Hmmm the start of my literary career is not going to be as easy or quick as first expected, I have come across a little issue that needs to be overcome before it takes off and flies!
I’m not sure if anyone has ever asked you to sit down and write about something but not given you a title, subject or purpose? It is bloody difficult. I am a man with many ideas, loads and loads of them just fluttering around inside my head, the difficulty I am having is getting one to settle for long enough to put it on paper and then smother it with enough words to stop it flying away.
The problem seems to be that I can sit here and think of a fantastic story which will titillate and tantalise my readers to such a degree that I could write a plethora of novels which would set me up for life. Unfortunately sit me in front of a computer and whoosh they fly out of my ears into the wide blue yonder, and then I am sat there in front of a blank screen with a flashing cursor and no words… Suddenly a story returns and the words begin to flow, only for me to realise I am actually writing out the film I watched the night before or the last book I read.
I think perhaps there is a need for a few moments of peace and contemplation to allow me to clear my head and concentrate on nothing, which is not an easy thing to do when working full time, especially not one where the service is falling down around your ears.
27th May
Have increased my iLibrary in size today by getting some books on how to sell/ publish eBooks on a budget… As they are eBooks people are more than happy to buy even 50 page short stories as long as the price is right. So I think my first venture into literature maynot be the trilogy followed up by a prequel and then additional deep reading into the history and geographic of a non-existent world!
Phew that is a relief!
I’ll avoid the clichés and simply agree, no it’s not easy – but if you’re serious about wanting to write then you are alone in being able to make it happen. I guarantee that if you invest some significant time and brain cycles, any short term frustrations will be paid back with interest when you achieve your goal of writing something that another human being enjoys. Think about it, even if you don’t make a fortune, if you write something that other people enjoy reading, then that would make you a ‘rich’ man.
I don’t think you’re alone in having a brain filled to the brim with ideas – personally I believe that is pretty much the human condition, what prevents the majority of people from realising their dreams is focus. Anybody that has experienced real success in their field, from great physicists such as Einstein, to critically acclaimed authors, the one thing that they undoubtedly share(d) is the ability to focus on single idea or story, isolating it from the other cerebral noise for long enough to communicate it.
My advise for your first steps come from my personal experience, although I know many who have benefited from going off grid now and then. Leave the iPad and mobile at home, grab a pad and pen and take yourself for a BIG walk – sit under a tree and just write stuff (an isolated log cabin, with nothing but paper and pen to distract you also works). It’s amazing how well you can focus when all of the distractions are removed, trust me I wouldn’t have survived 5 years of study without regular off-grid walks – give it a go!
Good luck, I know you can make it work if you put your mind to it (and turn the iPad off!)…
but perhaps my writing tool is my iPad/ lap top….