I have always thought of writing as a solitary hobby/profession. It's difficult for me to share my writing before it's complete, and I dread telling people that I enjoy writing because they often ask, "What are you writing?" I never know how to answer them when talking about a work-in-progress (WIP), and when I try to explain my WIP, I feel I sound like I don't know what I'm doing even though I should. Kinda like a parent trying to explain to a teenager about heartache:
"Well, it hurts, yes... But not forever... It seems like it will... But it really won't... And you can get over it, but don't force yourself to get over it... These things take time... Just know it'll all make sense when it's over..."
The above sounds more like a 90's movie interpretation of parent-teen talk, and I hope reality is a little different. My future teenager depends on it, as do I.
I digress...
My point is, while writing a story (no matter how interesting it is in my head), I can't justify sharing it because it's incomplete and probably flawed beyond belief until I finish it and re-finish it countless times. But then I feel silly when someone asks me what I'm writing and I fumble over my words:
"Well, it's a story... But not a complete story... I've been working on it for a while... Like, since last year... And then life got in the way... But I'm back to writing it again... And it has Zombies in it... But I put a few twists in it..." It's at this point that I feel I have to defend my WIP's being about Zombies. "And there's romance..." More defense. I don't want people thinking I'm trying to write Twilight-style Zombies, or that it's the next Warm Bodies, the latter of which is a great book I read out of pure fear that it would be too similar to my own WIP I'd started Spring, 2012, before I knew anything about Warm Bodies. (See, I'm still being defensive).
It's not that I don't have any confidence in my writing. It's not that I don't know what I'm writing. But I lack confidence in branding myself as a writer, because I haven't published anything (yet). I feel I don't deserve the title.
Maybe I should call myself a "Writer in Process" (WrIP) which is entirely dependent upon my WIP becoming a Novel in order for my WrIP status to graduate to Writer. Or I could be over-thinking things as I tend to do early in the morning before breakfast.
My self-proposed solution is this: Reach out through this blog, a YouTube channel and other social networking/broadcasting platforms to connect with other writers and readers so that I will be forced to break out of my shy, solitary writing shell.
Today is Step 1: My Declaration of Doing. It's the easiest step (for me, at least). I take my idea, and I declare it. Ideas come easy. It's implementing that is a lot more challenging. Tomorrow will be Step 2: Connecting with other writers and readers through their own social networking platforms.
Now, I've got about a thousand more words (about the aforementioned Zombies) that need to bleed their way onto paper (not literally, of course. I'm just gearing up for a little gore). My goal is to write over 2,000 words today and reach 27,000 words total.
See you tomorrow!
