Writing alone v's writing with others

Remember how I said this writing lark was hard? Well it is! Today I am deciding if I want to continue to write alone or if I need some sort of gang to write with.

Pros to writing alone -

I don't have to worry about people stealing my ideas (I see you waiting to pounce, you lurker!)

I will not be judged.

I have no one to answer too (this is also a con!)

I can pretend to be brilliant all the time no one reads it!

The cons to writing alone -

I'm  not accountable to anyone.

I have no one to keep me on track.

I have no one to bounce ideas off of.

I have to keep myself motivated.

I have no feedback or advice.

I am free to procrastinate whenever I want!

Pros to writing in a gang -

Not being a weird loaner

Bouncing ideas off people

Giving and receiving constructive criticism

People sharing ideas

Being able to ask questions and helping others with their queries

Having someone to talk to when you have an idea and you are not sure if its genius or merely caffeine fulled insanity! (Come on, I know you have them too!)

Having someone to understand you.

Cons to writing in a gang -

I have found them to be very negative, like, I don't need to know about how horrendous your life is, this is a writing outlet!

People stealing ideas.

Meanness disguised as help!

Creative differences!


So there you have it, I'm sure there are a million more things I could have compiled to my lists but that gives you a brief idea of where I'm at. I think I will try and find a gang. Are you in one? Are they good? Or do you prefer to work alone?

Until next time......

Xx

Writing prompts (1)

A lot of writers seem to use writing prompts. I have seen these writing prompts, some have inspired me and some have not. I'm not sure if people use them to write short stories about, add to existing ideas to fill them out or simply write what they got from the prompt.

In my goal to write a little each day I thought that wrotong prompts would be a good way to help this come true so I am collecting them and storing them in my folder until I decide how it is I am supposed to be using them. How do you use them?

I am not all about taking and not giving something back dear friends so I have come up with 5 prompts just for you, no doubt in a years time I shall look back on them and cringe at my own ideas, but, never the less, I offer them to you.

What will you do with them? I would love to hear your feedback, or even something you have written.

Until next time......

Xx

When am I a writer?

So, what does it mean to be a writer? When can you call yourself a writer? The simple answer is if you write you are a writer!

Let's break it down, take me for example, I am so new to writing that I cannot consider myself a writer yet (this is a personal choice, if you want to call yourself a writer and you feel ready then congratulations my friend, I salute you!). I do not write every day which is one of my goals at the moment, imagine a writer that does not write, ludicrous! However, I can argue that I write this blog and therefore I am putting my writing out there for all to see, by default making me a writer! Ugh! Friends, it's so hard to decide at which point you can call yourself a writer, what do you think? Are you a non-writing writer too?

To me being a writer means more than just writing words, its about observation skills too, a dear friend of mine described me as 'living in HD' which I thought was a great way to describe it. I am a keen observer and notice things many of my peers don't. I will notice bugs crawling on leaves, if someone has a new outfit, a trail left behind by a slug and all sorts of other tiny details. I usually have my eye on everyone in the room and can gauge facial expressions very well, I gather them up and store them in my mind for if I ever need to create a character. But there lies the problem you see, I keep them in my mind, I have an incredible imagination and a freaky ability to never forget a face so I never write them down! I literally have a character bank in my head! I know its odd. But that's how I roll! I shall have to start carrying a notebook with me.

I am a research fiend too, I love researching things, finding out all I can about a subject and condensing it down. But I have a tendency to get caught up in the research phase and not get any further, I have whole folders dedicated to different subjects that I have researched because I have an idea for a book I would like to write, or just found something interesting and got carried away. You know when you watch a video on, say, how to fix a dishwasher on youtube because yours has broken and then 4 hours later you are watching animal reunions and crying your eyes out? Well that's me with research, all my research leads to new ideas and therefore more research. I have a problem, I need to join researchers anonymous, but I know full well I would never get there because I would be too busy researching the best one!

So here are my goals for now (no time constraint because they will be ongoing)

1 - Write. Everyday. Even if it's only a few lines.
2 - Write the characters in my head down so I don't loose any!

That's it! 2 goals that seem so simple but will make such a difference.

What about you? Do you have dreams of writing too? Or are you already a writer and want to share you best tips?

Until next time......xx

It starts with an idea......

I love the idea of blogging, a place to call my own and share my adventures and stories with a group of friends I have yet to meet but to be totally honest, I'm just not any good at it! I want to be, but I'm not. I read that to have a sucessful blog you need to have a theme for it and specific days you blog. I have tired that before but I'm too sporadic for that, I like to write when the mood takes me, not when I feel I have too, that doesn't make for very good consistancy! Why cant the theme be 'stuff' or 'whatever takes my fancy' and the schedule that I wrote to just say 'soon'. Who says sporadic doesnt work? I'm going to try it, can you handle it? Can you deal with the randomness?

Ok, so here we go!

I have always wanted to be a writer, not a full time one, one in my spare time (Vet Nurse was always my dream real job!), because obviously being a writer is easy and not at all time consuming! Oh naive little me! I have had many ideas over the years of different stories and never bothered to plot them so never actually got past chapter 3, it's my arch nemesis!

This feels different, this idea is sticking, it's a good one too! This current idea I have for a book is the one that will give me my creative outlet. I am plotting and researching like a pro. I have written the first chapter and stopped there in order to plot some more.

It's exciting, very exciting! So now I have something to write about! I am going to write about my new process of becoming a writer!

As I said, all it takes is an idea.......

Jerra xx