I haven't written anything for a large portion of 2009 and 2010. Real life stresses and losses made my muse not only fickle but quite frankly he ran off with a cheap muse and I believe he was sleeping his way through the southern states.
The majority of my writing over the last ten years has been fan-fiction. The thing about fan-fiction is that most mainstream writers don't consider that writing. No matter how much of your heart and soul you pour into a piece of work the characters were not created by you. I tend to disagree to a certain extent with that statement. I think that with fan-fiction you take the base of the character that you love and weave yourself into them. While you don't necessarily make the character your own you do create your own view of the character and change them to fit your perception of the character.
To get back into the swing off writing i visited Write or Die by Dr. Wicked and started off challenging myself to write within the fan-fiction realm x amount of words in x amount of time.
I'm excited to say that I was able to actually write over 3000 words since Monday writing ficlets.
Tonight, I hope to work on writing a few more short stories before starting the prologue of my novel.
What tried and true tricks have you found to tempt your muses? Do you write better under a deadline or do you enjoy the freedom of not having a "due date"?
Hey... this is Galen. Just wanted to say good luck. :)
ReplyDeleteYou'll do it, Annie. Sometimes it just takes a while to get back in the saddle, so to speak. Fiction can be a fickle mistress and when the ideas don't flow, it's hard.
ReplyDeleteSome of my suggestions are listen to music, watch a romantic comedy, read a favorite author and watch people somewhere like at a coffee shop or airport. Make sure you have your idea notebook with you and write away.
Due dates are good but I get the best work when I have no deadline. Personally, after I get this last bit of work done that was contracted on spec, I'll think twice about contracting that was again.
Good luck!
Lynn