Something of an Experiment

I enjoy writing. But like many people, I have my hangups -- terror that what I write isn't "good enough," the strong urge to re-write when I catch errors rather than continuing the project, a tendency to world-build rather than tell the fracking story.

Also, I procrastinate. It's easy to put off writing when there are so many other shiny things in the world. You know: books. The internet. News. Friends. The garden. School.

One of the catch-22s I've encountered is that I benefit from the information I learn from the WritingForums, but at the same time, anything I write here is a) non-fiction, and so not useful to furthering my storytelling abilities, and b) taking time away from actual story writing.

So I'm thinking about giving myself a sort of homework assignment that will solve several of these problems. At least, if the mods will let me.

In particular, I'd like to write some chapters and post them. They'd be rough -- first-draft only, no revision. Which means they'd be amateurish, and I'd probably have inconsistencies and SPAG errors and maybe weird plot holes. And most likely, no one will be terribly interested in reading them.

But honestly, that's okay. I don't use the forum to get my writing reviewed; I've been a member for years and I don't recall ever posting anything here for critique. This would be strictly a motivational effort, a way for me to link the WritingForums with actual writing time, and a way for me to make mistakes and possibly write a load of dreck without feeling that the "real me" is going to be associated with it and harshly judged.

And if it turns out to be half-decent? Well, that's looking awfully far ahead. It would be cool to actually finish a book-length story, though.

I have no illusions about selling this thing to a publisher afterward. That isn't my goal. Right now I'd just like to write something that doesn't fizzle into a million pieces after 65,000 words, and which I'm not trying to hone into shiny perfection like some of my other projects.