I’m new to this blogging thing. I’ll admit that today’s challenge is a bit of a struggle for me. I’m enthusiastic about ideas and projects; less so about the hard graft of building – which doesn’t sound quite so impressive as writing – (sorry, not meaning to offend any real life brickies).

I’ll let you in on a secret. I’ve even begun to doubt having embarked on this writers’ challenge. Do I have what it takes? I thought so on day 1 or 2. Now I’m losing a bit of the self belief, losing some of the initial momentum. I’m finding myself up against a virtual brick wall, questioning whether to turn around and give up.

Being creative is tiring at times, and I don’t always feel like producing content. This building stuff is more strenuous than I imagined. I’m a little tempted to ditch the blog and stick to other pursuits. Why? Because sleep seems alluring late at night and other distractions beckon during the day. It would be a lot easier to casually lay a creative ‘brick’ now and then, depending on my feelings, than to commit to finishing what I’ve started. As for getting up early (day 2) – well that’s problematic for a night owl with kids who tend to be around in the morning hours.

In many ways I can see a parallel emerging with the process of writing of a novel. It’s pretty exciting in the early stages and you’re bursting with enthusiasm. About half way through, it gets tricky. Story’s in a muddle, characters become aimless, descriptions threaten to dry up. Basically, it turns from being something you can’t wait to get stuck into, to something you force yourself to continue writing.

Like the novel, I need to build on what I’ve started, not neglect the very thing that should help me develop as a writer and help me achieve some goals.

So, despite my shortcomings and resistance to building, I will press on with constructing this site and find or create decent content to fill its pages. Once I’ve done that I’ll start thinking about the bonus assignment!

Any offers to hold me accountable in this regard are most welcome.

The Great Writers’ challenge for today (Habit #7) promotes freedom to write something unpolished and ugly. We shouldn’t worry about producing something that’s flawless; we need to simply have a go. Let the creativity flow and write (paint/create) something, no matter how poor it comes across.

It’s all part of the process of becoming great, apparently.

You mean I can just hash some blurb out? Yes! It doesn’t have to be edited umpteen times straight away? No!

There’s something wonderful about this suggestion, something that releases the pressure from anyone who’s even vaguely got a bit of the perfectionist lurking inside them.

Once more, I smiled as I realised that this is currently the way I already work. I posted a couple of comments about it on Jeff Goins’ webpage, and have decided to paste it here too, in case it helps any other writers…

This [writing ‘ugly’ style] has generally been my practice in putting together each chapter of the novel I’m working on. I take a look at the brief outline of the story and simply start writing. When I’m mid flow and suddenly get hit with problems of expression or description, I usually insert a few ???? or [insert character description] into the draft and continue to write.

It’s definitely messy. But it gets the skeleton of a chapter complete – and there’s satisfaction in getting something near completion. Then I have time to go back later and try to fill the gaps. At that point, I’m not worried about how long I mull over ideas or possibilities. Or I can suggest a couple of ideas and see what my editor thinks.

Doing it like this, in true ugly fashion, avoids interrupting the flow of creativity – especially when you’re sure you’ve something really decent coming up soon. Don’t risk losing that train of thought – just keep on going with it.

It’s good to know that I’m on the right track with this challenge. I can do ‘ugly’ pretty well! It’s the sharpening and touching up part which I know I find a lot harder. Still, it helps to be reminded that most works of art start off quite messily.

Today I’ve been encouraged to copy and steal other artists’ ideas or materials. Moi, steal? Sounds dubious.

As with a couple of Goins’ previous challenges, I don’t know whether to blush or be smug this time. Thinking about it, yep, I’ve already done that. Steal!

And yet he makes sense. I particularly appreciated the quote from Bono about how U2 came upon their ‘unique’ sound when they first started out. It’s so good – and as a lifelong U2 fan – I’ll say it again here…

“We were just trying to copy everyone else, but we weren’t good enough. This is what came out.” Brilliant!

Likewise I can hereby acknowledge that the underlying premise of my novel is not entirely original. Grown ups especially may draw parallels with previously published works.

However, I’ve weaved an original plot, characters, settings, themes and ending into my own manuscript. And I’m convinced that as a new writer I’ve stamped my unique style throughout the pages. Yes there’s some good and evil stuff, yes the message may sound familiar, but that’s only through the lens of a grown up eye. And it’s not written for you.

When I present my finished work of art, a novel for pre-teens, for publication and ultimately for eager children to get caught up in the story, they won’t be focussing on whether there are similarities with such and such author from a previous generation.

In the same way when viewers have left the cinema, having watched yet another kidnapping-action-adventure movie, they tend not to groan about the common elements of previous productions. If anything, they tend to enjoy the familiar themes.

Now I feel justified in what I’ve aimed for and created. Goins says it’s OK – and he seems to know a thing or two about writing. And seeing as he’s the one to have proposed this stealing stuff, I’m sure he won’t complain about me pinching that quote from his own site! 

Now I just need to finish that novel…

Today’s encouragement from writer Jeff Goins was to get on with a project and prepare it for publication. But not for next month or next year. Now.

Easier said than done! Every creative’s mantra.

On the one hand we constantly hear that we should hone our craft, tidy rough edges, work at it, be professional and so on.

Now this Goins chap is stirring up a frenzy among writers to get something out there. Straight-away. I can almost hear the wild tapping on thousands of keyboards as writers everywhere try desperately to churn out their book proposals, synopses or movie scripts.

I suppose we could all use that push. “Ship and tweak” he says. Sounds like he’s turning writing into some sort of manufacturing plant, where no soon as the last batch of goods has been dispatched, work starts on the next lot.  I don’t relate well to machinery in general, so I’ve been finding Day 5’s challenge pretty hard going. It’s true that technology has made it all so much easier to produce work and go back to correct or perfect it. If we keep putting things off, we may never even complete what we’re working on.

Right now, I’m in the middle of the final editing process of my project. I would have loved to send it off to a publisher, but it’s just not ready. And I really need to tweak and update the synopsis.

For now I’m happy that I’m getting into this blogging habit and that I actually uploaded my previous post and sent it into the Twittersphere before I could change my mind on whether it was good enough.

I prepared something and I posted it. I suppose that qualifies. Thoughts, fellow #15habiters?