Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Taking Time to Learn

Okay, so confession time. I'm one of the most impatient people on the planet. No, really. You might be thinking of Two Weeks Notice right now, and when Hugh Grant says, "That's silly. Have you met every person on the planet?" << Ha!

Of course I haven't met every person on the planet, so maybe I just FEEL like the most impatient person ever. Maybe you can relate to this.

Anyway, I've been getting some feedback about my writing, and I've realized that I need to A) slow down, and B) learn new stuff. That last one is vague, but I know there's more I need to do in order to find my success again.

But I'm impatient, and I had previously made some writing goals to draft two books this summer (since I don't work and all that). I find myself resisting the thought to maybe re-draft my goals, and take the time to learn what I need to learn before I draft the novels.

I have notes from the conference I attended last week. I have a few writing exercises I need to get done before I draft. I bought a new craft book on the suggestion of the instructor of another class. I need to read it, ponder it, incorporate it into my writing. And I need to fill out my beat sheets for my new novels.

I think I'll have to do less work later if I put the time into this now. So I guess this is me publicly saying I'm going to take the time to learn a bit more -- about the writing craft, my characters, and my plots -- before I start drafting.

Have you ever had to slow down and readjust goals?

1 comment:

Angela Brown said...

As I read about you being impatient, I giggled thinking that if you and I entered a "most impatient person" competition, I'd win... but I don't think that would be a good win lol!

I set up some lofty goals at the beginning of this year. I don't recognize them all that well now due to the scratching out, re-writing, re-working and postponing I've had to do. Life interrupteth much. But like you, I've got some helpful books to help me improve my craft. Perhapss that's what I needed, a bit of distraction to focus on the craft. I guess we'll see... patiently, in time :-)

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