As I’ve mentioned from time to time, I like to write. I’ve started a number of different novels, though I’ve stopped each one for various reasons, though the common theme seems to be life getting in the way in forms of relationship stuff, health issues, or work draining too much of my time. The bug has hit me again, though this time it’s slightly different. I just feel like I need to get writing again as a form of creative expression and even self-discipline. So I decided on Saturday that I would set a goal to practice writing once a day. I have an informal goal of 1000 words each day, though I’m not holding myself too strictly to that goal. The fact that my first practice missed the mark by roughly 300 words is something I’ve learned to live with. Besides, I overshot by an additional 600+ words on the third day, so I’m figuring it will all even out.
In deciding to do this, I found myself facing a logistical question: Where do I post my stuff? Do I post it here? Do I create a new blog? Or do I keep it in my Writing Dot Com portfolio? Do I cross-post and just flood the Internet with the same pieces of writing?
I decided to keep my creative writing over at Writing Dot Com. That choice made sense to me because there’s a stronger community there, and there’s a chance that someone will see a piece I did and offer a review and even constructive feedback. That’s something I need right now. One of my biggest disappointments with blogging is that it can be very difficult to garner any reader interaction or feedback, which I will admit is something I crave every now and then.
Plus, I didn’t really want to turn this blog into a writer’s blog. I hope to actually start posting more about sexuality, spirituality, and politics as soon as I feel like I have something notable to say. (That’s a whole blog post in its own right.) And I want to get back into the podcast, and will keep posting episodes here as well.
But I still wanted to make my creative writing a part of this blog as it’s my main blog and online presence (well, second to Twitter maybe) and such an important part of my life needs to be represented here as well. So I will be doing a weekly “Writing Practice” review post. Every Tuesday, I will do a single post that provides a link of practice writing I produced since the previous Tuesday’s post. I also hope to include a bit of commentary on each piece, offering insights into why I wrote it or why i personally like it or even what issues I see with it. That way, my readers here can keep apprised of my writing without me overwhelming the blog. And hopefully doing this will get me blogging about other stuff too.
So welcome to the first Writing Practice Review! This post only has three days of practice to showcase.
Day 1: 700+ words. This scene is semi-auto-biographical in that it’s based on actual experiences I hd when I went out dancing in my late thirties and early forties. I always found it interesting that guys who — if I had tried to hit them up or talk to them on a dating app — would generally think they’re too good (attractive or young (and the latter was often a totally valid point) for me would suddenly be watching me while I danced. I can only assume it was because they saw and desired the freedom I had to be myself — a fat, uncoordinated guy dancing like none of that mattered — while they were still concerned about their image.
Day 2: 1100+ words. I normally write male POV characters, and I actually wanted to try writing a female POV character instead. Also, I really wanted to play with the idea of a young woman who knows she’s “supposed” to play the helpless damsel waiting to be rescued and refuses to accept that role. I’m not making any promises, but I feel like this day’s practice has the potential to become an actual story, as it got a bit more detailed than I originally intended . Also, the ending of the scene took me completely by surprise. It’s always a good sign when a writing project takes on a life of its own like that — if a little scary.
Day 3: 1600+ words. This scene also took on a bit of a life of its own. When I started it, I just planned on having a young apprentice (Lance) working on a potion. I quickly added Cecilia to help him figure out what he was doing wrong. Plus that gave me a chance to add dialogue to the scene and I love dialogue. (Some people seem to think I have a knack for it.) Everything else about this scene was “discovered” as I continued writing. I am fascinated by the idea of a teacher — of anything, not just alchemy — stressing the importance of collaboration in the field of study. Too often, education seems to be framed as competitive.
A note on word counts: I usually write this stuff in Google Docs before I post it to Writing Dot Com. Weirdly, the two sites rarely agree on the word count of any piece. And since I don’t care about precision, I’ve decided to rectify the problem by just rounding down to the nearest hundred. Both sites seem to agree that much, at least.