Okay, this isn’t a review of his book. But I stumbled upon an article in my news feed so sort of want to cover it. I’m going down the list, so feel free to exit stage left whenever, lol.
#1. I need to do that. I don’t know. I couldn’t help myself at times. I swear I had cut back on TV shows in general, except for catching up on old TV series on Netflix. (And okay, the side soaps at times.) But really, I need to start doing that. Since sometimes I feel myself walking into a bad imitation of my favorite TV show and I want to smack myself on the head for it. But yeah…
#2. I think I need to practice this point to overcome my fear and take on some challenges as an immature writer. ‘Cause seriously, I find myself deleting or throwing out some of the works halfway through because I feel like I’m not going to get anywhere with it anyway. Maybe I should struggle a little longer before kicking it all together.
#3. OMG, this seriously hit home. I think it’s the sole reason why sometimes I hold back on my story. Although I claimed to operate on my own wavelength, at times I take those thoughts in too seriously and then I hold back on my plot or characters in general.
#4. Getting there, but not totally, because I think this one tie in with #3 for me. Because when you please others and not write for yourself, it becomes a disaster. Been there too many times.
#5. I need to keep this in mind.
#6. I wish I can, but this is definitely true if you want to get anything done in general, not just writing.
#7. Thank you for this one! ‘Cause I’m seriously feeling pretty depressed at times for my lack of complicated/sophisticated words at times. ‘Cause I feel like I’m writing at an elementary level if I don’t throw in big words. Yet this one makes me feel a lot better that I should write as I feel like it, not throwing in big words just because everyone and their cousins are doing it.
#8. Need to work on this one!
#9. I think I throw this out the window ages ago because I actually have to look up what adverbs are when I was going down the list, lol.
#10. So need to work on this one. I mean I need to provide enough to build the mood, character, and plot, BUT not get too wordy or long-winded.
#11. Almost there. Or maybe I’m just bluffing, lol.
#12. Yeah, I need to stay on topic sometimes, lol.
#13. Need to do this more.
#14. I literally laughed out loud at this one. Seriously! Definitely.
#15. I don’t think I’ve done it since I’m like totally way out of it when it comes to style or whatever. But if I do sound like I’m trying to mimic some famous authors, I didn’t do it on purpose.
#16. Still working on this. In fact, it sort of goes hand in hand with some of the previous points, especially how conveying the message so that the readers get it, etc.
#17. I always do! Okay, maybe my stories don’t seem that way at times, but I do take it seriously. Maybe sometimes too seriously.
#18. Trying to.
#19. OMG, this one couldn’t be any truer. If you don’t finish it within that amount of time or shorter, your tone will change. It happened with several of my stories. It did! I didn’t know where it went, whether was busy doing other real-life stuff or stressing over other matters, it takes it away. So even if I try to put some stories aside to not destroy the mood, I ruined the tone. Unless I go and read the previous parts again to find my flow. Yet it’s hard! If you don’t finish it ASAP, it’s going away.
#20. Totally! Couldn’t agree more. I remember rushing to finish stuff and then just plain get it out. But then later when I went back to some old stories just to confirm some details or try not to repeat some formula for other stories, I found even more mistakes than I didn’t realize. It’s SAD but it changes the overall feel of the story.
#21. Still working on this one. In fact, this is one of the hardest ones. Letting go. It’s easy to just say, “I give up,” and toss it out the window in the middle of the story, etc. But it’s harder to cut or let go when you’re already done with it and it seemed like you couldn’t let go of anything. But sometimes you have to sacrifice it for the overall plot. Or people would be asking, “What’s the story about again?”
#22. Um, I don’t know what to say about this. But I will have to agree that there will have to be some balance in life in order to focus on writing and writing well. Because when you’re stressed out over other elements in your life, it will drain you so bad that you can’t even write anymore. Well, you still can, but you will find yourself tossing out a lot of papers OR just plain backspace/delete or whatever else.