sdrunningwriter

Upon leaving his class, a former (and favorite) creative writing professor in college left us with the assignment to write every day.  As time has past, I have read and heard this repeated from numerous writers, that the only way you are going to get better is by doing it.  You can’t refuse to practice just because you can’t see your writing improving.  So write.  Every day.  Either you are a writer and you are writing, or you’re not.  If you’re not, thats fine, so long as that is what you want.  It is worse to be paralyzed by fear and jealousy of the talents of others…and not writing, when that is the very thing you wish you were doing.  Its the same thing with any skill.  I started ballet class a few years ago, and even though the learning curve was steep, suddenly I was mastering things I had been incapable of, and I wasn’t sure how I got to that point, except for doing it every day.  Even when I was tired.  Or bored.  Or hungry.  Or sore.  I just did a little.  A stretch here or there, listening to the music, thinking about it, doing it.  But writing is different, there is ego involved.  You compare yourself to everyone else.  You are afraid you aren’t good enough.  But really, your writing is for you.  Mine is for me, audience notwithstanding.

Part of my interest in this site is simply to be writing.  Every day.  Whether it is awful, or whether I am repeating the same, terrible sentence over and over again, or copying prose out of books and articles that I love.  Sure, if you don’t ride a bike for years, you can hop back on and still do it.  There are certain things you don’t forget.  But it is awkward, wobbly, and you risk breaking some bones (or crashing into someone) so you may as well keep riding, if you think you might want those skills in the future.

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