something I’ve never thought about before. It is quite intriguing at the same time that it’s something I still am learning how to internalize. As a side note, the linguistics classes I took in university were some of the most interesting classes I’ve ever taken, and gosh, I wish they offered more of them. Heehee…
@ Bamos – Truthfully I sort of have already opened a beta test. The reason I haven’t announced it here yet is that I want to save some readers for later drafts. Never fear, it will probably be soon!
@ Anna – Thank you! I’ve been journaling basically my entire life as well, though I’ve also done the more story-ish stuff too. Calligraphy though… never done that >_>
@ Barryhn – Good to hear you’ve had some nice responses to your stuff! Pretty much all my WoW characters had a backstory. I think it’s part of what drove me insane when I wasn’t on an RP server… I wasn’t particularly big on, say, “gimmick” names (unless they were really witty) because it sort of broke my internal rule. It’s kind of funny because it’s never really something I thought much of, I just did it, naturally.
*chuckles* I don’t think that non-writers ever quite get the fact that you don’t “grow up to be a writer,” or have some sort of ambition to *become* a writer…If you’re a writer, you just are, and you can’t really not do it. Or at least, you can’t not do it and keep your sanity intact.
Hi Pike. I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that I’m grateful for the way you “breathe” and am always eager to here what you have to say. Both excerpts that I’ve seen from your novel were phenomenal and I hope to be able to actually buy a copy in book form sometime and to be able to add you to my list of favorite authors. I hope the editing process stays fun for you and that we get to see much more of your writing in the future.
So, Pikey.
*looks around a bit – left, right, left, back to Pikestaff*
What do you think of screenwriting for movies and television in relation to writing
fiction, literary fiction, and non-fiction?
Do you feel the same way about screenwriting as non-screenwriting writing?
*eyebrows raised, curious as to what the answer will be*
Different perspective… what if someone told you that you could make a career out of breathing? If they’d pay you to do something you naturally did anyway?
It was like that for me, except with music. It was just something I DID.
I always worried that “if it becomes my JOB, something I ‘HAVE TO DO’, it won’t be as much FUN… but then again, getting PAID to have FUN isn’t such a bad deal…”.
Just a thought.
@ Jen – I think a lot of creative types feel similarly about their chosen… creative-thing. I remember meeting Jeff Bridges at a film festival thing. He said that you do not become an actor, you simply act. At the time, I wasn’t quite sure I understood what he was saying, but now I definitely do.
@ Ben – Awww. Thanks! I hope to see my book in “book form” soon as well!
@ Amdue – I loooooove screenwriting. I’ve been doing it forever, and I still love to do it. But, it also falls under the same “it’s something I’ve always done” camp. I do think it’s a bit less stressful than noveling, though… more relaxing. But that’s just me.
@ Mugician13 – I’m really not sure. I sort of think I would have to do something else BESIDES writing, at the same time. JUST writing would drive me nuts, I think. But that may just be a reflection of my really varied interests.
@ Pike: That’s why we have hobbies. 😉
@ Mugician13 – True enough!