So as part of my ongoing 101 Things in 1001 Days, I have a large amount of writing to do. That said, my writing skills have kind of gone rusty from disuse. Writing has become a Sisyphean task, to say the least. What’s good, though, is that I’m having more and more ideas as of late, and I think some of them have a lot of merit.
So in deciding to get my chops back, I’ve been reading like crazy the last two years, so that I can continue to absorb everything possible. I’m going far afield of my usual fare — adding everything from histories to biographies, classics, and everything in between. And I’m reading books from authors who’ve written on the topic, watching a class from Alan Moore on BBC Maestro, and I’m analyzing the fiction that I’ve read in the past to figure out what makes it good and/or enjoyable.
Learn By Doing
The next big task is to work on getting some short fiction worked up and in the pipeline. I’ve got a couple pieces of short fiction that I want to crank out. My first one is underway and is my only writing focus other than these blog entries. I hope to have it, and a couple others, done by February.
Learn By Destroying
The next step after getting my short fiction going is to find a writer’s group so I can start raking these creations of mine over the coals, with the goal of making them into something truly special. This means I’m going to have to find a writer’s group. Soon.
Follow-On Reading
- The Language of the Night — Ursula K. LeGuin
- The Spooky Art — Norman Mailer
- On Writing — Stephen King1
Additional Viewing
- Watch Brandon Sanderson’s Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy series on YouTube.
Goal
The goal is to get a half-dozen short stories cranked out by the end of spring, and to get cracking on the rough draft for the novel after that.
