#124 Work on My Creative Writing at Least 2 Hours per Week for a Year (2/52)

I remember writing a short story once when I was a kid. It started something like, “It was a dark and stormy night. A man in dark clothing was hiding in the dark shadows of a dark road.” O.K. so not really Pulitzer Prize winning but hey I was probably only about 10. I shared my partially finished story with some people I looked up to and they made fun of my lack of writing ability, especially my excessive use of the word “dark.” This event singled the premature end of my writing career and the beginning of a lifelong issue with sharing my creative efforts with others.

I am not trying to put the blame for my failures on anyone else’s shoulders. For one, nobody has ever told me that I can’t do something and secondly, it is my life and I am the one in charge of it. Of course that doesn’t make it any easier to break down the limitations we set for ourselves. In my case, I am afraid of the rejection when someone dislikes what I created. Of course, this is where things don’t make sense because a) most people you share your creations with are genuinely supportive, positive or at least constructive in their criticism and b) when people have disliked me or something I have done, I find it really doesn’t matter to me. So why is this an issue and why have I let this stop me in the past? I don’t know, and really it doesn’t matter as long as I can overcome it in the present.

When I was seventeen, my parents gave me a camera for Christmas. This started a love of photography and throughout the next several years of my life I became the unofficial photographer of the lives of my friends and I. I could always share my pictures with my friends because no one was interested in artistic value and only interested in the good. Although I loved taking pictures I never pushed myself to see what I could do.

All this changed as I approached thirty and I met my wife. She encouraged me to take photography classes and buy a new camera. And then she encouraged me with every batch of photographs I showed her, even having me blow some up large for the walls of her office. She has continued to do this in all my pursuits, painting, education, writing, etc. And for this I thank her because I know I am lucky to have such great support. And if I ever accomplish great things in anything I attempt, it will be thanks to her.

I realize I have strayed a little from the theme of my post, which is writing, but I am just providing a little background for what I am attempting to accomplish with this goal.

For the longest time, whenever I read a book, I remember thinking, “I could never put together a complete enough story to fill up an entire novel. I was, and still am, amazed by the people who can craft the interlocking storylines needed for a truly great novel.

Then, one day I decided that I could do it. I read about a contest called the 3-Day Novel Contest and thought, “this is my chance”. I am not sure what made me decide to take a shot at it or what gave me the idea that I could even accomplish it. The only thing I can think is that that aspiring writer inside me never died in my childhood but only hid, waiting for the opportunity to emerge, for me to release him from his prison.

So, in 2007 I dedicated my Labour Day weekend to writing my first novel. For those of you who don’t know, the 3-Day Novel Contest is a contest in which you begin to write at midnight on the Friday of the September long weekend and have until midnight on Monday. The average novel is approximately 70-120 pages in length (a novella). You are allowed to come up with a basic plot if you want but are not allowed to write any part of the novel before the start time.

I am proud to say that in my first effort, I was able to write a novel that was over 100 pages and almost 27,000 words. Although my novel was not short-listed as one of the best by the contest judges it turned out to be a critically acclaimed novel. Well, by my wife and other friends and relatives that I let read it.

In 2008 I did not attempt the contest as I was using that weekend to prepare for a return to university (that WAS scary but is a story for another day). Then in 2009, I gave it another attempt and came up with another novel, this one closer to 80 pages. Up to this point I haven’t shared it with anyone else, as it is a little too rough around the edges for my liking. This leads me to the reason that this goal is on my list.

I find that I need to set deadlines for myself to be able to get anything done in my writing. I have written a couple of short stories outside of my 3-day but, as much as I enjoy writing I just can’t seem to get myself focused enough to write. I have a notebook full of story ideas but not much else. I have several other goals on my list such as #5 Have a book published, #20 Write a travel article and have it published, and #26 Win a writing contest, that I will never accomplish if I do not do more writing.

This goal originally started as write at lest 1,000 words per week but I have changed it to Work on My Creative Writing at Least 2 Hours per Week for a Year. As I started out on this challenge I realized that to just write my 1,000 words per week would not allow me to produce quality work. I need time to edit and work on plot and character development what I write. So my new goal is to spend at least two hours every week on my writing. When I am on a roll, I can easily write 1,000 words in under an hour. I plan on spending this time not only on writing and developing the stories in my notebook and in my head, but also going back to the two novels that I have written and reworking them until I am happy with them. Then I will submit them to a publisher or contest. Afterwards, I will continue to tweak and edit them until someone in the industry recognizes them as good work.

I am happy to say that this is the second week that I have been involved in this goal and I have written more than one thousand words in each of the last two weeks. This has enabled me to nearly complete a short story that I started late in the summer. I am thinking that by the end of next week, I will have it edited and ready for submitting to a contest.

It just goes to show you what you can accomplish be making small changes in your routines and your life. If I can continue to make these small adjustments to my life, I know this will lead me to the accomplishment of more and more goals as time goals by.