Skip to main content

big F Fiction

I am scared of writing Fiction.  Terrified.  I confess this to you because I feel it may be a minor hiccup in writing my novel (see previous, previous post).  I liken it to singing in front of large groups of people and crossing non-suspension, medium height bridges. 

for the love of God, child, run faster!
Blogging is only sort of scary.  Sure, I am putting myself out there, but it's just me.  It's how I talk if I took an hour and a half to say three paragraphs and I got to edit each word.  It's pretty much just like hanging out if I was the only one who ever got to talk and my thoughts were the only ones that mattered.  Fun for all. 

But Fiction.  Fiction is different.  Fiction is investing in the part of you that dares to dream and opening it up for all to judge.  Yipes.  Over the last several years I've scaled back on giving my dreams a voice.  It's tough times for hopes and wishes and I'm afraid I've become a bit of a hoarder.  Which is all the more reason I think I need to do this.   The last piece of fiction I actually finished was "Shadow's Life." It was inspired by true events and placed first in Glen Carbon Elementary's Young Authors Contest of 1994. 

So I will embark on Fiction Friday.  Each week, I will write for 30 minutes and post it.  For all (12 of you, now) to see.  Each week will be different and beyond spell check I won't edit it.  This last bit will be both my wings and my tether.  To not edit is, in equal parts, more and less scary.  It will no doubt be a disclaimer for sucky writing, which I will cling to like Rose to her driftwood should you offer the slightest hint of constructive criticism. 

"I'll never let it go"
Kidding.  (OK, perhaps no, but give it to me anyway.)  But it is also a release to simply write without (too much) thinking.  I have some pretty amazing friends which makes me think the judgment I'm fearing most comes from within.  To not edit is to silence that part of me that will always think it's not good enough.  Worst case, 10 people quit following my blog (family isn't allowed to quit).

And so, in honor of embracing my creativity, facing my fears, and giving voice to my dreams, I leave you with something someone else said:
"Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood from on your forehead."  Gene Fowler
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

the next six

It's almost comical how unreliable I am. Or perhaps it's gone way past that and on to the completely  other side, I have become reliably unreliable. Either way, my apologies. But it is still fall and I'm gonna do this dammit! So here are the next six: 4. BOOT SOCKS! I channeled fall through fashion today - a cream colored sweater, navy leggings, and brown boots (AND BOOT SOCKS!).   5. Fall cleaning! Definitely not one of my favorite things in the moment, but there's no better way to usher in a new season than by ushering out all the crap you've accumulated since the beginning of the last one. This was, of course, followed by a brower with a fall seasonal (because you have to get clean after you clean, and beer makes any shower better). 6. On Saturday, Mindy and I drove down to Fisher. It was hard not to notice fall, as it's hanging out all along Highway 57 South. Also, I bought Count Chocula and a black cat walked in front of us on our way home...
1 comment
Read more

sixteen hours

My phone broke Monday night.  I tried to upload the new apple operating system and, long story short, it erased everything on my phone and restored it to factory settings.  Again, keeping this to the short version let's just let it suffice to say that I wasn't an idiot (this time) and it wasn't a matter of simply resetting the phone and backing it up.  So I was phoneless.  In 2011.  I was against getting an iPhone at first.  I didn't want to be constantly connected; checking my email and playing angry birds while simultaneously having a conversation and driving my car on a 6 lane highway.  Weird.  That said, my two previous phones had their own slight personality glitches - the first literally had to be plugged into the wall to hold a charge (and for me to hold a conversation) and the second worked fine, as long as you didn't need to use the 4 key.  So it was time. I like to think I'm still not the emailing, game playi...
3 comments
Read more

home is where you unload all of your stuff

I have some seriously cool and supportive friends that made this giant, somewhat stressful and slightly uncomfortable step into the intrawebs of space quite pleasant actually.  I thank you.  Some of you have inquired as to our schlep to Chicago, so here you are.  It's long.  Like our first week. The First Week We moved in Monday, August 1.  The Saturday before we packed up everything in our apartment in D.C., begged and pleaded with our friends to help us load it all into the truck on a 99 degree day, and popped our air mattress because someone filled it with too much air.  It was me.  I hate waking up in the middle of the night with my ass on the floor and my head and legs propped up like some defunct hospital bed.  Oops.  Sunday we woke up and drove, separately, the 13 hours to Urbana.  We only got lost once and waited until we were in Illinois to do it.    Monday we woke up, d...
3 comments
Read more