The question is more what I don’t know about writing, because the answer to that would fill a library whereas the answer to what I know about writing would fill a pin head but I’ll give it a go at scribbling a few words.
When I was young I was given a journal with some ideas about what I could put in it, the gifter had written down some entries for my birthday from various people throughout history, people I shared a birthday with. I did try to write things down in it with the idea I’d only write on my birthday and update it once a year with what had happened during the year. This fizzled out and I found myself scribbling updates at odd times, then going back and disagreeing with what I’d written and how I’d written it all the while being so dissatisfied with my life. I found the whole process onerous so I threw it out one day and have barely regretted it. The odd time I do regret it is because it was on The Hobbit paper.
I’ve never been too happy with my writing, I did write one quick short story in year 11 I was happy with and I still have it somewhere. I’ve never thought I had any skills with words, I still don’t. I tell people I know two languages; English and Australian with no great skills in either. I can’t think why people laugh. I started writing this blog in April 2009 ostensibly to help with SEO but in reality to let out my inner frustrated writer, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do but never felt I had the skills. Now I blog knowing I don’t have the skills but determined to do it anyway. At various times I add some studies into the mix in an effort to improve my writing and my grammar, my last was year 12 English Literature and I do feel it helped my writing, it was a course I enjoyed greatly. I recently completed a Certificate 3 in Business Admin, I did this online and was not very excited by the process I much prefer a classroom situation with people interaction.
Just so you know, I write more or less how I speak with no swear words and unless my mouth stops working properly I try to speak with proper grammar, sometimes I succeed. It’s so much easier in print as you can go back and fix any problems you’ve found.
This post is part of What I Know About Writing run by That Space in Between, you can see more articles on the same topic here. I have to stop reading the rest of the articles, it’s an absolute must but I know I won’t. One lady talks about NaNoWriMo, she’s entering for the third time this year and what she says makes me want to join her. It’s absolute madness, to attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days, but I’m seriously thinking about it. I can’t help but wonder if I can do it, I’m sure there will be nothing sensible at the end but it fascinates me. They say you should aim for 1,666 words per day and that’s a lot of words. Can I sustain 50,000 words in such a short time? Can I make it all make any kind of sense? Can I do all of this while also doing everything else? Can I think of any other questions? That lady mentions her first time with NaNoWriMo and how she wrote semi-biographical rubbish which was good as it cleared the way for other useful ideas and writing. Knowing it will never see the light of day means this might be a good place to start, using it as a counselling session and just get rid of whatever rubbish is in my head. I still don’t know about NaNoWriMo but it is tempting.
Click here to go to That Space In Between.
Thanks so much for linking up Suz. I know what you mean about nanowrimo but if you have a think about it the average blog post is 800 words and most people pop them out quite quickly. You would just need to write two a day – if I wasnt studying Id be tempted to give it a try.
Hope to see you on the next link up – Ill pop you on the email list!
Sarah
You’re right but I still want to think about it. I’ve watched others go through it and it seems to tear them apart as they’re working just so hard.
Thanks for putting on the email list, I’ll have a look at the next topic and make a decision then.