Sunday, June 19, 2011

Writing Secrets

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Everyone wants to know the secret.  I do.  I did.  I looked, googled, and asked all over if there was kind of secret to finishing a novel, publishing a novel.  The sad new is  that there aren't any secrets.

The truth is writing is art.  The mastery of any art form is hard work, hours of practice and mastery of the basics.  A painter works on the control of line, shadow, color and shape.  The writer must master grammar, story control, character development  and plot structure. 

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Ali at Aliventures wrote a post, Eight Secrets Which Writers Won't Tell You. She concurs, writing is tough. She also states that we all struggle with procrastination. It is easy to do with the interwebs sucking us into  a black hole of fun and avoidance.  I have sat down with the intentions of writing on the next draft and spent two hours house shopping for my dream home in Colorado.  

You have to admit it is a beauty.  You can't pretend shop for a house and leave out all the art and luxury furniture to fill it.  You see where I am going?  Before you know it, you have lost an entire afternoon and have nothing to show but a pretend house.  It is important to dig in and do it, write. Or the dream house will stay just that, a dream. 

2 comments:

  1. That is the only secret to writing: Write! A Stephen King said, (more or less) inspiration is more likely to strike the guy who's already sitting in the chair and writing.

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