The writing gets done

Despite all the problems associated with getting writers block on a regular basis, I do notice that the work eventually gets done.

Why? Because I’m really starting to believe that I am a writer.

That I can do this.

Now, I know I’m not going to be a literary genius but I’ve got feedback on my writing from creative writing group peers, teachers on two different courses, writing group and editing group comrades and a writing mentor and it’s been good. And when it hasn’t I’ve been able to figure out what was going wrong.

I haven’t shown family or close friends my writing because I want to be at the stage where I hold a published novel before they see it. Not because the writing is about them, indeed it’s science fiction and I wouldn’t base any of my characters on family or friends either. Though I do believe that since we hold within us the light and dark of all our characters, it’s easy to think we’re reading about someone we know on the page.

It’s taken me about seven years to begin to imprint in my mind that I’m a writer (albeit an unpublished one) and I’m determined that one day I will see one of my novels in print.

As I look back at what I have done since I started the first (a labour of love and hate) and second novel (less of a labour of love and hate), I know that everything I learn on this road means I become a better writer and the novels that follow can only benefit from that.

So chipping away at each novel, taking time to learn the writer’s or novelist’s process will win out in the end. I notice that the days I am blocked seem to be linked to major problems in the plot and when I find a resolution to them, the plot flows and the writing gets done.

So…

A luta continua.

(The struggle continues)

P.S. I’m working on the scene intentions of the second novel. Such fun!