With the end of the semester quickly approaching, I’ve been working more and more on my final projects, all of which are focused on writing. Now that I’m spending seven or eight hours a night doing nothing but writing, I’ve started to wonder at what point this writing stops being fun or even bearable and… Continue reading When Writing Becomes Work
Blog
Screenplays and Schedules
This semester, I feel as if I’m writing on someone else’s schedule. In the past, even when I’ve had other classwork and writing assignments, I’ve always felt like I was able to do them at my leisure, when I felt like writing. Somehow it seemed as if writing was my idea, rather than the professor’s. But especially as… Continue reading Screenplays and Schedules
Overcoming the Hurdle of Fear
Every year I submit a story to Baylor’s Student Literary Contest, and every year I have to spend hours convincing myself to do it. Logically, I know that nothing bad is going to happen if I send in a piece of my work. They might like it, they might not, but ultimately it doesn’t change… Continue reading Overcoming the Hurdle of Fear
Writing What You Don’t Know
“You must stay firmly based in reality when writing,” my creative writing professor says. This means no fantasy, science fiction, or even dystopian stories. I don’t agree with her, but I nod along as she speaks, because she’ll be the one grading my stories. Still, her words bring up an interesting point, and the old… Continue reading Writing What You Don’t Know
On Writing Prompts
For Christmas, my roommate bought me a book of writing prompts. I’ve never really been the kind of person to write based on a prompt; usually I just sit around until I have some kind of idea (usually a bad one), and then I write on that for a while before I get stuck. You would… Continue reading On Writing Prompts
Relearning the Craft
I begin each new semester with a bit of trepidation about what I’m going to be learning. Last semester the daunting project was a grant proposal. The semester before that I fretted over both nonfiction and fiction workshops, which I hadn’t had any experience with before. This semester the worry is threefold. Due to some… Continue reading Relearning the Craft
A Writer’s Resolutions
I’ve always made writing resolutions. That’s not going to change. But, due to recent events (namely my impending graduation and some interest in one of my novels), I’m amending my usual “write every day” resolution to include some more professional goals. So, without further ado, here are my New Year’s resolutions for 2015. 1. Make… Continue reading A Writer’s Resolutions
The Education of a Writer
School is an interesting thing, isn’t it? We’re expected to study something practical, because in today’s society, college is meant to secure you a job. The humanities majors don’t really fit into that box. People ask, “Do you want to teach?” as if that’s the only thing you can do with a major that isn’t… Continue reading The Education of a Writer
NaNoWriMo: The Uphill Battle
NaNoWriMo, if you’ve never heard of it, is this insane thing some writers do. It stands for National Novel Writing Month, and every year thousands of people accept the challenge of writing 50,000 words in the month of November. I am one of those people. My road to this year’s NaNoWriMo has been interesting. I’m… Continue reading NaNoWriMo: The Uphill Battle
Peaks in Life
There are a lot of ups and downs in life, and chances are, you’re either in a devastatingly deep valley or at the top of the highest mountain you’ve climbed in a while. We don’t often notice when we’re in between. I’ll admit that at the moment, I’m sitting at a very low point. The… Continue reading Peaks in Life