Short Break

I took a short break from my novel over the last couple of days. A relatively short one, considering previous 'short breaks' ranged from a month to a year. Due to a combination of drinking too much and researching too little, I felt I couldn't continue. So I decided to write a short story. I find short stories harder. Whereas a novel requires a higher amount of discipline, a short story requires more creativity. It's easy to tell a story in 100,000 words if you write every day, but not so easy to tell a whole story in under 5,000. Don't get me started on poetry. I got near the end of the short (only a couple of thousand words) reread it and decided I had written a load of shit. For some reason it didn't have the usual punch. This sent me on a self-doubting spiral, I started wondering which genre my novel would fit into when it's finished, and who the target audience would be. I started to wonder if this project I'd poured my spirit into would be any good.

Anyway, I started reading around other author's blogs, mainly to address these concerns and see if others had experienced the same difficulties that I had. In hindsight it seems obvious that self-doubt is part of the process, but a few select blogs helped me realise this. So true to my word of taking writing more seriously, I have jump back on the literary horse today and started writing my novel again. Pretty well going after only a two day self-pity break. I must have really grown as a person this last year.

I've written 2,100 words today. Can't complain about that.

Here are two blogs which helped me through. I recommend these to any aspiring authors/writers: 

http://sunnymoraine.com/2015/02/16/writing-practice-resurrection/

http://www.lindapoitevin.com/2014/02/17/why-fiction-writers-need-to-blog/