Writing: What's Old is New Again · 3:22am May 16th, 2015
Thanks to an Equestria Daily prompt to write a story about Starlight Shimmer, I am again writing fiction. I am a science fiction novelist, so a MLP fan-fic is somewhat out of my comfort zone. Lesson Learned was the result.
It's all practice, me trying to get back on the horse again (pun intended). It's all good. My previous practice was writing an essay for each episode in the series, both movies, and each short. I wrote over 94 in a few months. It got me back into the discipline of writing regularly. You can find that at Marthoning Pony here. I'm updating after each new episode. Disciple. Yeah, it's key.
This practice session was different: a story instead of an essay. It was simply taking the character analysis I created for the Cutie Map episode of Starlight Glimmer, coming up with something awful she had to deal with, and writing furiously. It took just 24 hours to go from word one to 4000, to proof it, and to submit it (while working my day job and sleeping). It feels good writing, again. It's a zen thing.
Yeah, I write in chunks. The biggest chunk I ever wrote was 10,000 words in 15 hours straight. It was good to be young. It became a novella named Through Blood and Tears, a different take on vampires and young love.
When writing is your avocation and you can't publish, it's hard not to block. I'm battling this after quitting cold 14 years ago. I think even a Ray Bradbury would become blocked. It's an excuse, I know. But I published a novel in the 1980's. Then worked much of my free time, with a day job, until 2001 trying publish one of the dozen I followed up with. I burnt out. So, I think I'm ready to work at it again, at least in practice. Wish me luck, please. And enjoy the stories.
If you want a peek behind the curtain, as in the land of Oz, you can find my book here.
