Real, serious and based on personal experience idea, but no previous practice. Where to begin?
Since my childhood I have had a secret dream to write my own story or even a novel. I have always enjoyed reading books and writing compositions. However, I never had enough courage to start writing my own story except some fairy tales and poetry that I created as a present for my family. This was not caused by cowardice, rather by extreme exaggeration of the responsibility I would have taken on me after beginning to write. What kind of responsibility? Well, first of all, I would be responsible for declaring my life position that may be not mature or correct enough (well, what can a person know for sure when they are 16?). Second, I would be responsible for involving some real people from my surroundings, even if I would have changed names or personalities, they would certainly guess it. Third, I would be responsible for any mistakes in depicting the time I would describe...
That is what has always stopped me from writing. However, through years I realized that a person is what they complete in their lives. Nothing else matters, you are what you do. So, maybe it is better to write a very basic story rather than not writing at all? People evolve and mature and become more skilled while time passes by...
Why do I think I need to write a story? Well, probably because I have faced a very important problem and have lived with it for long and eventually have developed my own opinion on it which I want to share with people so that they maybe don't repeat the same mistakes... Besides, I have noticed that my opinion changed through time, so I could give an alternative viewpoint for a reader. And well, I wish to change from consumer to creator, in all the ways in my life.
Why do I think that I am still not able to write a story? First of all, no previous experience. Secondly, I am always a bit confused that my ideas don't include any political or social topics. Thirdly, I doubt the amount of books I have read during my life is enough. In order to write a good story, one needs to have a huge background in reading and also in analyzing what they have read. It provides basic knowledge of concepts used in literature, enriches one's language, makes it easier to develop a correct composition... A professional needs to be familiar with the tools they use and with examples of other people's works in their field. And last, but not least: I don't know where to begin.
So this is my question: what should I do first if I have a limited amount of free time (about 2 hours per week)? Start extensive reading course until I am satisfied (which will probably last forever, cause I am never satisfied with myself)? Study materials from the time I wish my story to be set in? Take notes and write down short parts of my story? Launch a blog? Start to develop skills by writing something else until I am not ashamed of my style? Fight with cowardice? Change approach to less serious? If so, how can I do it if I have always been very pedantic?
P.S. Sorry for mistakes, I am not a native speaker.
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I really don't have any special advice other than to just write. Don't worry about the quality of what you put onto paper, just commit it to paper. People will say "it's probably better than you think it is" but the fact is that it will probably be pretty bad. That's okay. Everybody's first draft is bad. Writing quality prose is all about rewriting.
If you're worried about grammar I recommend the "Little Book" by Strunk and White (the White, by the way, is E.B. White, the writer of Charlotte's Web; this is not just some book written by an English prof that has no application to the real world). That being said, I have to go back to what I originally said: if you want to learn how to write forcible, meaningful prose, you have to just write prose.
Writing is hard. If it was easy, everyone would be writing and publishing their memoirs. There are no magic insights I can really impart to you outside of two maxims: 1. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well. 2. If it's worth doing well, it's worth doing badly for a while.
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Just write.
Seriously. Just write. Stop worrying about whether it sucks (it probably will). Write it. Get it out. Because then you can go back and fix it. You can't edit a blank page. But you can take lousy text and make it better.
Study materials from the time I wish my story to be set in?
If it's historical in any way, yes. Research is good.
Take notes and write down short parts of my story?
Absolutely.
Launch a blog?
To what end? Might be more of an excuse not to work on your central piece.
Start to develop skills by writing something else until I am not ashamed of my style?
If your style is your unique voice, you should never be ashamed of it. If you're concerned about technical skill, you can practice until it improves.
Is it normal that I keep inventing and even editing texts in my head, but when I come to a clear sheet of paper, I just sit stunned, afraid of putting text on the paper?
Yes. Some of the suggestions in this thread about writer's block may help.
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The most common type of question raised by would-be writers is some version of "why can't I write?"
The most common type of answer is "just write."
If you look through this site, you will find quite a lot of that sort of question, and that sort of answer.
And it really does boil down to pretty much that. You are either going to spend a lot of time agonizing about why you can't write, or you are going to write.
Because there really is no answer to why you can't write. And just writing is really not a solution to the problem.
You either write, or you don't.
Life is not infinite. No one has unlimited time to write. Whether it's two hours a week or two hours a day, if you're going to write, you will. If you're not, you won't.
Writers write. People who aren't writers don't.
Which are you?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/8835. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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