by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
As I sit down for a day’s writing, I find myself reflecting on difficult it is to write, period. Generally, at least for me, people tell me I suck and I should just go get a job at a bank. I think what I’m going to do is simply stop being so forthcoming when it comes to showing people the process of whatever it is I’m working on.
People want something from me that I just can’t give them. They want me to fit inside “the box” of the conventional. They hate the very idea that I would write anything at all because my grammar is bad or whatever. They come at me from the point of view of a professional writer when I’m just a struggling novice who enjoys writing and telling stories, regardless of how good the end produce might be.
But I think simply not being so open with what I’m writing will fix the issue. That and buckling down and doing the hard work of actually required to produce a novel someone in the end will want to read. Now that I have the basic plot down, the difficult part begins.
It’s surprising how absolute some people are about how they think I shouldn’t write, period. But I’ve never done what I’m supposed to do and so why should I start now. But the issue is I have to actually do the work. I have to start to do the hard work of development. There’s a lot of stuff you have to do in the background of writing a novel to produce something that is actually anywhere near what you might want to read. I’ve talked about writing enough. Time to act.
