Should I Start Writing Again?

@Cpat92 Said

You really think I should go for it?

@Eaglebauer Said

Nobody but you knows the answer to that.

Writing is a huge part of who I am. I've been writing poetry seriously for the past 25 years, published a little, and fell in love with writing fiction about ten years ago (some of my stories are in my journal here).

I have a new story in my head that I've only just started fleshing out on paper but before that it's been about 4 years since I've really written one...a real story with depth. And it was because I wasn't ready to do so again and nobody knew that but me.

If you feel you have to ask someone else if you should start writing again, the answer should be clear to you. That is never a question a writer should feel the need to ask if he or she is in fact ready to start again...seriously start. You can play with ideas and scribble things here and there but to have an actual idea for something great and start on it before you are ready is to ruin it. I have a dozen stories that have sat unfinished for literally several years because I started working on them when I shouldn't have.

Poems are different in that they aren't really ever right or wrong...they just are. A poem is never finished, it can only be abandoned by its author when he or she is done asking the painful questions a poem asks or painting the picture intended by it.

My suggestion as a writer myself is that if you feel you aren't sure if you are ready to start again or not...read. Read, read, read. It is a poor writer who writes more than he reads others' work. You may find that reading will give you inspiration to feel ready rather than feel as though you don't know if you should start or not, which is where you need to be. And it will teach you about writing more than any workshop or class ever could.

@Eaglebauer Said

And just to add...I'm not saying you have to put down the pen until you're ready to churn out your masterpiece. What I'm saying is don't force yourself into writing if you aren't feeling it. That's kind of what I meant by "playing with ideas and scribbling things down" those sorts of things are helpful and can aid in getting the ball rolling.

Maybe try starting a journal? You say you need to ease your mind at the end of the day, try taking what's happened to you during the day and turning it into something creative. Did an officer yell at you? Write a fictional page or two about him getting into a fight with a ten year old martial arts expert and losing...make it something silly. Did you accomplish some minor goal? Write a short poem about how it made you feel to do so.

If you aren't ready to WRITE write, these things can help sharpen yourself, but don't be hard on yourself if you aren't ready to complete something big that will make you want to share it with the world. Those great things sometimes come few and far between.

@Cpat92 Said

Thank you. That was actually quite insightful and it makes complete sense. Sometimes I just seem quite unsure of what I want to do or should at times and I guess these were one of those times in a way.

@Eaglebauer Said

That's okay. Sometimes you just need to sit down and sort of auto-write. Even if you have no idea what you want to do, just put the pen on the paper (or fingers on the keyboard) and let it fly.

Another trick I've used that's a lot of fun is to use hooks. I'll come up with a handful of really great first lines and put them on separate slips of paper and then put them all in an envelope. Sometimes they will sit for a year or so, but when I feel like writing and don't have anything to write about, I'll take one out and use it as a prompt...and just start writing from that really good first line.

One of my unfinished stories that I really want to finish some day came from one of those and the line was "Everything was going great, and we woulda' gotten away with it, and then Ernie had to go and call the cops."

I ended up turning it into a story about a complete redneck in a tiny little Mississippi town called Hot Coffee who has a genius IQ and ends up plotting to burglarize a house with his best friend Hank and Hank's borderline retarded brother Ernie. And it's hilarious. He gets tangled up with this complete floozie named Sandy and everything just goes South...it's an entire world filled with funny little lives that I created from that one single first line.

Fun stuff!

@Cpat92 Said

So, should I start writing again?