Write Club started this week and (like I suspected) it’s hard. On Monday we got our first prompt and we were off to the races, but I was about the slow and steady pace. Of course, my first idea came to me about 10 seconds before I jumped into my car to head to work, so I had to talk to myself for my entire commute to work so I wouldn’t lose it. Trust me when I say that if I hadn’t spent my time in a conversation with the idea--it would have been lost.
Upon arriving at work I promptly fired up discord and headed over to the The Writer’s Block where I brainstormed the idea I had been discussing in the car. I got to keep the main themes (the parts that still made sense after running them by the writers I respect), but the details changed a lot. As usual when it comes to writing my first idea was a bit of a bust, but it planted the seeds that I could turn into a story. The brainstorm planted some more and what we discussed turned into 6 pages of notes. I printed them out on the work printer (naughty naughty) and called it a day.
I was off to a good start. Day 2 I spent working on my character(s) and Day 3 I spent outlining the story. Both of those went somewhat smoothly, though if I had it to do over again, I’d probably combine them into one day, and leave myself an extra day for writing. I see this story going about 2000 words, though if it goes 4000 I wouldn’t be surprised. Now it’s day four and I have 500 words. I’d feel more comfortable if I had 1000, but I’m hoping to make up the difference tomorrow.
So far, not bad, right? Wrong. I’m getting nervous that it won’t make sense. That I won’t have a story when it’s all said and done. That my writing won’t stack up. (One of the other writers--I’m not naming names here--wrote 9000 words already!) I’m getting nervous that my character(s) won’t be unique. Won’t be believable as characters. Won’t be dynamic, engaging, interesting. You think of something you want in a character and mine won’t have it. Maybe I’m just trying to sink myself (I wouldn’t put it past me).
More writing. I’m not kidding. I should probably plan on writing (and erasing) at least 5000 more words if I want to hit that 2000 word mark. And after that a bunch of reading (of my own story), some more erasing, and hopefully I have enough of a story left to only need a few hundred more words. I’ll be crossing that bridge between now and Tuesday.
After Tuesday - things get really interesting, because we move into serious critiquing. I’ll have 7 stories to read in 2 days and I’ll write 7 synopsis. Then I’ll choose my favorite two and write in depth reviews. This is what I signed up for. This is Write Club. And I just talked about it.
None of this would be possible without the other seven sacrifices. You are all an inspiration to me. The first thing I do every morning is tune in to The Writer's Block and read what you've said while I've been sleeping. Actually, I always have one eye on The Block because I hate missing out. I think it's called FOMO and I have it. I expect our band of eight to continue on for sixteen weeks in this way. No quitting (and all that). Everyone is strong and capable. Basically, what I am saying is, I'm outclassed. And I love it.
