I like to do some writing, once in a while. Just as a hobby, really. I haven't ever thought about going pro, even though I think I can turn out some pretty good stuff. I've spent time doing all kinds of things. Fiction, essays, I even wrote some movie reviews once. That was pretty fun. Taking my notebook into the theater with me and writing my comments down as I watched. A couple of people noticed me, and it made me feel kind of important. I'll probably write a few reviews and post them up here, just to generate some discussions. That will be fun.
It's in my fiction writing that I struggle, the most. EVen though I have written a few things that I have liked, I think I'm lacking something. More accurately, I think I've lost something that I used to have. I can remember when I was a little kid, I wrote stories all the time. And it didn't matter if they were good, bad, or otherwise. I could just crank them out. I would sit down with some paper and a pencil and just get to it. I would never go past a first draft, though. Kids don't go in much for refining and editing. It was just about getting the story down on paper. I have totally lost that gift, in my adult life.
I read Stephen King's book, On Writing, a couple of years ago. It was really good, and I would recommend it for anyone who's a King fan or an aspiring writer. He was the guy who made me realize that I have a problem being creative. Or at least being spontaneous. King said--and I think most writers agree with this--that the only real function of the first draft is to get the damned story on paper before you forget it. My brain has been trained to second-guess and naysay whatever I'm working on at the time. I get so bogged down in the details that I'm working two drafts ahead of myself, all the time. It's such a creativity killer. I remember my life being a lot more fun back then, too.
One of these days, I'll figure out how to write like a child, again. That's part of the reason I started keeping this blog, I suppose. I just want to get myself accustomed to letting everything fall out of me and onto the page, like I used to do. It certainly would make me a more prolific fiction writer. It would also make my life a lot more fun.
